EARLY – During Tuesday night’s meeting, the Early City Council scheduled a public hearing for Aug. 9 for a proposed property tax rate for the 2022-23 fiscal year that is more than 27 percent lower than the current year.

The City of Early’s total taxable value rate for the 2022-23 fiscal year is certified at $546,792,602. The proposed tax rate of .3624 is a rate reduction of $0.1369 per $100 valuation – a 27.4 percent reduction to the rate.

Early City Administrator Tony Aaron said following the meeting, “The council took a vote tonight, this a record vote, the formal vote will happen in August, to move forward with a proposed adoption of a tax rate of .3624 which is a reduction in our tax rate of nearly 14 cents. It’s about a 27.4 percent reduction in our rate and we attribute that to industrial property tax that’s come on to the tax roll. Our taxable values have gone from $268 million up to $546 million. Basically, the citizens are going to feel that relief.”

Aaron further elaborated, stating, “An average home in Early was valued at $147,475 last year and with a tax rate of 0.4993 cents they paid $736. This year, the average home went up to around $166,201 and with that lower tax rate of 0.3624 they’re going to pay about $602.31. They’re going to receive pretty good relief and we’d love to go lower, but we still have to pay the bills. We’ve always talked about sales tax revenue and becoming dependent on that and it carrying the load and this is just a further step in that direction.”

The proposed rate would collect $1,089,480 from property tax. Sales tax is a large portion of the City’s General Fund Revenue and helps pay for police, fire, streets, and parks. Sales tax revenue for this year is projected at $1,575,000. The sales tax revenue reflects an increase of $220,000 which will help to offset the loss of property tax revenue. Sales tax revenue is currently Early’s largest single revenue source.

The public hearing on the tax rate will take place Aug. 9, followed by a public hearing on the 2022-23 fiscal year budget on Aug. 19. A vote on both will likely take place Aug. 19.

Also Tuesday, the City Council also approved the City Administrator to negotiate an agreement between the City of Early and the City of Blanket for sanitation services. Aaron reported the new five-year contract will run through Sept. 30, 2027 and that will feature an increase in the residential rate from $30 to $32, and the increase in the commercial rate from $40 to $55.

The City Council also approved supporting a proposal for the establishment of vote centers by the Brown County Elections Administration ahead of the November 2022 elections.

Aaron also updated the City Council on the Autumn Drive project. At the July 12 City Council, all bids were rejected for the Autumn Drive reconstruction project.

More information on that can be found here.

“Part of the procurement process was with the City of Early purchasing underground drainage,” Aaron said. “That would include the piping, the concrete inlets, the box culverts. Those prices are fixed and we’re going to go ahead and move ahead with purchasing those, which is about $60,000 and we’re going to spend that money out of this budget year. The other thing that we’re going to work on is a proposal that the City of Early employees do the installation of the box culverts, drainage pipes and concrete inlets. That should represent a savings of around $200,000 on the project. Another line item we’re considering saving on is excavation of existing driveways where their property line ends and the pavement begins. That was around $45,000 to $47,000 and I think we can do that in house with our crews. So we may be able to save around $200,000 to $230,000 off the project, which will bring it back down to around $700,000, but we’ll still have to go back out for bids.”