City of Marshfield Releases 2019 Budget
Saturday, October 20th, 2018 -- 7:30 AM
(Marshfield News Herald) -The city of Marshfield rolled out its proposed 2019 budget.Expenses for all funds in 2019 are expected to be around $45.5 million; that’s down more than 3 percent from last year. Arguably, the most notable part of the budget is the proposal to raise the city's property tax rate by almost 2 percent. The Marshfield City Council voted in June to allow for increasing the tax rate by up to 4.5 percent, which, if used in full, would put Marshfield at its maximum tax levy under state law. The city's tax rate has increased 34 cents, or 2.8 percent over the last six years, as noted in the proposed budget. The city's rate for 2018 was $9.20 per $1,000 of property value, meaning owners of a $100,000 house paid $920 in taxes per year, not including taxes for the school district, county and technical college. If the city budget is approved as is, the rate would increase by 18 cents to $9.38 per $1,000 of property value, so the owner of a $100,000 house would pay $938 in taxes per year.
That doesn't include property taxes for schools or the county. The city's proposed 2019 budget isn't drastically different from previous years, but here are three key components including the budget contains an amount equal to a 2.5 percent pay increase for non-union employees; the city is planning for two full-time communications employees; and the capital project budget is down more than $3 million from last year. Marshfield residents might be unhappy with the tax hikes. However, city officials have argued that the tax rate hasn't been significantly raised in almost a decade. Marshfield property owners can expect bills reflecting the changes in the budget in mid-December.
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