On November 18, the Village Board approved its 2025 budget, including new fees, a 6.77% property tax levy increase, and funding to replace the Village’s aging infrastructure.
In some cases, the original infrastructure dates back to Shorewood’s founding more than 100 years ago. Rebecca Ewald, Village Manager, says this has forced the Village to take on major, and sometimes unexpected, infrastructure projects.
“A lot of the infrastructure improvements that were initially installed when the Village was created and developed are at the end of their useful life,” Ewald said. “We’ve had two years of back-to-back huge infrastructure projects to enlarge sewer capacity in the southeast area of the Village, which has been critical in light of flooding.”
The budget also includes the replacement of the Village’s original water main, which, according to Ewald, has long outlived its expected lifespan.
“This year, on Downer, we literally replaced the original transmission main, which was Cream City brick,” Ewald said. “It’s replacing history.”
Additionally, the budget includes the replacement of the streetlight system due to deteriorating electrical wiring. The replacement project will span five years and is expected to cost $700,000. To help fund this, the Village will implement a to-be-determined streetlight fee in early 2025.
“That’s all of the wires and the conduit underground, as well as all the poles and infrastructure aboveground,” Ewald said. “In many instances, some of that original infrastructure is literally a wire that was put in the ground before people knew that putting wire and conduit would make it safe from the elements…[Wisconsin’s freeze-thaw cycles] can really wreak havoc on some of those lines.”
For further infrastructure updates, the budget includes a $30 vehicle registration fee to be collected by the DMV starting March 2025.
“A lot of the improvements that we’re making for sewer and water all require new aboveground roads, which benefit everybody,” Ewald said. “[The fee] kind of aligns the transportation expense with the use.”
Another component of the budget is the 6.77% tax levy increase, which will cost the average homeowner with a $340,000 home $175 more per year. Ewald said this increase is partially due to the depletion of the Village’s debt stabilization funds, which had previously been used to keep tax rates artificially low. Ewald shared that inflation also contributed to this increase.
“Each year, they have subsidized our debt payments to not tax property owners here the amount that they should have been in order to make the debt payment,” Ewald said. “We had been…keeping the levy increase low, to 2% or lower over the last several years, but it wasn’t accurately reflecting our expenditures. So part of that increase is bringing those expenditures up to where they should have been.”
Another financial issue on the Village’s radar is lead service line replacements, prompted by new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. According to Ewald, roughly 85% of Shorewood’s water service lines contain lead. The Village adopted Policy 44 in 2022, a goal to remove all lead service lines from the water system in the next 20 years.
“[In Policy 44,] the utility would pay for half of the property owners’ cost to replace their private lateral, and then if they don’t want to pay up front for the remainder of that cost, it would spread that over 12 installments over the next three years,” Ewald said. “What that is requiring the utility to do is they’re going to need to increase their water rates in order to account for and pay for those improvements.”
The budget passed by a vote of 4–2 at the November 18 Village Board meeting, but not without significant debate. Trustee Eric Couto, one of the two dissenting votes, criticized state-level financial policies as local communities continue to struggle.
“You look at Madison and the $4.6 billion surplus that they’re sitting on, while at the same time hamstringing every single community in the state,” Couto said. “What really frustrates me the most, frankly, is the inability of the state of Wisconsin to give us the tools necessary to take care of ourselves.”
However, Couto also questioned the impact of putting off what he and other trustees see as necessary action.
“The 6.77% [levy] is a really tough pill to swallow,” Couto said. “The flip side is, if we don’t take care of what we need to take care of, are we doing any better for this village and for the future of this village, [or better than] the folks who had these opportunities before us and didn’t take them?”
Trustee Jerry Lynn voted in favor of the budget, pointing to residents’ concerns about streetlights going out for extended periods of time. Though Lynn mentioned he would be in support of an 8% levy increase, something the Board had discussed, he, like Couto, expressed concern for the Village’s immediate needs.
“To use the fee, in this case, is a way for us to just get the money that needs to be here, and it can fall off the books once it’s done,” Lynn said. “It’s a painful option…[but], given all of the factors, this [budget] is the best that we could put together at this time.”
Marianne Dugan, 72, has lived in the Village for six years and has mixed feelings about the new budget.
“I don’t want to sound like I am against change, positive change, because I certainly am not,” Dugan said. “I want Shorewood to thrive and grow. At the same time, I do worry, and I think many people worry, about cost.”
As a retiree without a regular income, Dugan shared that she felt wary of the levy increase.
“Taxes are always a worry,” Dugan said. “When you hear about things costing millions, it’s like, well, where is that money coming from? It’s got to come from somewhere.”
Dugan feels that the Village has made an effort to gather feedback, but worries some voices are not always heard.
“I think [the Village] is in a tough spot,” Dugan said. “I think when you’re retired, or older, or financially limited in some other way, it’s hard to feel like your voice gets through sometimes. And not everyone can be involved in that community process as much as they would like…I think younger families with kids will naturally get the say because they are the ones making up the bulk and driving the growth and the changes.”
Dugan encourages her fellow residents to get and stay involved in community outreach.
“I want [the Village] to keep in mind that there are people in Shorewood who have been living here for years, and love it, and are invested in its success,” Dugan said. “But these changes will hit us harder than others…Keep doing the outreach, you know, keep asking for the feedback. When people do speak up, too, really listen to them. It doesn’t mean you can make everyone happy, but at least you tried.”
Ultimately, for Ewald, the budget took into account this year’s challenges while also planning for the long-term.
“It’s almost a perfect storm…we could only plan for those things we knew,” Ewald said. “Each year, we have an ability to set the table in the best way we can with the information that we know so that we can prepare the Village for future years, fiscally, in the best way possible. And that is exactly what we did this year.”