Shorewood Official: New Budget a 'Return to Normalcy'

The budget passed by the Shorewood board Tuesday night marks a "return to normalcy" said Village Manager Kurt Carroll, but it will be a while before the town gets back to where it was.

"The budget as stated does not replace any of the positions that were temporarily eliminated during the downturn," Carroll said in a memo to the village board. "Cautiously, this budget rebuilds our reserves, or 'restocks the cupboard,' before staffing levels will even be considered in the future.

"Almost all of the departments are down in manpower and will be asked to do the best they can for another year," Carroll said in the memo. "During the downturn the staff has been resourceful with reduced staff. Tasks and roles have been expanded and some projects just had to be delayed. The impact to the residents and the businesses in town has been minimized."

The reloading of the "cupboards" will be done in part by raising sales tax. Trustee Jim McDonald called this "counting our chickens before they're hatched" and urged caution in relying on revenue that has yet to come in.

Besides the projected increase in revenue and the hope that the economy in general improves, Board Member Gary Fitzgerald pointed out that last year's budget of $21 million was underspent by $5 million.

The board passed the proposed budget without dissent. Trustee Dan Anderson missed the meeting due to "family business" in Phoenix. Board member Dan Gron was also out of town, in Fargo, ND, on a business trip. But Gron not only cast a vote to pass the budget via telephone, but engaged in pre-vote debate and made the motion to pass the budget.