County loses childcare funds, eyes borrowing

Trempealeau County did not receive money from a U.S. senator’s office that would have allowed the county to set up a childcare center as it renovates the old courthouse.

County Administrator Rebecca Glewen told committee members Monday that the county did not get a $5 million allocation it had sought from Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s office. The money would have helped finance courthouse renovations and build a childcare space.

The announcement came as Glewen proposed a multi-year list of capital improvements funded by borrowing $7 million annually for items such as road improvements, vehicles and computers. The borrowing would be included in a 2025 budget that the county board would act on.

Depending on if and how supervisors decide to structure the annual borrowing, property taxes would increase, said Brian Reilly of the county’s financial advisory firm Ehlers. Increasing property taxes to borrow for capital expenditure is allowed under the state law that otherwise limits tax increases to growth in the tax base.

Without the allocation from Baldwin’s office, the idea of a childcare center will likely be dropped unless new support can be found, Glewen said. The area eyed for the center “should probably still be considered for some kind of public access facility,” she said.

Included in the 2025 capital project spending list is about $4.7 million for courthouse renovations. The work is expected to include moving and reconfiguring county offices that remained in the courthouse after the construction of the new justice center.

The highway department is slated to receive about $5.4 million, according to Glewen’s preliminary figures, an amount that Highway Commissioner Neil Olson said should allow the department to keep up with the goal of having a 30-year life for a road.

Supervisor Richard Sacia said he was for extending the borrowing out over 20 years to ease its effect on taxpayers. Supervisor Dave Larson noted, however, that five years of $7 million in borrowing totals $35 million. “When does the debt load become a problem,” he asked. 

County Clerk Paul Syverson said preliminary state figures show that net new construction growth for Trempealeau County was just .79 percent compared to last year’s 1.29 percent. The smaller increase means the county is more limited in raising taxes for the operations part of the budget.