CULVER – The Culver Town Council held a public hearing and first reading of an ordinance for appropriations and tax for the 2027 budget at their meeting on Thursday Sept. 24.
Karen Heim presented the bottom line to the Council. While no governmental body knows exactly how much their tax draw will be at this point she anticipated Culver would receive $3,013,164 in taxes for the general fund with the spending for the coming year budgeted for slightly higher at a total of $3,176,152.
Heim explained the difference, saying “We have to submit a budget to the Department of Local Government Finance, and they approve it as long as we have enough money that’ll cover it, even if we’re overspending what we anticipated. … We have a healthy reserve in our General Fund budget to cover those expenses. And typically, I try to be conservative when we’re budgeting the income, and then budget appropriately on the expense side and it usually comes out fine.”
She also told the Council that tax rates are based on the assessed value in Culver and offered her thoughts on what that number will be.
“We don’t know. The tax rates are based on what the assessed value is and those haven’t been finalized yet…so I can tell you right now the tax rate will go up about 3-5 cents based on the current assessed value of the town. We’re anticipating with the addition of The Dunes that the total of that assessed value for the town should increase, so that will drive that tax rate down.”
