Town of Windermere’s conservative budget pays off

Windermere Town Manager Robert Smith presented a budget analysis report for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 to Windermere Town Council Tuesday, June 10, stating the town is in good financial shape. 

Smith said the report showed the status of the town’s budget through April. 

“We take a look at the overall cost and then we see if there’s any anomalies,” Smith said. “We go pretty much line by line to see exactly what we’re looking at, where we missed as far as the budget and where we need to maybe add some dollars for next year and how we can actually save some money. But overall, everything looks great.”

One anomaly is from code enforcement, which had $5,000 budgeted for an assessment that did not take place. 

Smith said another showed the Historical Preservation Board Committee was down $10,000 because the committee receives its money from food trucks.

For the Parks & Recreation Committee, Smith said it had a higher-than-expected revenue by $85,000 because of the proceeds from Run on the Lakes as well as the revenue from the memorial benches that were sold as part of the town’s centennial celebrations. 

Smith took a moment to focus on the half-cent sales tax, which is budgeted at $600,000 but has an estimated revenue of $575,000. 

“This is something we’re going to be talking about with other municipalities because there’s currently legislation in the state that is trying to reduce the sales tax that we all collect from so that might have a huge impact on our next year’s budget,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye on that and keep an eye on if that actually passes. They’re also looking to eliminate some of the property taxes, and I’ll keep an eye on that as well.”

In regards to other funds in the budget, Smith said the revenues are increasing. For example, the tree mitigation fund is up by $50,100, and the communication services tax is increasing by $100,000. 

Overall, Smith said the budget is expected to be approximately $143,849 more than the originally anticipated nearly $16.4 million. 

“This is good news,” Smith said. “We don’t have to make any cuts or anything drastic throughout the year. I don’t think we’re going to spend all the money that we have anticipated for this year. 

As for expenditures, Smith said the town’s centennial celebrations came in approximately $59,700 over budget. 

“But remember, we budgeted about $40,000 last fiscal year, and they did see a revenue of about $54,000 this year, so they pretty much broke even,” he said. 

Smith said legal fees are down by approximately $75,000 from the budgeted expenditure of $225,000 because the trial regarding the boathouses isn’t until September. He anticipated the town will see the impacts of that in October. 

Overall, the administration budget is approximately $72,565 less than the budgeted $819,333. 

The budget for the clerk is over the $143,790 budget due to the town acquiring new public records software that will be able to be linked to the town’s new website. There also was an increase in expenditures for elections due to both of the municipal and annexation ballots. 

The finance department is under budget by $7,570, and the development services budget is under budget by about $128,000 due to the comprehensive plan and building inspection fees being less than anticipated. 

With public works coming in nearly $44,000 under budget, Smith said the town will be hiring an additional public works employee. He expects $20,000 in unanticipated tree mitigation costs by the end of the fiscal year, and the cost of signs and banners is expected to be $20,000 more than the budgeted $20,000 due to the crosswalks on Ninth and 10th streets and the radar sign equipment maintenance. 

For the Windermere Police Department, two vehicles were purchased totaling about $120,000. 

Overall, Smith said the town should be in a good financial position for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 as the town has been conservative with its estimates of revenues and has controlled expenditures. 

With the annexation of Chaine du Lac approved by voters after a special mail-in ballot election in February as well as an increase in property values, the town of Windermere will realize an increase of about 19% in ad valorem revenues. 

“I’m pleased we’re in good shape, we’re keeping tabs on these things and we run very responsibly ,” Mayor Jim O’Brien said.