City of Rhinelander budget meeting looks at room tax, TIF districts, other funds

At the city of Rhinelander’s Oct. 8 budget meeting, city finance director Wendy Bixby reviewed several of the city funds and accounts with the council members present.

The first funds Bixby reviewed were the Special Revenue Funds starting with the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) revolving loan fund. She said the city received notice that these would be closing at local level and switching to the state level. MSA will still be managing the program and completing the administrative tasks that need to be done as projects close out.

Funding will be returned to the state, but the outstanding loans will still be paid to the city. As they are repaid, the city will then forward the money to the state. The city can retain $250 for the administrative fee at the close of each loan. However, that will not be enough to cover the MSA fee. For that reason, that was added to the clerk’s budget, Bixby said.

Next, Bixby presented the room tax fund. She projected revenue from that fund to be $450,000 in 2026, but she said there were not concrete numbers yet, with the two new hotels coming on line this year. Bixby said she still felt this estimate was somewhat conservative.

Seventy percent of the room tax funds would be funneled over to the chamber of commerce, she said, and the city retains 30%. Only $30,600 would be transferred to the Pioneer Park Historical Complex. The remaining $45,000 will be used for fireworks and/or cycling out picnic tables to become more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act in the parks, as the city had been doing for the past few years.

Bixby looked at the Downtown Works budget next. As of 2025, she said, all of the loans will have been repaid, so there was nothing budgeted for loan repayments in 2026. She only budgeted for the possibility of two loan issuances.

The city decided to discontinue the Shared Ride Program, so there was nothing budgeted for that in 2026, but in 2025, the city did sell the accessible van, and was able to retain the local share paid for that van, with that amount being transferred back to the general fund.

The next fund to come up was the Special Projects Fund. One of the big items, Bixby said, was a grant to the police department, which it had begun spending. A recovery coach and one more part time position was budgeted to spend down that grant. Once those funds were gone, the positions, too, would be gone.

Bixby said this was the last year to spend American Rescue Plan Act funds also. Those funds were being used in the Coolidge Avenue redesign project.

At the end of the last couple of years, Bixby said, funds have been transferred into the Special Projects Fund for an assessment revaluation, and the city has accumulated $331,536. She said it was likely the city would be required to do that assessment revaluation in 2026.

Bixby moved on to the TIF Districts from there. The TIF No. 1 expenditure period ended in March of 2020, she said, and in 2025, the final outstanding debt payment was made. That TIF would be required to be closed before March of 2028, with the final increment coming in that year and being distributed to the other taxing jurisdictions and the general fund.

TIF No. 6 closed in August of 2025. Because it closed after the deadline, she said, the final increment would be coming in 2026. A final audit, closure and distribution would happen at that time. Bixby said it would be approximately $400,000 that would go to the other taxing jurisdictions and $400,000 to the general fund. The outstanding debt payment would be due in 2030, but that would be paid by the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation, so the city was able to close out that TIF in 2026.

In TIF No. 8 there had been recently issued debt to do some street work before the end of the expenditure period. Bixby said the hope was to spend everything down in the next 18 months, and an audit completed in 2026 or 2027 as one of the three required audits in a TIF District. The first audit, she said, comes after spending 30% of the district’s costs, the next is after the end of the expenditure period, and the final audit is with the close out.

TIF No. 9 did not have much activity going on in it, she said. The two outstanding debts here would be paid down in 2029 and 2031. The end of the expenditure period in this district is September of 2027, with an expected closing in September of 2032.

In TIF No. 10, the end of the expenditure period, Bixby said, was not until April of 2035. The close would be April of 2040. While there were no outstanding debts in that TIF district, but it was being held open for the potential of future projects coming in. 

TIF No. 11, she said, was the Cobblestone Hotel. As the increment increases for 2026 with the full value of the hotel, the incentive could start repaying the Cobblestone incentive, which was up to $450,000. This TIF district is open until 2049, with the end of the expenditure period being 2044.

TIF No. 12 was the Holiday Inn Express. Bixby said there was still development going on in this TIF, but the tax increment was estimated to be $212,000. In October 2025, the first incentive payment was made to Holiday Inn Express. This calculated out to be $19,500 for 2025 and Bixby estimated it to be just under $52,000 for 2026. The expenditure period here would end in 2037 and would be open until 2042.

Bixby then moved on to the debt service for the general fund. The debt levy, she said, was $880,098 for 2026. With the city’s current borrowing structure, she said, the city had been trying to keep this at approximately $900,000. This, she said, is how the city is able to do many projects and equipment purchases.

She also reviewed the 2023 borrowing, saying the city continued to spend that account down. She hoped it would be spent down completely by September or October of 2026. In the outstanding projects was the outfitting of the plow truck, which the city had already purchased. There was also a bit of money that was dedicated to the skate park as well as the playground equipment, which the council spoke about at a previous meeting. The parks also had approximately $91,000 to be spent on the Heel Creek Property. 

Under the 2025 borrowing, Bixby said the spending window was shorter. The funds were to be spent down in 18 months. Departments, she said, had been good about bringing certain purchases to the council that had been planned with this borrowing. In 2026, it would simply be a matter of budgeting to spend the rest of the fund down. 

She also reviewed the dental insurance fund. The city decided to keep the premiums the same for 2026 as they were in 2025, she said. Even after the projection for 2026, she said, there would still be over an estimated $28,000 in the fund. 

The HRA plan rounded out Bixby’s budget review. If an employee chose this plan, she said, it would reduce out-of-pocket costs for the high deducible health plan. The income into the fund was based on current selections from 2025, with expenses based on approximately 63% of utilization of the program. Premiums would remain the same, with a fund balance still projected at the end of the year.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].