Winona Lake Clerk-Treasurer Kent Adams

WINONA LAKE — Winona Lake Clerk-Treasurer Kent Adams told the town’s board of trustees on Tuesday, Aug. 20, that numbers which were squeezed last year would lose even more girth over the coming year.

“There’s going to be a 4.6 percent decrease from the 2019 budget,” said Adams. “Again, very positive.”

Almost exactly a year to the day from Adams telling the board that this year’s budget was expected to drop 3.54 percent, the long-time clerk-treasurer made the same prediction for the 2020 budget.

Adams pointed to several things as being key to this frugality, including the advice of consultants who told the town to use revenue as a basis for budgeting, rather than expenditures. The board also learned that the town recently assessed higher in property values, which results in a lower tax rate. The current tax rate of 0.7249 is expected to slide 3.5 percent to 0.6992, according to Adams.

Winona Lake’s current budget is sitting at $5,270,253. Adam’s report estimates the 2020 budget will be $5,029,852. This decrease was helped along with the discontinuation of a fund called the Redevelopment General Fund, which the board deemed dormant and approved by resolution to transfer to the Rainy Day Fund. The now-defunct RGF previously received $50,000.