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WINONA LAKE - Residents of Winona Lake got their first look at the town’s proposed 2027 budget Tuesday evening.
No action was taken on the estimated budget as it was the first presentation to the public.
Before Town Manager Adam Lohn went through the budget, Councilman Jim Lancaster said, “I think the team took what we would call a zero-based budget approach. So instead of assuming last year’s starting point was the right starting point and indexing off of that, they actually went back to a zero base and built the budget up from that. That’s not an easy thing to do, I appreciate the effort in doing that, and I think it gives a certain level of scrutiny and discernment over where you land in terms of those budget matters.”
Lohn said copies of the proposed 2007 budget can be accessed online at https://budgetnotices.in/gov/Unit_View.aspx?unit_id=2112, and it also can be accessed through the town’s website at winonalake.in.gov
Tuesday’s public hearing was the first item on the budget, with the adoption scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 6, with the backup date set for Oct. 27.
The budget presented Tuesday was the town council’s budget, with the RDC and utility budgets being worked on separately, Lohn said, and those aren’t due until Dec. 1.
The projected total of the budget is $4,477,283, with the total projected revenue being $4,679,917. The 2027 proposed levy is $2,275,960, a 26.8% increase.
“As far as the rules of engagement for the team, we wanted to base the budget and get a baseline operations and maintenance budget based on known expenses, not based off previous years. We used 2024 and 2025 actuals, 2026 budgeted and 2026 year-to-date. That was current through June so we had six months worth of data to work off. Based off of that, any expense in any of the appropriation lines had to be validated either off previous invoices for that appropriation line or a projected quote or new expense that was coming up. So everything had to be backed up,” Lohn explained.
If there was any money in an appropriation line, he said it had to have a purpose. No money put in an appropriation line just to have it available on standby.
For the River Boat and Rainy Day funds, no money was budgeted for 2027. Lohn said those are the town’s emergency funds. If they’re going to touch any money in those, he said it needs to be done by appropriation through the council where every dollar is accounted for.
He said they met with each department supervisor and went over their budget line by line. They went over the receipts of the last several years and validated every expense.
“Again, we did start at zero, like Jim mentioned, and built everything back up. We didn’t take anything for granted,” Lohn said.
Overall, he said they are cash reserve positive in all accounts, everything checks out and is balanced. One account is planned to be overspent slightly, and that is the Local Roads & Streets fund, but Lohn said he figured they’d like to have roads and streets repaired as possible.
The budget allows for up to a 3% raise for all full-time employees. Lohn said he wasn’t advocating for that either way, that was up to the council. Zero personnel cuts are planned for the budget, and the building commissioner will go from part-time to full-time, if the council approves, because of the workload.
Going department by department, Lohn said the 2027 police department is proposed at $985,143, down from 2026’s $1,085,365. The fire department’s budget is proposed at $172,150 in 2027, up slightly from 2026’s $166,350.
The street department is proposed to have a 2027 budget of $2,839,597, down from $2,975,816 in 2026, and will include two part-time workers, a truck replacement, street barn electrical repairs and resurfacing of the greenway.
The 2027 budget for the park department is proposed at $379,660, up from $288,962 in 2026. The 2027 budget does include a $35,000 sponsorship from Wayne Township.
For the Miller Sunset Pavilion (MSP), he said the last published budget they had to work off was 2024 and that was $278,850. The proposed 2027 budget is $179,242. Overall, Lohn said the objective is to get the MSP budget to be self-sustaining.
The last budget was for Town Hall. In 2024, that was $2,225,535. For 2027, it’s proposed at $1,675,931, with the Riverboat and Rainy Day funds taken out.
Council President Ashley McGinnis thanked Lohn and his team for all their work on the budget. She said it was a very hard task, but he had dealt with very large budgets before so the council knew he could handle them.
The rest of the council had no comments. The budget hearing was open to public comments, with resident Jerry Nelson being the sole person to speak. Nelson said the presentation was excellent but he had problems with it because he thinks the taxes will go up pretty heavy. The current inflation rate is about 4%, and the various budgets at percentages in the 20s.
McGinnis said the council doesn’t set the tax rate, but Nelson said they do with the budget.
No one else commented.
