Fitchburg Finance Committee Approves Water Rate Filing, Hears Clean 2025 Audit

FITCHBURG -- June 9, 2026, Fitchburg Finance Committee unanimously authorizes a 3 percent water rate increase filing and receives a clean 2025 audit. The committee voted at its June 9 meeting to let staff submit a simplified rate increase application to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, a move that would add roughly $6 per year to the average residential water bill beginning in the fourth quarter of 2026. Andrea Jansen, principal with auditing firm Baker Tilly, told the committee the city earned unmodified opinions across its funds for the second straight year and noted the absence of material weaknesses is "not necessarily all that common for municipalities of your size." The general fund closed 2025 with unassigned fund balance of $4.6 million and a reserve ratio of 15.2 percent, within the city's 15-to-25 percent policy band, while general obligation debt of $55.5 million sits at 17 percent within the city's own policy limit. The sewer and stormwater utility funds both posted operating losses, $227,000 and $252,000, respectively, with finance staff saying rate increase proposals for those funds are in development for possible action in 2026 or 2027.