After some debate about village employee pay increases and about an hour of closed session, the North Hudson Village Board of Trustees at a special meeting at the Village Hall Tuesday night approved its 2012 budget and set the 2012 tax levy with a slight increase over last year. In addition, the divided board approved a 1.5 percent pay raise for village employees.

The levy was set at $1,434,280, a 1.17 percent increase over 2011's levy. The mill rate will go from 3.89 percent in 2011 to 3.92 percent in 2012—a 0.77 percent increase. The increase amounts to about $6 for a home with an assessed value of $200,000.

These numbers make up just a portion of a village resident's property tax bill, which includes taxes from St. Croix County and the Hudson School District. Each municipality sets its own budget, levy and mill rate.

The board was initially deadlocked after Village Administrator Gloria Troester presented the finance committee's proposed budget and levy.* Trustees Dan Ortner, Daryl Standafer and Stan Wekkin voted against the proposal while trustees Colleen O'Brien-Berglund and Marc Zappa, and Village President George Klein voted in favor of it. Trustee Jim Thomas was absent and the board voted to not allow him to participate and vote over the phone.

At issue was the fact that the committee's budget proposal* of $1,439,775 included room for a 3 percent pay raise for village employees, which was a topic to be addressed later in the meeting in closed session.

After the budget vote ended in a deadlock, the board moved to closed session where employee compensation was discussed.

After emerging from closed session, the board voted 5-1 to approve a 1.5 percent pay raise for village employees; Standafer dissented. 

The board also reconsidered the budget resolution, and voted 4-2 to approve the modified levy amount of $1,434,280, which is $5,495 less than Troester's proposal. Standafer and Wekkin dissented.

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* A previous version of this article indicated that Village Administrator Gloria Troester proposed the budget and pay raise. Troester presented the proposed budget and pay raise at the meeting, but both were proposed by the village's finance committee as dictated by ordinance.