Clippings
Clippings
Economic Summit IV
| State and local governments in Wisconsin must
partner to create jobs with a focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the state's varied
regional economies, Wisconsin Economic Summit IV was told Oct. 28, 2003. Terry Ludeman, chief economist of the Department of Workforce Development, told the "A Regional Economic Growth Strategy: Does it Make Sense for Wisconsin?" workshop that California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and North Carolina have organized regional economic development efforts. The state's economically diverse regions mean a one-size-fits-all method of jump-starting job creation and new business in the state won't work, he said. A regional jobs strategy would accomplish that as well as eliminate competition among neighboring communities for the same jobs, he said. "Years ago, local autonomy meant local control," Edward J. Huck, executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, said. "Today it means...regional focus." Story in the Alliance newsletter here. |
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| Economic Summit III Nine former state officeholders/appointees from six
administrations at the Wisconsin Economic Summit III proposed a solution to the state's
fiscal crisis. For Steve Schultze's story on the plan in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, look here. |
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Local Budget Woes
Members of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities led the state in holding down their 2004 budgets and levies. Thirty-two of 38 members responded to a survey that indicated levies were increasing 2.4% and budgets were up just 1.5%. That came despite $30 million in shared revenue cuts those communities received. Just a few of the stories locally:
Wisconsin Rapids eliminated a budget deficit of $1.4 million and lowered the tax rate in in adopting its 2004 budget. Story here. Twelve employees in that city accepted the city's offer of a $5,000 severance package as part of efforts to close the budget gap. Story here. And Green Bay closed a $5 million budget gap without an increase in its tax rate. Story here.
Mayor John Lambie unveiled a 2004 city budget for Kaukauna providing for a 0% levy increase and a tax rate of $7.72 per $1,000 of assessed value, down from this year's $9.80 rate, the Appleton Post-Crescent reported. Story here. Stevens Point raised its levy by 1.89% and cut its tax rate $2.30 per $1,000 of equalized value. Story here. Menasha's new budget moved the city's fireworks show to July 2 to save money on police overtime. Story here. And Whitewaster approved a tax freeze budget for the second straight year. Among the casualties of the cutting and slashing: the city newsletter that reported the accomplishment.
Consolidation
Animosity between the town and the City of Brookfield was thawing in December, 2002, to the extent that town officials proposed creation of a joint committee to explore fire department consolidation. See the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here. A consultant recommended consolidation to resolve labor disputes between the town and its firefighters. See that story here.
Central Wisconsin municipalities continued to look for ways to share services, despite assurances they will receive state shared revenue in 2003 the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune reported Oct. 27, 2002. In Wisconsin Rapids, city officials were studying projects including shared emergency dispatch services and an emergency water connection with the village of Port Edwards, said Mayor Jerry Bach. See the story here.
However, in southeastern Wisconsin, the push for consolidation of municipal services seemed to be losing steam earlier in the fall, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Oct. 3, 2002. For the story, go here. But there are bright spots on the consolidation horizon in the region too, Laurel Walker pointed out in a Journal Sentinel column Oct. 21. For the column, click here.
It wasn't a miracle that seven communities north of Milwaukee — Bayside, Brown Deer, Fox Point, Glendale, River Hills, Shorewood, and Whitefish Bay — came together to form a cooperative Fire and Rescue Department in the mid-1990s, but it was a miraculous confluence of events that got them there, Sammis B. White, professor of urban planning at the UWM Center for Urban Initiatives and Research, concluded in a study. See our summary of the study here.
Racine County business leaders backed a plan that might remove the roadblocks preventing countywide police, fire and rescue dispatching from becoming a reality. See the story here.
And public health departments throughout
Wisconsin are forging regional partnerships to handle terrorist attacks, in a move that
could produce groundbreaking mutual-aid agreements for public nurses and other health
workers.See that story here.
2002-03 Budget Repair
Gov. McCallum on July 26 signed a budget repair bill that patches Wisconsin's financially leaky ship of state just enough to sail through the November elections, and to the beginning of another biennial budget process. See the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here.
An unprecedented coalition of local officials and public employee groups prevented McCallum's plan to eliminate shared revenue from winning approval, even though the powerful Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce group supoported the plan. For Dennis Chaptman's story on the rival ad campaigns go here.
In his budget repair vetoes, McCallum decided to
go against the will of local officials and support planning for an expansion of the
Milwaukee area freeway system of up to 10 lanes. For Larry Sandler's story on the freeway
non-veto, go
here. For the story on how local officials tried to pick up the pieces of the public
participation process that McCallum shattered, go here.
Shared revenues were one of the major subjects of the budget
debate, with Republicans insisting on cuts and Democrats resisting cuts. The Appleton Post-Crescent looked into Senate action on shared
revenues, here.
For the Journal Sentinel story about how the Assembly sought to redirect aid from Milwaukee, Beloit, Marinette and Ashland to towns, go here. For the Journal Sentinel story on Assembly GOP caucus action on the budget, look here. For a Green Bay Press-Gazette story about the aquifer storage plan in the budget, and its money-saving potential, look here.
For coverage of the March 12 shared revenue rally: find the Journal Sentinel story here. Find the Press-Gazette story here.
For the Green Bay Press-Gazette's March 7 story on the Joint Finance Committee's 9-6 vote to cut shared revenue to $750 million in 2003 and $515 million in 2004, look here.
There was a Journal Sentinel editorial, "How not to make a budget," which you can see here, and a cartoon that suggests that Gov. Scott McCallum may be blown away by the deficit, here
Intergovernmental Relations
Milwaukee County, facing major budget woes, asked cities and villages to pay part of the costs of repairing county roads that run through their communities. Go here.
Milwaukee freeway plans
The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission's plan for a $6.25 billion expansion and rennovation of the Milwaukee area's freeway system, made in March, 2002, engendered a tidal wave of criticism that failed to make an impact on McCallum. See the initial Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here.
Mayor John O. Norquist warned that a super-sized regional gas tax is a potential funding source, the Journal Sentinel reported here. It would also lead to racial segregation, an aide to Norquest asserted in a Journal Sentinel story here. And a freeway critic called the project "a strikingly bad use of public money" that "puts downtown at a competitive disadvantage," in a Journal Sentinel story here.
911 Emergency Service
The Sept. 11 attacks on America demonstrated once again how useful cellular telephones can be in an emergency. But officials are struggling how to improve 911 emeregency systems, and comply with a federal order requiring that all 911 systems be able to identify the location of wireless callers.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/aug00/rinacol13081200a.asp
Enhanced 911 emergency service for cellular phone subscribers might have saved the life of a Connecticut man whose SUV plunged into a river, according to an Oct. 15 story you can see here.
Telecommunications
A fight by a small Virginia community for the
right to provide telecommunications services to its residents is over. The Virginia
General Assembly passed a bill that recognizes the right of a municipality to provide
telephone service,
including high-speed Internet service, and the office of Virginia Attorney General Jerry
W. Kilgore asked the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate as moot a U.S.
District judge's order that found an earlier state effort to keep local government out of
the telecommunications business a violation of the the federal Telecommunications Act of
1996.
See our coverage of the development here.
The new state law allows Bristol, Virginia and other localities that offered electric
service as of March 1, 2002 to get into the
telecommunications business, and allows other localities to offer telecommunications
services if fewer than three commercial
companies are providing services.
Municipal telecommunications will be a growing force that encourages competition in the
industry, both nationally and in
Wisconsin, David J. Benforado, executive director of Municipal Electric Utilities of
Wisconsin, told the Wisconsin Public Utility
Institute last month in Madison. For an outline of his presentation (in Adobe Acrobat
format), click on this link:http://www.appanet.org/legislativeregulatory/broadband/news/GoodBad.pdf
For Amy Rinard's May 29, 2001 story on the Virginia court decision and the phone companies' plans, look here.
Local governments are unhappy with the telephone companies too, because the phone companies don't pay a penny in local property taxes, Rick Barrett reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel August 6, 2001. To see his story, look here.
Farmland Use-Value Assessment
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals on Sept. 20, 2001 sent directly to the state Supreme Court a lawsuit challenging the legality of tax breaks for owners of farmland under the state use-value assessment law. See the story here:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/sep01/use21092001a.asp
Making wooded parcels and non-productive land eligible for the farmland use-value tax break has been a top legislative priority of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, and the powerful farm lobby worked with the state Department of Revenue to make it happen. See a December, 2000 story here:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/State/dec00/value01123100.asp
Rights of Way
There's a tug-o-war between government and companies that want access to roadways and other public property to install utility equipment. See the story here:
http://www.jsonline.com/bym/News/jul01/fix24072301a.asp
Revenue Sharing and Sewers
The City of Racine and neighboring communities agreed in 2002 to share revenue, in return for which suburban communities would gain access to the expanded sewer capacity they need to grow. To see the Journal Times' Feb. 5, 2002 summary of the agreement, look here. To see the Journal Times' Feb. 18, 2002 details of the revenue-sharing portion of the agreement, look here. For the entire text of the agreement, look here.
The agreement was a long time in coming. A year before those items appeared on the Internet, negotiators announced — on Feb. 9, 2001 — that they had only to dot the "i's" and cross the "t's" on the plan. To see The Journal Times' Feb. 10, 2001 story on the agreement being almost complete click here.
Smoking Ordinances
Four restaurants were cited for violating Kenosha's new
ordinance regulating smoking in restaurants,
but three of the four apparently complied with the ordinance within hours, the Milwaukee
Journal
Sentinel reported.
A fourth restaurant owner still had ashtrays in his no-smoking section after a return
visit by the
Kenosha County Health Department.
An AP story is at http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/jan01/smoke22012101a.asp
The Kettl Commission
Mock Minnesota all you want, but it's kicking us around handily,
Cliff Miller wrote way before our current budget problems.
See:
http://www.lafollette.wisc.edu/reform/Press/Mock_Minnesota_files/Mock_Minnesota.htm
Local officials should be encouraged to merge some municipality and county agencies to
simplify and to eliminate
tax-supported service duplications, said a state senator serving on a governor's panel
studying government's future role.
See that story here:
http://www.lafollette.wisc.edu/reform/Press/Jauch_Ashland_files/Jauch_Ashland.htm
Miscellaneous
Almost 10 years after Mayor Dale Richards first took office, Oak Creek has learned that it can live without credit cards. Except for a few specially targeted loans, the city is debt free, and no general tax dollars are now going to pay off loans.
See the story here:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/Metro/dec00/debt24122300a.asp
