La Crosse, Wis. — The Wisconsin Alliance of Cities  took first steps Sept. 20 toward returning Wisconsin government to its democratic roots, endorsing a series of proposals to reform and streamline the structure of state and local government.

Most prominent among the recommendations is that a nonpartisan commission of community leaders be formed to consider calling a convention to write a new Wisconsin constitution.

The independent commission would establish recommendations for enabling legislation for calling the constitutional convention, and procedures under which the convention would operate. It would solicit the views of citizens at hearings across the state before deciding what to do, or how to do it.

• preservation of the per-capita and equalization components of the state shared revenue program until a constitutional amendment and legislation are passed to mandate revenue sharing on a regional basis.
• creation of 14 regional entities  — or metropolitan shells  — in Wisconsin to recommend potential consolidation of local services and get a handle on regional economies. The 14 regions would organize economic task forces to compile data, prepare a sustainability scorecard to gauge their region's strengths and weaknesses, and draft plans to reach sustainability.
• a constitutional amendment requiring counties to levy a tax whose proceeds would go to reducing the disparity in property tax base among cities, towns and villages in each county.
• a constitutional amendment authorizing fees to be paid by all property owners — including other units of government and religious associations — for law enforcement and fire protection services.
• legislative expansion of fee authority along the lines proposed, then vetoed, by Gov. Scott McCallum.
• a constitutional amendment providing that land owned by an individual or entity whose primary income is from farming may constitutionally be taxed at a rate not uniform with other land. The exemption from the constitution's uniformity clause now applies to farmland, not farmers. Farmers have complained of the property tax burden they shoulder for their non-farm land.
• a constitutional amendment authorizing citizens to determine, by referendum, the powers of their county sheriff.
• a law allowing cities, towns and villages to impose a tax on the gross revenues of telephone companies that operate within their boundaries. The legislature has exempted these phone companies from paying local property taxes.
• reduction of the state sales tax to 3.5% and its expansion to an array of currently exempt services, along the lines proposed by the Wisconsin Counties Association, along with periodic review of both sales and property tax exemptions.
• elimination of the $45 million consolidation incentive program established in the budget repair bill, and retention of the money in the state shared revenue program, from whence it came.
• a separate fund to reimburse municipalities for utility property within their jurisdiction and a shift from a state tax to a local payment for telephone company property.
• a broad call for health insurance reform to mitigate the impact of costs on municipal budgets.

"For too long we've looked for solutions from an institution that's paralyzed," said Cudahy Mayor Ray Glowacki. 'It's time to get off the dime."

A constitutional amendment could well shake up a paralyzed system, Amy Rinard wrote in her Sept. 28 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel column. See it here. For Ed Hoskin's story in the La Crosse Tribune, look here.