Alliance Oct. 11, 2002 newsletter

logo/b></font></p>

<p ALIGN=
Oct. 11, 2002 e-newsletter

In this issue:
Fiscal Condition of State Transportation Fund
Health Insurance Costs Occupy Center Stage
Q & A on Constitutional Reform
*What's Our Real* Tax Climate?**		Rail Poll
Sheehy Task Force Draft Recommendations
Freeway Poll Hit		Upcoming Events

Broke, But Still Spending
Two Portraits of State Transportation Fund

The State Transportation Fund will take in $900 million in gas tax revenue and nearly $500 million from other sources in the current fiscal year, but will be only $27.8 million in the black at the end of the period, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported last month.

Revenues are expected to grow $140 million over the next three fiscal years, but interest on the borrowing that the state has undertaken to pay for new highways will increase $30 million, the Fiscal Bureau said.¹

If the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee approves a state Department of Transportation request to spend an additional $10 million from the transportation fund for highway maintenance and traffic operations in 2002-03, which could occur in November, the fund's balance will fall to $17.8 million by July 1, the bureau added.

That surplus is hardly a respectable down payment on proposed spending that the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance said Sept. 26 could exceed available revenue by more than $5 billion. For a copy of the group's news release, go here.

Health Costs to the Fore

health costs
chart: Wisconsin Association of School Boards

A legislative task force last month recommended a four-point plan to make health insurance more affordable for local governments.

The crisis is real. The Beloit City Council and city staff are expected to combine service cuts and fee increases to solve a $1.5 million deficit, created largely by increases in health insurance costs. In Manitowoc, city officials are grappling with a $500,000 increase in health insurance costs.

In Milwaukee, health insurance costs are up $5 million over the rate of inflation, Mayor John Norquist says.

The Task Force on Local Government Health Partnerships recommended:

more consumer information be provided on available health plans, along the lines begun at www.dhfs.state.wi.us/healthcarecost
giving local governments greater access to their health insurance experience ratings.
providing incentives for local governments to use the Wisconsin Public Employers Group Health Insurance Program, where premiums range from $661.20 a month for family coverage under the Unity-Community HMO to $1,224.90 a month for the standard plan in Milwaukee and Dane counties.
allowing municipalities to change health insurers as long as they maintain comparable benefits.

For Joe Manning's story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the task force's initial recommendations, look here.

Meanwhile, David Newby, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, calls for establishing a business-labor commission that would assess a fee for each private employee in the state, to provide lower-cost and better health coverage to private-sector employees. The plan has encountered criticism, which Manning describes in a story here.

WMC #s challenged
What's Our Real Tax Ranking?

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce says, "local spending (in Wisconsin) is 6th highest in the nation."

According to the Wisconsin Budget Project, computed per $1,000 of income, Wisconsin ranks 20^th in revenue generated and 20^th in spending.

	Wisconsin	Ranking	National Avg.
Total state & local revenue (FY 1999)	$208	20th	$194
Total state & local spending (FY 1999)	$205	20th	$190

Statewide Survey
Passenger Rail on Right Track

More than three out of four Wisconsin residents support a nationwide train network with increased routes and frequencies, and shorter travel times, according to results of a major statewide transportation alternatives survey.

As many respondents also said they would use the expanded, fast train service now being planned by nine Midwestern states including Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers (WisARP).

For more information, go to the group's news release, here.

wisarp
Wisconsin Association
of Railroad Passengers

Freeway Poll Hit

Marquette Interchange

A mail survey by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission on the proposed expansion of the region's freeway system was "biased" and "loaded" because the survey focused on reducing traffic congestion and safety hazards but never mentioned the $6.25 billion cost, Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist declared Oct. 7.

The preliminary highway reconstruction plan calls for adding lanes on about 47 percent of the regional freeway system in addition to rebuilding the roads, which are reaching the ends of their lives. The cost is estimated at about $6.25 billion over 30 years.

Norquist said proposing such a freeway plan without the money to pay for it was "completely irresponsible."

Tom Carlsen, McCallum's acting transportation secretary, said state officials would have
a financing plan in place before the freeways were rebuilt. But the Democratic, Libertarian and Republican candidates for governor all oppose a gas tax increase, Larry Sandler wrote iun the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Oct. 8.

For Sandler's Oct. 7 story on the poll, look here.

For the Racine Journal Times story, look here.

A number of groups have aligned themselves against the freeway expansion plan. See their news release here.

¹ LFB memo to Sen. Charles Chvala, Sept. 9, 2002.

Credit: The Adobe Acrobat document detailing the Sheehy Task Force recommendations is provided courtesy of The Hamilton Consulting Group.

Upcoming Events

Oct. 14-16	Wisconsin Economic Summit	Milwaukee
Oct. 16-18	Wis. Urban & Rural Transit Assn.	Green Bay
Oct. 21-22	Waters of Wisconsin Forum	Madison
Oct. 22	Assly. Enviro. Cmte - recycling efficiency grants	10 a.m. 300 NE
Oct. 23-25	League of Wis. Municipalities annual conf.	Middleton
Oct. 29	Prof. Joel Rogers on State Budget	Wauwatosa
Oct. 30	Wis. Municipal Telecom Workshop	Wis. Dells
Nov. 12	Local Govt., School Funding Crisis	Madison
Nov. 21-22	Alliance meeting, Appleton
	*(click on underlined text for more)*

THE WISCONSIN ALLIANCE OF CITIES
14 West Mifflin Street Suite 206
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
(608) 257-5881