Gov. Jim Doyle will join city leaders and legislators May 22 at the second annual joint League-Alliance Legislative Luncheon, the governor's office announced today.

City leaders from across Wisconsin are gathering in Madison May 22-23 to discuss the state budget, a proposed property tax freeze and a wide variety of bills, some that could help cities and some that could harm them.

The Alliance meetings could coincide with final committee action on the state budget bill. At press time, the subject of the governor's brief remarks was unclear. Top Republican lawmakers also were invited to briefly address the luncheon.

For the agenda, look here. To RSVP, click here.

Double Standard Suggested
No Freeze Sought for State Tax Revenue

By Rich Eggleston

Four state legislators propose freezing local property taxes as a cure for property tax increases that haven't occurred, but aren't proposing the same powerful medicine for state government, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

"On the state level, the equivalent of a property tax levy freeze would be lowering the sales and income tax rates annually so they raised no more in one year than in the last. No one in Madison is suggesting the state do that,"  Journal Sentinel business columnist Avrum D. Lank wrote May 11.

"Why, then," he asked, "should municipalities be asked to do so?" See his column here.

The four  legislators — Sens. Robert Welch (R-Redgranite) and David Zien (R-Eau Claire) and Reps. Luther Olsen (R-Berlin) and Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford)   — are not asking that the state treasury forego the following growth:

We estimate that, statewide, potential lost revenue from a property tax freeze (assuming the same rate of increase in property values as in the past year and statewide average mill rates for cities, villages and towns) totals $134.7 million in the coming year.

While a property tax freeze is potentially death to economic development (see Ed Huck's letter to the Wisconsin Realtors Association here), it does have political sex appeal, and its passage would put Gov. Jim Doyle in a tough position, John Dipko wrote in his Green Bay Press Gazette column. See the column here.

William D. Petasnick, president and CEO of Froedtert Hospital and Community Health System, and State Sen. Cathy Stepp (R-Racine) are featured speakers next Thursday at the Springsted mini-symposium on how to  manage successfully in the age of budget crunches.

Petasnick's presentation is titled, "Sticker Shock — Are Health Care Costs Controllable?" Health insurance costs also are   a topic on the agenda of the Alliance's general membership meeting Friday, May 23. Sen. Stepp is talking on proposed changes to the tax incremental financing law, which is (funny how great minds think alike) on the agenda of the Alliance finance directors' meeting earlier that Thursday.

Attendance at the Springsted mini-symposium requires a $25 check made out to Springsted, and further information is available — along with registration materials — on their web site, here. The agenda also is on our web site, here.

Wisconsin municipalities will a be able to apply for grants of up to $15,000 each  to help set up and operate "Clean Sweep" programs to collect and dispose of household hazardous waste, the Department of Natural Resources says.

There's a narrow window for applying for the grants — between July 2 and July 31 — and first-time applicants will receive preference. For more information, look here.

Madison is the fifth best place in the country for business and careers, says Forbes magazine. The magazine's annual survey of the best places to live and work looked at income and job growth, the cost of doing business (including the cost of labor, energy, taxes and office space), the labor pool, crime, housing costs and net migration. "The civic fathers and mothers of (smaller, high-ranking metro areas like Madison) should all feel very proud that each of their towns can offer its citizenry so much for so little," Forbes said. For its annual survey, look here. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association, are you listening?

Wisconsin doctors consistently saw the smallest increases in the country in their medical malpractice insurance premiums between 1998 and 2002, according to an analysis by the American Medical Association. As a result, the AMA reports, physicians like orthopedic surgeon Shawn P. Hennigan are moving from Pennsylvania, where premiums have more than tripled, to Wisconsin. See the amednews.com story here.

The Legislature should transfer money from the transportation fund and even raise the cigarette tax if necessary to avoid cuts in shared revenues, says Waukesha Mayor Carol Lombardi. The mayor told the Waukesha Freeman that additional cuts in shared revenue — Waukesha has seen declining aids for years as state support for the program stagnated — would be devastating. See Dennis Shook's story here.

Condos and apartment buildings could replace coal piles along the Fox River in Green Bay under newly elected Mayor Jim Schmitt's vision of downtown redevelopment. See the Green Bay Press Gazette story here.

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) is proposing a one-time 3% cut in transit aids to Madison and Milwaukee, along with a cap on state and federal aids to other transit systems in the state.  The cuts would be disastrous for low-income people in cities like Appleton, the Appleton Post-Crescent reported. See the story here.

What La Crosse Mayor John Medinger described as a hostile legislative committee endorsed two destructive bills earlier this month. The Assembly Rural Affairs Committee endorsed AB 136, the so-called charter towns bill, on a 6-3 vote. See some of the bill's potential impact here. See our follow-ups here and here. See the Beloit Daily News story on the committee action here. The committee also endorsed AB 85, which would allow incorporation of the contentious town of Campbell (next door to La Crosse) without the town having to meet the requirements of state law.