Alliance cities hold the line on taxes

TABOR: Manitowoc citizens told of shortcomings

Alliance regional sharing plan gets boost

Alliance members: RSVP to Jan. 27-28 meetings

News Briefs

Upcoming events

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's budget vetoes eliminated $744,350 in spending and left the city's property tax increase at about $4 million, or roughly 2%.

As a result, the budget in Wisconsin's largest city falls within GOP legislators' definition of a property tax "freeze."  The vetoes mean a Milwaukee police recruit class won't begin as soon as the Common Council sought — saving taxpayers almost $630,000 — and there won't be two additional city attorneys or more money for assistant district attorneys who handle neighborhood nuisances. The police recruit veto was sustained on an 8-7 vote. Story here.

Mayor Barrett said the vetoes should send a signal to Madison, where lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle will be grappling with a $1.6 billion shortfall. The Doyle administration has told Alliance city leaders that shared revenue is safe for 2005 — that's the law — but that 2006 is "wide open."

Mayor Barrett's accomplishment of living within "tax freeze" limits did not prevent his being criticized by conservative Republicans for not having a strong enough commitment to holding down taxes. But Milwaukee Assessment Commissioner Mary Reavey says the days of pulling rabbits out of budget hats may be over.

"As the taxpayer bill of rights revolution heats up in 2005, we may be forced to make additional cuts in 2006, and police and fire department budgets are next," Reavey told the Milwaukee Business Journal in a story here.

In Racine, the Common Council made few changes in Mayor Gary Becker's proposed budget, which laid off three city employees and eliminates 24 positions. The most controverial provision of the mayor's budget: the closing of a central-city fire station.  Aldermen could not agree on where else in the budget to cut the more than $800,000 that would have been required to keep the station open.

Had the council decided to spend $113 more than provided by the mayor's plan, Racine would stand to lose $2.5 milion in state expenditure restraint payments.  Story here.

In Manitowoc, for the second year in a row the Common Council  approved a budget with a zero-percent tax rate increase. The 2005 budget also avoids layoffs of city employees. Mayor Kevin Crawford said the feat was accomplished with revenues the city will receive as a result of an $80 million expansion of Manitowoc Public Utilities.

“These revenues from MPU are real,” Mayor Crawford told the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter. Story here.

In Green Bay, the city's budget "would have easily met TABOR" requirements, said Mike Driedric, an aide to Mayor Jim Schmitt. The city's levy was to rise 4.9%, but most of the increase would be covered by growth, Driedric told the Green Bay News Chronicle. He also emphasized that most of the increase would be covered by the city's growth in the past year. Schmitt said he expected the tax rate to stay about the same as last year in the 7.73 mill area.

"We have a community where we provide services. We're not Bellevue," Mayor Schmitt said.

Kaukauna's budget also would qualify under the so-called Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, assuming the elusive constitutional amendment excluded debt. General fund spending in Kaukauna will rise 3.7%, well below its expenditure restraint ceiling of 4.3%,according to finance director Steve Geibel.

Marshfield next year will be in the fourth year of a tax-rate freeze, and is looking to cut some services, including elimination of the police department's school liaison, trimming three parks and recreation positions and an engineering position, city officials told an Alliance meeting in Oshkosh.

Appleton approved a 5.06% levy increase that enables the city to remain within expenditure restraint limits — an accomplishment possible only with postponement of work on Mason Street and purchase of new personal computers.

Greenfield achieved a general fund levy increase of less than 1% and a budget increase of just 3.1%, and came in $31 under its expenditure restraint limit, Mayor Tim Seider told fellow city leaders. The budget does not have funds for two requested police officer positions, and won't allow for filling of one clerical position, two Department of Public Works positions or an assistant fire chief's position.

Whitewater's budget is up one-tenth of 1%, but its general fund budget is up 3.3%, still under its 3.5% expenditure restraint ceiling.

De Pere's City Council unanimously approved a city budget that is 2.2% higher than the 2004 package, with public safety getting a 4% increase, and general government functions a 4.5% cut. Story here.

Wausau is bumping property taxes by 5.2 percent, or about $175 on an average home, after keeping taxes stable in 2004 and increasing them only 2.3 percent in 2003.

"Mayor Jim Tipple said he had no choice. It was either that or cut the city's staff of 368 employees by 10 or 12 people," the Wausau Daily Herald wrote. "Were TABOR in effect, city leaders really would have had no choice. Ten or 12 cops or firefighters or snowplow drivers or building inspectors would be gone.

"That would affect services. There's no two ways about it." Editorial here.

City officials in Waukesha held their spending increase to 3%. Story here. Beaver Dam officials froze their city's levy at last year's level.

Beloit passed a  budget increasing the property tax levy four-tenths of one percent. .Story here.

"These accomplishments are not sustainable unless the Legislature approves and funds a new shared revenue program, said Edward J. Huck, executive director of the Alliance.

Manitowoc County Executive Dan Fischer called TABOR a “political bandage” on a taxation system that really requires major surgery, the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter reported.

Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of applied economics and public policy at UW-Madison, told the forum that many of the claims of TABOR supporters are simply untrue:

		Wisconsin is not a particularly high spending state. In fact, it is 19th in state and local spending as a percentage of personal income.
		Wisconsin is a high tax state, but the tradeoff is it is low in fees.
		Property taxes have not skyrocketed. For the typical homeowner, they have grown more slowly than inflation.
		There is no evidence to support the mantra of TABOR supporters that cutting taxes will encourage economic development.
		TABOR would not necessarily make government more efficient, but it would reduce services provided to citizens.

Also on a TABOR panel at the event were Sen. Joseph Leibham (R-Manitowoc) and Bubba McDonald, vice chair of the Manitowoc County Republican Party.

News Briefs Tarred with scandal: It might be a good idea to privatize the Windy City's paving work, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley says. Daley's proposal comes in the wake of a veteran city worker being charged with bribery for allegedly being paid to divert hundreds of tons of the city's asphalt to private contractors. Story here (may require subscription). Intergovernmental cooperation succumbs to intragovernmental bickering: The Dane County Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee  cancelled an Intergovernmental Cooperation Summit scheduled for Dec. 9th, as rival factions on the Dane County Board disagreed about which faction should be in charge of countywide comprehensive planning.  Home rule victor over NRA: A judge in Colorado has ruled that Denver can continue to regulate assault weapons, "Saturday night specials" and the open carrying of guns despite two state laws the Colorado Legislature passed to pay obeisance to the National Rifle Association. District Judge Joseph Meyer said that since Denver is a home-rule city, Denver ordinances on these matters are not subject to the laws passed by the Legislature in 2003. AP story via Channel 7 in Denver here. The Colorado Bankers Association took the unusual step of speaking out on a non-banking matter in issuing a statement seeking a way out of the fiscal crisis caused by constitutional spending restrictions —TABOR — and a constitutional mandate — Amendment 23 — to spend more on schools. "Our member banks are concerned about the damage being done to our state, its people and its economy," Don Childears, president of the association, wrote in a Rocky Mountain News guest column here.   Childears said TABOR is popular in Colorado, but "changes are necessary to restore fiscal flexibility so the legislature can make prudent spending decisions." With the bankers on their side, Democrats in the Colorado legislature are optimistic they'll be able to turn the tide on their state's spiraling fiscal chaos. "It's been six weeks since the Democrats won control of the legislature for the first time in 40 years, and they're still on Cloud Nine. Republican lawmakers, in contrast, are smiling through clenched teeth, but smiling nonetheless, thinking perhaps of the comeback they'll mount in 2006," the Denver Post notes.  "In recent years, the brief moments of good will fizzled early in the session, but signals for 2005 are more positive now than in the past. There seems to be broad agreement that budget solutions need to be found for both the short term and the long term, even if the parties have different ideas about how to go about it." Milwaukee is launching a program to elicit voluntary payments for municipal services from private universities (UW campuses and other state-owned properties already make such payments), but the program, which goes to the Common Council this week, is not being being greeted with open arms by tax-exempt groups, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.  Story here. It never hurts to ask, the Journal Sentinel added in an editorial here.

(details of the latter TBA)