"You've got a Republican majority in the Legislature ... that hasn't balanced budgets honestly telling local governments that have balanced budgets honestly how to run our businesses," Mayor Cieslewicz told the newspaper.  "It's like Enron executives telling local groceries how to stock their shelves."

Madison's shortfall is almost sure to lead to police cuts, the State Journal reported in a story here. The Madison Fire Department, meanwhile, is in an even tighter spot because about 92 percent of its operating expenses are for personnel. In Marshfield, city officials are asking residents what services they would prefer to see cut, and UW-Marshfield is offering a course this fall on the city budget. Story here.

With looming projects such as building new police and fire stations, trying to maintain city services and attempting to negotiate contracts with city unions, Sheboygan Mayor Juan Perez said the limits would make the city’s job more difficult. “Now that we know what we have to work with, now it’s our responsibility to make our budget work,” Perez told the Sheboygan Press. Story here.

Ed Huck, executive director of the Alliance, said the governor's action puts a potential crimp in local government's economic development activities.

"Are public-employee unions going to stand still for new TIF projects when their members are being laid off?" Huck asked.

The precise depth of our cities' budget woes won't be known until next week. Equalized value numbers and net new construction numbers for all municipalities in Wisconsin will be posted on the Department of Revenue web site by Aug. 15, maybe a day or two earlier, according to Audra Brennan, executive assistant in the DOR.  They will determine levy limits for next year.

The larger of 2%, or the percentage that the previous year's net new construction (improvements added minus improvements demolished) represents of total equalized value, will be the allowable levy increase that Alliance members and other municipalities will be allowed for the next budget or the year after.

The partially vetoed levy-limit language is here.

Answers to technical questions on levy limits

In response to a question from Jean Vito, finance director in Superior, Paul Ziegler of DOR's division of research and analysis, agreed that communities that see a reduction in debt service costs in their next budget will have that much more wiggle room in their budgeting process: they won't have to reduce their levies by that amount.

Other guidance provided by the Department of Revenue staff in response to questions we forwarded to the administration:

1. Are both existing and new debt exempt from the levy freeze?

Yes -- in that the payment of neither existing nor new debt service is inhibited by the levy limit. There is a distinction, however, in how they are treated in calculating the limits. The amount levied for existing debt is included in the base for determining the allowable levy under the limit. In addition, an upward adjustment is made to the limit if debt service for existing debt increases over the prior year. Newly authorized debt, however, is completely exempt from the limit. It is not included in the base for determining the allowable increases.

2. Is the allowable levy increase calculated on the total levy from the prior year, or is the allowable increase calculated on the total levy less the debt service portion of the levy?

See the reply to the first question. In general, the allowable increase is calculated on the total levy from the prior year, including amounts levied for previously authorized debt. The calculation of the allowable increase would not include any debt newly authorized after July 1, 2005.

3. Is the allowable increase based on the levy before or after the levy increase for TIF districts?

Tax increments are excluded from the limits. Consequently, the base for the allowable increase would not include tax increments. While this exclusion does provide a smaller base upon which the allowable increase is determined, it is intended to make certain that development efforts through TIF are not impacted by the limits.

4. If the city authorized debt prior to July 1, 2005 but did not issue it until after that date, can this debt and subsequent increases in debt service be included in the base calculation?

s.66.0602(13)(d)1. provides an upward adjustment to the levy limit for increases in debt service for debt authorized prior to July 1, 2005. Consequently, the limit would be increased for additional debt service that relates to new, but previously authorized debt. In the first year of the adjustment, however, the adjustment is not included in the base for determining the allowable increase. It is, instead, added as additional amount that may be levied after the limit that would otherwise be allowed is determined. (In other words, in the first year of the additional debt service for previously authorized debt, there is no growth component applied to this increment.)

In the second year, any upward adjustment utilized under this section would become part of the base upon which the second year allowable increase would be determined.

Whitewater meetings Sept. 15-16
City leaders due for dose of history

A picture is worth a thousand words... Photoshop® Image by Rich Eggleston ...especially when you don't have to defile the landscape to make it. According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, AB 155... "...explicitly specifies that no municipality or county may require the removal of a nonconforming building, premises, structure, or fixture, which may be lawfully used under current law, by an amortization ordinance." Many communities use amortization ordinances to order the removal of billboards when their value falls to zero under state and federal tax codes. "Wisconsin scenery is gradually being blotted out by billboards," Chuck Mitchell, executive director of the 650-member Citizens for a Scenic Wisconsin told Rep. Mike Huebsch in a letter. "City planners and development directors know the economic and social benefits of a beautiful community. That’s why so many cities and villages have prohibitions on large billboards. Cities, villages, towns and counties, represented by their associations, are strongly opposed to this bill." " "This is a bill for the benefit of special interests, the outdoor advertisers," he added. "It is not good public policy and it stifles local control." Click on the above image to read the text of AB 155.. Chart: Wisconsin Democracy Campaign There's also AB 558.  AB558 is another crass imposition by the outdoor advertising industry on the normal functioning of city governments, to gain advantages for billboard operators.   According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, under the bill no zoning entity could condition or withhold approval of a permit that it may issue under its zoning authority based on the property owner entering into, discontinuing, modifying, extending, or renewing a contract with a billboard company. Why would legislators seek to do the bidding of the billboard industry? It could be the result of campaign contributions, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said in a report Aug. 4.  Supporters of AB 155 include business, manufacturing, realtor, tourism, construction, automobile dealer and agricultural equipment interests which contributed $6.83 million to legislators including $5.56 million, or 82 percent, to Republican legislators. In contrast, local governments and environmental groups, which oppose the measures, have contributed only $46,930 to legislators, including $19,558 to GOP legislators, the Democracy Campaign found. Its report also highlights campaign contributions by forces seeking to thwart local democracy on issues including the minimum wage,   smoking in taverns, control of public lands (a "utility land grab") and other issues. See the report here. News Briefs Tom Herre, a retired Army colonel who is a Fond du Lac native but currently lives in Racine, became Fond du Lac’s new city manager after City Council members unanimously approved his appointment and his three-year contract July 27, the Fond du Lac Reporter reported. He will receive $110,000 a year plus benefits. Story here. Ashland is emerging from the old manufacturing, heavy-industry economy into the New Economy, and Mayor Fred Schnook and Ald. Mary Rehwald are leading the way, Serigraph CEO John Torinus of West Bend wrote in his must-read business column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Torinus wrote that Mayor Schnook is pushing "for a community design that could reverse a brain drain of young people, pull in tourists and create a climate for better paying, creative jobs." Column here. Huge flag, huge flagpole Kenosha has realized huge cost savings in its computer operations since it switched to a Linux infrastructure with thin client workstations (whatever they are), says Ruth Schall of the City of Kenosha information technology department Linux is the operating system that competes with Microsoft Windows without the profit motive that made Bill Gates a multi-billionaire. Schall estimates that,10 years ago when Kenosha went to Linux, the city shaved at least $100,000 a year off its IT budget. Today that figure is higher, and the savings come mostly through reduced staffing needs. "With all those desktops, network administration, the help desk, new hardware -- our staff is one and a half people. We could not do that if we were running PCs; we'd have to at least double the number of IT people," she told a Linux newsletter. Story here. Sheboygan and six of its unions appear to be heading to arbitration. The city is offering a 1.5% pay raise in a one-year contract, while the unions want 3%in each year of a two-year contract, the Sheboygan Press reports. City officials said they had no idea how much money would be available for raises in 2006. “What I’m asking the unions is to recognize is we can’t bargain with money we don’t have and we can’t pay the money we don’t have,” Mayor Juan Perez told the newspaper. Story here. Speaking of Sheboygan, on July 1 the city became home to a 338-foot flagpole that is the tallest flagpole in the United States. Acuity, a property and casualty insurer based in Sheboygan,  built the flagpole in honor of the country's servicemen and women, and Mayor Perez helped raise the 7,200 sq. ft. American flag at the dedication ceremony. "You can barely get into Sheboygan County without seeing it," said Acuity spokesman Buzz Blizzard. An earlier, slightly smaller flagpole blew over in a Jan. 1 windstorm, and engineers discovered it had been improperly installed. As is our wont, we'll fly a smaller version of the flag on the Alliance home page for a while. See Sheboygan's web site for more on the flag Kelo v. City of New London (Conn.), upholding a decision of the Connecticut Legislature and the New London City Council to proceed with downtown redevelopment, including the use of eminent domain if necessary, was an exercise of judicial restraint because the U.S. Supreme Court refused to substitute its judgment for that of the Connecticut Legislature or local elected officials, Madison City Attorney Michael May  wrote in The Capital Times. Unfortunately, there's a "post-Kelo hysteria" to roll back laws like Wisconsin's more restrictive measure that allows condemnations for redevelopment only in a blighted area, he said. Guest column here. Will Wisconsin follow in Georgia's footsteps? "Georgia has passed a disturbing new law that bars people from voting without government-issued photo identification and seems primarily focused on putting up obstacles for black and poor voters," the New York Times said in an editorial. "The news law will make it harder for elderly Georgians to vote as well."  Under the Voting Rights Act, the newspaper said, such laws must be cleared by the U.S. Justice Department, but the Times added that under the Bush administration, the law might be endorsed for political rather than legal considerations. "There are many steps states can take to reduce election fraud," the editorial concluded. "But laws that condition voting on having a particular piece of identification that many eligible voters do not possess have no place in a democracy." Cash-strapped Colorado wants to suspend that state's TABOR refunds for five years, which anti-tax forces say would be a blow to the taxpayer. But it would mostly be a blow to special interests, according to a state survey cited by the Rocky Mountain News. The survey indicates that within three years, Coloradans could see as little as 27 cents for every dollar that originally was intended to go back to them. Tax breaks would siphon off the rest, the newspaper reported. And some of the biggest so-called defenders of the taxpayer, who rally around the slogan, "It's your dough and you should get to decide how to spend it," voted for those tax breaks, the newspaper added. Story here. The Scientist magazine named Madison "the Midwest's low-key hotspot" for biotechnology. The publication reported that the city's research facilities and open community make it one of the best climates for starting or continuing a biotech and life sciences company. According to the article, the strongest asset to the state's biotech industry was the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which ranks among the top three public universities for research spending. UW-Madison was the first university to isolate human embryonic stem cells and has strong ties in oncology, cardiovascular and respiratory sciences, neuroscience and regenerative medicine. Story here.

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THE WISCONSIN ALLIANCE OF CITIES
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