Levy Limit Fallout
Sheboygan May Lay Off Dozens

Whitewater meetings Sept. 15-16
More technical answers to levy limit questions

Paul Ziegler of the Department of Revenue will answer levy-limit questions from Alliance finance directors and city leaders on Sept. 15 in Whitewater. Alliance members should have received e-mails with maps and directions for downloading conference materials. The DOR also has levy-limit questions and answers on its web site, where you can go by clicking here.

Here are questions from Kathy Unertl, finance director in Merrill, and Ziegler's responses, concerning city-county sharing of ambulance service costs.

"Lincoln County contracts with the Merrill Fire Department to provide ambulance service for the southern 1/3rd of Lincoln County," Unertl wrote.  "The County has been reimbursing the City for 6 1/2 ambulance positions.

"Due to 65%+ Medicare/Medicaid runs, Lincoln County's tax levy is now over $500,000 for services provided by Merrill Fire Department and the Tomahawk Hospital, which contracts to provide ambulance service for the northern third of Lincoln County.

"Due to the number of ambulance emergency responses compared to fire calls and unwillingness of surrounding townships to continue to subsidize ambulance service through their fire protection contracts, the City of Merrill has requested that Lincoln County fund an additional three positions (i.e. about $245,000).

Q: 1) Are there any State Levy Implications to the City of Merrill with this proposal for additional Lincoln County reimbursement? Since EMS positions on the Merrill Fire Department are more like 15 positions than the 9 1/2 position reimbursement funding request, the City would continue to levy property tax for ambulance service.

Clearly, Lincoln County would need to cover this additional amount under the County tax levy amount.

A: Because the higher reimbursement from Lincoln County to the City of Merrill would reflect higher costs of an existing service agreement, rather than a new transfer of service, no adjustments would be made to the allowable levies of either the city or the county.

While the city would receive additional funds from the county, this would not require any downward adjustment in the city's maximum allowable levy. The county would need to pay the higher amount out of the current maximum allowable levy or other revenue sources. The county would not receive an upward adjustment for the higher payment.

Q: 2) Since there is no requirement under Wis. Stats. for county involvement in ambulance service, what if Lincoln County stopped contracting for service? Then, the City of Merrill would need to contract with surrounding townships to provide ambulance service (or the townships could contract with another EMS provider).

I think that this type of "transfer of service" would be exempt from the State Levy Limits? There would be a substantial increase in City of Merrill property tax levy [and contracting townships] with this type of shift.

A: If Lincoln County stopped contracting with the city for the provision of ambulance services to certain towns, and instead, the City of Merrill directly contracted with the towns to provide ambulance service, a transfer of service adjustment could be made as follows:

1. The county would discontinue its role in providing ambulance service. Consequently, the county's levy authority may be decreased by the amount of savings to the county.

2. The towns newly contracting for the ambulance service from the city would be taking on a new responsibility and may be granted an upward adjustment in their levy authority based on their increased costs.

3. No adjustment would be made to the City of Merrill's levy authority. From the city's perspective, it would be receiving revenue from the towns rather than the county, and in essence, not change its role as a service provider to outlying areas.

In sum, this change would transfer responsibility for providing ambulance service from county government to the relevant towns.

I hope this is helpful.

Paul Ziegler

News Briefs Fun part of the job: Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz got behind the controls of a backhoe for the groundbreaking of Phase II of Metropolitan Place, a $50 million, 164-condominium project in downtown Madison. Unbeknownst to the mayor, developer Cliff Fisher buried a short length of fiber optic cable under where Mayor Cieslewicz was to dig. The prank didn't spoil the fun of Madison's big-equipment-loving mayor, however. The past mayoral track record includes operating planes, trains, buses and street sweepers. Committee kills Fox River cleanup bill. The Senate Agriculture and Insurance Committee voted 6-1 late Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend to kill the Fox River cleanup bill, AB 222. Continuing the disturbing trend of the Legislature doing the public's business under as much of a veil of secrecy as it possibly can, committee Chair Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) called for a committee vote late Friday afternoon by telephone conference call. The committee voted 6-1 against both the Senate version and the Assembly-passed version of the bill. Committee members are Sen. Kapanke and Sens. Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn), Ron Brown (R-Eau Claire), Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton), Dave Hansen (R-Green Bay), and Mark Miller (D-Monona.) Only Sen. Hansen voted for the bill. If you want to express your thanks to Sen. Hansen for standing up to the insurance companies that didn't want to pay claims under the liability insurance policies they issued, his e-mail address is here. "Restoring the health of the Fox River and the economy of the region remains a pressing issue for the citizens of Wisconsin, and we will continue to fight to see that the insurance industry pays its fair claims on the policies it issued to Wisconsin’s paper makers," said Paul J. Karch, vice president of Appleton Papers. Mayor Dave Cieslewicz having fun Purely by coincidence, the vote preceded a Committee to Elect a Republcan Senate $1,000 per-person golf outing at Sentry World in Stevens Point. "There’s nothing like having a key committee vote on a controversial legislative proposal shortly before a fundraising event in order to maximize a special interest’s gratitude – in cash," said the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign in its Big Money blog.  See the blog here. See the Associated Press report on the committee vote, from the Appleton Post-Crescent, here. If you think the government was unprepared for Katrina, TABOR would have made it worse.  The pro-TABOR, anti-government attitude of folks like Grover Norquist set the stage for the federal government's inexcusable failure to deal promptly and efficiently with the catastrophe that Hurricane Katrina visited upon New Orleans and surrounding areas of Louisiana and Mississippi, according to New York Times columnists Paul Krugman and Thomas L. Friedman. "An administration whose tax policy has been dominated by the toweringly selfish Grover Norquist - who has been quoted as saying: 'I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub' - doesn't have the instincts for this moment," Friedman wrote. Lautenschlager Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager says bill drafts are public records as soon as they leave the legislature and end up in the hands of a lobbyist.  State Sen. Dave Zien says that interpretation of the law would turn the Legislature upside down if ratified by the courts. While legislators are often free with bill drafts, sometimes they discriminate: they hide them from forces on one side of an issue, but hand them out to another side, so their allies can be prepared for a public hearing, while opponents are caught off guard. Lautenschlager sued the Legislature after the National Rifle Association received a copy of a concealed weapons bill draft, but Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) refused to provide a copy to the state Justice Department. Original Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here. Update here. Zien

Upcoming Events    (click on underlined text for more)

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