October 20, 2005 e-newsletter |
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Our Nov. 10-11 meetings in Neenah Local budgets, levy limits, mandates on our plate |
| A roundtable discussion of the
budget picture in Alliance cities, both for 2006 and 2007, highlights the Alliance's Nov.
10-11 meetings in Neenah.—
along with presentations on economic
development incentives available to our cities, a new effort to halt unfunded state
mandates, brownfields grants and video-streaming services for Alliance members. Rep. Steve Wieckert (R-Appleton) is scheduled to tell city leaders Friday of his plan to require that the Legislature fully pay for any new mandates it imposes on local government. He said the proposal is especially important in light of Doyle/GOP property-tax limits. "The Legislature has to be responsible, and we can't pass any additional costs on to local government," Wieckert said. "There's no free program." In addition, Hector Colon of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority is to talk about WHEDA's finance tools to spur economic development, and Annette Weissbach of the Department of Natural Resources will provide the lowdown on a new zero-percent revolving loan fund for brownfields projects. We've also invited a representative of CGI Communications to attend to brief more city leaders on what the company is doing in Neenah. We haven't heard back from them yet, but in any case, we'll watch the "welcome to our community" video CGI produced for Mayor George Scherck. |
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And that's just the agenda for our general membership meeting Nov. 11. Agendas for both the finance directors' and board meetings are in the works. The meetings are all at the Bridgewood Resort Hotel in Neenah. For maps and an RSVP form, click here. Greens fees for the Thursday morning golf outing are $10. |
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Levy Limit Fallout
Cities eye employee cuts to cope
In Eau Claire, City Manager Don Norrell is proposing to eliminate 11.5 positions and seek new revenue sources to stay within his city's 3.3% allowable levy increase. That's an increase of about $724,000 in revenue, but salaries and benefits alone for the current workforce would rise $1.3 million. In La Crosse, the size of the city's workforce will be determined through the collective bargaining process. Mayor Mark Johnsrud is offering city employees a zero percent salary increase, but preservation of their current level of benefits, which amounts to a 2.5% increase in their wages and benefits package. If employees accept the offer, the city can continue to offer its current level of services. If employees reject that offer, the city and its unions will likely go to arbitration. A mediator is likely to award a 3.5% wage increase and create an $800,000 hole in the city's budget, forcing a reduction of about 21 employees. Wausau is considering new user fees and delaying road projects to erase a $415,000 budget shortfall and remain within its levy limit. Story here. Watertown approved a stormwater fee of $15.48 annually for homeowners, more for property owners with large roofs and parking lots, to be added to sewer and water bill beginning Dec. 1. Story here. Among non-Alliance cities, Oconomowoc's Common Council gave preliminary approval to a "transportation utility district" that would charge property owners road use fees to help pay for street repairs, a fee that would amount to about $22.50 a year for a single-family home. Story here. In Janesville, City Manager Steve Sheiffer is considering higher bus fares and a hiring freeze in Janesville as devices to deal with a $500,000 budget shortfall and levy limits. Story here And in Cudahy, city officials are dealing with a budget shortfall of more than $250,000. And the budget picture is dire in counties as well as cities. Brown County Executive Carol Kelso says she'll consolidate some county departments and reduce staff to meet her levy limit. Story here. Winnebago and Fond du Lac counties, two of the 11 Wisconsin counties that don't have a half-cent county sales tax, are considering imposing one. |
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Seniors lobby for public housing subsidy
| Scores of senior citizens from across
Wisconsin jammed a public hearing Oct. 18 to protest a bill to limit the property tax
exemption for "benevolent associations" to those that provide housing for
low-income people, the disabled, or the genuinely needy. Advocates for the disabled and the property taxpayer supported the bill, but owners of high-end housing complexes for senior citizens didn't, and they provided seniors with bus transportation and box lunches to attend the Capitol hearing.. The Alliance of Cities told the Assembly Urban and Local Affairs Committee that existing law is abused by outfits like the tax-exempt Attic Angel Place on the west side of Madison, where a one-bedroom apartment goes for nearly $1,500 a month, plus a $25,000 entrance fee. A two-bedroom apartment with a balcony and den goes for more than $2,250 per month, plus a $38,000 entrance fee. Ed Huck, executive director of the Alliance of Cities, testified that his 88-year-old mother — who is not wealthy — pays $600 a month rent for an apartment in Waunakee that is on the property-tax rolls. Huck said his mom has available to her many of the same services available to Attic Angel residents, for an additional fee that doesn't come close to approaching Attic Angel's rates. There's something unfair going on, Michael Birkley of the Wisconsin Property Taxpayers Association, told the committee. |
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"Tax-exempt property and poverty tend to be concentrated in urban centers," Birkley said. "We believe it is wrong to bill urban homeowners and apartment dwellers — who earn far less than the statewide average — for the cost of services to properties owned by "benevolent associations" so that more affluent "benevolent association" housing recipients won't have to pay a penny in property taxes."
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TABOR Support Faltering
By Rich Eggleston
The public may be starting to recognize that the advocates of a "Taxpayer's Bill of Rights" (TABOR) for Wisconsin are trying to mislead them big time.
But public education efforts on the shortcomings of robotic formulas spliced into a
state's constitution need to intensify if Wisconsin is to beat back efforts of
out-of-state anti-government zealots and their Wisconsin allies. One way to accomplish
that would be to produce a video like "The Real Story
Behind TABOR." The Real Story is a 13-minute video about TABOR that dramatizes how
TABOR has hurt school kids, senior citizens and ordinary folks in Colorado. It was
produced by the Oregon Center for Public Policy, which says it is something that all
legislators and voters should see before voting to place a Colorado-like spending limit in
their state constitution.
See it by clicking here.
It's definitely the sort of thing we should do in Wisconsin.
The evidence of waning public support, according to public opinion polls in the news:
| October, 2005 | Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Diversified Research | 62% | ||
| February, 2005 | Americans for Prosperity Foundation | 68% | ||
| February, 2004 | Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce | 74% |
Of course, once again, we don't know exactly what we're talking about when we talk about a Wisconsin TABOR, and neither do the hapless members of the public who respond to a public opinion poll.
AJR 40, sponsored by Rep. Frank Lasee (R-Bellevue), was supposed to have received
public hearings in the Assembly last month, but our contract lobbyist, Jason Johns, was
told that the Assembly Ways and Means Committee decided not to hold hearings in deference
to Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), who has been given the job of drafting a version of
TABOR that the Senate can support.
But there is no Grothman proposal ready to roll. Grothman's office is hoping to shop the
bill around in the Senate Republican caucus and elsewhere in the Capitol in the next few
weeks, Johns was told. And Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz has not scheduled a caucus
on TABOR because he is waiting to see what Grothman puts together, Schultz's office said.
Grothman's staff told Johns that Glenn's plan will be completely different than Frank's. The Ways and Means Committee was hoping to hold hearings on one or both proposals in November.
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Upcoming Events (click on underlined text for more)
| Oct. 25-Nov. 10 | Legislative floor period (Tues.-Thurs.) | Madison | ||
| Oct. 26-28 | League annual conference | Green Bay | ||
| Oct. 27 | People's Legislature (anti-corruption) | Madison | ||
| Nov. 3 | Frank Lasee to Green Cnty GOP on TABOR | Monticello | ||
| Nov. 10-11 | Alliance meetings | Neenah | ||
| Nov. 29 | Digital Government Summit | Madison | ||
| Nov. 30-Dec. 1 | Tobacco Prevention & Control Conference | Madison | ||
| Dec. 6-15 | Legislative floor period (Tues.-Thurs.) | Madison | ||
| 2006 | ||||
| Jan. 27-28 | New Cities Project (Mayor Dave Cieslewicz et al) | Washington, D.C. | ||
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THE
WISCONSIN ALLIANCE OF CITIES
14 West Mifflin Street Suite 206
Madison, Wisconsin 53703
(608) 257-5881
