December 15, 2005 e-newsletter

Getting the Public Up to Speed on Local Government

Smoking Ban: Good for Business

New TABOR Targets Fees Too

Partisan Arithmetic?

Recall Group Creates Database of Disaffected

Upcoming events

James B. Wood, a former candidate for Wisconsin governor, has been in the public relations business for 20 years, and he has put tremendous stock in knowing what the public is thinking — and why — before trying to influence that thinking.

Thanks to scientific polling, he has a pretty good idea of the problem the public has in relating to local government, and the problem local government has in relating to the public.

Wood will discuss the challenges facing local officials in communicating with the public at the Alliance's general membership meeting in Madison Jan. 27. For more information on our Jan. 26-27 meetings, and to RSVP, go here.

Jim Wood

Three problems confront local government, he says:

• The general public does not understand how local governments are organized or funded;
• Citizens are under severe economic pressure, and question whether they can afford high quality public services; and
• The rhetoric of anti-tax forces has put public officials on the defensive.

Wood says it is important for local government to thrive and prosper, and public understanding is crucial to make that happen.

"We need to have the public up to speed on the functions of government," he said. "Unless we get the public up to speed, bad decisions will be made."

In an earlier round of polling, the subject of a strategic communications seminar last Nov. 30 that Alliance staff and more than a dozen city leaders attended, Wood found that people generally believe they get good value for their tax dollar.

Asked, "Do you believe that local governments spend more of your tax dollars on delivering local services to you and the community
than they need to," this was the result:

However, Wood also found that:

• Of those who believe there is excessive spending in the delivery of local services, more than half believe local government spends either a great deal or a lot more than needed.
• A significant minority of the public believes that there is wasteful spending in many service areas.
• The public believes that government is not managing all of its spending appropriately.

Find out more Jan. 27. Again, the link to the meeting is here.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz

A broad commitment to smokefree work places show that a community is serious about being a good place to do business, Mayor Cieslewicz said in opening the conference, attended by more than 350 people from around the state.

Mayor Cieslewicz said the average business spends 14% of its budget on health care, and just four tenths of a percent of its budget in taxes. A smokefree environment also indicates that a local government is serious about saving taxpayers money, he added.

But the real reason to go smokefree is that smoking kills people, and so does second-hand smoke, the mayor said.

Madison is one of three communities in Wisconsin that have gone totally smokefree   — Appleton and the village of Shorewood Hills are the others  — and the move often generates political pressure on local officials. (See the story below on the brief bout of recall fever in Madison.)

But that pressure comes from "a very small minority that's very, very vocal," said Danny McGoldrick of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

He said three out of four voters support New York City's smoking ban, more widespread support than the New York Yankees enjoy, while more than two-thirds of Madison voters supported Madison's smoking ban in a poll taken in August.

In Madison,  the 85% of citizens who don't smoke are heavily subsidizing the 15% who do, Mayor Cieslewicz said.

"I'm proud of what my city did to stop that," he said.

Rep. Terry Musser (R-Black River Falls) is circulating a TABOR-like constitutional amendment among legislators, seeking co-sponsors with a deadline of Thursday for signing on.

The amendment, which would cap spending, not revenue, would allow each city, village, town, county, school district and technical college district in the state to spend no more in fees and property taxes than it spent in the previous year, increased by the percentage rise in the consumer price index, plus the percentage rise in property values resulting from new construction within the jurisdiction.

The Wisconsin Alliance of Cities believes including fees with taxes would be especially harmful to job-creation activities and the home-building business in Wisconsin. Ed Huck, executive director of the Alliance, said the cost of servicing growth can far exceed the increase in the cost of a dozen eggs, so linking the cost of local services to the cost of eggs — and other commodities consumers buy.

As a result, public health, public safety and the quality of life in Wisconsin communities will suffer, Huck said.

"Why in God's name would someone follow this Pied Piper?" Huck asked.

The proposed amendment is here:

http://www.wiscities.org/TABOR-Musser.pdf

When Gov. Jim Doyle issued a study concluding that property taxes in Wisconsin are increasing just eight-tenths of one percent thanks to his budget bill, one of his Republican oipponents, Scott Walker of Wauwatosa, accused him of perpetrating an "outright lie."   Another opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, said he was waiting for an independent agency to review the numbers.

Assembly Speaker John Gard said under a GOP plan, property taxes would have gone up even less than the $23 statewide average calculated by Doyle's budget office. State Budget Director Dave Schmiedicke said that wasn't true.

Republicans can be expected to believe the GOP math, and Democrats the governor's math.  Republicans can be expected to point to local levy increases in high-growth areas, where new construction allowed levy limit leeway. Democrats can be expected to tout the bottom-line impact on individual property tax payers, because Doyle increased school aids $404 million more than Republicans had sought, driving down the bottom line. And they can be expected to pick individual property that embarrass Republicans the most.

For example, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin told Walker to look across the aisle in his campaign office, where campaign manager Bruce Pfaff's property taxes wenty down $145. And Green should be boasting of a property tax reduction that exceeded $300, party chair Joe Wineke said. Among the media, Milwaukee talk show host Mark Belling's property taxes went down $448, the Democrats reported.

Other property tax reductions being quietly enjoyed — but not exactly touted — by Republican luminaries are available in a Democratic Party news release here.

By Rich Eggleston

People who signed petitions seeking the recall of Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz provided personal information to a group that intends to build a computer database, but also is free to sell that information to any group for any purpose — and legally needs to disclose nothing.

There are no restrictions in state law over what happens to names on a recall petition even after they are filed, says Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the State Elections Board. But the group involved in the failed Madison recall effort, which goes by the misnomer Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG), did not file any signatures.

News accounts quoted unnamed officials as saying CRG collected about 7,000 signatures, about one-fifth of the 34,520 required for a referendum on Mayor Cieslewicz.

The defeat followed CRG's victory in ousting Pewaukee Mayor Jeff Nowak and defeating the PabstCity project in Milwaukee. In Pewaukee, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that more than half the people who signed petitions to remove Nowak didn't go to the polls when he was re-elected  in April 2004, and more than one in 10 wasn't registered to vote.

In Madison, the group saw a silver lining in its unsuccessful drive —  that database of the names and addresses of the disaffected.

"...Good things came out of this," recall spokeswoman Heather Mees told the Wisconsin State Journal. "We have a database of supporters we can use in the future, especially if we decide we want to refile. . . . We may try again next year, after the holidays are done."

See the State Journal's story on the recall's failure here.

...and one group
building a database

2006 Alliance meetings