Towns, Legislators Upset Over New State Budget

State government in general, and the state budget in particular, came under heavy fire at the quarterly meeting of Marinette County Unit of Wisconsin Towns Association at Wausaukee Town Hall Thursday, June 18.

Representatives Jeff Mursau of Crivitz and John Nygren of Marinette, who had both left Madison just in time for the county meeting, predicted compromise on the state budget they had opposed would be achieved behind closed doors by the Democratic Party majority leaders. They expected differences between the versions that had been approved by the State Senate and Assembly would be resolved without further legislative action, and that Gov. James Doyle would sign the document.

The meeting drew 20 officials from 13 of the county’s 18 towns, plus nine guests, including Kass, Desotell, State Representatives Jeff Mursau of Crivitz and John Nygren of Marinette, WTA District Director Marilyn Bhend of Athens, Supervisor Mike Cassidy of Goodman, and Pat Schlais of Scott Construction. Towns not represented were Athelstane, Goodman, Grover, Lake, and Pembine.

Elections held at the previous meeting returned Gaylord King to office as chairman and Bedora as secretary. Bill Weisgerber was elected assistant chairman.

Expressions of displeasure with the state government started when Unit Secretary Dave Bedora read minutes of that meeting, at which Bryce Luchterhand, Director of Gov. Doyle’s northern office in Park Falls, fielded questions from town officials and heard comments to be relayed to the governor.

“There’s nothing good from Madison at all!” Bedora exclaimed upon reading questions and answers from that meeting. “It’s rotten, rotten, rotten.”

Those sentiments were pretty much echoed by Nygren and Mursau during their reports.

“The state budget is not good...but it passed the Assembly,” Nygren commented. A slightly different version had already passed the Senate.

Overall, because of drops in aids and added costs, the state budget will apparently raise property taxes by some $309 on a $160,000 home, Mursau said.

Nygren and Mursau told of returning to Madison on Wednesday, June 10, only to be told there would be no Assembly session. The Democrats were meeting in caucus. The same thing happened on Thursday and on Friday. On Saturday they met for 13 hours, and considered 129 amendments to the budget proposed by Gov. Doyle. Nygren said he knew there were 129 amendments because one he introduced, that was agreed upon by himself and Mursau, was last to be considered.

The budget finally passed the Assembly, 50 to 48, with all the Democrats but two and one independent voting in favor. All the Republicans were opposed.

Among bad provisions Nygren mentioned was one requiring that “prevailing wages” be paid to anyone working on local government construction jobs over a certain cost level. ”It’s a policy issue....It doesn’t belong in the budget,” Nygren declared. Town officials shared the hope that threshold level will be kept high, but conjecture was that it will be only around $25,000. Bhend said WTA would like to see the threshold at $100,000 if the provision stays in at all. She admitted it will probably stay in, and will probably stay low, “it’s politics.” She said the provision is supported by the labor unions, “...and figure it out. Who do they support?”

Nygren also objected to provisions that will double tipping fees charged at landfills to the highest in the nation, which will have a harsh impact on local municipal budgets. Several officials expressed hope at least the increase won’t go into effect until 2010, because town budgets are already set and half spent for 2009.

The one success was getting rid of a proposal for “joint and several liability,” that critics say would have benefited only trial lawyers and sharply increased insurance costs for everyone. Under the governor’s proposal, anyone even 1 percent at fault in an accident could be tapped to pay the full amount of damages.

A provision that removed all capital gains deductions and added $400,000 in taxes Nygren described as, “..devastating to the people who create jobs in Wisconsin.”

Shared revenue in theory was cut by 15 percent across the board, but some municipalities will lose only one percent while others will lose more. Given the deficit, some cuts are necessary, Nygren declared, “... but I feel everybody should share the pain.”

“Things are not good for our district, but at the end of the day, we didn’t have enough votes to get it done,” Nygren said of the changes he and Mursau tried to accomplish.

He and Mursau both referred to “ear mark” agreements reached behind closed doors to gain votes for the controversial budget, including a $500,000 grant for a pre-kindergarten program in Madison schools, a benefit not shared by other districts in the state.

“Secrecy behind closed doors is the way Madison does business,” Nygren declared.

Mursau called the process “disheartening” and “unbelievable”. He said at first the Democrats didn’t have the 50 votes they need in the Assembly to get the budget passed. So every day they met in caucus, behind closed doors, and every day several new projects were added to the budget until enough Representatives got enough benefits for their district to convince them to vote for the budget. He said to be fair, when Republicans were in power they also “did the closed caucus thing.”

Bedora asked about a substantial tax increase for farmers. He was told this is a result of changing the use tax formula for property tax assessments.

Several town officials asked why state aids to their towns are being cut by 15 percent, while Grover aids will be cut by only 9.7 percent and Pound’s by 8.6. Bhend explained the formula is based on equalized values, and towns with lake property are being hit the hardest.

Town of Stephenson Supervisor Arnie Behnke said that same formula also hits state aids for schools . “Our towns are valued at so much, but our people are not rich here,” Behnke declared.

“There’s a perfect storm being brewed by this budget,” Nygren agreed. He noted the budget does away with the “qualified economic offer” that protected school districts to some extent in collective bargaining and arbitration processes, and eliminates the district’s ability to pay as a primary consideration for arbitrators, but leaves levy limits intact. “This budget takes away every restraint on spending, but limits their ability to pay,” Nygren declared of the school funding provisions.

“What’s with all this policy in the budget?” someone asked from the floor.

“That’s for things that would never pass on their own,” Nygren responded.

Returning to the insurance provisions that were ultimately stricken from the Assembly version of the budget, Nygren said Milwaukee legislators did not like that any better than he and others from the north did. He said the joint and several liability proposals would have benefitted only trial lawyers. “Not to make any accusations, but the old law stood for 15 years with no proposals for change. You have to ask yourself, ‘What problem were they trying to fix?” Republicans were opposed, he said, and urged everyone to “remember this when the time comes.”

Behnke complimented Mursau and Nygren on the amount of money they had managed to get towns for road aids. Mursau said at first they had expected to have to settle for $1,995 per mile, but in the approved version of the budget towns will get $2,155 per mile in 2010 and $2,217 per mile in 2011.

Returning to the issue of property tax on farmland, Mursau said any farm property that is zoned residential or commercial, even if used for farming, will be taxed as residential or commercial. He said in the past, if farmland was sold for residential development, the difference in taxes had to be paid, but now that will not need to be done. However, farmers will have to pay more each year, which will add to their cost of doing business.

Nygren concluded with a request that officials opposed to the budget contact their State Senators with their concerns. He said just that day he received 20 e-mails opposed to the budget.

“I got a million cards,” Mursau said of public opposition to the statewide ban against smoking in bars and other public places, and against any increases in the oil tax. He mentioned a survey with thousands of responses, of which over 90 percent urged, “Say no to the budget.”

“We’re cutting shared revenue, we’re cutting schools...but state spending is going up seven percent, Mursau declared.

“They’re socking it to the people who create jobs and put people to work,” Mursau said of the increase in capital gains taxes. He added it’s a myth that businesses can be made to pay higher taxes. “Businesses don’t really pay taxes,” he said, “because they just raise prices.” A prohibition against oil companies raising prices to compensate for the raise in taxes may be unconstitutional, and everyone agreed monitoring that would be almost impossible, given price fluctuations that already exist at various locations across the state.

“The best way to create new revenue is to put more people to work at a higher wage, not to squeeze out every dime from wage earners and businesses,” Nygren declared.

Town officials were sharply critical of proposed spending for a commuter train service between Madison and Milwaukee. Mursau said the whole program a “crazy” setup. He explained the railroads will not be run by elected people, there are no elected boards, and without referendums they can tax the communities involved. There are proposals for a commuter train between Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha. If approved, taxpayers will end up subsidizing the system to the tune of $25 per ride.

People would need to drive to the train station, park their cars, wait for a train, then at their destination get another ride or taxi to their work place, and meanwhile they would be without their cars all day. “Americans are not ready to jump through that many hoops,” Nygren commented.

Both Mursau and Nygren were concerned that the budget takes one-time stimulus money to start new programs that will still be there when the stimulus money is gone. “You don’t do that (start new programs) in times like these,” Nygren declared.

Mursau said the next budget - whether done by Republicans or Democrats - will be a tough one, unless the economy really booms, and the stimulus money will not be there to plug the holes. He said predictions are that it will be five years before the economy gets back to where it was.

Both legislators were pleased that Senate put additional money in the budget for sparsity aid, which will help the rural northern school districts. They mentioned that in most school districts cost to educate a child for a year is $6,000, but in the Milwaukee district, public schools cost $13,000 per student. Northern legislators favor the school choice for Milwaukee because if that is gone it will cost the northern districts even more.

To a question about prisoners making license plates, Mursau said the program is geared toward transitioning them back into society. He added that a good share of their paychecks are spent paying for their stay at the correctional facility. Firms employing them apparently get $2,400 in “Worker Opportunity Tax Credits.”

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” Supervisor Dave Setunsky of Wagner commented. He said the prisoners get jobs, but other people are laid off, and those people collect unemployment, food stamps, etc.

Bhend said WTA is pleased that the Assembly took out the “joint and several liability” insurance provisions from the budget, but is concerned that it remained in the Senate version.

Towns may only increase their levy by 3 percent or the amount of new growth in the town, but borrowing doesn’t count toward the levy limit. Towns under 2,000 population can exceed their levy limit if they call a special town meeting at which people vote after hearing explanations of why the extra money is needed and just what the effect will be on them. In most towns, these types of requests are approved, Bhend said, while referendum votes to raise taxes are generally defeated. WTA would like all towns to be authorized to follow the special town meeting process.

Bhend said the state has restored some of the “Clean Sweep” funding, through which counties or municipalities are aided in collecting and disposing of hazardous household wastes.

Bhend was concerned about proposed changes to elections laws proposed to start in 2010. One of those changes, called “true early voting,” will require polls to be open for a few days before elections. “Who’s going to pay for that?” Bhend asked, noting that someone will have to man the polling places.

Bhend suggested town officials who what to know what’s going on in Madison should contact Jolene Plautz, a WTA Contract Lobbyist in Madison.

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