http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/wdhlocal/276288962983484.shtml
Sun, Nov 10, 2002
$10 wheel tax among city proposals to fix budget
By Peter J. Wasson
Wausau Daily Herald
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Wausau residents will keep all their municipal swimming pools. In spring, the city still will pick up junk from their curbs. Streets will be cleared of snow, and police officers and firefighters will continue responding to emergencies.
But to pay for all that, residents should prepare for a "wheel tax" - a $10 fee added to the license plate cost of every vehicle registered in the city - in addition to a 2.4 percent increase in the property tax rate and higher fees for everyone who uses parks and other city services.
The increases were necessary primarily because the city's health insurance costs went up and its income from investments went down, Finance Director Maryanne Groat said.
Cities, towns and villages across the state are confronting those problems, and increases in fees and taxes are likely to be common.
"I've got 577 member municipalities all over Wisconsin and they're spread all over the state," said Dan Thompson, executive director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. "They're all struggling with similar issues. ... Wausau's (approach) seems pretty typical of what other cities are doing."
Wausau Mayor Linda Lawrence said the city has turned to the most favorable options to raise revenues and maintain services.
"Our summer survey of residents told us people don't want to pay more taxes but they'll accept fees," she said, referring to a questionnaire mailed to 2,000 households. "The wheel tax, to me, is like a user fee for people who drive our streets. ... For most people, a $10 fee won't be any big deal. And it will help keep us from raising property taxes more."
The city went into this budget process trying to stay as close as possible to last year's $26 million budget. Lawrence ordered all department heads to trim 3.5 percent from their expenses but was left trying to cut another $1.75 million in costs or find $1.75 million in new revenue.
For Wausau, good news arrived from both the state and Wisconsin Public Service in late October. The assessed value of property in the city was higher than anticipated - meaning the city will collect more taxes even without a rate increase - and electricity bills won't be as much as expected.
But that still left the city looking for about $1.2 million to keep taxes stable. City leaders found $811,237, leaving the 2.4 percent property tax-rate increase to come up with the rest. The rate increase means the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 would pay $1,037 in municipal taxes, up $24 from 2002.
The city still might make adjustments. Officials do not know the final costs for employee health insurance, the city continues to rack up legal fees fighting Marshfield Clinic's effort to become tax-exempt, and labor contracts remain unresolved with five unions.
"But this is the budget we will present to the council and city residents," Lawrence said.
Lawrence, Groat and members of the Finance Committee avoided the proposed closing of two swimming pools, elimination of spring cleanup and a shutdown of winter ice-skating rinks through a combination of new fees and other cuts.
City pools and skating rinks, for example, no longer would have attendants. At the pools, they would be replaced by coin-operated lockers. Fees would increase at several downtown parking lots, boaters would pay $2 to launch craft at city landings and residents would not get receipts for their property tax payments anymore.
"You don't get a receipt from the IRS. You don't get one from your bank when you pay your mortgage. And, you can go online and check your property tax status on the computer," Groat said. "It saves a lot in postage and envelopes and things."
The city also wouldn't replace one electric pole, saving $15,000, would require city employees to pay all costs of their "Winterfest" Christmas party and would stop spending $200 every year on something called "boiler compound."
"I have no idea what boiler compound is," Groat said. "We used to need it when we had steam heat, but now we don't. Somehow, it just got left in the budget."
Other trims came from every city department, ranging from postponing the purchase of filing cabinets to canceling construction of a parking lot at Brockmeyer Park.
The most controversial issue is certain to be the wheel tax. Marathon County imposed an identical fee in 1987 but canceled it a year later after voters expressed overwhelming opposition, county Administrator Mort McBain said.
Wausau City Council President Jim Rosenberg said he fears a similar reaction now. But he hopes residents realize the city is in tight financial times, and the only alternative is increasing property taxes.
"The budget situation we're in requires us to look at other revenue sources," Rosenberg said. "That's why we considered bringing a casino to town. The $10 (fee) is not a lot of money and streets are very expensive things to maintain. I certainly think it will generate some discussion."
If the wheel tax is imposed, Wausau will join Sheboygan and Beloit as the only cities in Wisconsin with such a fee, said Thompson of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. But as communities struggle to balance budgets, such measures are likely to become more common, he said.
Rosenberg said the wheel tax will stave off more extreme budget cuts in Wausau for at least another year.
"We had geared up for the potential loss of shared revenue (from the state) many months ago, so we had already looked at fairly drastic possibilities," he said. "It's a modest tax increase that's pretty reasonable in terms of inflation."
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