May 4, 2023 at 1:49 p.m.
Assembly Republicans announce plans to pump 'new money' into local governments
Felzkowski says proposed legislation 'isn't the silver bullet'
By Trevor Greene-
For nearly two decades, the state's shared revenue program - which distributes funds to local governments around the state - has remained the same in terms of the amount of money counties, cities, towns and villages receive.
On top of levy limit constraints, municipalities, especially town officials in the Lakeland area, have made their concerns clear; that with rising prices year-in and year-out, it's become very difficult to balance a budget and worrisome with regard to supporting essential services residents expect to have - like emergency medical care and sufficient resources for road crews.
While the idea has garnered more momentum in the months leading up to state's 2023-25 biennium budget discussions which started this week, Assembly Republicans on April 27 held press conferences to announce their proposal in revamping the shared revenue program.
Lawmakers didn't release too many details of the proposed legislation, but Born described it during the press conference in Madison as "historic" and said it would be the most new money added to the shared revenue program since it was created in the early 1990s.
The legislation, if approved, would funnel 20 percent, or one-cent of the state's five-cent sales tax, to local governments.
"So, we're certainly excited to have this opportunity," Born said. "This opportunity was really brought to us today by, I think, two key things. One was the local officials telling us what their needs were, really educating us on the challenges that were being faced both with the need for new money but also that the current system wasn't sending money everywhere it needed to go. And then our Republican leadership here in the Legislature already last year in both houses, the Senate and the Assembly, recognizing this is something we wanted to tackle."
Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) is the legislator who led the way on the proposal from the Assembly.
Speaking after Born, he said Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) was referred to him by the Wisconsin Counties Association.
Felzkowski, he said, was "already setting the groundwork on some ideas on what to do with shared revenue."
In December of 2022, Felzkowski told The Lakeland Times about the idea of using one-cent of the state's sales tax to aid local governments financially, and Kurtz gave her credit for it.
"And I said 'Wow, 'that's a great idea,' and so that's kind of how all this took-off," he said. "It's been a tremendous undertaking. A lot of work from everybody. A true team-effort from everything from our local officials to fellow representatives, fellow senators, to the Wisconsin Counties Association, the Wisconsin Towns Association (and) the League of Municipalities."
Kurtz said the 20 percent of the state's sales tax collected would go into a new segregated fund to pay local governments, which will be a minimum increase of at least 10 percent to all municipalities from what is already distributed.
He said an additional $176 million would be allocated to towns, villages and cities and $50 million would go to counties.
Under the proposed plan, Kurtz said, if the state does well then local governments will do well.
Some of the money will need to go to "core services" including law enforcement, fire protection, emergency medical services, emergency response communications, public works and transportation, he added.
He said there will also be a three-year $300 million "pilot program" called the innovation fund. The goal of that fund will be "to have communities work together" in sharing public services.
"The whole goal is to give communities the option, the option mind you it's not mandated, to say 'Hey, we would like to consider joining together' ... and if that realizes savings then the state is going to pitch in for three years to help with that transition, and basically incentivize those communities to take that undertaking," Kurtz said.
Assembly speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said during the press conference in Milwaukee that the proposed legislation would be "the single largest investment" for the state in local government.
Bi-partisan support?
Kurtz and Vos both indicated the legislation has bi-partisan support, though some Democratic lawmakers were critical.
"We still haven't seen a bill draft from the GOP, and there is a lot more work to be done to ensure that we have a solution that works for the people of Wisconsin," minority leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing these conversations to give our communities the support they need to be successful."
Senate minority leader Melissa Agard (D-Madison) said Republicans should be "embarrassed" by their proposal and noted Democratic Gov. Tony Evers already proposed a plan in his executive budget released in February. She also accused Republicans of playing "games."
Under Evers's proposal, 20 percent of the state's sales tax would still be allocated to local governments, but there would be less provisions for how the money is spent.
The city of Milwaukee, which is struggling due to challenges encountered primarily with its pension system, would be able to adopt a 2 percent sales tax, under Republicans' proposal, with Milwaukee County being allowed to adopt an additional 0.375 percent sales tax which is currently set at 0.5 percent. Both tax increases would require electors' approval.
Republicans also included a handful of provisions Milwaukee officials would have to abide by if they wanted to levy the additional tax. Some of which, like having school resource officers back in schools and increasing its police force, were bills already vetoed by Evers.
Felzkowski's view
Felzkowski expressed excitement about the legislation and believes it will help local governments tremendously, but she told the Times it "isn't the silver bullet" and admitted "there's still going to be some shortfalls."
Though the legislation would be part of the upcoming budget, the legislation would still need to be voted on outside of it.
"Because there's a lot of other things in there, like giving Milwaukee their sales tax so they can deal with their pension issue and then some of their crime issues," Felzkowski said. "And then there's a lot of reforms in there."
Felzkowski said she couldn't get into any details about the legislation yet due to three aspects still under negotiation on the "Assembly-side."
If the bill passes, she said, it will then be funded in the budget and will likely be one of the last things added.
Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].
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