Doyle plan could bring local layoffs
10:41 PM 3/06/03
Marv Balousek and Scott Milfred Wisconsin State Journal

Local officials say Gov. Jim Doyle's plan to slash another $80 million from state aid to local governments could mean layoffs or higher property taxes.

Doyle's plan brings the total amount of cuts in about $1 billion of aid programs to $120 million in 2004.

Under the Democratic governor's plan, $75 million would be cut in 2004 from state aid to municipalities and $5 million from state aid to counties. The state already has authorized $40 million in cuts in 2003.

Rich Eggleston, spokesman for the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, said cities with high property values such as Madison will be hurt. Madison would lose $2.9 million in aid in 2004, new numbers released by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau on Thursday show. That's a 19 percent cut.

Cities such as Middleton and Verona would lose more than half of their aid, according to the bureau report.

Eggleston predicted thousands of layoffs at the local level if Doyle's plan becomes law.

"It's not going to be easy," Eggleston said. "But around the state, most of the mayors I've talked to have said they'll try to manage that reduction and not increase property taxes, as the governor asked."

Fitchburg Mayor Mark Vivian said the proposed 2004 cut of $295,808 is more than the city's senior center budget.

"It's not easy to find that amount of savings," said Vivian, who's seeking re-election April 1 against challenger Tom Clauder. "It's going to be real tough for a lot of communities, including us. I don't know yet whether we can absorb some cuts or whether we can provide some services differently."

Vivian said the city probably will ask department heads to identify cuts they could absorb. He said a similar process was done last year when former Gov. Scott McCallum said he was going to cut all shared revenue to local governments.

Waunakee Village President Rich Murphy said the proposed 2004 cut of $132,102 is far more than the 7 percent to 10 percent he had heard that the governor was proposing.

"A hit of 50 percent is a real shocker, and it doesn't seem to me like it's the same person who was campaigning a few months ago," he said.

DeForest Village President Theresa Marty said the proposed $107,318 cut next year in DeForest's state aid will have a major impact. She said the major reason she's not seeking re-election this spring is that other village officials refused to make cuts this year in preparation for state-aid reductions.

"They don't even see a fiscal crisis," Marty said. "I believe local governments can't sit there and point their fingers at the state. We need to work together as a team."

Outgoing Madison Mayor Sue Bauman called her city's proposed cut "a huge amount" that could force layoffs.

"It's going to require whoever is mayor to be looking at sustainable cuts over the long haul," she said. "It's not going to be something that can be done by delaying hiring for a week."

The town of Bristol faces a 73 percent reduction ($40,333) in 2004, the highest percentage cut in Dane County.

"We're going to have to raise local taxes or lay somebody off," said Bristol Town Chairman Gerald Derr, who's running against Kay Jensen on April 1.

Rick Stadelman, executive director of the Wisconsin Towns Association, said towns get hit disproportionately hard under the governor's plan.

"We're not shocked now," he said. "We were shocked when the governor's budget came out. We knew this is the effect per capita would have."

Doyle wants to distribute the cuts based on the populations of municipalities. Stadelman and his association representing 1,257 towns and 18 villages hopes to persuade lawmakers in the coming weeks to change Doyle's proposal so that the cuts are distributed by an equal percentage to all communities.

Towns don't have many employees, including few police officers and mostly volunteer firefighters, Stadelman said. That means layoffs shouldn't be extensive. Instead, most towns will likely be forced to delay road projects or raise property taxes, he said.

Dan Leistikow, a spokesman for the governor, said the cuts, on a per capita basis, amount to about $13 per person.

"That's the fairest way to do it because everyone should share equally in this," he said.

Leistikow noted that Doyle had a massive state budget deficit to fix. Doyle will fight any legislative proposal to cut shared revenue further, Leistikow said.