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Walker Budget Cuts Will Hit Rural Communities – Fewer Services,
Higher Fees, Bigger Potholes
By Brian McCombie
After he signed the new Wisconsin budget this past June, Gov. Scott Walker left the stage set up at Fox Valley Metal-Tech Inc., in Green Bay, while John Mellencamp's "Small Town" played over loudspeakers. It's a song that speaks to small-town values of responsibility and thrift, qualities Walker and his Republican colleagues call their own. But was the song choice also a warning?
Under Walker's biennial budget, Wisconsin's small towns are going to have to figure out how to keep their operations running with considerably less money. It cuts shared revenues — state funds directed back to communities to lower property taxes and to help them provide a level of basic services — and essentially prohibits these same communities from raising property taxes. Moneys for recycling are also cut by 40%. All this at a time when municipal government receipts have decreased and the cost of doing business keeps rising.
The budget cuts, which kick in the coming year, will be significant for some Dane County communities. The village of Oregon will be one of the hardest hit, with a loss of $150,000 in state and county aid.
"Anytime you're talking about municipal government, about 70% to 75% of your budget is personnel," says village administrator Mike Gracz. "So when you start looking at changes to a budget, you have to start looking at positions."
You wouldn't think a $150,000 reduction in a $5 million village budget would force big changes. But Oregon, like many Wisconsin communities, has dealt with shrinking budgets for many years now. The Oregon village board, for example, instituted a property-tax cap several years back. At the time, new development was pretty strong, adding about 5% to 6% to the local tax base annually. But new development has ground to a halt.
Gracz is upbeat as he promises to present a balanced budget to the village board this month. Last year, the village decided not to hire for three summer positions, distributing the landscaping and grass cutting instead to permanent employees; similar changes will likely be made in next year's operations. A cut in village services? Gracz isn't willing to go that far yet, though he sounds like a guy running out of options when he talks about the future.
"If you can't raise taxes and you have limited growth, you're probably going to have to start cutting services at some point," he says. "You can balance out these deficits for a few years, and our department heads have done a really good job at that. But at some point [the lack of funds] is going to be felt in municipal services."
Oregon is not alone in feeling the squeeze …
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