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Politics & Government

Budget With Tax Increase of 0.95 Percent Goes to Council

After three meetings and hours of discussion, the City of Brookfield Finance Committee forwards the proposed 2012 budget to council with no changes.

A city budget featuring a tax increase of just less than 1 percent received the stamp of approval from the city’s Finance Committee on Wednesday, and now it's in the lap of the Common Council.

City Finance Director Robert Scott will present a brief Power Point of the proposal on Nov. 1, with the council voting on the item at its Nov. 15 regular meeting.

The budget, first presented by Mayor Steven Ponto and left unchanged by the Finance Committee, would increase the general fund, or operating budget, by 1.83 percent with $63,823,129 million in spending for 2012. The property tax levy will also go up 0.95 percent. In his budget presentation, Ponto said the city’s portion of the annual property tax bill on a $335,000 home will increase about $16.

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The committee held three special sessions to discuss the proposal. The city faced the loss of $280,000 in shared revenue and transportation aids from the state and strict restrictions that hold levy increases to the amount of construction growth in the community. Even with those constraints, the executive staff developed a budget that came in under the new limits and maintained the level of services expected by Brookfield residents.

“This is a good budget at a difficult time,” Finance Committee Chairman Scott Berg said. He added the “tools” provided in WI Act 10 (the budget repair bill) saved taxpayers some money. In almost every department, pension costs were reduced as non-union employees will make the 5.8 percent pension contribution required by state legislation.

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Police and fire department personnel, along with union employees still under contracts through 2012 and 2013, are not required at this time to make the pension contribution. Berg said the city will continue to see savings in the next couple of years as union contracts expire.

The city did not use Act 10’s requirement for employees to contribute 12.6 percent of their state health insurance premium since the city is self-insured for health claims and many employees are already paying 20 percent of the cost. Employees enrolled in the city’s wellness program pay 10 percent of their health premiums.

An area where the city saw a jump in cost is the stop loss insurance the city carries for health insurance. Brookfield is self-insured, but if a claim exceeds $60,000 an outside insurer covers the balance. The premium for that coverage has jumped from $833,000 annually to $1.03 million. Berg said that jump was based on the number of high-cost claims filed in recent years and he hopes to see a reduction in employee injuries and illnesses due to participation in the city’s wellness program.  

Attempted amendment

Prior to recommending the budget for council approval, the committee had an opportunity to amend the proposal. Only one change was suggested by Ald. Jerry Mellone — to remove $200,000 in spending for the I-94 corridor study in 2012 and any funds projected to be spent through 2016.

These funds would be used in conjunction with the state Department of Transportation to look at traffic flow, interchange needs and infrastructure changes from the Zoo Interchange to a point west of the city between Greenfield Avenue and Bluemound Road.

Mellone said the study shouldn’t be started until there is a plan with the Ruby Farm development on Calhoun Road.

City Public Works Director Tom Grisa said helping to fund the study will give the city leverage with the DOT when making decisions about future development and that waiting until there is a development proposal along Calhoun Road would be too late.

Fellow Ald. Lisa Mellone explained the funds would be borrowed, giving the committee and council additional steps where the funding could be stopped if necessary. The city won’t approve the 2012 municipal bond offerings until spring, giving the state more time to present details of the study’s scope.

Additionally, if bonded, the payments for the study wouldn’t begin until 2013 and amount to roughly $13,000 annually over 20 years.

The committee voted down Jerry Mellone’s amendment on a 6-1 vote. They immediately followed that vote with unanimous approval of the full budget.

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