Mayor: "Very Modest" Tax Levy Increase Maintains City Services

These are challenging economic times for most of us individually and for Brookfield as a city. Still, it is important to recognize that Brookfield’s fundamental economic strength and the city government’s long-standing fiscal responsibility are serving us well.

Brookfield is fortunate to have a very strong tax base. In fact, Brookfield, which has a population of about 38,000, has the third highest equalized property valuation in the State of Wisconsin. “Equalized value” is the estimate by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue of the full value of the real property in a municipality. The Department of Revenue currently estimates Brookfield’s equalized property value at about $6.1 billion. This trails only the cities of Milwaukee (population 590,000) and Madison (population 230,000); and this property valuation is ahead of the property valuation of such significantly larger cities as Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine, Appleton and Waukesha.

The City of Brookfield is also fortunate to have a relatively low unemployment rate. The most recent statistics from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development indicate that Brookfield currently has an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent compared to 6.4 percent for Waukesha County, 7.9 percent for the State of Wisconsin, and 9.1 percent for the United States.

The City of Brookfield has had a triple A bond rating by Moody’s Investors Service — the highest credit rating achievable — continuously since 1999. It is one of only five municipalities in Wisconsin to have this rating. Waukesha County also has a triple A bond rating. The State of Wisconsin has a somewhat lower rating and, as we all know, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the triple A credit rating of the United States government this summer.

As the State of Wisconsin proceeds to get its fiscal house in order, the effects are being felt by local governments throughout the state, including Brookfield. Our city is losing nearly $280,000 in shared revenue and transportation aid payments from the state government compared to the amounts received in 2011. We are also facing strict limits on property taxes which are the city’s primary source of revenue. 

The city will benefit from employee contributions to pension costs under state legislation enacted earlier this year. Non-represented employees began contributing to their pensions in August and this will account for approximately $300,000 in savings to the city for 2012.

Under the state law, police and fire sworn employees (management and union) are not subject to the pension changes. For the remaining three city union groups, agreements with favorable salary and health insurance terms were reached in early 2010 that initially expire at the end of 2012. Consequently, no savings from the pension changes will accrue from employees represented by these unions next year, unless contributions are bargained with the unions or otherwise determined to be applicable through a legal ruling. We are attempting to work with the city’s unions on this issue to achieve savings and parity among employee groups. I wish to note with gratitude that the Fire Department command staff voluntarily began making donations to the city in August in the amount of the net pay impact of pension contributions, and their contributions will amount to a savings of about $25,000 for the city in 2012.

Working closely with Finance Director Robert Scott, I have proposed a city budget for 2012 which maintains the existing high level of city services with a very modest increase in the tax levy. The property tax levy to fund the 2012 budget is increasing less than 1 percent — the specific increase is 0.95 percent.  This is one of the lowest increases in recent decades and is well below the 2.7 percent increase in the consumer price index.

For the owner of a home with the average assessed value for tax purposes of approximately $335,000, the city portion of the tax bill would increase about $16 to fund the 2012 city budget. That property owner will actually see an estimated reduction of $225 in his total real estate tax bill (with levies by the City, County, Elmbrook School District and Waukesha County Technical College) due mainly to the state-mandated decline in the school tax levy.

After hours of deliberation over the course of three evenings, the city’s Finance Committee composed of seven aldermen (one from each aldermanic district) has unanimously recommended to the Common Council that this proposed budget be adopted without amendment. I am very pleased with this action and am hopeful that the Common Council will act accordingly.