State Limits City's Tax Levy Increase to Less Than 1 Percent

Brookfield Mayor Steven Ponto presented a $63.8 million budget for 2012 on Thursday, with a 1.8 percent increase in general fund spending and a 0.92 percent increase in the total property taxes collected for city government.

The tax levy increase is just under the state allowable levy limit of 1 percent based on new city construction and growth. The tax rate would increase by 5 cents per $1,000 in assessed value.

Ponto acknowledged the economic challenges the city faced for 2012 but described the budget as continuing “the City’s long-standing tradition of balancing financial responsibility, with providing premier quality public services for our citizens.

The mayor's budget was introduced during a special Finance Committee meeting Thursday at which aldermen reviewed the detailed budgets for the mayor, Common Council, library, information technology and police departments.

Brookfield faces a number of fiscal challenges in 2012. The state cut nearly $280,000 in shared revenue and transportation aid from 2011 levels as part of the state budget deficit repair. Plus, new legislation places stricter limits on property tax increases, either freezing them altogether or limiting increases to the rate of new construction in a community.

The City made limited use of Gov. Scott Walker’s “tools” of required employee contributions to health care and pension contributions. Brookfield doesn’t participate in the state’s health plan, instead providing self-funded insurance for employees. City employees have been contributing toward their insurance premiums at a rate roughly equal or higher than the state’s new 12.6 percent minimum.

Non-represented employees in August began making the 5.8 percent contribution to their state pension and will continue to do so in 2012. Ponto said the total annual pension contribution for those non-represented employees is approximately $300,000. Unionized employees — except firefighters — remain under contracts through 2012, so the City would see savings in budget year 2013.

Finance Committee Chairman Scott Berg asked how much the city could have saved if police and fire personnel had not been exempted from the new pension contribution requirements. City Finance Director Robert Scott estimated the city could save $590,000 if fire and police were included.

Ponto described the state changes as “short-term and likely subject to change in the next year or two,” so his goal for the 2012 budget was to get city departments “over the hump” without significant disruption to services or staffing.

Ponto added that certain areas of revenue to the city will see increases, including ambulance fees, water utility rates and hotel room taxes.

Police training questions

The Finance Committee had few questions for the departments presenting budgets Thursday, until they got to the police. Berg asked Chief Dan Tushaus some probing questions about the department’s performance.

Tushaus said crime in Brookfield has been bucking the national trends, which is showing all types of crimes going down. In Brookfield, calls for service have gone up and violent crime (assaults, battery, homicides) have gone up 3 percent. He added that property crimes (vandalism, burglary) have gone done 7 percent, but the value of property stolen has gone up more than 76 percent.

Tushaus said the city spends, per capita, less than the state average to provide police services.

“We provide great services for the public’s buck,” Tushaus said.

He also reported the DARE program served 596 students in the Elmbrook School District for a total cost to the citizens of $20,920, or $35.10 per student. That cost does not include the overtime for officers who teach the course, but Tushaus said the expense was worth it to keep kids engaged and safe.

But the focus of most questions were on Tushaus’ training budget. As of Thursday, the department had $400 remaining in its 2011 training allotment and the chief was asking for an increase from $33,000 in 2011 to $40,000 for 2012. Tushaus said he had to cancel training session this year due to lack of funds.

“Training has been cut in the last two years,” Tushaus continued. “And now we’re seeing succession problems because of that.”

He explained that certain types of training — crime scene, evidence, homicide and child abuse investigations — take years of classroom and field training to attain competency. He is now facing the retirement of senior officers with those skills and having to replace them with officers who may not have enough training to maintain the level of service Brookfield residents demand.

“When attrition occurs, I want to be ahead of the curve with qualified officers,” Tushaus said. “Cops make split-second decisions under stressful conditions. The benefits of proper training outweighs the costs.”

Ald. Bob Reddin asked what smaller communities do if they don’t have trained evidence technicians or experienced homicide detectives. Tushaus didn’t want to comment on specific neighboring cities, but he said they either don’t provide the level of service Brookfield does or they call for mutual aid.

Typically mutual aid is provided at no cost, except in the case of the Madison protests, where Brookfield and other local police departments were reimbursed for the time their officers spent patrolling the Capitol this past spring.

The Finance Committee will meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday to review the remaining department budgets before making a recommendation to the full Common Council.