Madison's Mayor is a proud progressive liberal Democrat who can find outrageous actions and grievous injustice even in a State Budget signed by a Democratic Governor. The most egregious problems are the provisions for a property tax ‘freeze’, a word Governor Doyle uses ten times is his Statement on the Budget Signing. The Gov loves the using that word ‘freeze’.
Mayor Cieslewicz's Statement on State Budget Signing: "The budget Governor Doyle signed today is an improvement over the one sent to him by the Legislature, but it remains badly flawed nonetheless. … That said the governor's decision to approve the Republicans' mandatory service reduction plan (the so-called `levy freeze') will harm Madison's ability to provide basic public services and grow our economy. This proposal is the product of a Republican-controlled Legislature that has produced year after year of multi-billion dollar state budget deficits, while local governments honestly balance our budgets every year. For the state to tell local governments how to balance our books is like Enron executives telling the local grocery store how to stock its shelves.In other words, the property tax ‘freeze’ is actually a Republican a mandatory service reduction plan, and it is unfairly imposed on responsible municipal governments by Republicans unable to control spending at the State level. The increase in Madison’s property tax is, therefore, the fault of Republicans not using State tax dollars to pay the bills for Madison. Mayor Dave even manages to reference Enron, which he hates, and local grocery stores, which he loves, in an awkward attempt at an analogy.
While city government continues to tighten its belt, property taxes rise faster than inflation because more of our budget must be borne by the property tax. Fifteen years ago property taxes made up 54% of Madison's budget. Today, thanks to continually eroding state aids, property taxes make up almost 70% of our budget. In other words, what is truly driving property taxes is not increased spending, but cuts in state aids.”
Owen's analysis at Boots & Sabers should help calm Mayor Dave down a bit.
“Doyle is telling everyone otherwise, but make no doubt, the property tax freeze is gone. Doyle completely wiped out the spending caps for schools and the technical colleges. Together, these two spending entities suck up a majority of the property tax burden. He also changed the caps for local governments to allow many of them to increase spending even if they are not growing. With these exemptions, Doyle has obliterated the property tax freeze.”So take a chill pill Mayor Dave, it is summer in Wisconsin and nothing is frozen. Cities like Madison can still spend all the money they can acquire and the shackles aren’t that tight. You may want to accept this as a challenge to show that your administration can adapt and actually reduce total spending, unlike those Republicans at the State level.
