New Glarus Village Board
Six candidates are running for three spots on the village board. Incumbents are Mark Janowiak, Eric Gobeli and Peggy Kruse. Also running are Ben Kahl, Barbara Anderson and Tammy Newberry. All candidates were asked to submit answers to questions.
Position sought: New Glarus village board
Age: 64
City/town of residence: Village of New Glarus
Education: Verona High School, Edgewood College
Occupation: Retired
Previous elected positions held: I have served for 13 years as a village of New Glarus trustee
What are the top issues facing this district/municipality and how would you work to resolve them?
• Infrastructure. We need to continue with a five-year plan to replace and upgrade our infrastructure. Tax dollars are used to make this happen and following a five-year plan is very important. Thinking that patching alone will work is naive. The outcome of that approach is you end up using tax dollars that could be directed to infrastructure capital improvements and use those same dollars to fund a quick fix by patching may have already been patched. You just never catch up.
• Business Development. It's important that we continue using the TIF/TID approach to support businesses and their growth. A strong business structure supports us all as it's a important part of our tax base. In addition, they provide employment to our citizens and a pay check cashed in town tends to stay in town ,which benefits us all.
• Redevelopment. We need to support the CDA by providing the necessary funds and direction to reclaim areas of the village that are in dire need of revitalization. Partnering with businesses and others to find new uses for this area will have the added benefit of increasing our tax base.
• Tax reduction through less subsidizing. I believe the village of New Glarus faces the same dilemma that other villages face in the state, a shifting area population. Gone are many of the small dairy farms where Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle dotted the landscape to be replaced by subdivisions. I am not against people living outside of the village in these areas. People should have the choice to live where they choose. I do believe they should be equal partners in supporting village services they use. I think the village operates under a sort of "legacy" support approach in providing services that date back to when the village was the main population hub and was the de facto funding mechanism for all services.
• Joint Library Use and Funding. Increase funding by towns and Green County that make up the service population to cover the actual operating and proposed building cost. The service population as defined by the DPI (Department of Public Instruction) and posted on the New Glarus Library website is as follows: "Service population is a combination of the village and town population, plus a percentage, based on circulation statistics, of surrounding areas who are not already served by a library." The current service population is around 6,000. The village population portion of that number is 2,165. When the village per capita funding for the library is compared to the rest of the state's 384 public libraries, New Glarus library ranks in the top 10 percent of municipality-funded libraries, per DPI report. But if you follow village board budget meetings, the library board still asks for more operating funds. The library board pays no rent, heat, lights, etc. These are things their budget will be responsible for in a new building. I wonder how this will be funded? Let's not forget about the proposal that if a new library is built, $1 million dollars of village tax money will be needed to make this happen.
What are other key issues facing the district/municipality, and how would you work to resolve them?
Subsidization. Without a doubt- subsidization. Let's not kid ourselves. I am concerned that this spring election could be an attempt to gain control of the village board by a special interest group.
Let's cover a short tutorial of how municipal public libraries are funded.
• The two main contributors are county tax and municipal tax. The taxing formula is determined by (ss 43.64(2)(b) and uses equalized value to determine both county and municipal contribution as well as cost of circulation. The amount received from the county to provide service to their residents is determined by first dividing library's operating expenditures by total circulation to determine cost per circulation. This number is then multiplied by the circulation to nonresidents by 80 percent. The county reimburses the library at a rate of 80 percent of cost of circulation to nonresidents. So for every $1 of library cost spent for circulation to nonresidents, the recoup is 80 cents.
• The county contributed $73,991 from county library tax to the New Glarus Library. The village contribution is the 2014 equalized value of $135,012,900 multiplied by the tax levy rate of 0.000432499 which equals $58,393. But the village consistently has over-budgeted operating cost for the library and the budget approved for 2015 was $150,703, $92,310 over the needed appropriation. How would I handle this issue? Simple, if the towns and county cannot equally share in the cost of providing library services to their citizens and rely on the village to subsidize that need, do not exempt the village from the county library tax. The village will use the same discounted formula to satisfy the state statue funding requirement, thus saving our taxpayers over $92,000 dollars a year. A number of the 380-plus libraries do that very same thing today. They use their county funding formula, in lieu of self-funding. I would place the "do not exempt" question on the 2016 presidential ballot as a binding referendum question.
Why are you the best candidate for this office?
There are many important issues and concerns that are the facing the village of New Glarus. I will strive to research and understand each and every issue before the village board.
Age: 64
City/town of residence: Village of New Glarus
Education: Verona High School, Edgewood College
Occupation: Retired
Previous elected positions held: I have served for 13 years as a village of New Glarus trustee
What are the top issues facing this district/municipality and how would you work to resolve them?
• Infrastructure. We need to continue with a five-year plan to replace and upgrade our infrastructure. Tax dollars are used to make this happen and following a five-year plan is very important. Thinking that patching alone will work is naive. The outcome of that approach is you end up using tax dollars that could be directed to infrastructure capital improvements and use those same dollars to fund a quick fix by patching may have already been patched. You just never catch up.
• Business Development. It's important that we continue using the TIF/TID approach to support businesses and their growth. A strong business structure supports us all as it's a important part of our tax base. In addition, they provide employment to our citizens and a pay check cashed in town tends to stay in town ,which benefits us all.
• Redevelopment. We need to support the CDA by providing the necessary funds and direction to reclaim areas of the village that are in dire need of revitalization. Partnering with businesses and others to find new uses for this area will have the added benefit of increasing our tax base.
• Tax reduction through less subsidizing. I believe the village of New Glarus faces the same dilemma that other villages face in the state, a shifting area population. Gone are many of the small dairy farms where Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle dotted the landscape to be replaced by subdivisions. I am not against people living outside of the village in these areas. People should have the choice to live where they choose. I do believe they should be equal partners in supporting village services they use. I think the village operates under a sort of "legacy" support approach in providing services that date back to when the village was the main population hub and was the de facto funding mechanism for all services.
• Joint Library Use and Funding. Increase funding by towns and Green County that make up the service population to cover the actual operating and proposed building cost. The service population as defined by the DPI (Department of Public Instruction) and posted on the New Glarus Library website is as follows: "Service population is a combination of the village and town population, plus a percentage, based on circulation statistics, of surrounding areas who are not already served by a library." The current service population is around 6,000. The village population portion of that number is 2,165. When the village per capita funding for the library is compared to the rest of the state's 384 public libraries, New Glarus library ranks in the top 10 percent of municipality-funded libraries, per DPI report. But if you follow village board budget meetings, the library board still asks for more operating funds. The library board pays no rent, heat, lights, etc. These are things their budget will be responsible for in a new building. I wonder how this will be funded? Let's not forget about the proposal that if a new library is built, $1 million dollars of village tax money will be needed to make this happen.
What are other key issues facing the district/municipality, and how would you work to resolve them?
Subsidization. Without a doubt- subsidization. Let's not kid ourselves. I am concerned that this spring election could be an attempt to gain control of the village board by a special interest group.
Let's cover a short tutorial of how municipal public libraries are funded.
• The two main contributors are county tax and municipal tax. The taxing formula is determined by (ss 43.64(2)(b) and uses equalized value to determine both county and municipal contribution as well as cost of circulation. The amount received from the county to provide service to their residents is determined by first dividing library's operating expenditures by total circulation to determine cost per circulation. This number is then multiplied by the circulation to nonresidents by 80 percent. The county reimburses the library at a rate of 80 percent of cost of circulation to nonresidents. So for every $1 of library cost spent for circulation to nonresidents, the recoup is 80 cents.
• The county contributed $73,991 from county library tax to the New Glarus Library. The village contribution is the 2014 equalized value of $135,012,900 multiplied by the tax levy rate of 0.000432499 which equals $58,393. But the village consistently has over-budgeted operating cost for the library and the budget approved for 2015 was $150,703, $92,310 over the needed appropriation. How would I handle this issue? Simple, if the towns and county cannot equally share in the cost of providing library services to their citizens and rely on the village to subsidize that need, do not exempt the village from the county library tax. The village will use the same discounted formula to satisfy the state statue funding requirement, thus saving our taxpayers over $92,000 dollars a year. A number of the 380-plus libraries do that very same thing today. They use their county funding formula, in lieu of self-funding. I would place the "do not exempt" question on the 2016 presidential ballot as a binding referendum question.
Why are you the best candidate for this office?
There are many important issues and concerns that are the facing the village of New Glarus. I will strive to research and understand each and every issue before the village board.