MONROE - The city's Finance and Taxation Committee is calling for a zero percent levy increase for 2012 - and that's including city debt service that could be excluded to meet new state laws for property tax relief.
Beyond that, it's a mixed bag of good and bad news for city officials heading into the fall budget process.
City Treasurer Cathy Maurer reported net new construction at $5,900 or 0.92 percent, which allows the city to raise its levy amount $56,580. Net new construction is new construction reduced by any demolition or destruction of buildings.
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue reports the city's 2010 total equalized value at $638,375,000.
But the city's Tax Increment District values also aren't helping the situation, said Maurer. TID No. 7, about 25 blocks of Monroe's downtown central business district, lost $3 million in value last year and will fall far short of meeting its debt service obligation, about $166,000.
TID No. 5, on Monroe's far west side, lost $4 million, while TID No. 8, along Mansion Drive and along 18th Avenue to the north, increased slightly.
The city is also losing an estimated $97,900 in shared revenues from the state compared to last year, or 7.4 percent less, based on early projections by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau when the state budget was being set in June.
Off-setting some of the losses is employees' contributions to their retirement fund, saving the city about $180,000, according to Maurer. However, the state employee retirement fund rateis going up slightly for 2012, she said. The city's matching portion to the retirement fund will rise from 5.8 to 5.9 percent of employees' pay, and that will cost the city an estimated $5,000.
The budget process, in addition to the budget itself, also was an issue at Tuesday's committee meeting.
City Administrator Phil Rath, Mayor Bill Ross and Alderman Michael Boyce say they want Rath to meet with department heads first to set departmental budgets before bringing it to the committee.
But not every committee member liked that idea.
"I want Finance and Taxation to bring in each department head to present (their budgets) and the committee to prioritize things," said Charles Koch, committee chairman. "It's out responsibility to establish it, and Phil's (Rath) to administer it."
Chris Beer agreed that the committee take the lead on the budget, but with department heads on hand to answer questions.
Ross said the city hired a city administrator, along with department heads, to do the "heavy lifting" and to pulling the budget from them ad into the committee would lose "creative" thinking.
"It takes the stress off the aldermen," he said. "Put the work back onto Phil and the department heads. Department heads know how and where to make the cuts."
Department heads have started laying out their 2012 budgets with a zero percent increase in operational costs, said Maurer. The departmental budgets will next hit Maurer's desk for input of personnel and benefit costs.
Beyond that, it's a mixed bag of good and bad news for city officials heading into the fall budget process.
City Treasurer Cathy Maurer reported net new construction at $5,900 or 0.92 percent, which allows the city to raise its levy amount $56,580. Net new construction is new construction reduced by any demolition or destruction of buildings.
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue reports the city's 2010 total equalized value at $638,375,000.
But the city's Tax Increment District values also aren't helping the situation, said Maurer. TID No. 7, about 25 blocks of Monroe's downtown central business district, lost $3 million in value last year and will fall far short of meeting its debt service obligation, about $166,000.
TID No. 5, on Monroe's far west side, lost $4 million, while TID No. 8, along Mansion Drive and along 18th Avenue to the north, increased slightly.
The city is also losing an estimated $97,900 in shared revenues from the state compared to last year, or 7.4 percent less, based on early projections by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau when the state budget was being set in June.
Off-setting some of the losses is employees' contributions to their retirement fund, saving the city about $180,000, according to Maurer. However, the state employee retirement fund rateis going up slightly for 2012, she said. The city's matching portion to the retirement fund will rise from 5.8 to 5.9 percent of employees' pay, and that will cost the city an estimated $5,000.
The budget process, in addition to the budget itself, also was an issue at Tuesday's committee meeting.
City Administrator Phil Rath, Mayor Bill Ross and Alderman Michael Boyce say they want Rath to meet with department heads first to set departmental budgets before bringing it to the committee.
But not every committee member liked that idea.
"I want Finance and Taxation to bring in each department head to present (their budgets) and the committee to prioritize things," said Charles Koch, committee chairman. "It's out responsibility to establish it, and Phil's (Rath) to administer it."
Chris Beer agreed that the committee take the lead on the budget, but with department heads on hand to answer questions.
Ross said the city hired a city administrator, along with department heads, to do the "heavy lifting" and to pulling the budget from them ad into the committee would lose "creative" thinking.
"It takes the stress off the aldermen," he said. "Put the work back onto Phil and the department heads. Department heads know how and where to make the cuts."
Department heads have started laying out their 2012 budgets with a zero percent increase in operational costs, said Maurer. The departmental budgets will next hit Maurer's desk for input of personnel and benefit costs.