MONROE - The Monroe Common Council will have to deal with a new state statute and a projected health insurance cost increase as it determines how to eliminate an estimated $525,000 budget deficit for 2010.
The Finance and Taxation Committee got its first look at next year's city budget Wednesday during its meeting inside City Hall.
A new state law mandates all municipalities are prohibited from reducing the money spent on police and fire protection services, said Cathy Maurer, city comptroller/treasurer.
"Fire and police are your two biggest budgets," she said during the meeting.
Next week, the city is expecting to receive an analysis of next year's health insurance costs, which Maurer said were not factored into the budget projection given to the committee Wednesday. She said it's likely the increase won't as high as the jump from 2008 to 2009, but it will inflate the projected deficit.
To help make up for reduced aid, the state's biennial budget approved this summer allows cities to increase the property tax levy by 3 percent this year rather than 2 percent. Committee Chairman Kent Kallembach said he'd like to get the levy down to 3 percent first, then look at hitting the 2 percent mark.
The biggest reason for the initial deficit is a drop in revenue, Maurer said.
"There is just a lot of different revenue losses in a lot of different areas," she said.
State aid, for example, is down from $1.74 million in 2009, to $1.6 million in 2010, Maurer said. In addition, the city also has issued fewer building permits, and thus collected lesser fees, so far in 2009, she said.
The first tax levy estimate for 2010 is about $6.6 million, up from about $6.2 million in 2009, according to the budget projection.
While the state Legislature might be protecting public safety by securing budgets for police and fire services, the onus then is put on the municipalities to find other ways to balance their budgets, which means in some cases raising taxes, committee member Dan Henke said.
"We end up being the bad guys," he said.
The initial meeting was conducted for the first time in recent memory without the assistance of city department heads, committee member Mark Coplien said.
"We did this last year, why aren't we doing that this year? Don't you agree we need to bring in each department head individually and ask the what they want?" Coplien asked the committee.
Without the department heads present, and with several unanswerable questions about the health insurance increase, the committee meeting ended abruptly when Charles Koch made a motion to adjourn that met unanimous agreement.
Monroe's city budget typically is finalized and approved at the second council meeting in November.
The committee has not yet scheduled a meeting to continue discussing the budget.
However, before the meeting disassembled, two ideas were presented as possibilities to increase city revenues aside from a property tax levy increase. Among others, Maurer presented a possible wheel tax, while committee member Thurston Hanson floated the idea of job cuts.
"Last year we avoided personnel cuts, but this is something we have to look at this year," he said.
Also Wednesday, the committee voted to approve spending $9,300 to pay for a portion of an easement for the 8th/9th Street construction project. The city set a baseline payment for each section of easement at $5,400, but any value appraised more than 15 percent of that amount must come before the Finance and Taxation Committee and the Common Council for approval. This is the first piece of property to meet that requirement, Public Works Director Kelly Finkenbinder said, to the committee.
The Finance and Taxation Committee got its first look at next year's city budget Wednesday during its meeting inside City Hall.
A new state law mandates all municipalities are prohibited from reducing the money spent on police and fire protection services, said Cathy Maurer, city comptroller/treasurer.
"Fire and police are your two biggest budgets," she said during the meeting.
Next week, the city is expecting to receive an analysis of next year's health insurance costs, which Maurer said were not factored into the budget projection given to the committee Wednesday. She said it's likely the increase won't as high as the jump from 2008 to 2009, but it will inflate the projected deficit.
To help make up for reduced aid, the state's biennial budget approved this summer allows cities to increase the property tax levy by 3 percent this year rather than 2 percent. Committee Chairman Kent Kallembach said he'd like to get the levy down to 3 percent first, then look at hitting the 2 percent mark.
The biggest reason for the initial deficit is a drop in revenue, Maurer said.
"There is just a lot of different revenue losses in a lot of different areas," she said.
State aid, for example, is down from $1.74 million in 2009, to $1.6 million in 2010, Maurer said. In addition, the city also has issued fewer building permits, and thus collected lesser fees, so far in 2009, she said.
The first tax levy estimate for 2010 is about $6.6 million, up from about $6.2 million in 2009, according to the budget projection.
While the state Legislature might be protecting public safety by securing budgets for police and fire services, the onus then is put on the municipalities to find other ways to balance their budgets, which means in some cases raising taxes, committee member Dan Henke said.
"We end up being the bad guys," he said.
The initial meeting was conducted for the first time in recent memory without the assistance of city department heads, committee member Mark Coplien said.
"We did this last year, why aren't we doing that this year? Don't you agree we need to bring in each department head individually and ask the what they want?" Coplien asked the committee.
Without the department heads present, and with several unanswerable questions about the health insurance increase, the committee meeting ended abruptly when Charles Koch made a motion to adjourn that met unanimous agreement.
Monroe's city budget typically is finalized and approved at the second council meeting in November.
The committee has not yet scheduled a meeting to continue discussing the budget.
However, before the meeting disassembled, two ideas were presented as possibilities to increase city revenues aside from a property tax levy increase. Among others, Maurer presented a possible wheel tax, while committee member Thurston Hanson floated the idea of job cuts.
"Last year we avoided personnel cuts, but this is something we have to look at this year," he said.
Also Wednesday, the committee voted to approve spending $9,300 to pay for a portion of an easement for the 8th/9th Street construction project. The city set a baseline payment for each section of easement at $5,400, but any value appraised more than 15 percent of that amount must come before the Finance and Taxation Committee and the Common Council for approval. This is the first piece of property to meet that requirement, Public Works Director Kelly Finkenbinder said, to the committee.