MONROE - Mayor Ron Marsh used the question-and-answer session scheduled at the Common Council meeting Tuesday to differentiate the pros and cons of various ways the city could raise money to pay for streets and sidewalks.
About 24 members of the public attended the meeting and were given an opportunity to state their position and to ask questions about a proposed transportation utility.
First to address the council, a 73-year-old man said he has had to take a minimum wage job five days a week, and " just can't afford anymore." His small pension goes into an account to pay his yearly taxes, and has $200 left over, he said.
Living on a corner lot that had sidewalks put in recently, the man said he borrowed money from a bank, which gave him a better interest rate than the city's repayment plan, to pay for the sidewalk.
Marsh asked if the man would rather pay the $3,000 to $5,000 cost for a sidewalk or pay a small fee for 20 to 30 years.
"That's what a transportation utility will do," Marsh said.
Marsh advocates a transportation utility, which he said could include not only street and sidewalk repair and reconstruction, but also street cleaning, snow removal, grant writing, engineering cost, and even payrolls associated with street and sidewalks.
However, Marsh had no specific numbers.
"I don't know what the cost will be per resident, business, church, school or county. We won't know until a survey is done how much each would get charged," he said.
Marsh said there would be credits applied for those who already have paid for new sidewalks, but how much and how far back the council would choose to go remains to be decided.
"Is it fair to Walmart who just put in new sidewalks and roads? No," Marsh said. "The public is not going to be left out of this."
Marsh said the firm he has identified to do the feasibility study plans to have "open meetings so the public can come in and voice their pros and cons as we march down this road."
Still some people were not convinced that the pros of the utility would hold up over time.
"We've been burnt so badly by the City of Monroe, it's hard for us to trust," said a business woman.
Another woman said she favored a vehicle registration tax, which she believed would prevent arguing between neighbors about how much each is paying, and be more equitable for those who do not have vehicles.
"A utility fee sounds so arbitrary," she said.
Marsh pointed out that the utility would take into account people who use the roads, even thought they do not drive.
"Nearly everybody uses sidewalks or roads to some extent, either by using a taxi or someone takes them there," he said to her.
Marsh admitted the firm's feasibility study would "generalize," by category, how many times a person uses a street or sidewalk, based on federal information.
A similar study done in Oconomowac estimated an average home had 9.57 trips per day.
Another man asked Marsh how much research he had done on the utility.
"You're leaving a lot of information out," the man said.
Alderman Thurston Hanson spoke at the end of the meeting, calling the utility a "lawyer's nightmare." Other municipalities across the nation trying the utility have been subject to lawsuits, and very few are in existence, he said.
Hanson pointed to the city's stormwater utility, which he said was touted as "revenue neutral."
"But we know that's not the case - it never is," he said. "If our citizens want more taxes, let them vote on it ... This needs to die the death it has in so many other cities," he said.
About 24 members of the public attended the meeting and were given an opportunity to state their position and to ask questions about a proposed transportation utility.
First to address the council, a 73-year-old man said he has had to take a minimum wage job five days a week, and " just can't afford anymore." His small pension goes into an account to pay his yearly taxes, and has $200 left over, he said.
Living on a corner lot that had sidewalks put in recently, the man said he borrowed money from a bank, which gave him a better interest rate than the city's repayment plan, to pay for the sidewalk.
Marsh asked if the man would rather pay the $3,000 to $5,000 cost for a sidewalk or pay a small fee for 20 to 30 years.
"That's what a transportation utility will do," Marsh said.
Marsh advocates a transportation utility, which he said could include not only street and sidewalk repair and reconstruction, but also street cleaning, snow removal, grant writing, engineering cost, and even payrolls associated with street and sidewalks.
However, Marsh had no specific numbers.
"I don't know what the cost will be per resident, business, church, school or county. We won't know until a survey is done how much each would get charged," he said.
Marsh said there would be credits applied for those who already have paid for new sidewalks, but how much and how far back the council would choose to go remains to be decided.
"Is it fair to Walmart who just put in new sidewalks and roads? No," Marsh said. "The public is not going to be left out of this."
Marsh said the firm he has identified to do the feasibility study plans to have "open meetings so the public can come in and voice their pros and cons as we march down this road."
Still some people were not convinced that the pros of the utility would hold up over time.
"We've been burnt so badly by the City of Monroe, it's hard for us to trust," said a business woman.
Another woman said she favored a vehicle registration tax, which she believed would prevent arguing between neighbors about how much each is paying, and be more equitable for those who do not have vehicles.
"A utility fee sounds so arbitrary," she said.
Marsh pointed out that the utility would take into account people who use the roads, even thought they do not drive.
"Nearly everybody uses sidewalks or roads to some extent, either by using a taxi or someone takes them there," he said to her.
Marsh admitted the firm's feasibility study would "generalize," by category, how many times a person uses a street or sidewalk, based on federal information.
A similar study done in Oconomowac estimated an average home had 9.57 trips per day.
Another man asked Marsh how much research he had done on the utility.
"You're leaving a lot of information out," the man said.
Alderman Thurston Hanson spoke at the end of the meeting, calling the utility a "lawyer's nightmare." Other municipalities across the nation trying the utility have been subject to lawsuits, and very few are in existence, he said.
Hanson pointed to the city's stormwater utility, which he said was touted as "revenue neutral."
"But we know that's not the case - it never is," he said. "If our citizens want more taxes, let them vote on it ... This needs to die the death it has in so many other cities," he said.