MONROE - Monroe's water department will not get its payment in lieu of taxes, called a PILOT payment, or its $630,000 loan from the city reduced or restructured - at least not until the Finance and Taxation Committee gets deeper into the city budget for 2014.
City Administrator Phil Rath told the Finance and Taxation Committee Tuesday, May 21 that, with its target of reducing city taxes, the city will need "every penny to offset the tax levy."
The city water department, operating as a city utility, pays the city $200,000 annually in lieu of property taxes. That cost is built into the water rates, and the Public Service Commission makes an allowance for PILOT as a component of a utility's total revenue requirements.
According to a Wisconsin Public Service Commission, "municipally owned water and electric utilities in Wisconsin are subject to a payment in lieu of local general property taxes. In contrast, investor-owned utilities pay a gross receipts tax."
The loan, made by the city to help the utility cover its portion of work done in 2011 on 8th and 9th Street, was to be repaid in about three years, beginning in 2014.
Utilities director Alan Eckstein asked the city to consider restructuring the water department's liabilities to the city, in an effort to plan for future water main replacements.
Reductions in and even elimination of the PILOT payment may become inevitable in 2015, when the water department moves to the facilities of the waste water treatment plant, which has no PILOT.
City Administrator Phil Rath told the Finance and Taxation Committee Tuesday, May 21 that, with its target of reducing city taxes, the city will need "every penny to offset the tax levy."
The city water department, operating as a city utility, pays the city $200,000 annually in lieu of property taxes. That cost is built into the water rates, and the Public Service Commission makes an allowance for PILOT as a component of a utility's total revenue requirements.
According to a Wisconsin Public Service Commission, "municipally owned water and electric utilities in Wisconsin are subject to a payment in lieu of local general property taxes. In contrast, investor-owned utilities pay a gross receipts tax."
The loan, made by the city to help the utility cover its portion of work done in 2011 on 8th and 9th Street, was to be repaid in about three years, beginning in 2014.
Utilities director Alan Eckstein asked the city to consider restructuring the water department's liabilities to the city, in an effort to plan for future water main replacements.
Reductions in and even elimination of the PILOT payment may become inevitable in 2015, when the water department moves to the facilities of the waste water treatment plant, which has no PILOT.