State budget cuts roll downhill
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JANESVILLE — Gov. Scott Walker said he gave cities the tools to deal with proposed cuts in state shared revenue, but Janesville City Manager Eric Levitt said those tools would help the city make up only about 34 percent of what Janesville would lose in state aid.
And some of the tools can't be used in Janesville.
"We're getting cut a lot more than getting savings," Levitt said.
Walker proposed eliminating most collective bargaining rights of public employees so local governments could save money to make up for cuts in state aid. The bill also requires public employees to pay half their pension contributions.
"The argument that the state is talking about, we get 100 percent savings for 100 percent in reduction," Levitt said.
But because of union contracts now in place, Janesville wouldn't be able to make up even 34 percent of state aid reductions, Levitt said.
The 34 percent includes money the city would realize if unionized public works employees paid half of their pension costs. Because the city quickly signed a contract with its public works employees after Walker's proposal, those workers won't contribute to their pensions for at least two years.
Those pension payments and payments from employees not covered by unions would save the city a total of $502,454. Non-unionized city workers would pay $395,212.
Levitt said at the time he negotiated in good faith with the public works employees union so he was willing to accept the offer on the table at that time.
Unionized police and fire personnel are not included in Walker's proposal, so the city would continue to pay their entire pension costs.
Levitt said the reduction in state shared revenue ignores the stress city budgets were under before 2012.
Janesville's state aid was cut about 19 percent—from $6.3 million to $5 million—between 2003 and 2011.
Levitt figures another $1.1 million will be cut in 2012.
Those cuts include $328,000 in recycling funds. Levitt recently discovered the city could also lose another $128,000 this year, impacting the 2011 budget.
The total also includes a $72,000 cut for the transit system. For the 2011 budget, the council struggled to maintain service and could do so only because of a retirement.
Walker's proposal to freeze property taxes means the city couldn't raise revenue, which is essentially another cut, Levitt said. The city could raise fees, however.
Overall, Levitt predicts a $2.9 million gap in the 2012 budget.
That's about 7 percent of the $42 million general fund, which is the city's operating expenses and its debt.
The gap presumes the council would use $890,000 from the reserve fund, an amount council members have said they wanted to reduce. Members also want to shift the expense of regular street maintenance from borrowing back to the general fund. That could be especially difficult when faced with proposed state cuts.
To compensate for the cuts, Levitt said he will suggest that the city first look internally and ask workers to identify areas of savings.
He also will not fill some positions when employees quit. For instance, the position of Brad Cantrell, community development director, has not been filled since he left last year. Levitt will look for ways to reorganize departments to save money.
Levitt plans to reach out to community members, possibly based on the community scorecard developed last year. The process should be finished by early fall, when the budget process begins.
"Public input is going to be real important (to prioritize) as to how we address these issues," Levitt said.
Public safety is important to everyone, Levitt said, but do residents want a city with no amenities, such as the bus system, library, recreation or parks?
"These issues are going to be evaluated, but do you really want to eliminate the quality of life?" Levitt said.
The driving question, he said, should be: "What is most important to the city?" rather than "What are we going to cut?"
Levitt said he would not recommend across-the-board cuts but rather would ask individual departments to identify priorities.
Across-the-board cuts would result in 8 percent reductions in all areas. If police and fire were excluded, remaining departments would have to cut more than 20 percent.
"If we don't look at police and fire at all, that's pretty intense," Levitt said.
Council members have resisted cutting police and fire budgets the last two years.
May 7, 2013 at 8:10 p.m.
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I'm beginning to think those who support Governor Walker's policies are about as bright as an E.coli bacteria. People need to realize that teachers are just vital to infrastructure as police and fire departments. Uneducated people end up a burden on society.
May 7, 2013 at 5:15 p.m.
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Sure hope California knows what they are getting in this guy. Of all the states, California is the worst off and they are getting a guy that refuses to admit that the money tree is bare. It is easy to manage a budget if there is an endless supply of money. I am sure he did some good things for Janesville, but he really dropped the ball on dealing with the union. Again, the unions don't care about the welfare of Janesville or the employers in general, they are only out to get as much as they can before the employer goes broke.
Apr 16, 2011 at 1:08 p.m.
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Marge123: Comparing teachers with police and fire is like comparing apples to oranges. Police and Fire/EMS are running the highest level of calls in twenty years. People need to realize that police and fire are vital to infrastructure. Not to mention that police and especially the fire dept. have been short staffed for years. These people deserve our support and respect.
Apr 15, 2011 at 3:06 p.m.
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What if collective bargaining was left in place for the first year of the reduction in state aid? Could governments make adjustments and contracts be negotiated/renegotiated? Just seems that no forsight was provided in this plan. We know Sodeman knew this was the potential when he endorsed Walker at the contract approval meeting and then voted against the contract.
Apr 15, 2011 at 2:22 p.m.
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Let me get this right Eric: you enable the union contracts on the table to get passed quickly and pass it off as "good faith" bargaining and now you complain that the city cannot make up the difference in state aid because of that? What? It seems to me that you made the big mistake and all of us taxpayers are paying for it. Someone at your stature of office should have seen that coming and bargained with the unions that the game has changed. Because of that change you should have bargained better with the best interest of the city in mind! The School Board made the same mistake and now they're laying off 130 people. Wake up Eric!!!
Apr 15, 2011 at 11:20 a.m.
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How often does the city replace squad cars? Every 2 years or so? Why not keep the squads for up to 5-6 years? With regular maintenance they will do just fine, not to mention the tax payers will get more use out of the costs of the cars. Here's another idea reduce the city managers wages to $50K a year or better yet get rid of the city managers position and elect a mayor who will have to answer to the tax payers and not the clowns in the city council!
Apr 15, 2011 at 9:52 a.m.
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If 50 teachers are being cut directly because of lower enrollment,I would think that would mean there are fewer people in Janesville and we could do with less police and fire. It is time the counsel re-visits this issue.
Apr 14, 2011 at 10:48 p.m.
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To start out, the city should cut the money pit, called the ice rink and back out of the promise to give money for the skate park.
Apr 14, 2011 at 9:19 p.m.
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Oh yeah. More cuts for the city, so the rest of us little people can suffer just a little more. Is anyone getting a clue yet? These cuts should not be coming from the bottom at the cost of make the wealthy even wealthier. When will enough people see what is going on and get MAD?! How's this trickle down theory working for us?
Apr 14, 2011 at 8:51 p.m.
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The people that make the decisions on how the city budget is spent need to get a clue. When times are tight you start to cut things that are not needed. Not everyone will be happy, no one is when what they love to do is cut. The city check book is bleeding. I drive through town and see on a regular basis how we are losing money. When it comes down to it until we get a handle on the employees, we will never be able to balance the budget. The school system is cutting teaching jobs, is this really the best you can come up with? When you look at the programs that are non curriculum, (not needed) for basic education. You mean to tell me that after school sports can not be put on hold for a couple of years? How about any program that cost the system money, Just temporarily, revisit the programs on a yearly basis to decide if we can afford to bring them back. It is not hard, give it a try. The city needs to do the same thing. start with the needless spending, I would be happy to drive around town and show you. I see city workers standing all of the time. Take a ride with me if you want to see the truth. Hey maybe that is an idea for the news to do, an undercover view of how the city employees abuse their positions and still have a job.
Sorry to rant, I am just tired of listening to how they all say "we are broke" Change is hard to swallow, give it a try.
Apr 14, 2011 at 8:07 p.m.
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It's about time we had some healthy conflict between our municipalities and our loyal hard working unions. We should have never let them get into bed together in the first place. They've been rubbing each other's backs ever since. Because of it, government costs have skyrocketed while government services had decayed.
So Mr. Steeber, et al, you rushed to get the contracts for your masters signed, sealed and delivered. Now you have to figure out how to pay the piper. State law won't let you simply pump up the tax levy. Looks like the school district isn't the only local body that's going to issue a lot of layoffs.
Apr 14, 2011 at 7:43 p.m.
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mls: Just checking...are you one of those people that believe Walker when he said eliminating collective bargaining would save the state millions?
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/on...
Apr 14, 2011 at 7:03 p.m.
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See, I said a few weeks ago that those who went ahead and passed union contracts in a hurry would be sorry. I'm beginning to think those who oppose Governor Walker's policies are about as bright as a one celled omeba.
There comes a time when there is no more money to hand out willy nilly. Those who had have been taken advantage of for so long that they are now also part of the have nots. There is only so much money, and when that money is gone it is gone.
We have created a welfare society and there is no one left to pay for the welfare.
Apr 14, 2011 at 6:10 p.m.
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ermm...just remember that they are going to re-assess everyone's home. I really hope they don't decide my home is worth 3X more than it is.
Apr 14, 2011 at 6:01 p.m.
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Walker designed his bill to force municipalities and their unions into conflict. That was the plan all along.
Apr 14, 2011 at 4:54 p.m.
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You and the unions rushed the contracts through! That's your fault! Don't whine because you tried to be shady and it came back to bite you in the butt! You chose 34%!
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