Following Action at the Capitol

City Manager, Karen Kurt and Council Members Barb Stockhausen, Mike Denn, Eileen Nickels and Barb Daus at the Capitol for League Lobby Day last November.

Following Action at the Capitol 

February 11, 2016

One of the duties of the City Manager is stay abreast of legislation that may impact the City (and to occasionally coax elected representatives into introducing legislation that will address a problem we are trying to solve). In the 7 months that I have been here, things have been fast and furious on the legislative front. 

Fortunately, we have a good partner, the League of Wisconsin Municipalities (LWM). LWM assists us in three ways. First, they keep us informed through email alerts on the status of bills that may impact us. Second, they research bills and, with the advice of a committee made up of city representatives, take a position. Lastly, they lobby legislators on behalf of member cities.

LWC staff have been terrific to work with. Their stance with respect to a lot legislation emphasizes local control. In essence, officials at the local level should be able to decide what is best for their community.

Right now, Council members and I are monitoring the following legislation:

•  Municipal Services Program (AB 350) and its companion senate bill. This bill would restore full funding the municipal services program over four years. The municipal services program offsets costs that cities like Platteville spend because they are host cities to major state institutions like UW-P. This program used to cover 80% of the associated costs but now only about 40%. (For more information, refer to my Oct 13 ejournal). Both Council Member Daus and I traveled to Madison on separate occasions to testify in favor of these bills. Unfortunately the bills are unlikely to go anywhere this year.
• Recycling Grant (SB 340). This bill restores money that was cut from the budget last year. This bill is financially neutral for the budget as recycling grants are paid for through landfill tipping fees and there is a positive fund balance. It is important to Platteville because we rely on the grant to offset costs related to recycling. The bill is out of committee in both houses and awaits scheduling. 
•  AB 583/SB446. These bills would prohibit cities from restricting homeowners from renting their property for more than 30 days. This bill could be of special significance to cities like Platteville, where it has been a challenge to preserve single family neighborhoods. It would likely prevent an overlay district such as the one that currently exists in the West Hills neighborhood. The LWM believes there is some momentum behind these bills.
• AB 210. This bill would give counties the ability, through referendum, to institute a half cent sales tax for street and road maintenance. This bill is a first step in addressing our challenges with funding street improvements. Unfortunately, there is not a companion bill in the Senate so movement this year is unlikely. The Council passed a resolution late last year to support the League’s “Just Fix It” campaign to address the state’s long-term financing issue for transportation infrastructure. 
• Big Box Store Tax Assessments. At this time there are no bills introduced that address big box (Menards, Walmart, Walgreen’s etc) tax assessment challenges. As the law stands today, big box stores have been able to successfully argue that they should be assessed as though their store is “dark”/unoccupied, which is typically a much lower value. Cities have had to pay the entire amount of the difference in the tax rate even though some of the proceeds went to other taxing entities. This is a big issue that has the implication of significantly raising residential tax rates to cover the shortfall. The LWM has been promoting state legislation recently adopted in Indiana to address the problem. They are hoping to find sponsors for a bill next session.

We are frequently in touch with Senator Marklein and Representative Tranel (or their staff) on issues that we believe will impact Platteville. I have also traveled to the Capitol with council members for League Lobby Day. On that day, we meet with our representatives to talk specifically about legislation that is important to cities. In sum, we work hard to make sure that Platteville’s interests are well known. We do this in part because we know how difficult it is for the average citizen to stay abreast of all the issues before us.