The Finance Committee held its fourth and final 2009 budget meeting on Monday, October 20.  The mayor and department managers were on hand to answer questions as they arose.  You may download the entire proposed budget by clicking on the following link.  Page numbers in this entry refer to this document.

2009 City of Brookfield Proposed Budget (256 pages, 5.8M)

Brookfield News, Oct 15, 2008 Aldermen looking for cuts in budget

Brookfield News, Oct 21, 2008 Alderman continue to trim city budget

 For those of you who like the bottom line on the top...

The proposed 2009 operating fund levy (page 34) was $24,965,000.  It was cut by $141,000 to $24,824,000. That was acheived by a combination of cutting costs and raising estimates of non-property tax revenues.  All such adjustments were applied to lowering the property tax instead of funding a reserve fund, etc. The table below shows the tax rate (city property tax per $1,000 assessed valuation) before and after the adjustments.  The right three columns compare taxes for three typically priced Brookfield houses.

Please keep in mind that these are estimates since some factors such as state aid and assessed value are not finalized.  Also, this is only the city portion of the tax bill and does not include school taxes, county taxes, lottery tax credit, etc.

Year	Tax Rate	$274,000	$335,000	$451,400
2009 (amended)	$5.2937	$1,450.47	$1,773.39	$2,389.57
2009 (proposed)	$5.3155	$1,456.45	$1,780.69	$2,399.42
2008	$5.1515	$1,411.51	$1,725.75	$2,325.39

At the previous meeting held October 13, the fuel budget was reduced by $60,000.  This was based on a more optimistic assumption for the average 2009 fuel price than that provided by the federal government to the staff.  See my earlier blog of October 13.

One staff member observed that if (when?) the gas money runs out in early December and there's more snow falling, the city will have to make an emergency allocation from a rainy day (well, snowy day) reserve fund to pay for gas to plow the streets.  Thus, a counter-argument to this adjustment is that you are raising the risk of deficit spending to make one year's tax rate look better.  Low gas prices and no snow - sound realistic to you?

2nd District Ald. Bob Reddin started the meeting by proposing a $50,000 cut in the library's materials (mostly new books) purchase account (page 122).  The historical spending levels are:

Year	Materials (541-000)
2009 (amended)	$205,761 (-16.3%)
2009 (proposed)	$255,761 (+4.0%)
2008 (est)	$245,815 (+2.2%)
2007	$240,507 (-4.3%)
2006	$251,394 (+4.7%)
2005	$240,095

Ald. Reddin's claim is that the new book spending as a percentage of the total budget is more than other communities he considers comparable.  Ald. Lisa Mellone indicated that she spoke to many Brookfield mothers and that they considered the young children's story time activity to be critical but did not object to other library cuts.  Ald. Nelson stated he considered the library to be a much appreciated service and this cut was too deep.  The mayor's reluctant proposal in his budget memo was a cut of $20,000.

The staff pointed out an important point of state law.  The library budget dollar amount is set by the city council, but the actual allocation of that money to salary, books, etc. is, by state law, the responsibility of the Library Board.  Thus, while the council can cut the total library budget, it cannot direct that cut to books exclusively.  It is possible the Library Board will decide to buy the same amount of books and instead lay off staff, cut Sunday hours, etc. to make the reduction.

This was moved by Ald. Reddin, seconded by Ald. Lisa Mellone and passed 4 ayes (Sutton, Reddin, J. Mellone, L. Mellone) to 3 nays (Garvens, Nelson, Berg).

Note that this is the only department specific spending cut.

All Brookfield hotels place a 7% tax on each room sale.  Most of that money has always gone to the general revenue fund.  It can be viewed as paying for police and fire protection, road wear, etc. in addition to the property tax the hotel already pays. The rest goes to the Economic Development Committee (EDC) and the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) which promote shopping and businesses in Brookfield, handle queries to the city from potential new businesses wanting to locate here, etc.  This table (page 37 & 214) summarizes that tax. 

Year	Room Tax	General Fund	EDC	CVB
2009 (amended)	$2,511,100	$1,890,000	$196,100	$425,000
2009 (proposed)	$2,486,100	$1,865,000	$196,100	$425,000
2008	$2,560,000	$1,920,000	$203,100	$436,900
2007	$2,512,406	$1,883,691	$199,521	$429,194

Ald. Sutton has long claimed that the budgeted number runs well below the actual value.  He does not accept the idea that 2008 room taxes are unusually high due to rooms rented to people attending one time events such as the Harley-Davidson festival and Milwaukee Brewers during a winning season.  Further, he does not expect room rentals to fall in 2009 due to a bad economy.  His original proposal was to raise the revenue estimate by $55,000 which was seen by other aldermen as pretty optimistic.

Ald. Sutton moved, Ald. Jerry Mellone seconded to increase the projection in room taxes by $25,000, lowering property taxes by that amount.  It passed 4 ayes (Sutton, Berg, J. Mellone, L. Mellone) to 3 nays (Reddin, Garvens, Nelson).

Ald. Lisa Mellone stated that the total training budget for all 363.65 full time equivalent employees is $111,000.  There was a lengthy discussion about how police officers, firemen, city engineers, librarians, information technology staff, etc. need to attend various seminars and classes to maintain professional certifications as well as keeping up with current technology, state and federal regulations, etc.  Ald. Lisa Mellone moved and Ald. Jerry Mellone seconded to cut that by $6,000 to $105,000.  The motion carried unanimously.

Just as significant are the things that were not cut, as first described in my blog of October 12.

• There are no layoffs of employees, including policeman, fireman, road crew, city hall staff, etc.

• The D.A.R.E. program is still fully funded.

• There is no change to ambulance (EMS) or fire service.

• The bike way and Greenway Corridor projects are intact.

• Park and Recreation programs are untouched and at the same fees.

• The Senior Center remains fully funded.

• Funding for the new traffic calming studies is funded at $15,000

There are also a few hidden assumptions:

• Interest rates paid on city reserve funds will remain steady
• Interest rates on city bonds issued for new construction will remain low.
• New construction and remodelling will remain steady, supplying building permit fees ($1.4 million)

The public hearing for the budget will be held Tuesday, November 18 and the budget will be adopted at that meeting.  It is possible for the council to modify the budget further at that time.

If you want to lobby for some change, adding or subtracting, call your aldermen.

So, what do you think?

Well, another night, another meeting.  The Finance Committee met tonight to consider the 2009 budget.  We started with presentations from the Municipal Judge and the Finance Department.  You should watch Municipal Judge Warchol on the cable channel describing the changes he has made in courtroom operations.

At last Wednesday's meeting it became clear there would be plenty of debate, as I related in my last post.  Everyone was asked to send in a summary of their suggested budget changes so that staff could prepare estimates on the impact to services and cost.  In fact, only Ald. Reddin and myself submitted comments (click here to see the list).  Note that Ald. Reddin's ideas, submitted last week, included reducing the gasoline and diesel fuel budget by over $56,000.

When it came time to discuss the budget, Ald. Jerry Mellone immediately asked to be recognized and stated he wanted a cut to the fuel budget.  Ald. Dan Sutton made the motion which Ald. Jerry Mellone seconded.  Ald. Sutton then went into a detailed statement about why he believed oil prices are down and would remain, on average, the same as in 2008.  After nearly a half hour of discussion, the motion was approved, 6 ayes (Sutton, Reddin, Nelson, Berg, J. Mellone, L. Mellone) to one nay (Garvens).  Ald. Garvens said that he thought oil prices will be too unpredictable to make such a severe cut.  He also noted that this was not a cut due to a reduced service (fewer trucks, fewer miles driven, etc.) but rather an optimistic guess at oil prices in 2009.

The meeting had to end at 6 due to a Plan Commission meeting.  I once again asked the members to submit their suggestions ahead of time so that the city staff will have time to prepare comments on the impact of the proposed changes.  Ald. Jerry Mellone explained that he had not submitted his gas budget cut suggestion since he was out of town last week.

The committee agreed to a previously unscheduled meeting for Monday, October 20 at 5:00 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.  I predict lots of debate.  The meeting is open to the public and is televised.

The City Council's Finance Committee will be meeting on Monday, October 13 at 4:00 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.  We will wrap up the staff presentations for the 2009 budget and start our discussions of what to accept and what to modify.  The committee's recommendation will go to the full Common Council in November and may be further modified there. The meeting is open to the public and is televised on the city's cable TV channel.

You may read the complete proposed budget (yawn) at:

2009 City of Brookfield Proposed Budget (256 pages, 5.8M)

The press summary stories are a good high level view.  See:

Brookfield News, 10/8/08 Proposed budget would increase taxes slightly

MJS, 10/4/08 Brookfield looks for tax-levy increase

Based on questions during the meetings and comments made over the last year, I expect some of the aldermen will make some proposals for budget cuts. If we can't come to a conclusion on Monday, we will schedule an additional meeting during the next week or so.

Some possible reduction ideas are:

1. Adopt some or all of the mayor's suggested reductions provided with the budget.  Mayor Speaker made it clear that he did not endorse any of the ideas but was offering them at the committee's request.  You may read the mayor's memo here:  Mayor Speaker's memo of 9/26/08 suggesting budget cuts
2. As described in the mayor's memo, two police officer positions were added in the last couple of years.  They were funded by moving two positions in the Department of Public Works (DPW) left vacant by retirements.  Since officers are paid more and have better benefits and earlier retirement than DPW workers, the city had to raise the budget about $27,000, increasing over the next three years to $49,000 more.  According to Police Chief Tushaus, the department's 65 sworn officers are actually 5 to 10 fewer than recommended by commonly used police staffing standards.  This cut is about $163,000.
3. As described in the mayor's memo, cut the DARE program for elementary school students.  The program used to be heavily subsidized by the district attorney's office and private donations, but most of that funding has disappeared in the last two years.  Officers teach the DARE courses outside their regular shift and are paid overtime.  The DARE program costs about $36,000.
4. Change the ambulance service to a two tier system.  The current single tier system provides an ambulance at each of the three stations staffed by two paramedics (highest level of training for ambulance crew).  When sent with the three additional firefighter/Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), the 5 person unit meets the national standard to provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) care.  That's roughly equivalent to what you would get in a hospital emergency room.  It's first rate emergency medicine, but it's very expensive.  An alternative is to downgrade two stations to Basic Life Support (BLS) staffed by EMTs and one station to ALS.  The dispatch center would ask enough questions to triage the situation (decide which level of care to send).  To be fair to all 40,000 residents with respect to response time, Fire Station 1 in the centrally located Public Safety Building would be the ALS unit.  The potential savings are unclear since the staff has not been asked to provide a formal analysis.  This two tier system was discussed at the Human Resources and Public Safety committee meeting of July 31, 2008 at the request of Fire Chief Myers. The Chief did not advocate for the change but wanted reassurance that the two tier model was the one the city wanted.  No action was taken at that meeting.  You may read the details of the two systems and more details on what ALS and BLS mean in the memos written by Chief Myers for the budget meeting.
5. Cut the library new book budget.  The requested amount is $255,761.  The item for both 2007 and 2008 was $245,815.  The mayor's memo offered a $20,000 cut (to $235,761) but the Library Board made it clear that the combined reduction and inflation over the last three years has significantly lowered the number of volumes purchased.  If you believe the concept that "everything is available on the internet for free", this is easy to accept.
6. As described in the mayor's memo, cut library staffing.  This would force a reduction in library hours due to required minimum staffing levels.  Certain details are subject to union negotiations, but it would probably mean an end to Sunday hours during the school year.
7. Eliminate bike way and road projects.  These are often opposed due to resistance by the residents whose lots include the new trails, so it appears to have popular political support.  Then again, residents who walk, jog, have kids who use the trails, etc. might protest an virtual end to the program.
8. Don't backfill positions as they open up due to retirements, etc.  This won't help the 2009 budget, but may help future years.  The projection for 2009 is that 50 of the city's 363.65 full time equivalent positions will become vacant due to retirements, people quitting, terminations (yes, the city does fire people for poor performance), etc.
9. Increase all fees for Park and Recreation programs by 10-15% which amounts to $30,000 of new, non-property tax revenue.  The programs will remain intact but the fee paid by participants will rise.  This was discussed at the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting of August 11, 2008 (page 9).

I occasionally hear a resident make the claim that the city budget is "filled with fat" and that a dramatic cut is possible with no noticeable drop in service.  When I ask the resident to cite some specific example of why they say that, I hear about the unwanted road widening in front of their house, the total lack of crime in Brookfield making the police department unnecessary, the public parks that the person never visits, etc.  I have rebuttals for each of those but of course the resident "knows" that their claim is true.

So, what's your favorite example of where the city can cut?  What are you willing to live without?

I plan to report on the discussion later this week.  I doubt Monday's meeting will be the last word and I ask for your comments on what we should consider.

Well, it's that time of year again.  The city council finance committee, which I chair, will be considering the budget for next year.  If you want to see the exact proposal the finance committee members received on September 27  (plus a few extra reports), you may download it here.

2009 City of Brookfield Proposed Budget (256 pages, 5.8M)

 This year's budget cycle is:

• In May, the aldermen set some goals for the budget.  That mostly means stating the maximum amount of money they will approve.  There are limits set by the state for both spending and property tax increases.  Those limits are not exactly known at this date since they are partially based on inflation for the entire year, new construction and last minute changes in state law.There also have to be some guesses on interest rates, both as income on the city's reserve funds and for borrowing.
• The mayor and staff spend the summer figuring out what it will cost to do the usual plus any new requests for service from aldermen or residents or as stated in the bi-annual strategic plan.  That may include looking for new vendors, eliminating programs that aren't working out, etc.  The idea is that the people who do all the day to day work are best equipped to figure out what it costs to provide services. 
• In October (well, September 27 this year) the finance committee receives the proposed budget with the requests from all the departments.  Since the mayor was guiding the staff all summer long in its preparation, the proposal has implied mayoral approval.
• [October 2, 8 and 13]  The finance committee meets for 3 or 4 evenings to hear presentations from the mayor and staff.  At the last meeting the committee might modify the budget proposal until it gets committee approval.
• [November 18]  There is a public meeting where anyone can comment on the budget.
• [November 18]  The full council votes on the budget.  At that time, any alderman can propose anything, spending or cuts.  The final result is a budget approved by a majority of the alderman.
• The staff spends early December merging the approved city budget with final estimates of state aid, etc. and prepares the property tax bills.  The tax bills are mailed out. 
• Merry Christmas.

All of the finance and council meetings listed here are open to the public.  The public may listen but there is no question and answer period.  If you do have questions, there are people around after the meeting who will help or you may call city hall later.

Over the next few weeks I plan to write a few columns about how the process is going.  I may ask for some guidance on particular issues that came up.  Stay tuned.