IS THIS A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME FOR WINNEBAGO COUNTY--I HOPE NOT

FROM the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter

County employees face three-hour layoffs

By Dan Fischer

The decision to impose temporary layoffs that will affect employees represented by two AFSCME locals has generated front-page headlines. The Human Services Professionals will be laid off on Thursday, Feb. 23 from 8 to 11 a.m. The Supportive Services Local layoff will take place from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24. This will impact employees in the courthouse, Human Services Department, Health Department, County Office Complex, and the Administration Building. Friday afternoon, Feb. 24, will see some offices closed and limited services being provided in most of the others.

Manitowoc County is fortunate to have dedicated employees who are engaged in providing high quality services to the public. The layoffs are due to one factor only: the need to maintain compliance with the adopted 2006 budget.

The 2006 budget process was a very difficult one. New limitations from the state of Wisconsin required us to hold our revenue increase to 2 percent of the 2005 budget. The value of this 2 percent was roughly equivalent to the 16.88 percent increase in the cost of health insurance for 2006. All other expenditure increases had to be matched by equivalent spending decreases.
The challenge was to find a balance between the public's need for services and the desire to maintain a fair compensation package for Manitowoc County's employees. Add in the increased fuel costs to heat public buildings, the increased cost of fuel for the Highway Department and Sheriff's Department, along with all of the normal inflationary increases, and you can see how challenging the creation of this budget was.

Manitowoc County met this challenge by adopting a budget that provided a 3 percent wage increase for all regular employees but also required employees participating in the county's health insurance plan to increase their contribution from 8 percent of the premium to 10 percent of the premium. Even with a 10 percent employee contribution, in 2006 Manitowoc County will pay $827.15 more for each single plan and $2,069.78 more for each family plan.
The annual increased cost to employees for a single health insurance plan is $146.58, and it's $366.74 for a family plan. This increase has been in place for non-represented employees since Jan. 1. Also, one of seven union locals has agreed to a health insurance plan design change that will provide the equivalent savings.

It is my hope that with open minds and creative thinking, the unions and the county will come to a voluntary settlement that will allow the continuation of important public services while providing Manitowoc County employees with a fair wage and benefit package. Manitowoc County is committed to doing everything possible to achieve this outcome as soon as possible.

Dan Fischer, Manitowoc County executive, may be reached at 920-683-4375.

A view from central Wisconsin on TPA

FROM THE MARSHFIELD NEWS-HERALD from Feb, 19,2006 edition


Tax freeze act would bring ruin
We've all heard the stories of folks abandoning the family farm, or of little old ladies selling their homes because property taxes are out of control.

We've heard the platitudes: "People have to live within their means, why shouldn't government?" And we've watched the snake oil salesmen hawk their solutions.

The magic cure-all offered by those who favor minimalist government is a constitutionally mandated tax freeze. And Republican state legislators were back at work last week on their latest version -- now called the Taxpayers Protection Amendment, or TPA.


This time, though, they're running into inconvenient facts that reveal the real ingredients of this odious unguent.


As GOP leaders opened invitation-only hearings on their proposal last week, Professor Andrew Reschovsky of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a disturbing analysis of the TPA's likely consequences.
Perhaps its most relevant conclusion is this: Property taxes aren't out of control, and neither is government spending. In relation to personal income, state and local government taxes are lower today than they were 10 and even 20 years ago.


Perhaps we've been told that our paychecks are disappearing down a government rathole so many times that we've come to believe it. But Reschovsky cuts through all the politics and focuses on the unintended consequences of a freeze:

* Because TPA would limit growth of government revenue to inflation, it would result in ever-shrinking government services. Why? Inflation measures increasing prices among all consumer goods and services -- groceries, day care, refrigerators, clothes, you name it.
But government spends most of its money on goods and services such as health insurance and gasoline, with price increases that have far outpaced inflation. So TABOR would result in massive program cuts.
"(The) impact of the amendment would be to continuously reduce the level and quality of public services provided to the residents of Wisconsin," Reschovsky concluded.
* In Portage County, Plover is booming, with new homes and businesses sprouting everywhere. In Wood County, Wisconsin Rapids has seen a rash of job layoffs and growth is slow at best. Wausau and Marshfield are holding steady, with a fair amount of new construction and new jobs.
TPA would treat them all the same and subject everyone to control by a Madison-based Politburo.
"This is a diverse state with varied preferences for public services, great variation in economic conditions and social conditions," Reschovsky wrote. And the best people to address those variations are local officials most familiar with them -- and most responsive to voters.

Reschovsky's analysis goes on for 14 pages. Towns, exempt from TPA's restrictions, would have to raise taxes to make up for lost state and county funding. The erosion of schools and infrastructure would hamstring economic development. And the only recourse would be spending referenda, which are in Reschovsky's words "very blunt instruments ... for making complex budgetary decisions."

We don't welcome a bludgeoning with that club.It's vital that we ask ourselves some questions: Do our schools provide the launching pads that send our kids into the world well-equipped to succeed? Do we go to bed at night secure in the notion that if trouble arises, police and firefighters will respond? Are our roads plowed and in good repair, allowing safe travel and reliable commerce?
Are we getting what we're paying for?
Reasonable people can disagree about the role of government. But that should be an honest debate.
When lawmakers promise painless tax freezes, watch out. Don't buy that snake oil.
On the Web
To read the analysis, see www.lafollette.wisc.edu/calendar-news/2006/reschovskyanalysis.pdf

County Sales Tax /Garbage Fee for city of Oshkosh

There are those who did not like the .005 of 1 % sales taxes the County Executive was proposing to preserve jobs and for keeping the same level of services for Winnebago County. But at the same time supported the $10 a month garage fee, some called it necessary to balance the budget and called it better for it “was the greater of two evils”.

Here is something for all of you to consider. If the garbage fee were made permanent for a full year, then at $10 (which it is presently and could go up) it would cost each household $120 a year. Now consider the .005 of 1% sales tax that the county was considering. One would have to spend $24,000 in sales taxable items to pay the amount equal to that of a full year of garbage fees. And remember the garbage fee will more likely to go up more and faster than the sales tax would. Also there is a movement in the state legislature to let municipalities have a sales tax.

I have not seen or heard much resistance from the Chamber of Commerce or the newspaper concerning the garbage fee, yet it would hit people individuals harder than a proposed dales tax for the county . Just something for you all to think about as well as city council and county board supervisors to consider