Waukesha - When the Common Council meets Tuesday to adopt a city budget, aldermen will be asked to take up a half-dozen 11th-hour amendments proposed this week by Mayor Jeff Scrima to meet his goal of a zero increase in the tax levy.
His proposal for a flat tax levy would produce an additional $2.75 total savings for the owner of a home assessed at $199,700, the city median.
The budget recommended by the Finance Committee includes a $79,000 increase in the tax levy, but with new construction added to the tax base, a minuscule drop in the tax rate results in a $1.14 year-to-year savings on a $199,700 home.
Chairman Joseph Pieper failed on a 3-2 vote in committee to reach Scrima's goal. Pieper proposed eliminating two new staff cars, recycling bins for 12 parks, a card-access system to the parks headquarters, public works management equipment and a sweeping machine. He said he'll try again Tuesday with the full council.
Scrima's new amendments run the gamut: furloughs or layoffs of city employees, an across-the-board trim of a thousandth of a percent in every department budget, a 5% cut in the mass transit budget through route cutbacks, eliminating half the travel and training budgets for all but police and fire staff, and agreeing to contribute $36,550 of his own 2011 salary if all 15 aldermen contribute half of theirs - a total of $48,750 - to the city's coffers.
Scrima's failure to present his budget-cutting ideas during six earlier committee meetings over the past month raised questions and concerns among some aldermen during a Committee of the Whole budget informational meeting Tuesday.
Early in the meeting, Scrima was asked directly by Ald. Kathleen Cummings if he intended to present amendments.
"No. I'm setting the vision. I'm setting the goal," he said in asking for a no-increase levy.
Later in the meeting, after Pieper's cuts were reviewed, Scrima proposed two amendments regarding furloughs or layoffs and cuts to mass transit. It took nearly 15 minutes of prodding by both the assistant city attorney and several aldermen, plus a recess, to persuade Scrima to temporarily give up the gavel so he could follow council rules in presenting his amendments from the floor.
Cummings and Ald. Paul Furrer said they'd rather have the ideas vetted ahead of time rather than at a prolonged budget-night meeting. Cummings reminded all of the council's notorious 4:27 a.m. vote after a nine-hour meeting to adopt the 2008 budget.
By late Wednesday, Scrima's two amendments had grown to six.
In an interview Thursday, Scrima said he didn't come forward with proposals sooner because "my role is to listen first." He drew them up, incorporating his own and a few other ideas mentioned Tuesday night, because "I believe we needed more formal solutions on the table."
Scrima said with seven cost-cutting amendments in front of it, the council has a better chance of reaching his goal of no increase in the tax levy.
In addition to the final budget vote at Tuesday's 7:30 p.m. meeting, the council will take up Scrima's veto of the 2011 capital budget and the 2012-2016 capital projects plan. Scrima vetoed the plan, which included $6.8 million for replacing two fire stations, because he thought it incurred too much debt that would only raise taxes in future years.
However, City Administrator Lori Curtis Luther said the city's bond-rating agency, Moody's, has issued a new rating report that calls the city's future borrowing plans "moderate" and its debt levels "affordable." Moody's included in the future borrowing figures the $6.8 million for fire stations, $5 million in 2012 for renovation to Buchner Pool and $1.7 million in 2015 for improvements to a recreation center.
Scrima memo online Read Mayor Jeff Scrima's proposed budget amendments: www.jsonline.com/Waukesha.