 It's seven o'clock, and I will be calling the meeting to order All the person van der wheel Way be a bit late. He is Currently at the doctor's office that he just called me earlier said that he may be a few minutes late Pending pen and the outcome of that visit so with that I will ask for the role to be called Here excused Kiddleston excused Manning excused Here excused Thank you Suggestion by Alderman Warren that I think is appropriate today. We experienced the fifth anniversary of The September 11th and attack and with that in mind I would ask that we all observe a moment of silence for the victims their families Thank you Now I'd ask for approval of the minutes of the previous council meeting or the previous Community the whole meeting we have a abortion and a second Any additions or corrections? Hearing none all in favor eyes opposed the minutes stand approved The agenda item today or the main agenda will be a review of the budget and for that purpose I see that we have Mr. Gephardt and also may your praise here that I understand it prepared a Presentation for us so with that in mind a gentleman turn the meeting over to you Everybody here me here Good evening Alderman and good evening people in the gallery and the citizens to shaboy again Tonight, Mr. Gephardt and I have a presentation to make to try to give you an idea of what we're up against with the 07 budget Mr. Gephardt is going to first of all give you a budget review request analysis, I should say and he's going to be touching on the expenditures the revenues the Library and the transit and also the debt service and he's going to talk a little bit about those items there and to give You a scenario. What's what kind of activity is going there? I'll follow that with With a visual with some visual age and run you through five charts It'll give you again more of an idea what's going on financially in the city and then Mr. Gephardt will talk to you about the budget adjustments and what that reflects will be What the departments were operating on in the Euro 6 and what they will have to operate on in the Euro 7 As per the resolution that you pass that there would be no increase in the in the levy And that's a very important part of the presentation I'd ask you to play a particular notice to to the information that mr. Gephardt is going to present to you following that I will again go to two more charts give you a little visual aid there and then the the final part which mr. Gephardt will do will be the the Budget requests that that have been made and the differences between what's being requested by the departments and What will be allowed as per your resolution? Meaning that the zero increase in the levy so they will have the same amount of money to spend as they did last year But they requested more what is that difference and how is that difference being being applied so at this time? I'll turn it to mr. Gephardt $156,000 Okay, is it our I know All right, I'll start at the beginning in case all right that was a good practice, okay As I said the total general fund revenue estimates for the old seven budget are declining by a hundred and sixty-six thousand or approximately a half percent To thirty three and a half million dollars And the council has established a policy to have the tax levy for the old seven budget to remain the same as the old six budget General funds portion of the tax levy is thirteen million eight hundred seventy six thousand or forty one percent of the general fund revenues State shared revenues of eleven and a half million are or thirty four percent of the general fund revenues are frozen by the state legislation The status of other state revenues that total three million in two thousand and six will not be known until later in September Combining the tax levy and state shared revenues 75% of the general fund revenues are frozen The vehicle registration fee a real tax which was a hundred or two hundred and ten thousand dollars in old six will be eliminated in old seven on the two hundred two thousand and seven general fund expenditures The departmental requests for appropriations total thirty five million four hundred and thirty two thousand an increase of one million six hundred and seventy nine thousand or five percent above the old six budget The total request or one million eight hundred and forty six thousand or five and a half percent above the old seven revenue estimates of thirty three million five hundred and eighty six thousand The one point eight million dollars is the amount of adjustments that will have to be made to the request to balance the budget Which will decrease the departmental appropriations to a half percent below the old six appropriations Due to the decrease in revenue So this evening when we're trying to address what is the impact on the budget It's basically that is the focal number on the general fund the one point eight million The requests include eight hundred and eight thousand for capital outlay for various equipment including squad cars The requests have to be reduced by approximately four hundred and eighty thousand to match available funding The contingency appropriations are funded at a half percent below last year with 338,300 for the salary trust contingency and 25,000 for the general contingency The other requests for appropriations include wages benefits commodities and contractual services We'll have to be adjusted by approximately 1.4 million The requests reflect the cost of the current employees plus the 2007 steps longevity increases The increase in the health benefit plan and increases for energy costs On the library and transit fund budgets Under the established council policy the tax levy for the transit fund Would remain at six hundred and fifty thousand and the tax levy for the library fund would remain at two million six hundred and eight thousand the library fund would need an additional $19,120 to obtain the maintenance of effort level of funding and Sharon Winkle I believe has addressed this committee on what the impact of that is What the meaning of that is it becomes a lot of spiraling effects through that 2007 debt service fund the principal and interest payments are estimated to increase a hundred and sixty eight thousand while the tax levy for the debt service Remains at three million four hundred ninety five thousand Three payments advances are made to tax incremental districts will fund the debt service increase in 2007 We are reviewing these debt service increases Carol Worth obviously Dane was in the finance committee tonight and was reviewing The debt service cost projections based on the capital improvements program is currently recommended and we'll continue working on that Now the mayor will review with you some of the charts that we have You want any questions yet not yet? Are there any questions and what we just reviewed Thank You mr. Chairman Mr.. Gabbard you were mentioning that the status of other state revenues the total three million dollars in 06 Will not be known until the end of September When that was unknown last year did they come through at what about what you aches had expected and do you have a guesstimate for 2007 Those revenues that I'm referring to our expenditure restraint, which is about a million dollars and then the others are for Referred to is transportation aids or connecting highways to go through department transportation, but it's part of the general fund revenues Last year, I think they varied generally by tens of thousands You know rather than a six-digit number But is anticipated that there probably will be some variance If it is positive, I guess I would suggest and we'd have to work with the mayor finance committee to make a recommendation on this but If we have additional funds right now our contingency is as we noted earlier General contingencies at 25,000 which was the original general contingency. We started with Last year that maybe might want to adjust that up some generally We have a hundred to hundred and fifty thousand in that general contingency So we may if we have some additional revenue from the state that would probably an appropriate place to put it Thank you Vice President Serta Your honor so just to reiterate your your suggestion that maybe we shouldn't earmark that those funds Possibly keep that in the contingency fund and just for clarification. How much did we get last year again? From number from the expenditure restraints the state at the unknown status at this time the amounts Approximately three million dollars of those general those state revenues The undetermined amount now that we're anticipating how much did we get last year? I was a price money three million dollars It was three minutes Did it? I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you President Burke. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Mayor the rule tax revenue. That's a revenue for the general fund or is that a segregated fund? That is revenue for the general fund and is that the reflection of the half a percent decrease in revenues That is a portion of that. Yes, okay What proportion would that be would you know approximately well 166,000 is the net? So there are other revenues that increased interest earnings increased and that other increases as offset. So there's a combination of Yes, thank you mayor. I Just have some questions. Can you clarify under the debt service fund? You say there were payments of advances that were made to the taxional criminal districts will fund the debt service increase in 2007 is that relating to the first bullet point you have here? Yes to offset the increase of 168,000 that we anticipate there will be advances that would be able to pay back loans basically with interest From those other tip funds. Thank you Okay, I believe we put these in order so you'll be able to follow follow what you've got as a handout what I wanted to point out to the council and the public is the the breakdown of where The taxes that are collected from the people go many times you hear The community say the city's charging is a lot of taxes because they get one bill and that's what they see But I wanted you to pay particular attention and and be mindful of what is what is that this? What does that distribution look like when somebody gets a tax when I get a tax bill? I don't just get taxed by the city When anybody gets a tax bill, they don't just get taxed by the city They get taxed Accordingly here and here's where the city is right here But when somebody gets a tax bill 33% of that Actually comes to the city So we actually deserve 33% of the criticism Not a hundred percent would that make sense? I think so Okay, so and the state gets 1% Okay, and the county If you will bear with me here 22% and I never hear them getting 22% of the criticism being facetious here But it's the ones you don't understand what's going on because I hear it all the time And if you look at the school district of which mr. Hannah and I were president at one time 38% 38% of every tax bill that comes to you and every citizen in this community 38% of that goes to the school district and that's important for you to know because you're going to have your constituents tell you Why is my taxes too high? Well, you can answer that but you can also tell them how they go from every dollar that goes 33 cents goes to the city the rest of the money goes somewhere else and that's important for you to know It's important for your constituents to know because there's this perception out there that the city is the only monstrosity politically that's charging people taxes if you look at the 06 City tax levy for the 207 budget and this was this is what we're looking at How are we going to distribute our levy of the money that we collect? How are we going to distribute that? The general fund will take 67% This is a 33 million dollars. You're looking at right now. Okay, but out of the levy that we collect We don't we don't just put 33 percent 67 percent in the levy We take a portion of that and I think this 13 percent here is about 2.6 million 20 million dollars Okay The library right the library would be 2.6 million dollars. So again when when somebody tells you okay You collect all this taxes and this is your levy What portion goes to the library? Well now you can say two million six hundred dollars six hundred thousand dollars That's what's going to the library the transit which is three percent. I'm having trouble here would be 600 658 thousand dollars from the levy Has been going traditionally or this is the amount that we would apply to transit and then service debt service For the money we borrow we have to pay anyway 17% will go to that and then the rest will go to the general fund account of which we'll be talking about Which is how we pay for every employee Fleets everything that we do everything that's conducted here at city hall would be the 67 percent of of our levy And it's also very important for you to know because people think that when we collect money from the taxpayer and the levy It's spent just here at city hall Well, it's not it's there's a there's a very good distribution of that and people need to understand that Now one of the things that we'll be talking about again. We we're very limited in revenue our expenditures far exceed our revenues Every single year on a reoccurring basis and more so Compounded and it's important for you to know that and we'll be talking about what percentage we get from the state revenue Sharing plan that that we that's in place. What what is it that we get and I believe now? It's at 47 percent or 46 percent, but we'll talk about that But the the importance of this chart is to explain to you that we're not getting any more That's all we have So we're looking at almost half of our budget our general operating budget half of our budget comes in and you can almost expect The state to continue that straight line way out of the chart there because we're not going to get anymore At least we've been told that and we don't know what's going to happen with the elections coming up So shared revenue, which is almost half of our budget. We're not getting any more folks Mind you our expenditures were good continue to go up Whether this goes up or not So you can see this history where it came all the way up here and it just plummeted Straight across At least When a good note we can thank the legislature for not Keeping this thing going out of whack all the way down at least that leveled off It gives us enough time to plan and to want to to be able to make some reasonable projections And here's the one I wanted to show you with respect to that And there's our A revenue state revenue portion 45.8 percent. So Almost half of our budget Comes from the state right there The other half is that levy that we were talking about how and you saw how that levy is distributed there, too Which makes up the whole thing here, but this is this is part of it here right there So we've got 41 and 45 46 47 percent of our entire general fund budget Is controlled by the state because we have levy limits now also if we want to exceed our levy limit right now We're going to have to go to a referendum pretty much yet The rest of the money that comes in as you can see and we've talked about this before license and permits. I don't think we can Enhance those as Anymore fines and forfeitures and charges and service and blah blah blah all that kind of stuff There's not much going to come out of there not a lot of meat coming out of there these this is a big portion there and it's important for you to understand that because that's why we're locked in on A certain amount in our budget regardless of whether our expenditures go up or not In the final budget then rich will get we'll talk to you on the uh The difference between 06 and 07 will be the the The fund appropriations when you get all this money here When you get all this money, which is about 33 million dollars how in the world are you people divided up who gets it? Here's how they get it If you see public protection and safety right here half of the a little more than half of the pie Goes to police and fire. That's how we've been distributing our general fund 32 percent by itself is just police So 32 percent of our whole budget goes to police 20 percent to fire public works get 21 percent Parks in the senior center get nine The administration which in it's not just city hall, but there's a lot a lot. It's involved in there is 17 And then that little contingency there that we talked to rich talked about is a 1 percent there That's how every that's how all that the uh the money is distributed in major Department categories So it's important for you to know And I'll make this a very important point because I hear it all the time The council doesn't fund public protection and safety well enough Well, yes, you do more than half of your budget goes to that and at some point You're going to have to do something about the other side too because our whole city government Is a whole pie not just one or the other or this one or that one It's everybody and what I try to do is hopefully work with you to do a fair and equitable Balance of district the distribution of the funds here, okay rich Thank you mayor on page eight This is the spreadsheet that the department's received on september fifth Of what they need For adjusting their budgets The fifth column of numbers that's titled 2007 allowed budget That's in bold That's the key column there right now that you you kind of want to focus on The the columns before that are the calculation that go up to that column Excuse me The first column is the 2006 original budget with cap law lay The second column shows the amount of cap law lay in 06 And the third one is without cap law lay The fourth column is an adjustment for the decline in revenues of almost a half percent Excuse me in the fifth column then is the net between you two What effect that budget has on Excuse me, I apologize so anyway, the Difference between the third column And the adjustment in the fourth column gives us the allow budget in the fifth column Next to that is the 2007 budget request with all cap law lay So these were the departments are submitted here this year And the difference between then the allowed in the request Is the other column in bold that's titled adjustment to lower request to allowed So that's the amount each department would have to adjust their budget Next to that then is the cap law lay request Well, thank you, sir I should let me go back to the previous column the adjustment Uh to lower request to allowed as you see on the bottom totals 1,365,000 That's last the total that would have to be adjusted to the Operational accounts excuse me then in the cap law lay request the total of 808,000 Staying within the same budget as we had last year. We'd only had 327,000 available to fund Towards that 800,000 So we'd have to trim those requests by 480,000 So with that along with the previous column of 1,365 We're looking at 1,846 that would have to be trimmed from the request And then the far column would be the Madam well, it's a total amount, but it has the full amount of the cap law and it also at this point Are there any questions on that as I said May rich here if I as I said earlier, this is this is a very important Chart a chart that you have here Because if you look at your adjustment to lower request allowed All those numbers and parentheses Are the numbers that are going to have to be adjusted by the departments themselves Because we've asked the departments to do it and that's the impact That's going to be felt out in the community For example, if you look at at Building inspection They have to make a cut of 33,000 dollars What does that mean well Somehow that adjustment is going to have to be made if you hear a constituent say why hasn't anybody responded to my call Why hasn't anybody gone to look at this house that I've been complaining about That may be where that adjustment may have been made if you look further up the police will have to make a Little over half a million dollar adjustment If somebody calls you and says how come my call wasn't answered It may be that the police somehow made an adjustment that reflects that So all those numbers and parentheses Is the difference that they're going to have to make up to stay within that zero percent increase in the levy That you of what you pass the resolution Okay, those are the numbers and we talked about how the community will respond In public works, we're going to call you how come the grass hasn't been cut how come the plants haven't been watered It may be that those adjustments were made In public works had to make those adjustments in that manner. So now they have Perhaps less people out there doing that And this is why you have to be prepared to respond to your constituents accordingly Now that million 1.8 million dollars. I believe that's what it was That's the amount That you've asked me and richard geppard to hold on to so that this is the amount they wanted above They can't have it. They have to operate at the same level. They were doing it last year And but this is the amount that we're being told by the departments That's the amount we need just to keep up with everything that's been going up lately And we can't accommodate that because they have to stay within that number of last year home graph Here hold on I gotta turn you on so people can hear you On the on the 2007 general fund budget adjustment The the library and the transit are not in there at all This is just on the general fund. Okay We will be getting a sheet on the On the what the library came in at and what the transit came in at or they are separate funds so they would have Separate appropriation requests. Okay, so we will get a sheet on that tonight in this packet Not in tonight's packet. No They was part of the Our role that came in was was the total most of us on there. I realized it was not detail Generally, you receive the detail after the mayor's review Submitted, you know the first meeting in october Uh at that level But uh this of course what we're focusing on here is the situation within the general fund Which I think you know the mayor Stated here that with the shared revenues Frozen with the tax levy also frozen with the wheel tax dropping A combination is that we net out at a revenue decrease And um, we have obviously A lot of cost drivers that we'll be looking at in a couple minutes That are increasing costs And basically the difference between those two is what we're asking the departments to adjust their budgets within that fund Now this is the main operating fund But it does total 33 million But all the funds for the city are around 80 million. So yes, they're all of other funds, but they Do have other revenue sources and in some cases like the utilities But the library and transit. Yes, they are dependent on the tax levy also as well as the debt service fund So But what we're addressing here right now is basically what we What the departments were given uh departments in the general fund were given Last week to present this week Thank you Mr. President sort of thank you. Your honor These numbers aren't always easily Understood or translated into how it's going to impact our community And you had mentioned too as older persons how we need to provide an answer to the community how Services may be compromised I I will have a suggestion um because as older persons we are first seeing this tonight for the very first time Is there any possible way that we could have the department head? Heads come to us maybe committee of the whole and just provide Some answers in terms of how this will impact their department Some of the um things that the the public might need to be aware of like you said Maybe they won't be responded to as quickly. Is that possible? Yes, it is. I Is uh mr. Gephard said starting Wednesday I will mr. Gephard and I will be meeting with every department head with respect to their budget Requests so to speak and then what we need to do to make those adjustments to stay within the zero percent increase in the levy At that point they will either have they will either have made a decision as to how they're going to comply with that resolution Or come back later in a future date once they do that We can always call another meeting and have them tell you that because you're correct There there's no specificity as far as how many how many uh How many days uh Less are we going to cut their grass and we did last year last year We cut them 30 times out of the year this this time is going to be 20 So we don't have that and may may not be that easy to translate, but you'll you will have a better idea Thank you your honor I just wanted to take issue with the um comments that are being made that just because we're in a budget crunch That means we have to decrease service to the citizens I think it gives us the opportunity to look at the way we're doing business And identify ways where we can start doing things differently If that means we need to take a little piece of the business and outsource it to a private firm You know that's something that we could look at because if we possibly outsource some of the things that the city does We actually could maybe improve the service that we're currently giving to the citizens So right away politicians like to put on a hat that says we're going to cut services We're going to cut services and I disagree I think we need to start looking at doing things differently You know for example the majority the work that public works does is done during the summertime Why don't we have you know 300 people working in the summertime and only 75 people working in the winter or something I'm just using extreme numbers But keeping full time people in some of these positions year round That's not serving the best interests of the taxpayers And I think it gives us the opportunity to just start looking at ways of doing things differently And I encourage department heads to do that and also if alderman have suggestions Let's pass them on to the mayor. So maybe we can incorporate some some new thinking Anybody else Okay And again, we weren't we weren't going to resolve all our problems tonight The ones that we do have because we do have a lot of good things happen in the city also But we wanted to give you An opportunity to see some of the activity that's going on Some of the concerns that are going to be generated and some of the challenges that you're going to face as an alderman And as a common counsel because people will call you they will write you letters And they will give you their two cents worth and then you need to be prepared for that The next chart that I want to talk about is the city of shibuya and original budgets Now keep in mind it says major departments. So when you look at major departments, we have police public works fire library and parks And this is what has been designated as major departments before I even came here myself But it's important to to see the trend Since 1996 206, which gives you a A bird's eye view so to speak of the 10 year activity that has occurred in every major department for example Has money has money been appropriated a little heavier in one department than the other or have they all been done? Fair and equitably and so forth and you can see from the activity that there's been a variance And as when I did my budget sessions throughout the community one of the things that I that I made Wanted to make very clear is that we only have so much money To appropriate when you take some money from some area and appropriate it somewhere else It's going to create a vacuum somewhere and it's going to somebody somewhere is going to take a hit And the best illustration of that that I can give you if you look at this blue line That blue line represents police And you can see it increasingly going all the way up So historically within a 10-year period at least The major department the police department has been doing rather well. It's gone up They have not been suffering Decreases in their budget as a major department Whereas I just mentioned that happens usually somebody takes a hit So if you look at the next line, which is a pink and it's very difficult for the public to see it But it starts here and it goes this way down up down and then slightly curving up That's where the activities occur and that creates the the decrease there Where you hear people saying well, we've lost so many employees and the public works And quite frankly they have but there's a reason for that and the reason is when you appropriate money in another area You got to take it from somewhere else and a lot of that has been taken out of there Not just necessarily there but mostly there The next one is fire and you can see again going here all the way consistently going up Now you compare the police and fire those two lines and look think back on the on the chart that I just showed you More than half of our budget goes to public protection and safety. So that makes sense That shows you within a 10-year period There's been hardly any deviation going downward the deviation has been going upward Which means they've been getting more money than any other major department You look at the the next would be the the library And the parks the parks took a little hit there But they've been pretty consistent, which is where even where now where the library is Which is where we're at with the 90 19 thousand dollar difference to maintain that maintenance of effort level That's where we're at. So it gives you Again a a a sketch of what's going on an idea what's going on within a 10-year period as to how money has been allocated to the major departments Now before I before I go further You'll hear you'll hear comments like well, we're we're missing Three people we're five people short. We're six people short. We don't have five people We're supposed to have five more a lot of that is happening because although They don't have them that's true But what's happening is they're still in the to they're still in the table of organization They just never been filled so it's easy to make the argument We're six people short because they're still in the art table of organization This is why all of the sushi and the salary and grievance salary grievances committee took the effort of Doing a little study about where exactly people are the departments are with respect to the To the table of organizations for and what I mean by that if you have 30 people in one department And they're still in to and for the last five years. There's only been 25 Well, we're five short. Yeah for the last five years But you've hadn't had them for the last five years But you're short because you can refer back to the to and say we don't have them now In the final chart and ritual will Close the presentation Is the uh The oh seven general fund appropriation requests. This is this is what's been requested As we stand now, this is what we have to deal with with the uh with the departments These are the oh seven requests and that's what we have to how do we make that adjustment to the zero percent increase in the Levy if you look at here More than one of the wages here And we've got the the pension which is 12 percent and social security that's allocated to that insurance utilities motor vehicle Uh other contractual services commodities other expenses and a little bit in contingencies and the capital outlay would be 2% Usually capital outlay. We've been talking for the several years Police squad cars. That's what we've been dealing with But the wages is 54 in that area there This is what's being requested now in oh seven as opposed to staying within the oh six Appropriation, okay Rich thank you, ma'am On page 11. It's basically the numbers that are behind this chart The chart is a kind of a summary of all these numbers So we kind of want to give you both looks on there one to see it in a chart basis and the other to give you more detailed information And we tried to break this apart by the different types of wages regular overtime And you can see there overall the wages are increasing 2.7 percent and this is a combination of the past labor contracts and the future Steps and longevity payments that would be made in oh seven But the there were increases in in the oh five and oh six contracts that affected what is The wages of the current employees here at this time Then the uh, wisconsin retirement the rates went up slightly And uh, then with social security, uh, the total increase is about three percent with the health benefit going up Six and a half percent the overall insurance benefits around six percent And so overall wages and benefits are increasing about 3.4 percent in total and you can see it They're at 29 million that's a million dollar increase. So that's for The substantial portion of the increases at On contractual services, uh, broke apart the utilities of natural gas and electric and gasoline and you can see what how energy is affecting the budget and About 21 increase for the utility group about 210 thousand dollars as an increase And overall Contractual services are about nine percent increase the motor vehicle rental. That's the public works vehicles that are used Mainly in public works, but also in some of the other departments and they're rented on a monthly or hourly basis The large portion of that increase also is related to energy in the commodities, uh, they're pretty well stable Um, and we got some the other expenses on insurance and also are stable Um contingency, uh, I adjusted that by a half percent down to Adjusted ahead of time in the capital as we talked about before Uh, it would have to be adjusted down So overall on the general fund budget, we're looking at about a five percent increase and again the 1.6 million dollars That we would have to address Any questions on that Thank you, this is regarding the salary contingency fund when you talk about wages and benefits Those are just step increases and the the increases that are driven by the cost to us That does not include money for any reasons. Is that correct? There is an increase for wages and the related benefits equal to about the same level as we had in the o5 and o6 Budgets, so they're it's around the same level. So our salary contingency fund that is about it at one and a half percent Equating to about that. Yes again. Yeah, it's it's driven by half percent appropriation But it's we're keeping again stable as far as we can We can't go farther than that and we didn't go under that idea Any other questions again if you look at the o6 approved budget, which is what you've asked that every department stays within And the request that pretty much reflects The ordinary reoccurring expenses as they increase every single year and you can pretty much expect them to go up again next year and As rich kepphardt said you're looking at a five percent increase and we can pretty much expect that again next year The point again being that our expenditures far exceed in a fast pace The revenue that we're locked into now and that's what creates this whole problem Paulman born Thank you. Thank you your honor Rich I noticed On the increases or decreases you had three areas of substantial savings. The first one was under telephone The seven seventy one hundred dollar savings are eight point five percent The next one was other under Office supplies and substantial savings of fourteen thousand dollars or ten point seven percent And then also under other expenses and eighty six thousand Dollar savings or fifteen point nine percent. Can you just give the council an idea of how those savings were achieved? I probably would have to do a little further study on those and They weren't you know, the relatively large dollar amounts. I didn't go any further in that There you know, it can be a combination on telephone. I know there is In some of the departments there was a trend to use more cell phones, which I didn't really Take as a separate line. Maybe it is a separate line in the budget, but I didn't pick that up on here To break that out of separate analysis Um The office supplies I really can't speak to that You know, I guess I would have to go through which see which departments are decreasing and try to to look at that Is there any sharing of services there with the county and office supplies or is that strictly a city savings? That's strictly with the city. There is some sharing with the county when it comes to printing Which is maybe a part of that we use their utilizer print shop Which helps us like with envelopes and stationery in some of those areas But we've done that through the years. So I don't think that that's a you know change for all seven The other one that's hefty is other expenses. That's 80 86 thousand dollars 15.9 savings And again, I can research that and get it to you. I did queries on our database on this but I really you know Don't have those printouts with me right now to be able to identify that. Thank you Thank you Thank you your honor Looking at this budget and we're hoping and we're we're going to Not have a tax increase on the levy for the citizens of shabuagan because we just cannot do that I'm glad you'll be talking to the department heads and They can certainly they know in their departments where they can be more efficient And that's going to have to they're going to have to let us know where they can be more efficient And maybe by reorganization or whatever, but they certainly know which parts cannot be Decreased and which parts even though it won't be pleasant can be decreased It's important to note That what What's happening here Although very very unpleasant Is not a reflection of what the council has done or not done. It's a reflection of Things that are occurring at least in my mind for the most part up at the top at the state level A lot of the activity is going on up there is being pushed down the funnel through us And we're having to react to it and it's also important to note that we're not unique Lots and lots of cities throughout the state of wisconsin. I haven't even bothered to look beyond wisconsin I'm afraid to they're having the same problems themselves. They're all having to get more efficient more creative and redefining a lot of how Government is operated on a daily basis Because when times are good Things sort of came together to reflect good times when times are bad We haven't gotten together to make those adjustments to reflect the bad times They were confronted with now and that's your challenge And you have to do that at least in my mind the way I want to do it in this fair and equitable manner where everybody is well balanced so and not one department takes ahead bigger than the other Because sooner or later that department were dwindling dwindling away and that's very important to keep in mind at home graph Thank you your honor rich I know we as a council said we should have a zero percent increase as far as taxes go but If we needed to What would be the maximum tax increase that we could have With Following the guidelines that the state has set Isn't there a certain amount of tax increase that that you could have Because what I don't want to see I don't want to see that you know, we we go with zero this year and then next year We're going to be More dollars short if we'd have a small increase this year To curtail some larger increase in future years We've got to look at that too. So I'm just wondering what what tax increase could we have? To follow with the state guidelines First of all to clarify the state has established the levy limit For two years was on the o6 and the o7 budgets There's no legislation right now in place for beyond o7 The there's a combination of factors and within that levy limit one Well, there's a minimum of the two percent Levy increase Or the amount of growth that you have in your new construction and What we anticipate is probably because this is based on 2005 construction and we probably won't exceed that two percent. So that'll probably be our base Beyond that there's adjustments that relate to your debt service And it's a little bit strange because it's not really Tied to what you really need to put on the levy. It's tied to your overall debt Excuse me And last year that was a problem because of this our situation that we had to be able to get our needs on the levy for the debt service This year since we Uh the council Issued the bonds in place of the bond anticipation notes And the state did not recognize the bond anticipation notes as debt even though there was like 37 million that we had altered But now they do recognize that that is bonds. They give us much more capacity so From my calculations that i've done so far looks like the you know, the council could go as high as like eight percent in total Obviously the council would not approach that So it's similar for 2007 is is not having a levy limit You know, so the council wishes to go three four five percent whatever It appears that you have that authority to do that But it is an unknown for the years beyond that and that is a valid concern We we don't know Who's going to be you know governor coming up or even if the governor doils in there whether or not You know what will come out of the legislature um and So It's yeah, it is definitely an unknown It's definitely a concern. I guess you know from People like myself from my positions to seem see home rule deteriorating in the state of wisconsin and the decisions are being made in Madison and not in the council chambers, but I guess that's something we have to live with Thank you anybody else President part Yes, so thank you your honor How much carryover money once the books were closed from 2005 to 2006 in other words once we closed the books What did we carry over from 2005 to 2006? And a secondary question given that we are now three quarters of the way through the year in terms of our expenditures How does that look uh for carryover money from 2006 to 2007? Assuming we spend that approximate at the same rate Oh, excuse me at the end of 2005 the general fund had a Undesignated fund balance of 5,187,000 There also was designated fund balances of 4 million for working capital And 750,000 which really was the amount that we applied to the next year's budget for the for the old six budget and Another reserve for subsequent years expenditures of 567,000 which were more as purchase orders or contracts that we had So in total you're looking at 13.4 million But again the 4 million of that is is designated as working capital, which means that Again with going back to to the state they do not really Pay us dollars in the first half of the year. It's always in the second half of the year The majority of the money that we receive from them Um about 10 million dollars For the shared revenues is received in mid november So we need operating funds to get through the year to make payroll the pay the payables And generally the auditors agreed and and encouraged us to put the designation in a 4 million because we had to recognize that we need that to To pay the bills during the course of the year and cash flow basis um the other is um That and we worked with the finance committee on this and obviously our investment banker Carol worth it is before the council, but uh We also are trying to maintain a fund balance so that we can maintain our bond rating We're a double A rated city, but if you take all the double A rated cities in wisconsin And you look on on a wealth basis of income of Property values per person We're at the bottom. You know, we don't have the wealth here The one thing that keeps us the double A rated is our financial statements And if those drop, you know where the bond rating would go Um, so it's important to to realize that and keep it in tact that does save the Citizens dollars because it is a lower interest rate by keeping that bond rating In the in the past the uh the council and most councils the county who've done it have done it themselves Is they they fill their hole the budget the budget the hole in the budget with the reserve funds? That's pretty soon. You start start Getting in trouble pretty quickly with your bond rating and the operating expenses We have next uh, almond mire. Thank you your honor. Um, I guess my concern is um Where is the money for the new police station going to come from and where is the money to operate the new police station Going to come from We're barely able to operate everything fully now I guess i'm rather concerned about that without increasing our taxes The funding for the contract to construct the Play station would be coming from 20 year bonds Uh be tax exempt general obligation bonds, which means it's backed by the tax levy We had discussions this evening In the finance committee with carol worth of rbc dain of looking at the projections of of the death service Initially here she was looking at it as as basically what was the recommendations of the capital improvements commission at the eight million dollars And all the 3.9 million for city hall and and the other capital improvements financing needs She also will be looking at What the How to structure it or what the challenges would be by increasing that The finance committee asked for that incrementally by a million dollars and going up to 12 and a half million So she'll do that during this next week. Um, as far as the operating cost. I think that's really a major concern I don't I think right now it's going to be very difficult to address Not knowing what the future state legislation is going to be on tax levies And we can assume shared revenues probably is not going to have much growth in the future, but The other question is what is the council's ability to raise the levy to be able to fund those operating increases And so it is an unknown at this point Thank you I've been the finance committee and and i've been seeing these numbers for three months now rich some of it and um So it's not new to me. Uh, I think one of the concerns I have is that We've expected express it again tonight that the city of shabuagan is really not growing You know by leaps and bounds but our obligations to each other as a city Are growing just because of energy increases and other factors in the economy which are beyond us It is a sobering to think to think about the fact that so much of our Services are put on the taxpayer the taxpayer. We don't have a growing manufacturing base We don't have a growing commercial base That can bring in a big box for taxes and so it's becoming more and more of a burden for Just the average taxpayer I'm concerned about that how we can Somehow meet all those obligations with less resources It is a challenge. Yes. I think that's what we're going to be discussing this week In the mayor's office with each one of the departments And I think we're going to find it a challenge in each department Unfortunately a lot of that's also political. It has to be worked out politically A little higher up and then it can come down to us This is why you hear phrases like unfunded mandates And you hear about things that we are compelled to do And we're supposed to find the money at the same time and it's it's it gets very difficult Next we have Alderman Hanna Thank you mayor And I just really wanted to follow up and confirm All the person claims his concerns. I mean tonight in finance We sat there and listened to some very legitimate needs from the department of water We've got an infrastructure that's 50 plus years old That we need to make serious capital commitments to going forward As I as I said in finance, it's just it's a shame that all these pressing needs seem to be coming in on us right now We've got a police department that arguably You know has a has a need that hasn't been met for 20 plus years And again, we can't ignore that And then I agree with you mayor that so much of this is political and we need to make sure that All the information is out front for the citizens understand That we certainly aren't mean spirited when we go through this process We have limited resources And we're continually making judgments We have to just like the department heads have to prioritize their budgets We have to prioritize at this level And I'm hoping in madison they're doing some sort of prioritization, but We can only control what we can control Good point I'll move on Thank you your honor Just to follow up a little bit on what alderman hanna was saying I remember a few years ago when the post office was having some financial difficulties And where did they cut the if they had if the shabuigan post office had three windows open for people to go up and buy stamps They cut it back the one window And of course that's noticed right away by the public as a great hardship I would I would encourage You and mr. Gebhart when you're talking to the department heads To try to make this as painless For the citizens as possible in other words Let's try not to cut the woman The woman's hours that where the citizens are going for building permits or whatever permits Let's try to keep the the city clerk's office as accessible as possible for people that have to go up and do Work with the with the city clerk. So Let's try to make the cuts where it's going to be have the the least impact on the citizens in the in our in the Daily business that they do with the city. Thank you The challenge is not a pleasant one and it's not one that's that's new to us or to anybody else, but we have I don't want to see The day when people have to lose their jobs I mean people need a job and they they depend that that's their livelihood I think that would be the worst thing for me to do is to even recommend anything like that But at the other end you have the community who's saying we cannot afford to pay you anymore We just cannot so you have to strike a balance between that And the need of how many employees or what kind of a structure an organization or we're going to have to still be able to maintain the delivery Of our basic services to the community that they pay for it quite frankly Expect and deserve so the challenge is how do we strike that balance on one end? people don't want us to Charge them any money so to speak if I can make it that simple on the other end We've got services we need to to provide and we're expected to provide but they cost more and we're getting now so Not an easy task. You will be challenged. I will be challenged. Believe me This is not the first time I talk about you you've heard me for the last year and a half and Richard and I talk about it just about every day. So it's not gonna be easy Alderman sushia Thank you your honor Again, I just want to build off of what alderman born said You know at the post office if they closed a couple windows One of the new developments there is they put in a machine that sold stamps They're doing something differently. Perhaps now they are down one employee And that's something that the city needs to to look at it is time to downsize Maybe combine some positions maybe not refill positions When people retire But then again, maybe it's time to expand in some other areas to improve customer service to the community And I challenge everyone to just start looking at how can we do things differently? You know, are there possibilities where we could put in something like a stamp dispensing machine like the post office did and that would You know fulfill a need and perhaps eliminate a job So I just challenge people to keep their minds open and look at everything possible because I think we can still maintain service Possibly improve service by maintaining a balanced budget. Thanks I want to ask alderman rehearsal to speak but keep in mind I think that's a good point alderman sushia that to keep an open mind And objective mind because you're going to hear arguments where people are going to come to you and say Why are they taking this away? What do they have against this particular person or department? It's not what it's about folks. What it's about is how do we realize cost savings to the community and make our government more efficient And more effectively that's the bottom line. Nobody's against anybody. Nobody's after anybody it's cost savings to the taxpayer And effective and efficient government alderman were hassled. Thank you your honor I just wanted to reiterate what alderman sushia and alderman born are trying to say here and I agree 100% is that I hope the focus going into your discussions with the department heads over the next week is not so much Of where we're going to cut services as it relates to the money that we're cutting from them I think the challenge should be is how can we hold on to the services that we have and be more creative With the money that we're going to be giving here in 07 I mean because to assume that every dollar cut is going to mean a cut in services assumes Also that we're extremely efficient as we are already And I'd like to assume that we've got some pretty good department heads here in the city of shabuagon and that Perhaps they could get more from less here in 07. So Thank you Alderman Ryan Thank you, mr. Mayor I I do agree with uh alderman sushia And and most all the other other alderman hear that the last thing that we want to do as a council is to eliminate Positions to eliminate jobs. Uh, I think there is some room to Through attrition through retirement in the future that we can save money on Wages on benefits Through attrition and through retirement not through elimination of positions um, also, I think Our department heads are very much Competent and capable of coming up with their own solutions On how they have to meet The restrictions that are imposed upon them. I think they're much more capable than we are of Knowing their departments and knowing where they can cut and where they can't cut And I think if there is an open line of communication between the department heads and the council Uh, possibly, uh This poll issue can be worked out with the least amount of bloodshed Thank you And that's why the department heads will start meeting with me on wednesday to figure out exactly where they want to make that decision It'll be their decision not mine and not a rich care part. That's a good point. Alderman rand anything else Not oh, okay. All right. Thank you, mr. Mayor. I just want to echo the sentiment I mean, we've got a lot of good employees in the city as well as department heads And I'd encourage every city employee if you see something someplace At a process that we can become more efficient on To approach any one of us the mayor the dear department head your supervisor whichever because We're all in this thing together and I mean we're not i'm not here to fight any one of you I'm here to work with all of you people And the citizens as well to make sure that we get the bottom line taken care of here But it takes every single one of us to do that all 500 and some other employees of the city it needs all of us to do this and Every voice will be heard just if you have an idea bring it forward to whomever you need to so that we can work with that because Frankly, I mean department heads can come up with this But I still think the rank and file down at the bottom really knows where the efficiencies can be found Because they're the guys who are really out in the trenches dealing with it every single day of the week And they can bring it up into their management ranks and let them know the past set up the ranks So we we hear it here and we can you know minimize some of the impact. Thank you Okay, I'll turn it over again to any further questions. Okay, president burke. Vice president serda Do we have a motion to adjourn? Motion and several seconds All in favor say aye We stand adjourned