 Okay, it's six o'clock. I would like to call the Committee of the Whole meeting to order. Alderman Hanna, will you please take the roll? Born. Here. Foulk. Excused. Guesha. Excused. Heidemann. Here. Kittlesen. Here. Cleyunus. Here. Manny. Here. Meyer. Here. Montemure. Here. Rindflash. Here. Van der Wiel. Here. Verhasen. Here. Wongerman. Unexcused. Thank you, Alderman Hanna, Men. Heidemann. Yeah, I know. Too many. Hanna, will you all please rise as we say the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Moving on to number four on our agenda will be communication number 4708, document 1425, from October 15th, 2007. It's a submitting a communication from older person Jim Born regarding an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel entitled, Taxes Are Killing Us, It's Time to Reinvent Government. Alderman Born, would you? I'll make a motion to file and then if we go into discussion if there's a second. We have a motion and a second to file under discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair. I brought this article forward back in October and in October it was kind of timely because at the time the article was in the Journal Sentinel, the city was in the process of reviewing its employee health plan for 2008. The gentleman that wrote the article is Bill Nazgovicz. He's the President of Heartland Advisors Incorporated, a Milwaukee-based investment management firm. And what motivated him to write the article was a report that came out from the Wisconsin Taxpayers' Alliance and the gist of the article was that I'll just read part of it. Wisconsin Taxpayers' Alliance has left me so discouraged I felt compelled to make a prediction. If we don't act boldly to reform the way our public sector spends money, Wisconsin will see an accelerating flight of talent and capital. And I also might add probably also retirees choosing to retire elsewhere. The report reveals that our state and local government employees receive health insurance, pensions, and other benefits worth 50% more than those of their counterparts in the private sector. While the typical employee working for a business had annual benefits worth $8,109 in 2005, the typical government employee got a package worth $12,171. And that richer benefit package is not offset by lower pay. In the vast majority of government jobs, salaries are virtually the same as the private sector, with some public sector workers like those involved in health care or education making up to 40% more than their private sector counterparts. We're talking huge money here. If public sector spending on benefits were at the private sector level, our state and local governments would be saving close to $2 billion by now. Incidentally, the structural deficit for the 2009 state budget, depending on whose math you believe, is now between $900 million and $2.3 billion. So, you know, that $2 billion that state and local governments would be saving with more competitive benefit packages would go a long way to closing that deficit. And also, the problem is only getting worse. Benefit costs have been rising almost 20% faster in Wisconsin's public sector than in the private sector, according to the Alliance report. And I'm really happy to see that the city of Sheboygan, when the health insurance committee was meeting, has taken steps to save the city taxpayers if all goes well with the wellness program, about $1.2 million in health care costs for 2008. I also want to thank Alderperson Kittleson and the wellness committee for their efforts to get the wellness program up and running for city employees. It's crucial that we have a huge buy-in by city employees to hopefully realize the $1.2 million in potential savings. Also, in the next contract negotiations, which are a ways off yet, the city will need to have their employees pay a greater portion of their health care insurance premiums that reflects more of what the private sector is paying. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Just for our common knowledge, when I came on the council back in 01, I picked up a report that was a statewide report, and basically that report summarized accelerating costs in the state over the previous 10 years. And there were three driving factors behind those increases that were beyond the inflation rate. They dealt with the cost of our roads. We have more miles of paved roadway per citizen than any other state in the union. I don't know if we all know that, but as a biker, I love it as a citizen we pay for it. Secondarily, prisons and their costs, they accelerated incredibly in that decade, ending at about 2000. And the third factor was schools. In that report, they also noted that a key differential between ourselves and the sister state, Minnesota, in the costs of government, noted that they have many fewer governmental units than we do. Thus, we're duplicating costs in many ways beyond what our sister state is. So just for our public knowledge, those were conclusions from about 2001. Thank you. Any further discussion? Alderman Berhassel. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to concur. I think it was an excellent article, and I think it's something we all should keep on our desk all year long. In my firsthand experience, I've got a number of neighbors in my neighborhood who are moving out. And the sole reason unsolicited is because of the taxes, the cost of living here in the city of Sheboygan. Again, it's unsolicited information coming towards me. So I think that just pounds it home for me. Many of you have talked to me about taxes, realized that I've presented studies that the city of, I believe it was Kenosha put out, they do an annual study, and Sheboygan consistently ranks in the top one, two, three, or four. The most recent study puts us at number one for the highest tax burden on our citizens here in Sheboygan County area. And again, that includes all the taxing entities, not just the city, but it's something to keep in perspective. I think as government officials, sometimes we shield ourselves from the true pain that exists out there, whereas a private entity feels the pain they have to react in some fashion. And being an ultimate now for the last year and a half, I don't get that same sense, and it's not a criticism. I think that's part of the government system, but I just want to point that out. I think the difference between the private sector and the governmental sectors, I think we need to react when things get tight, truly react. And some of the things that we've done here in the last six months with healthcare and so on, I think are good examples of that. I think we just need to keep doing that, and keep doing that, and keep doing that time after time. Thanks. Thank you. Olderperson Kittleson. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Just to let people know that our Wellness Committee is meeting every Friday at 9 o'clock, and we've been making some really good progress. I just want to let everyone know that it is a work in progress. It's going to take some time because there's so much information, so many pieces to put together to all of this, but it's very, very exciting, and I think it's very doable, and something that, as Olderperson Bourne says, that everyone will need to buy into, but I think they will be able to buy into. We're going to make it a workable program and a fun program, and something that is the way of the future. Companies are going that way to help lower insurance costs, and we have to look at it. It is the way of the future, so just know that we're here and working very hard to get that program off and running. Thank you. Thank you, Olderperson Kittleson, and I do agree that this is the wave of the future. Not only is this a change in mindset for employees, and like you said in the private sector, a lot of companies are going to these wellness programs also, and not only will it be a cost savings to the insurance companies and the city, it will also be a benefit to the employees because they will become healthier, and their lives will be better. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion to file? Say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Moving on to item number five, RO number 439-0708, Council documents 1823 by City Clerk from December 17, 2007, submitting a communication from Olderperson Jim Bourne along with an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel entitled, Church Has a Gift for City. And would you care to make a motion on this? I'll make a motion to file, Madam Chair. Second. We have a motion and a second to file. Under discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair. This article was in the Journal Sentinel back a couple of months ago, and back about two years ago, Mayor Tom Barrett in Milwaukee sent out an appeal to the nonprofit community in Milwaukee to ask for them to make some voluntary contributions in lieu of taxes to help fund some of their city services like fire protection, police protection, and public work services. And this went out to the hospitals, the senior housing committee, the benevolent senior housing community, the YMCA's, and also churches. And after two years, the people that have stepped up to the plate to make contributions, with the exception of just a couple, have been churches in Milwaukee. And this article refers to Emmanuel Presbyterian Church who sent the city of Milwaukee an unsolicited check for $2,500. Now, the reason, you know, that I think this is kind of interesting is that not only, well, in Milwaukee and all over Wisconsin, you have nonprofit hospitals that are multi-multi-million-dollar operations. And here, a church and probably a small congregation takes the initiative to send the city of Milwaukee $2,500. The ones that have been stepping up to the plate down in Milwaukee are probably the nonprofits that at least can afford to do it. But yet, when they got this letter from the mayor, they took it upon themselves to scrape up some money and send it to the city of Milwaukee. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the city of Sheboygan got an unsolicited check from one of the hospitals here in Sheboygan for $100,000 and say, we really appreciate the fire police and public services that you're providing. Why don't you use this to fund a couple of police officers or a couple of paramedics or buy a couple of some new equipment for Mr. Bittner's Public Works Department? These are the heavy hitters, but unfortunately, they're not stepping up to the plate. Now, give you a couple of examples of larger nonprofits who are helping out their communities, a thriving financial, which used to be aid association for Lutherans. I'm not sure they may have moved their corporate office up to Minneapolis, but when they were in Appleton for years, they were paying the city of Appleton $350,000 to $450,000 a year in lieu of taxes just to be good corporate citizens. And they didn't have to really do that. They were a benevolent insurance organization. The Indian tribe that runs the casino up in Green Bay has been paying the village of Ashwabanan around $400,000 a year for the last number of years, again, to fund the services up there for the village, the fire, the police, and the public works. Our city assessor, David Lutsky, is in the process of reviewing the tax-exempt status of Sheboygan's tax-exempt properties. Many of the property tax exemptions are decades old, and they really haven't been looked at. And the review that Mr. Lutsky is doing will determine whether the tax-exempt organization still qualify for a four-partial exemption. Now, don't get me wrong, the churches and all of the rest of the nonprofits do wonderful, wonderful work in the communities. But to give you an example, these are state statistics. The average hospital in the state of Wisconsin contributes between 1% and 3% of their total patient revenue, which is multimillion dollars, between 1% and 3% of their total revenue to charitable care in the community. Now, some question whether 1% or 3% of total patient revenue really should qualify a hospital for a total property tax exemption. But so far in Wisconsin, the legislature has not seen fit to means test a property tax exemption. In other words, is a nonprofit doing at least the amount of good in the community as what they would if they were paying taxes on that property. So that's something that I've been working behind the scenes on for many years after serving on a legislative council committee back in the late 80s and early 90s to try to have state government means test some of these property tax exemptions. Again, many of these nonprofits do excellent work in the community, but especially some of the big ones like the hospitals and the YMCA's are they really doing enough. So that's why I brought it forward just to bring to light the fact that we have hundreds of exempt properties and is a Choi Boygen and if we were getting something from these nonprofits, it would certainly make it a lot easier at budget time to try to balance our budget or to do a little more for the police department fire protection or the public works department. Thanks. Thank you. Any further discussion? Need none? All in favor of a motion to file? Lee, aye. And I believe that puts us down to item number six, which I would like a motion to adjourn. So move. So the motion was taken to adjourn all in favor. Aye. Thank you for coming.