Evers’ budget to boost state aid to local governments

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Wisconsin’s governor plans to release his budget Wednesday and hopes a greater portion of state dollars will address local needs, like public safety services.

Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, tweeted Sunday that his budget will send 20 percent of the state’s sales tax revenue back to cities and municipalities, marking the largest increase in aid in decades.

The message mirrors his announcement in last month’s State of the State address. “This commitment will ensure our communities will see growth in shared revenue in the future after years of state investment not keeping up with our communities’ needs,” he said. “And it means more than half a billion dollars more per year in new resources to invest in key priorities...”

Shared revenue refers to state dollars given to local governments without a specific purpose or any strings attached. It’s a state practice that dates back to 1911, a paper by the nonpartisan agency Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) explained.

For example, the City of Monona got about $130,000 in shared revenue annually for the last five years, according to the latest operational budget.

The LFB also wrote in its paper that the biggest part of shared revenue (known as county and municipal aid) has stayed flat for the last 10 years, and some point to the challenges that have resulted.

“For many years now the link between the state revenue growth and the budget for Shared Revenue has been broken,” Andrew Reschovsky, a UW-Madison professor emeritus of public affairs and applied economics, wrote to NBC15. “Municipal and county governments are facing increasing budgetary pressure because of rising costs of providing public services combined with strict property tax levy limits and a declining share of state aid.”

Monona Fire Chief Jeremy McMullen explained, “Due to the levy limits that we’re currently working under, [and] being a landlocked community, we don’t have a lot of new construction to be able to raise that levy limit. So shared revenue is a big portion of how the city gets funded on an annual basis.”

Funding matters to him as he continues to tackle his “biggest concern” of staffing. It affects benefits and pay, and he notes how competitive it is to recruit new staff.

Chief McMullen hopes to see the governor’s budget, including its shared revenue plan, pass. “It means that we can actually do what we need to do going forward,” he said.

Once Evers’ budget is released Wednesday, the Legislature’s finance committee will revise it before sending it to the Senate and Assembly for approval. From there, the budget returns to Evers, and he can rewrite it using his partial veto powers.

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