News

City budget bleak now, worse in 2010

By ROD STETZER
rod.stetzer@lee.net
Saturday, November 29, 2008 8:05 AM CST

No parks will be closing in Chippewa Falls next year. The grass will still be mowed on city land. The city’s transit program will keep picking up senior citizens to do their daily chores.

That’s next year.

But in 2010, Ron Singel isn’t sure what’s going to happen to Chippewa Falls city services, except that some may well disappear.

The city administrator for Chippewa Falls expects coming up with a balanced city budget for 2010 will be more difficult.

“We can only look at a 2 percent (tax levy) increase when everything else is falling around our heads,” Singel said this week, referring to state caps on spending by local municipalities.

More employees are doing multiple tasks. Singel said city services will go into decline with fewer staff, and the city will have to determine which service it can continue to perform.

And Singel said the city expects state cuts in money it gives the city for revenue sharing and transit.

That’s next year. Singel said coming up with the 2009 proposed city budget was difficult on its own.

“We went into this budget with about an $885,000 gap between spending and revenues. It is one of the toughest budgets I’ve ever worked with.”

He pieced together the budget with city Finance Director Lynne Bauer, Mayor Greg Hoffman and council members.

“It’s pretty grim and it’s across the board,” Singel said of cuts that were made to the budget, which will have a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

Under the proposed budget, spending of $11,959,007 will increase 1.53 percent from the 2008 figure of $11,778,824. But that figure is tentative and the council may well change it on Tuesday.

Singel said the 2009 budget calls for a full-time janitor’s job to be axed, along with a mechanic’s position in the street department. Singel said the city’s library has been asked to cut $73,000 from its budget, and that could be with staff or another expenditure.

The Parks and Recreation Department asked for $90,000 in capital spending and wound up with $2,000 to $3,000.

City contributions were reduced to the Main Street program, the Chippewa County Housing Authority’s Vision Program and the Chippewa Falls Senior Center.

The Chippewa County Economic Development agency wanted $20,000 of city money and wound up with $15,000 under the proposed budget.

Singel said the budget projected a 15 percent rise in the health benefits of city workers, an 8 percent increase in electricity and 10 percent hike for natural gas.

Guessing what fuel costs will be is a crap shoot, Singel said, but he’s estimating a 10-20 percent hike.

“We’re guessing it’s going back up,” he said of gas.

“The utilities are killing us and the fuel is killing us,” Singel said.

The police department wanted to get two new squad cars and will instead get one, he said.

And the city restructured some of its debt to get the budget in alignment.

PLEASE NOTE:

Comments on stories that are updated may disappear with each update. The comments above are from readers. In no way do they represent the views of the Chippewa Herald.

COMMENTS:

momofmany wrote on Dec 2, 2008 1:18 PM:

" omnipotent: I couldn't have said it better myself!!! You hit the nail right on the head!!! "

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Omnipotent wrote on Dec 2, 2008 6:51 AM:

" When an elected leader does stand up to the governemnt unions and he or she and their families are unmercifully attacked by their henchmen lawyers and fanatical members, where are all of you cut and combine people then? No where to be found! These kindly union members are comprised of your brothers, cousins, and next door neighbors, and they are laughing all the way to a comfortable and early retirement compared to you! Obama was their man because his brand of big government socialism will make the government unions even more powerful. You people complaining about wasteful government have not seen anything yet! The worse is yet to come and all you'll do is complain on some web site blog. How about praticing what you preach and take a turn in the batterr's box? Run for local office and see how much fun it can be dealing with these filthy greedy union types. "

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reader wrote on Nov 30, 2008 8:37 AM:

" Perhaps our city leaders along with those in the county and surrounding townships will look at combing all or part of services to see a savings in tax dollars.

Street/highway workers
Police/fire/ambulance
Public works

and who know where else.

Does the park have its own equipment and the street department also? Does this apply to the county and villages also? Take a look at the big picture, get rid of the home town pride and look at budgets and taxes.

Freeze wages, more benefits paid by the workers, the list goes on.

This can also apply to scholls and everything else. Time to suck it up and cut where it can be done, combine where it can be done (look at the whole picture, don't just listen to the naysayers).

Sure it hurst, but common sense and fiancial problems must be dealt with.

Good luck to our leaders to come up with some hard but needed decisions. "

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This Guy wrote on Nov 29, 2008 5:32 PM:

" Who saw this coming? Yet everyone will still get their mandatory raise. God forbid someone in the public sector doesn't get a raise when everyone in the private sector is earning less this year.

Our good ole' tax dollars at work. "

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