Tomorrow in the State Senate - how to bail out your small local Wis community

Saw a few items in tomorrow's agenda in the Wisconsin State Senate that had a common theme - special treatment and/or spending for specific areas of the state.

One of these items takes a traditional form - an earmark to try out new state-assisted projects to avoid some kind of social problem. In this case, the bill would try to prevent further damage from severe weather in northern Wisconsin.

(1) FLOOD RISK REDUCTION PILOT PROJECT. In the 2019-21 fiscal biennium, the department of natural resources shall allocate $150,000 to Ashland County todesign, implement, and evaluate not more than three demonstration projects that test natural flood risk reduction practices in that county. Project expenditures for the moneys allocated may be used include engineering and design, materials,construction, pre-construction and post-construction monitoring, and project management. The department shall require Ashland County to submit to the department a progress report summarizing the results to date of its demonstration projects no later than June 30, 2021. The department shall submit to the legislature, in the manner provided under section 13.172 (2), and to the division of emergency management in the department of military affairs a report summarizing the resultsof the demonstration projects and recommendations for how existing state policies or funding streams could be adapted to create incentives to protect and restore natural infrastructure and reduce floods.

But that's not what some other bills do. In fact, they seem to be done to bail out GOP-voting communities from having to suffer consequences due to decisions by state and local officials that haven't worked out.

One of these bills would extend the time limit for buildings to count as part of the Foxconn Tax Increment District from 7 years, and extend it to 15 years. This means anything built in that massive area between now and 2032 can be counted toward retiring the $915 million in debt that the Village of Mount Pleasant has taken on as part of that white elephant.

Sure sounds like they're not counting on Foxconn itself to do much in the near future, and instead they want other businesses to take advantage of TIF in that area if/when Foxconn pulls out.

The Senate is also scheduled to discuss a similar bill regarding a TID in the Village of Kronenwetter in Marathon County. It's a tract of land that was set aside in 2004, and originally was given 15 years to add infrastructure and 20 years to pay back the costs with added property values. There hasn't been enough development to have the TID pay off, so now the GOP legislators from the area want to give Kronenwetter another 5 years to build more infrastructure, and hopefully get enough development to pay off the debt.

The project costs of a TID, which are initially incurred by the creating city or village, include public works such as sewers, streets, and lighting systems; financing costs; site preparation costs; and professional service costs. DOR authorizes the allocation of the tax increments until the TID terminates or, generally, 20 years, 23 years, or 27 years after the TID is created, depending on the type of TID and the year in which it was created. Also under current law, a city or village may not generally make expenditures for project costs later than five years before the unextended termination date of the TID. Under certain circumstances, the life of the TID, the expenditure period, and the allocation period may be extended.

Under this bill, with regard to TID Number Two in the village of Kronenwetter, the expenditures for project costs may be made for up to 20 years after the TID was created, DOR may allocate tax increments for up to 25 years after the TID's creation,
and the maximum life of the TID is extended for 5 years.

Guess it's nice to have your party in charge to avoid having taxpayers pay the brunt of your community's failed decisions, isn't it?

But there's also a bill that's a bad example of different rules for certain communities - and it deals with school funding for one small district in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Let's back up by noting that in recent budgets, some K-12 districts have been allowed to raise their revenue limits in the last few years because earlier Walker/WisGOP cuts in state aid and prior levy limits were leaving these districts in bad shape, and they required more flexibility. But then WisGOPs started to be unhappy when school referenda kept drawing attention to bad GOP policies, and so they figured that communities that turned down referenda don't need to have that extra ability to raise taxes, and so their revenue limit was frozen at the lower amount.

That is, until some schools in the district of Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke were facing fewer resources due to that bill. Now, the GOPs want to make an exception.

During the 2018-19 school year, only the Freedom Area School District (FASD) met the criteria [to have lower revenue limits] under the bill (referendum held on April 2, 2019). As a result, the applicable low-revenue ceiling amount for the FASD will be $9,400 for the 2019-20 school year. All school districts will receive a per-member adjustment of $175. The FASD will have revenue raising authority for $9,575 per member for the 2019-20 school year, prior to any other adjustments (e.g., declining enrollment exception).....

One school district would be impacted by the bill; the impact would be to allow the district to increase its revenue raising authority by $125 per revenue limit member in 2019-20. That additional revenue authority would become part of the school district's ongoing base revenues. However, it is ultimately the local school board's decision whether or not to levy to the maximum revenue limit amount.

Tax limits are great...until they affect our voters.

I'd assume that higher revenue limit may not be applicable to the Freedom Area District next year (they've already sent out property taxes for this year), but it certainly would let them get another boost in future years. I saw that there is a separate amendment to this bill proposed by some Senate Dems that would get rid of the punishment for turning down a referendum, but I'd bet WisGOPs will be too petty to allow that because none are sponsoring that amendment, and it would be an admission that the original freeze was stupid to begin with.

Keep these bills in mind when GOPs whine about how the City of Milwaukee and other blue-voting areas of the state have to be put under strict rules and are castigated for how they spend their money. Because when you're not looking, GOPs are more than fine with allowing smaller, rural and more GOP-voting communities from getting state assistance to avoid the consequences and tough choices that bigger communities are forced to make all the time.