The Notes: Week of May 27 - May 31, 2024

Hello, Neighbors.  Today is of course Memorial Day... and the start of a Fifth Week in City of Appleton government.  To begin, I express sincere gratitude for all those who have lost their lives fighting for the cause of America, to help secure the blessings of liberty that we are granted here.  Our thanks is not enough... but I offer it anyway... 

As this is the fifth week of the month and city meetings happen in the first four weeks of the month only, we have a blank slate as far as a meeting schedule this week.  In today's blog post, instead of a rundown of what to expect in city government, I would like to delve a bit deeper into a couple of the upcoming votes that the City of Appleton Common Council will be asked to take in next week's full council meeting.

First, there is the issue of a proposed 50% hike in the Wheel Tax here in the city.  I wrote about this here and many of you have since replied to me with your feedback (thank you!).  Some citizens have told members of the council that they would be "happy to pay the increase... and even more."  I have yet to see individuals write checks directly to the City of Appleton Finance Department (address: PO Box 2519, Appleton, WI 54912-2519) in amounts that they claim they are willing to pay over and above the already assessed wheel tax with "Wheel Tax Account" or "For Road Reconstruction" in the memo line.  If you are willing to pay more, please do.  

The fact that there have been very few efforts on the part of council members in past budget years to earnestly look for ways to trim the fat of the mayor's budgets and use those amounts to fund road reconstruction in the city frustrates me.  I am unwilling to lay the burden of too little road reconstruction funding upon vehicle owners in the city when council members have not made those tough decisions first.  In the last few years, the mayor's budgets have been approved without any significant amendments by aldermen... the same aldermen who are willing to impose this tax increase on you rather than do the hard work of amending the mayor's budgets to find the funds necessary to keep roads in our city from deteriorating faster than they can be reconstructed.  

The main argument for the proposed increase has been that the current wheel tax fund does not cover the road reconstructions that are needed in the city.  The funny thing is that those who support this increase readily state that they know (and have known since the inception of the wheel tax) that this wheel tax fund was never meant to cover the whole slate of require road reconstruction projects in the city!  They also readily admit that it's not a "fair" tax as it does not apply to all vehicles which use the roadways.  Most commercial vehicles and many of the other larger vehicles using the roadways are not assessed this wheel tax due to Wisconsin state laws limiting the levying of a wheel tax on certain vehicles.  

Let's be clear.  The Wheel Tax is not fairly assessed on the real users of the roads and was never intended to cover all of the road reconstruction needed.  So... why should the city just increase this tax on some of the roadway users only to find that it will still not fully address the road reconstruction needs in the city? 

Calculations included with the proposed wheel tax increase estimate that the increase would raise approximately $645,000 more in road reconstruction dollars.  For reference, the city's 2023 estimates for road reconstruction costs were as follows: $1.7M/mile for asphalt reconstruction and $2.6M/mile for concrete reconstruction.  So this $645,000 would hardly put a dent in the overall reconstruction dollars needed in the city.  

Unless and until one or more aldermen (not named Hartzheim or Doran who have both put in budget amendments in the past only to have the majority of other aldermen vote them down) put forth true concerted efforts to make cuts in other parts of the mayor's budget to use the city's general fund (property tax) to better fund road reconstruction, I do not believe that the weight of this issue and the funding for the shortfalls should fall on your shoulders, dear Appleton resident.  The council needs to look inward to attempt to solve this problem before another penny is asked of you!  If each of the fifteen alderman on the council would make one budget amendment to cut $43,000 in unneeded spending from the mayor's budget and move those funds to the road reconstruction budget, there would be $645,000 more in the road reconstruction budget -- the same amount that the proposed wheel tax increase would bring in -- and not one additional penny in taxes would have to be asked of you.  I challenge all of you blog readers to contact your alderman (or all alderman via the city's all-aldermen email link) to challenge these council members to do that work first.... before asking any more of the vehicle owners of this city. 

I also want to be very clear that this proposed increase in the wheel tax is not an "either/or" or "choose the least worst alternative" proposition.  Even though the resolution making this proposal includes the veiled threat that if the wheel tax is not increased, the city will revert to charging homeowners special assessments when the roads that front their homes are reconstructed, a return to special assessments is not at all on the table here.  No one on the council has proposed a return to special assessments for road reconstruction and I don't believe that the city or its citizens have the appetite to even entertain that.  The fact that those who are arguing for the wheel tax increase are using the threat of a return to special assessments unless the tax is increased is unfair and inappropriate, a combination of red herring and false dilemma logical fallacies.  Your choice -- through your voting alderman -- is not "pay $10/registered vehicle more or pay a huge special assessment when the road in front of your home needs to be reconstructed."  Your choice -- through your voting alderman -- is "increase the wheel tax or not."  Increase.  Or no increase.  Please share your feedback with your alderman... even if you live in a district other than District 13.  You can email me here. 

The other major issue coming up for debate by the full council next week is the proposed allocation of $2M in the city's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds as grants to non-profit organizations.  Last week's blog post included charts showing the proposed allocations.  These allocations were approved without amendment by the Finance Committee last week (by a vote of 4-1 with your alderman voting "nay").  As was mentioned in last week's blog post, I have no issue with supporting worthy non-profit organizations in the city.  However, since one of the main issues the ARPA allocations to local municipalities were approved for was infrastructure investment and taxpayers are currently being asked to foot more of the bill for road reconstruction in the city (one of the primary jobs of a city government), I cannot in good conscience vote to approve these allocations.  

Perhaps a portion of these allocations is warranted.  I have little doubt that all of the non-profit organizations on the grant awards list do excellent work in the city.  But if even half of the proposed $2M in ARPA funds went to the road reconstruction fund in the city instead, that would help stave off some future tax increases to fund road reconstruction, wouldn't it?  If the city is falling short on the funding to perform one of the primary missions of a municipality -- road reconstruction and maintenance -- surely that city does not have the funding available to support a handful of non-profit organizations in the city (no matter how worthy their causes).  Right?  

Some people believe and have stated that "that ship has sailed," that these allocations to non-profits must be approved since they've been in the works for so long.  The ship has not sailed, though, until the last common council vote on the allocation of this funding on 06/05/2024.  This council can still vote next week to use all or some these dollars for the core work of the city -- infrastructure maintenance as was ARPA's primary intention.  Some aldermen in support of these non-profit allocations have stated that "people are infrastructure" as a way of legitimizing or arguing that these allocations would still be contributing to municipal infrastructure.  Well... here is the definition of "infrastructure" from dictionary.com.  You tell me what you think.  Are people infrastructure?

Most of us would no doubt love for the city to have the funds to support all the non-profits and all of the road reconstruction in the city at the same time.  But the city doesn't have all the money... and short of raising your taxes, hard prioritization choices must be made for the funds that are available.  What would your choice here be?  All of the ARPA funds directed as proposed?  Some of the funds directed as proposed but some retained for road reconstruction funding?  How would you make this tough decision? 

I am ready to field any of your questions regarding the issues above or any other city-government-related issue or concern you might have.  So please contact me with your feedback.  I hope that the remainder of your Memorial Day is a pleasant one and that your fifth week ahead is bright and beautiful.  Thank you so much for tuning in again this week.