Two Rivers City Manager Greg Buckley
The Two Rivers City Manager has some strong feelings about the recently announced shared revenue plan.
While on WOMT’s Be My Guest program Wednesday, Greg Buckley spoke about the plan, calling it a “big deal” for local municipalities.
He noted that the state will always make more money during inflationary times, but local governments do not.
“When wages go up, nobody asks, more money comes out of your check…and more money goes to the state’s coffers,” Buckley said. “Local government in Wisconsin has been largely limited to the use of property taxes…At the local level, we have levy caps to protect the taxpayers from hefty increases in their property taxes.”
This means municipalities and counties rely heavily on the shared revenue program, which has actually given many governments less money over the years.
As a local example, Buckley told host Lee Douglass that “Two Rivers this year is getting about $200,000 less in shared revenues than we did in the year 2000.”
This, in turn, has caused budget issues all over the state.
“A goodly number of cities and villages last year went to the local voters to get permission to exceed their levy caps,” Buckley explained. “And frankly, that’s where Two Rivers, I think, would be headed too, in a year or two. That soon.”
But now, with this new proposal, which would increase each unit’s income from the state by a minimum of 10%, Buckley said the burden would be eased significantly.
“The number for Two Rivers is actually a 12% increase,” Buckley revealed. “It would be about $470,000.”
Buckley praised the legislature for working on this plan, which will help every single person in the state of Wisconsin.
You can hear Buckley’s full take on the proposal, including what the Cool City would potentially do with that money, by visiting WOMTRadio.com/Podcasts and clicking on the By My Guest logo.
