Dane County mayors say state to blame for wave of referendums
State limits on cities' authority to raise revenue are causing services and infrastructure to lag behind population growth, the mayors of all seven cities in Dane County said Friday at a press conference, where they urged state lawmakers to loosen the reins.
Three Dane County cities — Madison , Monona and Fitchburg — are asking their voters to pass funding referendums in November to avoid cuts to existing services. Middleton voters approved a similar referendum in 2022. And Sun Prairie Mayor Paul Esser said Friday that his city is likely to follow "in the next couple of years."
The mayors said they have had to consider referendums to maintain their services because of the state's levy limits, which restrict how much cities can increase property taxes each year, and because state law also prevents them from raising funds via a local sales tax or a regional transportation authority.
"None of us wants to go to our communities and have to ask them to pass a referendum," Verona Mayor Luke Diaz said. "None of us wants to have to contemplate cuts in services. But ... we're working with what the state has given us."
How we got here
In 2011, a state law enacted under former Gov. Scott Walker barred cities from increasing their property tax levies beyond the added value of net new construction — unless they ask voters directly. That cap is still in place.
When allowable tax increases are based solely on construction value, "you cannot keep up with both inflation and a growing community," Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said. "It's just not possible."
In Monona, which is bordered by Madison on all sides and has very little room to grow outward, net new construction translated to a levy increase of $25,000 for 2025, Mayor Mary O'Connor said.
"That $25,000 is supposed to cover pay increases for 75 full-time employees, along with increases in their health insurance premiums, supplies and equipment and third-party contracts, not to mention inflation," O'Connor said. "Our garbage and recycling collection costs alone have increased by $100,000 in the past year."
In Fitchburg, meanwhile, the population has risen by a third in the past decade, straining police, fire and transit services. The city opted for a referendum this November in large part to avoid further overextending those resources, Fitchburg Mayor Julia Arata-Fratta said.
A boost for municipalities
A local aid bill signed into law last year by Gov. Tony Evers sought to ease the strain on municipalities' budgets by increasing the amount of shared revenue they receive from state taxes. The proposal received bipartisan support. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said last April that it would be "the single largest investment in local governments in the history of Wisconsin."
The change was a sign that the Legislature had "begun to address its responsibilities in sharing state income and sales taxes to ensure core services can be provided by local communities throughout Wisconsin," Rhodes-Conway said in a statement at the time. "However, no one should think that this solves the long-term problem for local governments across the state."
The roughly $29 Madison receives per resident under the shared revenue law — a total of about $8 million in 2024 — is the second-lowest amount of any municipality in the state, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum .
"Some communities really benefited from the increase in shared revenue," Rhodes-Conway said Friday. "It wasn't enough."
Dane County's mayors and many others across the state "will be working to get the ear of the Legislature" to address cities' funding constraints, Rhodes-Conway said. "It will necessarily have to be a bipartisan solution."
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