Mayor Ponto to Joint Finance: Add Police, Fire to Collective Bargaining Changes

Police officers and fire fighters should be added to the state's sweeping collective bargaining changes and contribute to their pensions like other public employees, Brookfield Mayor Steve Ponto told the state Joint Finance Committee Tuesday.

Ponto praised the governor and legislators for their fiscal reforms, but he urged them to make changes to the state biennial budget to lessen the blow to local governments.

The Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday began parsing through the governor's 2011-13 budget. Members said they planned to make some changes but would not increase taxes or spending.

In a letter outlining his concerns, Ponto suggested changes to provisions regarding levy limits, recycling, transportation aids, libraries and police and fire issues. He also urged funding changes to help the Elmbrook School District, saying its success is vital to the city's future.

Ponto took the same stance that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett did last month — that protective service employees should not be exempted from the controversial budget repair bill being fought in court.

"This will provide further fiscal flexibility to address levy limits and reductions in state aids and avoid creating a system that results in two classes of public employees," Ponto wrote in his letter.

In an interview Tuesday evening Ponto said it was a matter of equity and fairness among all city employees. Not adding union-represented police and fire officials could create "serious wage compression" problems, he added. 

"If you have a sergeant who is making his pension contributions and isn't eligible for overtime, then patrol officers (who don't have to pay toward pension) could have a higher take-home pay than their supervisors," the mayor said. 

Trying to fill those command positions could be problematic in the future, he added.

If state legislators aren't willing to eliminate all collective bargaining except inflation-capped wage increases for protective service unions — as the budget repair bill does for all other public employees — then lawmakers should at least require police and fire personnel to make the same pension and health contributions as other government workers, the mayor said.

The city has not started to deduct the pension payments from employees' paychecks because the law is being challenged in court. It was supposed to be effective April 1. If the law is upheld, it is not known if employees would have to make additional deductions retroactive to April, but Ponto expressed doubt the back contributions would be ordered.

Representatives of the city's police and fire unions could not be reached Tuesday evening.

Ponto also urged repeal of what he called "an unfunded mandate" that local governments maintain a level of spending for emergency services. He noted the budget bill proposes to lift a similar mandate for libraries.

The mayor raised these additional issues:

Levy limits: He opposed them as an unnecessary intrusion on local government control "of its own destiny." But if they must be imposed, basing a limit on the percentage increase of new construction is not realistic in the current economy.

"There isn't a lot of new construction going on anywhere," Ponto said. 

Even in years when Brookfield had tens of millions of dollars in new construction, that growth was a small percentage of its large tax base.  

He suggested levy limits instead be based on inflation or another formula.

Ponto also suggested the state restore the ability for municipalities to "carry forward unused levy capacity from prior years."

Brookfield's tax levy for 2011 was more than $2 million under the maximum allowable. Being able to use that tax levy authority next year before existing employee contracts expire and state pension savings are fully realized would help prevent a decrease in services in 2012, the mayor said.

Recycling: He opposed cutting state recycling grants, saying the state's recycling mandate remains and he believed Brookfield residents would not want to see their city Recycling Center closed. 

"Recycling in a very, very popular program," Ponto said. "I think people want to feel that they’re taking some step to help protect the environment to conserve resources."

Brookfield has also benefitted financially from recycling, receiving $235,000 last year for its leadership in a Waukesha County program. The county needs some financial assistance from the state to continue, the mayor said. 

General transportation aids: Like most municipalities in southeastern Wisconsin, Brookfield would receive the maximum 15 percent cut in these aids. For Brookfield that means $275,000.

Ponto asked that the maximum cut be "scaled back." He also urged more even allocation of transportation fund dollars between local roads and state-funded construction projects. Thirdly, Ponto said the current formula favors towns over cities and urged adoption of a "fairer allocation between cities and towns."

Library funding: Any change to lift a mandate to maintain library funding should be done in a way to make sure municipalities do not create "storefront" or shell libraries in order to avoid paying a county library property tax, the mayor said. If communities opt out of the countywide system, that could cut revenues to municipalities that do fund library services, resulting in higher property taxes or lower services, he added.

K-12 school funding: The mayor urged members of the Joint Finance Committee to change a proposed 5.5 percent cut in revenue caps for public school districts, saying it hurts "primary aid" districts such as Elmbrook that qualify for little state aid. For Elmbrook that means the district can collect $647 less per student.

"This would actually result in a 7.5 percent decrease in the Elmbrook tax levy or $5 million," Ponto wrote. 

Even after the pension savings from the budget repair bill, Elmbrook has a $4.2 million deficit for the 2011-12 school year. 

He suggested the state lower the revenue cap for primary aid districts by $300 to $500 per pupil, not the $647 Elmbrook currently faces.

Beyond this biennial budget, the state should look to enact a "sustainable school funding structure that takes into consideration inflationary changes in both the per-pupil revenue formula, as well as expenditures," Ponto wrote.

"Our public school system is excellent, is a primary reason why prospective residents move to the city and, like school districts across the state, is a necessary component in the state's economic and workforce development efforts," the mayor added.

Do you think police officers and fire fighters should face the same reductions in collective bargaining and increases in pension and health contributions? Tell us in the comments.