United Way---Contibuting 1 Month of my County Board Salary for 4th Year

For the 4th consecutive year, I am donating at least one month of my County Board salary to the United Way.  My donation this year will be split between organizations like Friends Inc, the Heroin Task Force, Elevate, and Family Promise.  As an elected official, it is part of my role to be a leader in charitable giving, and this is a way I can demonstrate that leadership.

Why We Have Park Entrance Fees

There has been a lot of discussion over the last 2 years about park fees, and why we have them.  Some wrongly assume that this is just a money grab by the County.

This is an important discussion to have.  The simple answer to why we have park fees is, park fees enable us to fund our parks in a sustainable way.  I am not a big fan of having park fees, but understanding how they protect our parks is critical.

My Background in Valuing Parks
To understand why I value parks, you need to look at my childhood, and a couple of key experiences.

1. I grew up in Greendale, a community that was designed by Eleanor Roosevelt.  When it was designed, she embedded a system of parks into the very fabric of the community.  She designed it to be a small rural community, with four small housing sections.  Each section was divided from the others by a small parkway, most with walking paths, and the entire original village was surrounded by a ring of trees.  As the village grew, the County embedded several parks into the growing community, including the Root River Parkway, Scout Lake, the Wehr Nature Center, Whitnall Park, and the Boerner Botanical Gardens.  Those parks were an essential part of my childhood.  Scout Lake was within walking distance of my home, and I often explored the park during summer vacation.

2. I also grew up with family trips to Muskego Park every year.  We would go once or twice a year.  Admittedly, I am going from memory (and my memory as a child) but I recall us buying a daily pass each time we went.  Muskego Park is part of the Waukesha County Park System, which has for decades had park entrance fees.  Those park fees enable them to sustain and grow their parks.  Muskego Park had a great beach with lifeguards, a beach that would be packed on hot summer weekends (with people who all paid the park fee).  It also had camping, hiking and horse trails, and various picnic areas.  Muskego Park was and still is a destination in Waukesha County, as are many of the county's other parks. 

How Do We Fund Our Parks?

Right now, we really have 2 ways to fund our parks.

1. Tax levy
2. Park Fees

Funding our parks through the tax levy is becoming inherently risky.  Each year we are cutting more than a million dollars from our budget.  Parks are a non-mandated service, meaning we don't have to have parks (though I believe we should have parks).  Mandated services are increasingly eating up more and more of our budget.  Funding the parks through the tax levy makes it easy for the parks to be cut entirely from the budget, and I don't want that.  Parks are essential to a thriving community.

Funding the parks through entrance fees is a proven model for ensuring that we continue to have parks.  It does require us to invest in our parks with amenities that people are willing to pay for.  So far, we have put in a wedding barn at Glacier Hills, a dog park at Homestead Hollow, and a new disc golf course at Sandy Knoll.  The dog park and wedding barn have proven to be particularly well-utilized.  We are currently looking at adding another wedding barn and dog park, and long term would like to add a campground and other high-demand amenities to our park system.  Following this model, funding for our parks will never be in doubt.

Milwaukee has been discussing how to fund their parks, and whether or not to sell off major parks.  https://www.cbs58.com/news/group-posts-for-sale-signs-posted-in-milwaukee-county-parks.  While we have sold off some land that had been designated for future parks, we want to protect our priority parks.  Park fees enable us to do that.

The reality is, good parks are worth paying for, and park fees ensure the future of our parks.  While park fees are not popular, while I wish we didn't need them, and while they are new in Washington County, preserving our parks is critical.  I am open to any other alternatives for funding our parks, but I understand the unsustainability and danger that comes with relying on the tax levy.

Saying NO to a $10 Million Tax Hike

Refused to raise the tax levy

In August of 2018 we held to our fiscally conservative values and refused to raise the tax levy. 

We made a responsible decision to borrow $10 million dollars.  Many municipalities and counties use borrowing as an avenue to raise taxes without a referendum.  Our County Controller calculated that, if we chose to raise the levy, tax rates would go up by $.12 per thousand dollars in home value for 2019, instead of decreasing by $.09 per thousand dollars, a swing of $.21 per thousand. 

An amendment was put forward to raise the levy, instead of making our debt payments out of existing funds.  Only 6 supervisors voted for that amendment, while I was one of 18 Supervisors who banded together to vote no to increasing taxes.  While some of my neighbors would prefer that we begin to raise the tax levy, more of them have expressed a desire for fiscal restraint and discipline.

Second Candidate for County Executive

We have a second candidate for Washington County Executive, Adam Gitter, and from an initial look he seems like he will be a good, viable candidate.  From my perspective, this is excellent news, as we will have 2 good candidates for this position.  I have been accused of being a “good government type” (not sure how that is a bad thing), and from a good government perspective this gives our voters two good candidates to choose from.  Switching to County Executive is already a success!

Adam is starting out his campaign by raising 2 good issues.  The first is how to fund the parks.  I voted for the park fee, as a way to secure the future of our park system.  At that time, the only alternative was to keep the parks on the tax levy, which is risky.  Parks are a non-mandated service, so leaving them on the tax levy makes the park system a target to be sold off or defunded.  Finding an alternative funding source, like park fees, secures the future of our parks.  I want us to always have good parks.

The second issue involves sales tax dollars.  Adam wants to share the sales tax with municipalities.  There are several inherent issues he will need to tackle in order to get this done.  1) We should be focused on how to get rid of the sales tax.  This is a tough challenge.  This sales tax, when it was put into place more than 20 years ago, was supposed to be temporary.  2) Too many County Board Supervisors who have a conflict of interest.  It would take 2/3rds of all elected Supervisors to get this done, which means 18 yes votes (out of 26).  Any combination of 9 Supervisors who are absent, vote no, or abstain means it fails.  I know of at least 8 current Supervisors would likely have to abstain, as they are also elected to Municipal boards and would likely have a conflict of interest.  Consequently, there is almost no way this proposal can pass the County Board.  3) How to make up the funding.  If he wants to share 25% of the sales tax with municipalities, that creates a $3 million dollar per year budget shortfall for the County.  How does he plan to make up that shortfall?

I look forward to hearing his answers to these questions.  I am absolutely open to good answers and thoughtful discussion.  If he has a good, fiscally responsible plan for addressing these 2 issues, that’s great.  Since he has just declared his candidacy, I certainly want to give him time to flesh out his ideas, and how he plans to fund them.  We have 5 months until the votes are casts. 

As a side note, we also have 2 more months in which other candidates can decide to run, and wouldn’t it be nice to get a 3^rd good candidate to enter this election?

So who is going to win?  That's easy, Washington County Voters will win.