Finance committee formally backs KRM rail proposal
Panel also advises capping 2008 property tax levy hike at 2.5 to 3%
BY Emily Ayshford

The County Finance Committee formally backed the proposed
Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail, endorsing a resolution in
support of KRM which local officials hope will send a message to the
Legislature to include funding for the line in the 2007-09 budget.

The resolution will go before the Highway & Parks and Legislative
committees on Monday and will go before the full board Kenosha County
Board on Tuesday evening.

Board Chairman Terry Rose said the resolution will show legislators
this project is worth pursuing.

“It’s passage is certainly not a foregone
conclusion,” he said of the rail funding. “The Legislature
wants to know where we stand on this.”

The $198 million project would use existing track to connect Kenosha
through Racine to Milwaukee. Local offi cials hope at least half of
the project will be paid by Federal Transit Administration New Starts
funding, the application for which is due this month. The rest of the
project would be paid with federal congestion mitigation funds and
state and local funds.

Gov. Jim Doyle included $1 million in his 2007-09 budget for
preliminary KRM engineering but did not include the Southeastern
Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority’s proposed $13 rental car
fee increase that would cover the local share of rail costs.

The State Joint Committee on Finance deadlocked on the rental car fee
and therefore rejected it earlier this month, but some legislators
have said the fee still has a good chance of making it into the budget
before all is said and done.

The County Board resolution supports the fee increase as well as the
RTA’s request that the Legislature deem the RTA the sponsor and
operator of the rail lines once completed.

Also Thursday night, the committee passed a resolution advising
administration to cap 2008 property tax levy increases at 2.5 to 3
percent — the same limits for increases adopted the past several
years.

The administration proposed capping the increase at 4 percent. County
Finance Director David Geertsen said that extra percent would give the
county the money it needs to fund Family Care, the new managed-care
program that helps frail elderly and developmentally disabled
residents receive care in their homes.

In 2008, the county will need to pay about $900,000 more than previous
years toward services — in return, any resident in these groups
who needs care will be able to get it.

The county’s share will decrease over the next several years,
down to about $442,000 in 2011. Officials have said that if the county
continued to operate under the old system, costs would increase much
higher than under the Family Care system.

Supervisor Joe Clark said, while he supports lower taxes, this program
is a good example of why supervisors shouldn’t necessarily pass
the same levy cap as years before. The Board knew the program was
coming and it knew it would cost more money, he said, so it would be
better to levy for the money now and be ready when these costs come
down the road in future years.

“We’re going to have to bite the bullet,” he
said. “You’re just putting off the inevitable.”

But Rose said the county should find the money elsewhere, like through
reserves or through the $250,000 the county has been holding onto for
three years that will go toward a new homeless shelter. The last thing
this county needs is more taxes, he said.

“If we’re going to increase services, then we should cut
other areas or go to the general fund,” he said.

The property tax levy resolution will go before the full board
Tuesday.