Sales tax

Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris presented last night a proposal to the County Board regarding a half-percent (1/2%) county sales tax. Mr. Harris has paid for out of his own pocket a website that contains detailed information regarding how the sales tax revenue would retain "essential personnel" within the county, impact Winnebago County property taxpayers (you can estimate how much you could see in property tax relief) and benefit local municipalities (the city of Oshkosh could see +/- $300,000 in revenue paid for by non-residents of Winnebago County).

I feel it's important for the city to stay abreast of what the County Board does with the sales tax. It's my hope that if they approve it, they approve it as proposed - keep the direct property tax relief and additional revenue to local municipalities.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the proposal.

-Bryan

Levy referendum, part two

I've already been asked why I voted against Mayor Castle's resolution to place a referendum question on the November ballot asking the citizens of Oshkosh to allow the city to exceed the state imposed levy freeze. Below are the reasons why I did not support the resolution.

1) I did not agree with the statement, "[t]he Council hereby supports (emphasis added) an increase in the city tax levy for 2006..." Just because a council places an item on the ballot does not mean they support it. That language should not have been included.

2) I am uncomfortable with the statement, "[t]he Council directs that the question of increasing the city tax levy for 2006 (to be collected in 2007) by (emphasis added) 9.5096 percentage..." To me, this resolution says the council is going to raise the levy by that amount. Along with that, City Attorney Kraft read the ballot language at the meeting last night - talk about confusing!

3) Similar to the reason above, it was discussed that the council would most likely not need the entire levy increase - then why ask for that much? We should have had a more specific number and clearly stated what we intended to do with it (similar to recent area school district referendums).

4) Finally, I'm not at all satisfied with where we are regarding the budget process. The only cuts mentioned by City Manager Wollangk were service cuts. No administrative cuts and no new ideas. I understand cuts will be made, but not all service-oriented. The council asked for an earlier and better budget process this year. It's good that we started earlier, however, it's now clear that the process also needs to be changed.

I encourage anyone with questions or concerns regarding my vote to contact me directly. Thank you.

-Bryan

P.S. I will continue to use this blog and my website to maintain an open dialogue as we work through the budget process. As I did last year, I will be creating a special budget page on my website complete with links to important documents, and it will also have a comment section.

Oshkonversation

Newly named Oshkosh Northwestern Editorial Page Editor Alex Hummel has recently launched a new community message board, Oshkonversation. As the website states, Oshkonversation will be: "Daily. Digital. Discussion. The Oshkosh Northwestern's digital town square for the Real Life, Real Views of Oshkosh and our area communities." This is an excellent way for the newspaper to engage in online discussions about our community. Kudos to Alex for spearheading this project.

-Bryan

Budget workshop

A quick post to encourage everyone who did not watch the council meeting last night to catch a replay of it, specifically the budget workshop. Here are the replay times for OCAT Channel 10: 09/16- 3:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m., 09/17- 9:00 a.m., 09/21- 7:00 p.m. Please keep in mind that the budget workshop started a little over three hours into the meeting.

I think it's imperative for everyone to be as informed as possible about the city's budget situation, and to contact members of the council to express your thoughts and opinions (and I don't just mean anonymous posts on various blogs). Every council member has his or her mailing address and phone number listed on the city's website, and everyone except Mayor Castle and Councilor Esslinger has a city email account. And please be civil - there's no benefit from rude, vulgar and mean-spirited comments - we should stick to the issues at hand. Thank you.

-Bryan

Referendum

I have received several citizen contacts about Mayor Castle's resolution to ask citizens, via a referendum, to exceed our levy limit. I agree with today's Oshkosh Northwestern editorial. Because it is premature to ask for a levy increase before the council has a workshop on the budget, and public discussion about it, I will be voting no on the resolution.

-Bryan

August 29th Fifth Tuesday Forum notes

The notes from the August 29th Fifth Tuesday Forum have been posted on my website. A limited number of copies will be available Thursday morning on the ledge inside the main entrance to City Hall. Please contact me if you have any questions.

The final Fifth Tuesday Forum of 2006 is scheduled for October 31st, however, that might be changed due to a council budget workshop. I will post the exact date, time and location here and on my website.

-Bryan

Fifth Tuesday Forum - follow up

I'd like to extend my appreciation to the 16 citizens and Councilors Tower and Mattox for attending the August 29th Fifth Tuesday Forum. And thanks goes to the Oshkosh Senior Center for volunteering to host the forum.

I have emailed several city department heads questions that were raised at the forum and have begun compiling the notes, which will be posted on my website by next Tuesday, September 12th.

The last Fifth Tuesday Forum of 2006 is October 31st, location TBD.

-Bryan