Byline: Scott Milfred and Phil Brinkman State government reporters
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday he's counting on local officials to hold down spending after vetoing a Republican plan to limit local property tax increases.
Republicans considered the measure the centerpiece of their 2003-05 state budget, which Doyle signed in a lakeside ceremony at the Governor's Mansion in Maple Bluff Thursday morning.
'I have asked local officials to stand with me and get into the spirit of things,' Doyle said. 'If they make just one-third of the cuts at the local level that I have made at the state level, they will get through this without raising taxes.'
Doyle signed a two-year, $48.6 billion state budget after vetoing 131 items including what Republicans had dubbed their property tax 'freeze.'
The Republican proposal would have virtually frozen the property tax levies of cities, villages, towns and counties. It also would have tightened revenue caps on public schools and expanded those limits to cover technical colleges.
The property tax limits would have been on top of a $50 million cut in state aid to local governments, including a $2.2 million reduction to the city of Madison, said Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
'I can tell you we will not propose any extraordinary increases at the local level,' the mayor said. Cieslewicz guaranteed the city would not spend more than its rate of growth plus inflation.
But Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, said the governor's veto ensures that property tax levies will jump by as much as 9.4 percent.
'He's telling them (local leaders), Let's have a partnership where you won't raise taxes.' How is that anything but a promise and a kiss?' Darling said.
'When the taxpayers go to pay their bills in December, they're going to be saying, Who in the heck did this?'' Darling continued. 'And we're going to answer: Gov. Doyle.''
Doyle repeated eight times in his budget-signing speech that he had kept his campaign promise not to raise taxes. He didn't increase income, sales or corporate taxes -- something few people thought was possible when Doyle took office in January, he said.
State fees are rising, however, on such things as car registrations, nursing home beds, hunting and fishing licenses and co-payments and deductibles for state health programs for the poor.
The governor said he agrees with the Republican-run Legislature that both state taxes and local property taxes are too high. But it was past governors and Legislatures who created Wisconsin's financial mess, Doyle said, including a $3.2 billion deficit that's now been closed.
Doyle vetoed $168 million in spending from the budget, including $100 million in road projects, $14.6 million in nursing home tax credits and fee reductions and $4 million in ethanol fuel subsidies.
About 60 Hmong protested outside the Governor's Mansion Thursday, angry that Doyle had vetoed a $3 million Hmong Cultural Center in Milwaukee.
'If he turns against us, we don't think that our people in the state will favor him in the future,' said Xiong Chuhu of Black Creek, chairman of Hmong International Human Rights Watch.
Doyle said he vetoed the center because Republicans added it in the middle of the night to get Sen. Gary George, D-Milwaukee, to cast the deciding vote for their version of the budget. Doyle said he's committed to eventually building a center but not on the specific site that the budget would have required.
The budget, which covers state spending from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2005, was thin on policy items and pet projects. The budget is 1,154 pages, compared to some past budgets that have filled more than 2,000 pages. That left the Republican property tax proposal as one of Doyle's biggest decisions.
Vetoing the provision maintains local control, said Kevin O'Donnell, administrator for the town of Mount Pleasant in Racine County. Even without the caps, the town is shooting for zero-percent increases in operation costs, he added.
'The governor is saying, I trust Mount Pleasant, I trust Green Bay, I trust Kenosha, I trust Racine to determine what's best for those communities,'' O'Donnell said.
Not all local officials agreed.
Steve Jansen, president of the Sturtevant Village Board, also in Racine County, said strict property tax limits would have forced municipalities to change the way they do business, which is needed.
'Unfortunately, the incentive to do that is dashed,' Jansen said.
Assembly Speaker John Gard said the Legislature may try to override the governor's veto.
'People are going to have to start putting more money away to pay their property tax bills if we don't,' he said.
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JOSEPH W. JACKSON III/WSJ photos
Gov. Jim Doyle faces the media and guests Thursday before signing the state budget at the Governor's Mansion on Lake Mendota.
Kimberly Simmons, 17, from the Boys and Girls Club of Madison, introduced herself to the governor Thursday after Gov. Jim Doyle signed the state budget into law. Simmons told the governor she hopes to become a school teacher.
