Voters debate Lisbon budget

Posted: Nov. 17, 2009

Town of Lisbon — Electors - residents eligible to vote at annual town meetings - will be asked Wednesday night to approve a $3.2 million tax levy that helps fund a $5.2 million dollar 2010 budget that raises the tax rate about 3.6 percent from $2.77 to $2.87 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

Electors will also be asked at 7 p.m. meeting at the Hamilton High School cafeteria, to approve about $230,000 of a proposed $718,684 highway budget.

Supervisor Dan Fischer voted against the budget recommended by the Town Board at an Oct. 19 meeting, arguing that a number of steps can be taken to reduce the tax levy and lower the tax rate, including borrowing $100,000 from cash reserves rather than the proposed $81,000.

He also argued that an $18,591 payment could be delayed until next year for the approximately $200,000 unfunded liability for employee benefits.

Town officials are optimistic that a budget will be approved Wednesday night, but they are also aware of the recent tumultuous history of annual town budget meetings.

Last year, the electors stripped $100,000 out of the highway budget and slashed $100,000 from the proposed tax levy in a series of votes, including one decided by a single vote. Some of the 130 town residents were sharply critical of the Town Board laying off a snowplow operator/highway worker while at the same time proposing a budget with a 12-percent tax levy increase.

Two years earlier, in 2006, the electors refused to approve small pay increases for the part-time Town Board members, complaining that the supervisors were doing a poor job running the town.

Town Administrator Jeff Musche recalls another town budget hearing - he was uncertain about the year - when the electors voted to increase the tax levy in order to pay for a part-time animal control officer.

Annual meetings had been rather quiet affairs until recently, according to Deputy Clerk Sandi Gettelman, who has been a town official for about 25 years.

"In the past, there were occasional meetings where there might have been a hot issue, but nothing like in recent years," she said.

The Town of Lisbon is not alone.

In 2002, it took two budget hearings to get the Town of Merton's 2003 budget approved. A group of residents opposed to a controversial road project initially blocked adoption of the budget.

Some local political operatives rounded up all of the volunteers in three fire departments that served the town to muster the votes to approve the budget, which funded the fire department contracts, at a second meeting.

That same year, the Town of Delafield adopted a budget that included $25,000 to help subsidize the construction of a skateboard ramps in a town park.

Supervisors had steadfastly opposed any public funds for the ramps until supporters of the skateboarders packed an annual meeting earlier in the year and passed a resolution urging funding for the ramps.

Town meetings are provided by state law and date back to the founding of the state.

"Annual town meetings are democracy in its purest form," noted Attorney Stanley Riffle, an expert on municipal law and government.

At the annual budget hearing, the electors are asked to approve the tax levy, proposed salary increase of elected officials, and approve the expenditure of any funds for the highway department that exceeds the total amount of $5,000 for each mile of road in the town, which in Lisbon is 96 miles, and equals about $480,000.

Of the $3.2 million dollar levy, $1.1 million is for debt services, which must be paid. However, electors could reject the entire levy and require the Town Board to call another meeting and proposed another levy, including debt services, for elector approval. While they authorize the levy, and a portion of the highway program, along with some salaries, the electors do not have a voice in adopting the total budget.