Link to July 5 Sheboygan Press article, "Local officials bristling at state mandate to fund police/fire at current levels in 2010".Excerpt: Linda Barth, a spokeswoman for the Department of Administration, said that municipalities would receive some extra money for police and fire through a 75-cent-per-month fee on telephone bills, which is going into a statewide fund dedicated for public protection and safety. The fee is expected to raise $107 million over the next two years.
"We want to make sure that this fee goes specifically for police and fire and isn't used to make up other areas," Barth said.
Some strong strings are attached to that fee money — should a city fall short of maintaining the same amount for police and fire, the Department of Administration would cut shared revenue by whatever amount is cut from those departments.
What's unclear to me at this point is whether the "same amount for police and fire" includes both local and state funds -- in the latter case, the new money from the phone fee.
Then there's the obvious question.
Does this police & fire provision in the state budget help or hinder libraries' maintenance of effort arguments? Or will it be the tipping point for what Sheboygan Police Chief Tim Elrich says is "state government dictating to local governments what they can and can't do"?
It looks as though all of the stops are going to have to be pulled out this fall.
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