{"id":589,"date":"2004-10-06T00:08:44","date_gmt":"2004-10-06T00:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=589"},"modified":"2004-10-06T00:08:44","modified_gmt":"2004-10-06T00:08:44","slug":"interesting_spi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=589","title":{"rendered":"Interesting Spin on City Tax Hike&#8230;."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.madison.com\/tct\/news\/index.php?ntid=12085&#038;ntpid=0\">Judith Davidoff<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>City taxes on an average house in Madison would increase $82 under Mayor Dave Cieslewicz&#8217;s proposed 2005 executive budget.<br \/>\nThat means the owner of an average $205,359 home would contribute about $1,597 to city operations, exclusive of county, MATC or school taxes.<br \/>\nOverall spending under Cieslewicz&#8217;s budget would increase 3.6 percent, though the <b>property tax levy is going up 5.4 percent<\/b>.<br \/>\nBrasser said that was due to the reductions in state aids and other revenue sources, as well as having less in reserves to plug the budget hole.<br \/>\nLast year the city had $4.7 million in reserves from the mayor&#8217;s hiring freeze.<br \/>\n&#8220;When all other revenue sources don&#8217;t keep pace with the inflation in our expenditures, the property tax is what has to make up the difference,&#8221; Brasser said.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ideally, this article would include some history &#8211; spending and tax increases over the past decade vis a vis population growth, inflation and city employment, among others.  If find this <a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.reference.com\/search?r=2&#038;q=obfuscation\">obfuscation<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.reference.com\/search?r=2&#038;q=disingenuous\">disingenuous<\/a>&#8230;.<br \/>\nIf you have views on this, send them to mayor@cityofmadison.com  (keep in mind that our total property tax increase will include school and county increases as well).<br \/>\nUPDATE:  Dean Mosiman summarizes the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.madison.com\/wsj\/home\/local\/index.php?ntid=12314&#038;ntpid=4\">Mayor&#8217;s tax increase plans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nMy email to Mayor Dave:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>hi Mayor Dave:<br \/>\nI am writing to suggest that you limit your tax increases to no more than the rate of inflation.<br \/>\nThe current plan, which evidently includes a 5.4% increase, continues the trend of significant property tax increases.<br \/>\nI have to say that I&#8217;m disappointed that you&#8217;ve chosen <a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.reference.com\/search?r=2&#038;q=obfuscation\">obfuscation<\/a> vis a vis the $82 approach vs. the true 5.4% increase.<br \/>\nThis spin plays into the statewide property tax control initiatives.<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve posted links and notes here<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/archives\/000854.php\">http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/archives\/000854.php<\/a><br \/>\nI&#8217;ll post your response as well.<br \/>\nNote that this blog generates 180K to 350K page views per month.<br \/>\nBest wishes &#8211;<br \/>\nJim<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judith Davidoff: City taxes on an average house in Madison would increase $82 under Mayor Dave Cieslewicz&#8217;s proposed 2005 executive budget. That means the owner of an average $205,359 home would contribute about $1,597 to city operations, exclusive of county, MATC or school taxes. Overall spending under Cieslewicz&#8217;s budget would increase 3.6 percent, though the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}