It's a relatively light week in terms of meeting volume for the Appleton Common Council, but a pair of committees have packed agendas. Here are some of the highlights:
Finance Committee, Monday, 5:30 pm
Excessive Assessment Claim
Monday's Finance agenda will be one of the busier I've seen in quite some time. First, the committee will be asked to make a recommendation on a Claim for Excessive Assessment from Wal Mart in regards to their property taxes for 2018. The City assessed the property on E. Calumet St. at $10.8 million, while Wal Mart is requesting a 12% reduction to $9.5 million and a refund of over $31,000 in taxes on the difference. Wal Mart's assessed value was already lowered from $11.9 million in 2017.
I don't know if it's a factor in this specific case, but in situations like this the oft-discussed "Dark Store loophole" has been an issue. The loophole stems from an issue with state statute that allows big box retailers to compare their properties to vacant stores for the purpose of assessment. Those stores, some of which have been on the market for a long time, typically have an assessed value much lower than their active counterparts. Appleton is among several municipalities that have asked the state to step in and end that process, but it has yet to come to fruition.
In the meantime, our inability to assess these properties at their full value has a very real impact on the city's remaining taxpayers. These reductions in tax collections are spread out over the rest of the tax levy and cause everyone else's property taxes to increase to make up the difference. Closing the Dark Store loophole and solving this issue would allow us to return to a fairer balance of tax contributions across the city.
"Carryover" budgets
Next, it's time for the committee's annual consideration of "carryover" dollars from the previous year's budget. Per longstanding city policy, unspent dollars from the previous year's budget that aren't currently under contract for an active project are subject to the carryover appropriation process. 75% of those unspent funds are automatically applied to debt service (part of the reason we're routinely able to pay off debt early), and the other 25% is available for projects that we may not have been able to fund in previous budgets or urgent needs that have come up since the budget was discussed in November.
This year the general fund's portion of that remaining 25% is just under $175,000. Most of that money is requested for a special salt purchase to cover the gap while the city waits for its final shipment from our vendor, which was delayed due to icing on the Great Lakes.
Special Event Policy
Tonight the committee is also expected to have their first opportunity to discuss a resolution submitted by three alderpersons at last Wednesday's meeting related to the city's Special Event Policy.
Large special events throughout the year in the city attract visitors and improve quality of life, but there's always been a challenging balance between the city working to help promote these events and ensuring our departments are able to recoup their expenses for the extra hours worked during these events to keep the costs from falling on the taxpayers. Council most recently updated the policy in early 2017 to increase the cost for Special Event licenses to cover more of the city's associated costs.
Alderpersons Kathleen Plank, Patti Coenen and Chris Croatt's resolution calls for that process to be reopened to consider including a portion of the Department of Public Works' cost for cleanup following events. I'll be interested to see how this debate unfolds, given previous discussions about the importance of preserving this balance.
Safety & Licensing Committee, Wednesday, 5:30 pm
A discussion that has been rippling through the community for several months now will appear on an Appleton committee agenda once again this week.
Concerns regarding truancy court and the Appleton Area School District have been well-documented in recent months, with the Eighth Judicial District recently announcing that their judges will no longer participate in the program. Before the process was discontinued representatives from the City Attorney's office had participated in the hearings, at least partially because the city has an anti-truancy ordinance that parallels state statute on the matter.
Last week Alderman William Siebers presented a resolution calling for the city to repeal that ordinance, effectively removing itself from the truancy enforcement process. That resolution will be heard for the first time on Wednesday.
As part of that meeting I'm anticipating an active discussion on Appleton's role in the efforts to prevent truancy. I'm not sure if any official action will be taken at this meeting or if the discussion will be extended to a later date.
You can see all of this week's meeting agendas and the full schedule at the city's Legistar page.
Keeping you informed on issues that may impact you around the city is one of my primary goals as an alderman. Good governance happens in the open, and I remain committed to raising awareness on the issues coming before us.
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