Last Updated: July 13, 2011
Cottage Grove Merger Study Committee members spent about an hour on the evening of July 11 working on wording for a rough draft "request for proposal" for a study that would show the potential tax impact of a combined Cottage Grove.
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The Committee played host to its largest audience yet, with about about 10 people in attendance. While directing the meeting and acting as editor, Committee Co-chairperson and Village President Diane Wiedenbeck carefully listened to the many comments, suggestions and editorial changes coming from Committee members while periodically looking to the laptop computer in front of her and earnestly typing changes into the request for proposal on the screen.
The request for proposal, or RFP as it is better known, was sent to financial firms Baker Tilly, Johnson Block, Bauman & Associates, and Reilly Penner & Bentonand. Participating firms have until August 5 to submit proposals. The Committee will then review the proposals and award the contract at its August 8 meeting. Delivery of the final analysis to the Committee is scheduled for September 12.
Wiedenbeck said $5,000 given by the Village to the Committee for use on the study was approved to spend on the tax impact analysis. The analysis will compare this year’s Town and Village budgets and determine which one has the higher tax levy. This information will be used as a basis to determine what a combined Cottage Grove would look like for the next four years. Wiedenbeck says the findings will be used to see how far apart or close the Town and Village are. Then it can be decided whether it is feasible to move forward with the merger process.
It will all come down to cost and a substantial increase in tax rates to Town taxpayers would likely stop merger talks before they even start, said Committee Member and Town Supervisor Mike DuPlayee. “We’re never going to convince Town members if there’s going to be an increase of $500 in taxes,” said DuPlayee during a phone interview, but he added that an increase of $50 would be more realistic and easy to accept for most residents.
Wiedenbeck says it is generally assumed that Town taxes are lower than Village taxes. Although, she says Village taxes are more in line now than ever. The RFP also asks firms for purposes of the study to create a more accurate comparison between Town and Village tax levies by putting some of the Village’s taxed services into a fee-for-service category similar to the Town. The most notable service, Wiedenbeck says is waste and recycle collection, which is currently included in the Village’s tax levy. Placing this item as a fee-for-service would take it out of the tax levy column, similar to how it’s listed in the Town’s tax bill.
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While the tax levy at this point plays the most important role in the merger study, there are other issues that were discussed in the RFP and Committee Member and Village Trustee Micah Zielke felt that drilling down too far into the details might be to a fault. “I worry that we will miss some things by checking the box,” said Zielke, concerned that by being too specific with issues others might get overlooked in the analysis. He suggested that language found under the RFP's "Scope of Services" section read that a full financial analysis be made of the Town’s and Village’s department financials. Taking it a bit further, Committee Member and Town resident Mark Hepfinger suggested that the language read, “The analysis will include, but not be limited to, the following financial items.”
Getting through the RFP language details, Committee members next moved to discussing examples of other merger deals. Sample documents from merger deals between the town and village of Rochester and the village and city of Pewaukee were distributed to the Committee members before the meeting.
Zielke said he focused mostly on the last section of the Rochester report to see how long the entire process took. What he said he found was it would be “highly unlikely” to have the merger on the April 2012 referendum. Based on what he found, November 2012 would be more likely. And he felt it had its advantages since it is a presidential election and with talk of the race already building, he said it will likely bring high voter turnout.