Altoona Hosts Governor Tony Evers for Roundtable on Local Issues

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers visited Altoona City Hall this week for a roundtable discussion on issues facing the Chippewa Valley.

Governor Evers met with local officials and community leaders on Tuesday to discuss affordability issues in the region. The roundtable covered a wide range of topics, most notably the state of affordable housing and the increased costs for healthcare and child care. A number of the local officials and community leaders at the roundtable will also take those concerns to Madison this month for the annual Chippewa Valley Rally.

Following the discussion, Governor Evers said he’d like to use part of the state’s budget surplus to increase funding for local governments and schools to prevent even more property tax increases. “Can the state play a role? Absolutely,” he said. “We have a bit of a surplus and we’re hoping to be able to increase funding for our municipalities and our counties and our schools so that property taxes can go down instead of up, or at least stay the same. And I think people would be in a much better place.”

Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge also attended the roundtable, reiterating an increasingly common call for more shared revenue from the state. Berge says increasing property taxes is one of the few remaining tools municipalities have to address the needs of their community, like school funding or repairing potholes. Governor Evers again highlighted the state’s budget surplus as a way to provide a bit more support for local governments.

“It could happen tomorrow if the legislature passed it,” he said. “We have $16 million, we don’t want to put that out and have us go broke, but the fact of the matter is we can afford looking at one or two million dollars worth of shared revenue, school district revenue, things like that.”

Like many communities struggling to address funding needs with limited revenue sources, Chippewa Valley residents have seen massive property tax increases over recent years. Much of that increase is the result of school referendum proposals, forcing residents to choose between the property tax hike or potential layoffs and program cancellations by school districts. The Altoona School District has also proposed a referendum for the April election to fund repairs at its main campus.