County Board Fires Back at Regional Plan Agency’s 76% Budget Hike

July 18, 2014
County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan, 608.333.2285
County Board

 

Resolution Calls Capital Area Regional Plan Commission Tax Levy “Unreasonable,” Lays Groundwork for Legal Challenge

 

The Dane County Board of Supervisors on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution deeming recent budget action by the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission “unreasonable,” and laying out the grounds for a legal challenge to the agency’s 76% tax levy increase.

 

“The CARPC ignored its own bylaws and the recommendation of its own Budget and Personnel Panel,” said County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan. “We are in no position to hand taxpayers a bill for almost $600,000 more than last year. State levy limits would force us to make cuts in other departments, in a year when we’re already looking at cuts. It’s simply unreasonable.”

 

The County Board’s action comes after County Executive Joe Parisi called the CARPC’s action “illegal” and “insulting.”

 

The full text of the resolution is below:

 

RESOLUTION FINDING THE CAPITAL AREA REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION’S 2015 BUDGET CERTIFICATION UNREASONABLE

The Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (CARPC) submitted its 2015 budget certification to the Dane County Clerk on July 11, 2014.  Pursuant to Section 66.0309(14)(b), the Dane County Board of Supervisors is responsible for providing the funding necessary to meet CARPC’s budget charge.  

CARPC certified a 2015 budget charge in the amount of $1,319,000  which represents an unprecedented 76% increase over the 2014 budget charge that was allocated to the agency in 2014 from the county levy.  

CARPC’s increase is unreasonable because the 2015 budget charge is greater than what the Budget and Personnel Panel, the committee of stakeholders responsible for determining CARPC’s budget, has authorized. CARPC’s decision to arbitrarily disregard the Budget and Personnel Panel’s budget decision is both a violation of its own bylaws and that of the charter resolution which established the regional planning

commission.  The budget certification is also unreasonable given the serious fiscal limitations imposed upon Dane County by statutory levy limits, and the CARPC charter resolution which clearly subjects CARPC’s annual budget increases to “any levy limitations which apply to Dane County.”  Finally, the budget certification is unreasonable because the charter resolution limits CARPC’s budget charge to a maximum of .0017 percent of Dane County’s equalized value.  By CARPC’s own admission, the 2015 budget charge will amount to .0026% of the total equalized value.

CARPC’s blatant disregard of the expectations of the communities who worked to establish it undermines the goals that CARPC purports to serve.  

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Dane County Board of Supervisors finds the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission’s 2015 budget certification unreasonable.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Dane County Board of Supervisors directs the Corporation Counsel to initiate legal action to challenge CARPC’s budget certification.

 

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