By Tom Kertscher of the Journal Sentinel Local governments seeking to cut spending next year could be stifled by a new state law that gives special protection to emergency services such as police and fire. The little-publicized part of the state budget, signed into law in June, is praised as a way to promote public safety and criticized for crimping the autonomy of municipalities and counties. "I think to maintain these (emergency services) positions is very good public policy," said James Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, which serves police unions. "This really gets close to the edge of the end of local control," said Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. Under the new law, dubbed "maintenance of effort for emergency services," municipalities and counties risk reductions in shared revenue from the state if they cut spending for emergency services below 2009 levels. The change could affect communities such as Wauwatosa, which decided last week to hire a consultant to review the size of its Fire Department. City Administrator Jim Archambo told aldermen that Wauwatosa is spending about $1.4 million per year more on its Fire Department than similar cities. He suggested that the consultant could help determine whether the additional spending and positions are necessary. But Wauwatosa would risk losing shared revenue from the state if it cut Fire Department spending below its current level. To avoid the loss of state funding, the city would have to prove to the state Department of Revenue that public safety would not be affected. "The goal is to maintain service levels," according to a fact sheet on "maintenance of effort" by the department. Dan Thompson, executive director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, took aim at the law, calling it "restrictive and wasteful nonsense." "City and village officials are coping with cuts in shared revenue payments from the state and levy limits on local property taxes," Thompson said in an opinion piece on the league's Web site. "To handle those cuts and limits, local leaders need flexibility to reorganize and streamline municipal services, especially in this difficult economic recession." Thompson said police and firefighters unions lobbied successfully for maintenance of effort in order to protect jobs. He also predicted they would fight any efforts by municipalities to justify police and fire cuts to the Department of Revenue. Palmer, the state police union leader, said the law is meant to protect police and fire from arbitrary cuts. But he also said he expects the law will deter many municipalities from attempting such cuts. "Public safety is such a core service that the state ought to do whatever it can to protect those services," Palmer said of the new law. Berry, the taxpayers association head, said a community's police and fire departments are certainly important. But so are their public works and streets departments, and no department should be exempt from scrutiny in terms of spending, he said. Fires are rare and crime is not a major problem in most Wisconsin communities, Berry added. "But we do produce garbage every day, and we do produce potholes every day in winter," he said. The West Allis Common Council last week adopted Mayor Dan Devine's 2010 budget, which cuts five police officer positions. But Devine said Saturday he doesn't expect a problem with the new law because his police chief is confident that response times won't change and because, even with the cuts, the budget boosts police spending by 3%. "What residents of West Allis see as far as police presence, they'd have to look long and hard to see a change in the level of service," he said.
