Update 8-20: Council votes 13-1 to approve referendum.
(WGTD)---In a highly unusual move, Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian will ask the city council Monday night to authorize a referendum that'll ask voters this November to allow the city to increase property taxes above state-mandated levy limits.
"The state has some very strange rules on how we're allowed to do business," Antaramian said at the end of the Aug. 6th council meeting. "One of the problems we have is that the state has made it almost impossible to hire people to do the jobs," he said.
Antaramian wants voters to decide whether the city should impose a $900,000 increase above the limit in order to hire five new cops and two new firefighters.
Antaramian indicated earlier this month that he’s eager to make the case to voters, and thinks the referendum would be approved.
According to the city’s calculations, property taxes for city purposes would go down next year either way—it’s just that the decrease wouldn’t be as much if the extra spending would be authorized.
The state allows cities, counties and school districts to hike property taxes only by the increase in new construction that’s added to the tax base each year.
In Kenosha next year, that amount will be 1.1%. The referendum would allow the city to increase the levy by 1.7%.
On a home worth $200,000, taxes for city purposes next year, with referendum approval, would go down by $34. Without it, then those taxes would go down by $255. (The calculation is based on home values remaining unchanged.)
Although going to referendum as a way of increasing revenue is not unusual for cash-strapped school districts in the state, it is for municipalities.
Antaramian wasn't available to comment late last week because he's out of the country visiting Kenosha's sister city in Germany.
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