To Mayors, Councilmembers, and City Managers/Administrators:

State-shared revenues are targeted in the House Democratic Proposed Supplemental Operating Budget (released on February 21). The proposal significantly impacts cities:

• Liquor Excise Taxes - $14 M reduction effective December 31, 2012 and a permanent elimination beginning 2013. (This equals 40% of total revenue cities receive from both liquor taxes and profits.) The liquor excise taxes will be redirected to fund local public health.
• Municipal Criminal Justice Assistance Account - $7.3 M reduction effective December 31, 2012 and a permanent elimination beginning 2013.
• Beer Tax - $2.5 M reduction effective December 31, 2012 and a permanent elimination beginning 2013.
• Basic Law Enforcement Academy Training (BLEA) – Requires 100% funding from jurisdictions beginning July 1, 2012. This is permanent.

The House is expected to take action on this budget as soon as Friday, February 24. We need you to contact your House Members immediately and tell them:

• These cuts are too deep - Cities have been making their own significant cuts for the past four years – and often further back than that. Our cities reduced their workforce 10, 15, and 20 percent. Over half of our cities decreased their capital budgets in the last two years – resulting in lost job creation in our communities and lost capacity to maintain our basic infrastructure.
• Please make these cuts temporary rather than permanent – Cities need a chance to recover from their own significant budget reductions. Many cities face immediate service cuts and layoffs in some cases. Permanent losses in state-shared revenues, combined with service and program cuts cities are already facing, make it even harder for cities to recover.
• If you are going to unfund the BLEA mandate, let us train our officers how and when we see appropriate.
• Revenue options proposed to offset these cuts may not be viable for many communities.
• Preserve our long-standing partnership with the state –State-shared revenues are the foundation of the partnership we’ve built with our state for more than seven decades. We ask that you remember that significant, permanent state cuts will place a greater burden on local governments. Citizens seek more services closer to home.
• The services cities provide support the majority of economic activity in the state, and cuts to those services jeopardize our state’s economic recovery. In 2010, cities:
  • Generated 88% of the state’s sales tax activity; and
  • Accounted for two-thirds of the state’s assessed property valuation.

This is the House proposal.  The Senate proposal comes out next week.  We need you to call now and keep up the communication with your legislators.  Every call matters.