More Wisconsin Municipalities Asking Residents to Approve Referendums for Emergency Services

Thursday, October 13th, 2022 -- 12:00 PM

(By John Davis, Wisconsin Public Radio) The City of Whitewater is asking residents to approve a $1.1 million referendum on Nov. 8 that would allow the city to move to a full-time fire and EMS department.

According to John Davis with Wisconsin Public Radio, Interim City Administrator John Weidl says the referendum is necessary to keep up with rising need in both Whitewater and the surrounding towns.

"We’ve been experiencing an increase in call volumes. We’ve been experiencing a decrease in our staffing, which is leading to difficulty in ensuring that we have coverage across our communities that we are required to have," Weidl said. Whitewater isn’t alone.

More Wisconsin municipalities are looking to raise property taxes to pay for stabilizing emergency services. Twenty communities across the state are asking voters to approve property tax increases during elections next month to pay for more full-time firefighters and paramedics or police officers.

Seven of eight referendums asking for more public safety tax dollars were approved across Wisconsin in the April general election. The Village of Holmen is asking voters for almost $1.3 million a year going forward starting in 2023, about half of which would be used to hire four to five new police officers.

The rest of the money would provide more full-time firefighters and EMS staff to a regional fire service. The village north of La Crosse has been steadily growing over the last decade, but Holmen officials say state government-imposed revenue limits have given them on average less than $50,000 to spend in new property tax revenue per year for the past decade.

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