By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
Before looking ahead, Whitewater’s municipal leaders are looking back.
As a preamble to the heavy lifting of reviewing Whitewater’s 2015 city budget, three officials — City Manager Cameron Clapper, Finance Director Doug Saubert and Management Analyst Molly Parrish — prepared a review of Whitewater’s financial activity during the past 20 years.
The look-back exercise has become an annual right of passage before the city’s top officials dig into the upcoming budget.
At a Common Council meeting Sept. 16, Clapper said there were few surprises in this year’s 55-page report. He asserted this year’s financial trend analysis closely mirrors the one assembled a year ago.
The comprehensive document includes an explanation of the financial trend monitoring system (FTMS) used to gauge upcoming financial situations when measured against past scenarios.
As has been the case in prior years, Parrish plugged several pieces of data into the document, including a review of the city’s revenues and expenditures per capita, reserve cash in the fund balance, property value changes, population trends and long-term debt.
While Whitewater continues to grow in population, Parrish noted the city is taking in less income, when inflation and other factors are added to the equation. Similar reports of the challenging situation have surfaced in prior years.
When reviewing the city’s financial picture in 1994, compared to today, Parrish asserted Whitewater’s revenues per capita have fluctuated from a high of $355.66 in 2001 to a low of $246.61 in 2013.
“We are now operating with the largest population and the least amount of money the city has seen in 20 years,” Parrish wrote in the report.
She added, “Today, Whitewater is serving 13 percent more people with about 17 percent less money than in 1994. Since 2001, revenues per capita have been steadily declining.”
A variety of factors are playing into the equation, according to Parrish’s analysis, including a continuing decline in intergovernmental revenues — income sources beyond the taxes residents pay.
“The city must strive to continue to reduce its reliance on intergovernmental revenues,” Parrish wrote. “Policies should be considered by the city council that would limit intergovernmental revenues to a certain percentage.”
As a direct reflection of Whitewater’s population growth, city tax income has climbed from $917,188 in 1994 to more than $2.9 million in 2013.
While the infusion of tax dollars has been an obvious positive to the city, Parrish in her report points out the scenario is not without its downsides.
“Property values are still on a decline,” she notes. “There has been a 3.78 percent decrease … since 2008, while actual property tax revenues have increased by 9 percent. The revenues in constant dollars have decreased by 0.8 percent since 2008.”
Despite the frustrating depiction, Parrish does point out Whitewater is ahead of the pack of Wisconsin municipalities when it comes to property values.
“This is still far better than the state average median sale price, which has seen a 15 percent decrease since 2008,” Parrish said.
The full financial trend analysis can be viewed on the city’s website, www.whitewater-wi.gov.
Clapper and the council will initiate talks on the 2015 budget at the next regular council meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
