The Edwards Bypass extension was approved by the voters of Lake Geneva for $2.9M in April of 2007 is being delayed by the property owners in the way of the project. The city will have to use eminent domain proceedings against the two properties unless the Lake Geneva gets 100% of it paid for by the Federal Economic Stimulus Money through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) according to City Administer Dennis Jordan. “We did do an appraisal already and offered that and they wanted double that (amount),” stated Jordan. “If we get the stimulus money both property owners have said they will just overnight give us the easements. Their hang up is the special assessment, so if they are going to have to pay that they will try to extract as much as they can from us. If they don’t have to pay that they are more than willing to give us the property.” The city has all the necessary permits to start the project. Mr. Jordan believes we will be able to get construction bids for the project 15% to 30% below the original estimate in 2007 because of the economic death spiral we are in. The city did get a call from the DOT and they suggested we put in an application for the Wrigley Drive Bridge under the local roads stimulus program. The bridge is one of the projects the TIF wish list for $500K.

City of Lake Geneva Wisconsin 03.23.2009 City council unanimously approves all TIF projects of $14.5M and adds another $1.5 to $1.9M that was recommended by staff. This brings the total to $16.2M. Gary Dunham makes the motion, seconded by Tolar, to approve all documents from the staff and send them on to the TIF consultant Susan Hoeft of Vandewalle and Associates who will prepare the TIF Amendment in proper form. Gary Dunham said that “We will get an idea what the budget is and get the projects done as soon as possible and release as soon as possible. We will do it from an escrow account as soon as all the funds come in for it.” Currently the city has $7.3M in the TIF slush fund and will have about $9M at end of 2009. Tom Spellman wanted to add projects till we get to the $9M and than close TIF in 2010. With a total of $16.2M the TIF will continue to tax the city of Lake Geneva residents for another 7 to 8 years. City Administrator Jordan said that after the documents are put in proper form they will go to planning and zoning for a public hearing and then come back to the council to be approved. The council than can cut any projects. This is a good example of politicians talking one way and doing the opposite. The TIF pigs will have another 8 years to feed out of your pocket. If the TIF district was closed, property taxes could be between 12 and 18% lower, if all the taxing jurisdictions passed on the saving. TIF funds are supposed to be used for projects that will increase the tax base. According to long time TIF critic, former Alderman Ed Yeager, “nothing on this project list has anything to do with increasing the tax base.” He went on to point out that in the last three years “the citizens have contributed $15M (in higher taxes) to the two districts. If it is not closed the citizens will get nailed for another $3M next year.” Mayor Chesen once again forced Mr. Yeager to stop criticizing TIF after 5 minutes.

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Mayor Chesen’s AD Hoc TIF spending committee gets a haircut. Alderpersons Fesenmaier, Roehrer, and Spellman made a bold effort to close the downtown TIF district next year and thus reduce city of Lake Geneva’s real estate taxes between 12 and 18%. In the final numbers Fesenmaier believes the council has “padded” every category so we have enough to close in 2010. “It is in the best interest to help people now, (with a tax reduction) not two years down the road. Now is when people need help.” Argued Fesenmaier. The pro-development gang of Krause, Marcella, and Dunham voted against closing the district early. They were joined by Tolar and Krohn, who indicated they may be interested in closing TIF early when they got the final numbers from the city’s TIF consultant. The project getting the ax at the beginning was the Geneva Street bypass that would have been rerouting traffic into the Maple Park neighborhood. Nancy Russell spoke against it and stated that previous councils had voted this down. Also the three story parking garage was gotten rid of with only AD Hoc committee member Ellen Kehoe speaking in favor of putting it where the museum is now located. Downtown parking property purchases of $1.4M and construction of $1M was retained, but instead of its location being behind the Cove, now any location will be eligible. A forty slip boat pier that was on the list to be placed in front of the Cove was removed. Bob Schroader and Tom Spellman spoke against the location. As Mr Schroader pointed out “you will have problems loading, unloading, parking, you just cannot count all the problems you will have. Add on to the West pier if you have to. Lagoon traffic, gas traffic, it’s a mess now and will be even worse if you put in a pier of 40 or 60 more slips.” Alderperson Roehrer suggested the buoys be set aside for residents sailboats and the slips in the lagoon be used for kayaks. Alderman Gary Dunham wants to take back the boat slips the city is currently leasing to Gage Marine at the gas pier and the boat buoys that Marina Bay leases and allow city residents on the waiting list to lease them. Other projects removed were: $250K for underground utilities, $650K for traffic signals and $250K for pedestrian crosswalks. Mayor Chesen wants to set up a program to give grants to downtown property owners to improve the alley ways of “blight.” The council set aside $300K for 2 ½ blocks to close the alleys. The downtown will get its own street sweeper in 2009 for $185K and Alderperson Fesenmaier added $200K to replace trees due to the emerald ash borer. TIF funds will also be used for $100K/year for next four years for “administration,” and $1M put in escrow for “maintenance.” Currently there is between $5 and $7M in the TIF slush fund with the city is taking in excess of $2.75M per year. After 14 years the city is too finally to close the Geneva Lake Development Corp’s TIF district and put an extra $800K in taxes on the rolls. In Warren Buffett’s annual report to Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. he warned that “major industries have become dependent on Federal assistance, and they will be followed by cities and states bearing mind-boggling requests. Weaning these entities from the public teat will be a political challenge. They won’t leave willingly.” The council approved a TIF funded project to build another bathroom in Library Park for $109K Original TID spending committee recommendations.

Lake Geneva. Plan Commission member Alan Kupsik’s troubles with the work he was to do for the fire department continue. According Lake Geneva’s business administrator Dennis Jordan, Mr. Kupsik sent another invoice to be paid for work he is doing on the fire station’s HAVC system. According to Mr. Jordan the Police & Fire Commission (P&FC) have not approved the work. Mr. Jordan feels we should pay him anyway even though “some things still have to be done.” Scott Strong of the P&FC disagreed with Mr. Jordan. He informed the council that this invoice from Alan Kupsik’s Correct Consulting for $10,000.00 ($26,000 has been paid to date) has come before them, and was sent back to Mr. Jordan with a memo telling him “not to pay this invoice until all work is approved by the Fire Chief… it is not to be paid until such time as the Fire Department has all the heating issues and all the repairs done and everything working properly and it’s not even close.” Lake Geneva’s Finance Committee unanimously sent the invoice back to P&FC not to be paid. Total invoice from Correct Consulting 717 South Lake Shore Drive, Lake Geneva is $41,000.00. Alan Kupsik is head of the Park Board and so is on Lake Geneva’s Plan Commission. He voted to approve the controversial Hummul/Murbeau project and annex it into the city of Lake Geneva. Since being on the Park Board he has also voted to allow developers to give money to the city instead of donating land for parks. This is done so the city does not have to mow more grass.

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Mayor Bill Chesen wants to go on another $18-30M dollar spending spree over the next ten years with the extra TIF funds the city is collecting from Lake Geneva’s tax payers. The city is collecting an extra $2.77M more a year in property taxes than is necessary. Your tax bill is a full 11-13% higher because of these TIF districts. About 15 years ago two TIF districts were set up in Lake Geneva. The idea was to increase the tax base by making infrastructure improvements. The city borrowed money and made about $12M in public spending into these two districts. They could do this if it would promote “growth that would not otherwise have occurred,” according to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Now in 2009 all improvements have been made, the tax base has increased in these two districts; those being the downtown and the Business Park, and now it is time for the taxing bodies to reap the rewards and bring approximately $110M in increase assessed valuation onto the tax rolls by closing the TIFs. It is only by closing the TIF districts that the tax payers get any benefit. But like any government spending program a few people have been feeding out of this TIF trough and they don’t want it to end. They are the contractors, engineers, administrators, and even the banks where the TIF money is being kept. Lake Geneva is rolling in so much TIF money that a “slush fund” of about $5-7M has accumulated. There is another good reason these piggies want to keep feeding, economic times are tough and will get a lot worse. Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the most recent meeting of its open market committee the group that sets interest rates. The following passage says it all: “All participants anticipated that unemployment would remain substantially above its longer-run sustainable rate at the end of 2011, even absent further economic shocks; a few indicated that more than five to six years would be needed for the economy to converge to a longer-run path characterized by sustainable rates of output growth and unemployment and by an appropriate rate of inflation.” So who is going help the taxpayers of Lake Geneva? Mayor Chesen appointed an ad hoc committee made up of the usual suspects to suggest ways to spend this and future TIF funds. But how about not spending it and giving it back to taxpayers. A 12% tax cut on our real estate taxes each year for the next ten years would be only civil. One whole generation of children have gone through our school system with out this money for their education do you really want to make it two generations? tid-4-a3-table-1-draft-11-25-08-2

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lake Geneva recently conducted a community survey as part of it’s Smart Growth planning process. The primary findings where that an overwhelming majority feel environmental factors like air, the lake, rivers, streams, and forests are very important to preserve. Major findings of the survey were that:

• Citizen participation and communication between citizens and is very important for almost 100% of all respondents.
• The majority, 58.1%, want slower or no growth.
• The quality of life because of the growth over the last 5-10 years declined for 34.2% of residents, remained the same for 23.0% and improved for 24.5%.
• The largest group (34.2%) reported that the rate of development and traffic were the factors connected to the decline in the quality of life.
• The smaller group (24.5%) that reported and improvement in quality of life reported it was due to the availability of shopping.
• An overwhelming majority (68.3%) thinks that adequate shopping opportunities exist.
• Job opportunities are inadequate for 49.7% of survey participants.
• Lake Geneva has adequate supply of housing says 46.3%.

Future planning the citizen survey showed should do the following: 1.       Preserve and enhance the downtown and lakefront. 2.       Provide community services and facilities 3.       Improve traffic, parking, and other forms of transportation i.e. biking. 4.       Protect and enhance the environment. 5.       Play well with others, i.e. surrounding towns and Walworth Co. 6.       Redevelopment of older areas of the city. 7.       The respondents where not in favor of annexing for any purpose and new housing development. The types of developments Lake Genevains are in favor of are: 1.       Entertainment and art 2.       Health care 3.       Restaurants and retail shopping 4.       Technology and research 5.       Educational The types of development Lake Geneva residents are opposed to are: 1.       Food processing and agri-business. i.e. Ethanol plants 2.       Warehousing and distribution 3.       Churches and religious institutions 4.       Industrial and manufacturing 5.       Hotels and resorts. The survey was sent out to all property owners in City of Lake Geneva and was multiple choice. One section of the survey allowed respondents to write in other factors they were concerned about future growth. The top six written in concerns where: 1. No/slow growth 2. Small town charm 3. More parking 4. City government – negative 5. Traffic 6. More citizen participation