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The City of Appleton’s 2007 budget was released last night. Copies can be reviewed at the Appleton Public Library or City Hall, 6th floor, Finance Department. The budget folks promise an executive summary will be posted on the web no later than October 13. Then…. 

• Common Council review of budget, department by department, Saturday, October 28. Typically the day begins at 8:00 and ends around 5:00.
• Public hearing, Wednesday, November 1, typically 7:00 p.m. – doublecheck the time.
• Budget adoption Wednesday, November 8, 7:00 p.m. Public welcome to speak at start of meeting.

Appleton’s budget is a program-based document, divided into departments and functions and including hundreds of “performance indicators.” The indicators are used to keep government accountable – Is what they say they’re going to do what we want them to do - AND did they do what they said they were going to do in the first place?

Examples of performance indicators include such varied details as:

• Tons of residential paper collected for recycling
• Number of permits issued by the Inspections Department
• Percentage of telephoned questions answered by the City Assessor and her staff
• Percent email and phone inquiries the mayor answered within 48 hours (This was added when citizens and officials became frustrated with lack of response.)

Performance indicators come and go. For example, one of the mayor’s performance indicators, as recently as 2005, included contacting 75% of alderpersons once per month. That disappeared in the 2006 budget and was replaced with urging staff and alderpersons to attend budget meetings. What?

Ok… enough of that stuff. On the first run through a city budget, what will FoxPolitics be looking for?

1. How much is the total tax levy increasing? (well, how much is it “changing?” Can you imagine the tax levy ever decreasing???)
2. DO NOT look at the tax RATE. Meaningless. 
3. Utility rates – how are they changing?
4. Debt – how is it changing and where is it as a percentage of the legal limit?
5. Fees – with levies being regulated, governments are sorely tempted to raise all sorts of fees. Watch for this! Appleton, uniquely among cities, must abide by the Tax Levy Ordinance (TLO) which controls increases in total spending, not JUST the tax levy. (The TLO - a citizen referendum written in 1996 by this site’s Editor)
6. Personnel changes – Ten years ago, full-time employees totaled 625. That rocketed to 684 in 2003. Finally, a decade after the public sector began significant and continuous cutbacks, the city was forced to cut back. FTE’s in 2006 totaled 652.
7. How much money is in the budget to build a police station? See what FoxPolitics Says. 

Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net

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