Survey: City voters may back $70 tax hike

Jun. 24—EAU CLAIRE — Should the city pursue a referendum to raise property taxes, a survey shows that a tax increase of $70 or less on a $200,000 home is what would be feasible among voters.

Top city staffers joined the Eau Claire school board Thursday morning to hear results that consultants from Baker Tilly had after interviewing registered voters in the Eau Claire area about potential referendums.

Based on figures from the presentation, City Manager Stephanie Hirsch said it appears the size of a referendum residents would vote for would fund about a dozen new positions — notably fewer than department heads say they need to run a growing city.

"It would still be a significant gap," Hirsch said.

She'd recently asked each department what they'd need to manage their workloads and received a list with a total of 43 new positions.

Hirsch acknowledged the pressures on providing services with a limited staff, but also the impact that raising taxes would have on Eau Claire families.

"It's going to be a lot of difficult conversations in our community, especially because households are also struggling," she said. "We'll figure out a path forward that's consistent with our priorities and community values."

Whether Eau Claire will pursue a referendum is up to the City Council. A referendum question must be approved by the council in August to get it onto ballots in November's election.

The council will review and discuss results of the survey during a work session on Tuesday, Hirsch said.

Emergency services support higher

People's willingness to support a city referendum varies based on how the additional revenue would be spent, based on the survey's results.

Scoring highest was maintaining police, fire and paramedic services, which 79% of those surveyed said they'd be more likely to support.

Putting money toward affordable housing and homelessness in Eau Claire and maintaining city streets and parks both boosted support from 70% of people surveyed.

After that was maintaining hours at the library, pool and ice rink — 60% of survey takers felt those causes would raise their likelihood to vote for a referendum.

Coming in last was using a referendum to pursue the city's environmental goals, which 55% felt would push them to back a tax increase.

Chris Bell, city fire chief, was among those at Thursday's presentation to hear the survey results.

While he was encouraged by the survey's backing of emergency services, Bell recognized multiple city departments have needs and there's a limit to how much of a tax increase voters would approve.

"I don't know if the data from the referendum analysis supports fire department getting 13 people," Bell said.

That's how many new firefighter/EMS worker positions he's been seeking to add, namely to increase staffing at the downtown Fire Station No. 2 and the south side's Fire Station No. 6.

The latter has been a longstanding request that multiple fire chiefs before him have had, but has never gotten into the city budget.

"It was an identical request from 20 years ago and we're still asking for that today," he said.

Earlier this year the city applied for a federal grant to fund six positions for Station No. 6 for the next three years, but has not yet heard if it will get that funding.

Fire union has own request

Prior to the referendum survey results being released, the union representing Eau Claire firefighters advocated for an even larger staffing boost.

Eau Claire Professional Firefighters Local 487 urged for the creation of 24 new positions, which would add a fourth person to each firetruck crew in the city.

"It's a big ask, but we've had nothing over 30 years," said Taylor Quinnell, past president of the union and an Eau Claire firefighter/paramedic.

The Fire Department's staffing has been at 94 employees since three positions were cut in the city's 2004 budget.

While staffing has stayed the same, emergency calls increased dramatically. The Fire Department responded to 4,614 calls in 2001. Last year the department responded to 9,794 calls — a 112% increase over the last two decades.

Quinnell said the union's staffing request is based on the first minutes of responding to a fire being crucial due to synthetic materials seen increasingly in buildings burn faster and produce more toxic smoke.

"Fires continue to burn hotter, faster and more dangerous," he said.

With a fourth person on firetruck crews, Quinnell said that would help with rescues, entering buildings and getting equipment ready to fight the fire.

Bell disagrees with putting new staffing toward upping firetruck crews, stating that the vast majority of mid-sized cities including Eau Claire use the three-person model.

The fire chief said that additional firefighter/EMS workers would be better used by adding more ambulance crews, as emergency medical service calls have been driving the department's increasing call volume.

"That's the growth we're seeing exponentially — more EMS calls," he said.

Last year, EMS calls accounted for 87% of the total calls, according to the department's annual report. The department responded to 146 fires last year, amounting to 1.5% of its responses. Other calls were for automatic alarms, hazardous conditions, service calls and other emergencies.