EDITORIAL: Port taxpayers: Can you afford a $33.5M public safety building?

How do Port Washington residents feel about their city government putting them on the hook for a $33.5 million public safety building that will cost them hundreds of dollars a year in added taxes?

Good question. The elected representatives who voted last week to authorize the spending even though it would result in what could be the largest tax increase ever in the city need to hear the answer.

Their vote to spend the $33.5 million will add an average of $573 a year to the tax bills of city homeowners. The increases will range from $382 a year for a home valued at $200,000 to $764 a year for a property assessed at $400,000.

The added taxes will appear on 2025 tax bills, along with annual tax increases for the expanded EMS department that will start on 2024 tax bills.

The safety building and EMS tax hikes, accompanied by the steep increase in water rates approved last year, will make Port Washington an expensive place to live for everyone from retired couples living in older homes (with tax valuations that have shot up in recent years) to young families working to pay down mortgages on their first homes.

What do residents think about that? It’s not too late to give the answer to their representatives on the Common Council. The safety building money has not yet been borrowed or spent. The $33.5 million was described as a “not to exceed” number, meaning it could be less. Citizens should demand that it be less.

It took only a few months for the safety building price tag to go from shocking to acceptable for city officials. When a proposal to spend $35 million on a combined fire and police safety building was dropped on the Council without warning in May, with Mayor Ted Neitzke pressing for approval then and there, aldermen were aghast, all seeming to agree with one Council member’s comment that they were being asked to approve “a big shocking number.”

The Council voted to put off consideration until the impact on taxes and city finances could be determined. Later the panel agreed to pay a company $250,000 to find a way to lower the cost. This resulted in the paltry savings that reduced the price to $33.5 million.

As recently as early September, the Council voted 4-3 against authorizing the project at the cost of $33.5 million, with the majority citing their concerns about the burden on taxpayers.

Ald. Patrick Tearney put it like this: “If you’re on the edge, or if you’re having trouble affording your home, this might push you over. I really have a big concern about that.”

Six weeks later, on Oct. 10,  the Council voted unanimously (Tearney was absent) to approve the project along with its big hit on taxpayers.

Efforts by the mayor and other proponents to justify the safety building expense have focused on need rather than cost. The need for a new fire station is not disputed. The current building is too small for the fire department’s apparatus, lacks the quarters needed for 24/7 paramedics and EMS personnel and, in its downtown location, is in the wrong place. What should be in dispute is that it takes $33.5 million to address these needs.

Though a joint fire and police facility is not a necessity, it makes sense to explore whether it is economically beneficial to include the police station in a building shared with the fire department. But no one is saying public safety would be jeopardized if the police department remained in its current headquarters.

Spurred by the obvious obsolescence of the fire station, an appointed group that included chiefs and officers of the fire and police departments and members of the Police and Fire Commission came up with the recommendation for a joint public safety building. In August 2023, the Council was told the cost would be $10 million to $15 million.

Bray Architects of Milwaukee was retained to analyze the need and propose a building to meet it. Since Bray would also be getting the contract to design the building, it was not surprising that the firm’s proposal is an elaborate building that looks more like an answer to wants than needs.

As proposed, the public safety building offers everything fire and police leaders and personnel could want. The sprawling two-story structure would be architecturally impressive, especially for a city of less than 13,000 residents with only moderate population growth projected. Standing at the western entrance to Port Washington, it would surely be an edifice that would make city leaders proud. All for $33.5 million.

Could the needs of Port Washington fire and police departments be met with a building that costs less? Common sense says yes, but there were no competing proposals to verify it.

How do the citizens who will have to pay for it feel about that? They can give the answer to their Common Council representatives. Email addresses and telephone numbers of the eight aldermen can be found at https://www.portwashingtonwi.gov/our-city/mayor-common-council.