Today’s budget announcement in La Crosse could be full of surprises

Adding two police, however, not one of them

Could be some surprises today from La Crosse City Hall when Mayor Tim Kabat announces his budget plan for the coming year. 

One of the issues that won’t be a surprise is that Kabat carved out funding for two new Neighborhood Response Officers.

Because of some restructuring in the La Crosse Police Dept., only one of the positions requires new funding.

Kabat certainly isn’t apologizing for that or the other NRO position, because, he says, they work. One of the biggest reasons is how those officers are making an impact in challenging neighborhoods where it’s necessary to build relationships with people who would not otherwise communicate with police.

Kabat would not say ahead of time whether he expects the city’s tax rate to go up in the coming year.   For the past two budgets, the mayor has worked to keep the property tax rate flat, despite resistance from the city council, which questions the long-term negative impacts of doing so.