Services expanding, housing more affordable and spending is down in La Crosse

La Crosse mayor has high
hopes for future of city

Overall spending is down. Property taxes have decreased. Yet, in the city of La Crosse, many things have been improved and mayor Tim Kabat is proud of that fact.

“We have, in essence, kept our service levels the same,” Kabat said. “We’ve actually expanded programs. We’ve added six police officers since that time in our neighborhoods. We’ve expanded MTU service, we’ve built more affordable housing, we’ve added to code enforcement.

“We’ve done those things and still reduced total spending.”

Kabat would like his constituents to hear about the million dollars that he’s cut from spending in the city over the last three budgets without sacrificing city services.

“Our total spending as a government entity in the city of La Crosse is actually less than it was in 2013,” Kabat said. “That’s something we can be very proud of. We take those things very seriously and that’s been part of a program, to really deal with these tax issues when it comes to the city of La Crosse.

“Believe it or not I hear on a fairly regular basis that our taxes are too high, and I take that very seriously.”

 Kabat cites frugal budgeting, significant economic development and tremendous livability, as reasons to have high hopes for the La Crosse’s future.