La Crosse should budget only for what city needs

The city of La Crosse has done a good job holding the line on property taxes in recent years. The levy rate has held basically steady for several years, meaning that for most people their property taxes have not gone up. In fact, the city’s share of property taxes has held steady for five years. Again this year, Mayor Tim Kabat put forth a budget which would continue to fund essential city services, and do so without raising taxes. That is what we should want in a budget. But others think the city should spend more, even when it doesn’t need to spend more. That was the vote of the La Crosse Board of Estimates which voted to add $250,000 in spending, for no reason. Just to have it in case they need it. Some wanted to add nearly twice that much in spending. And tuck it away in reserves. Because we might need it some day. The Mayor’s budget does what a budget is supposed to do. Identify spending priorities, and fund those which are most important to the community. Not spend, or tuck away, or more importantly, take from us, what they don’t need.