La Crosse contemplating upping borrowing in near future

Mayor thinks city needs to catch up on delayed projects.

It may not happen next year but, eventually, the city of La Crosse may up the amount that’s borrowed for projects like roads and fire stations.

Mayor Tim Kabat says that may be needed as the city tries to catch up on projects that have been delayed.

He says the new push to fix more roads every year should convince taxpayers of the need – eventually.

“It’s going to take a couple of years to start to realize, that we’re hopefully doing, instead of 3-4 miles, we’re doing 7-8 miles,” Kabat said. “I think it’s going to take a few years of that.”

The city has self-imposed an annual borrowing limit of about $7.5 million for years.

“I do think we have to have a really hard conversation about, do we look at going from $7.5 million up to $9.5-10 million?” Kabat asked.

Kabat added he has no plans to push for higher borrowing limits for 2018 but, possibly, the year after that. It would be difficult to measure property tax implications for that idea yet.  

Monday, the city’s public works board approved spending $1.9 million for next year on equipment like police squads, park department trucks, bulletproof vests and dump trucks.