SUN PRAIRIE RISING

by Bill Connors

Posted to Sun Prairie Politics Only Local Facebook Page

April 17, 2026

I have read many comments the Sun Prairie city government should “balance its budget” and “live within its means.” But it appears from those comments that what people mean by those phrases can vary from person to person.

The Sun Prairie city government has been balancing its budget every year for years. In its annual budget, the projected revenues equal the sum of the budgeted current expenses and the current debt service obligations. This is achieved by increasing the city government’s property tax levy every year (while the trend in the city government’s property tax RATE has been downward for years). The amount of the property tax levy is the difference between the projected non-property-tax revenues and the sum of budgeted current expenses and current debt service obligations–the amount of the property tax levy is, literally, whatever amount is need to make the budget balanced.

The Sun Prairie city government has lived within its means every year for years. The City Council decides the amount of the means within which it must live. That is one of the most important things we, the residents of the City of Sun Prairie, elect them to do. During the five-years that I was on the City Council, when we were making decisions about whether to add budget initiatives that increase costs, we would pay attention to how much that would require the property tax levy to increase and how much that would increase the city property tax on the average value house. Some of us alders voted to stop increasing spending in the budget when we believed the property tax increase on the average value house hit the upper limit of how much we thought was appropriate to ask homeowners to pay.

Now, instead of the City Council, the people we elects, deciding the amount of the means within which the city government must live, the amount of the means is determined each year by an arbitrary formula in state law that is not based on what it costs for the city government to provide the services that our residents are used to receiving.

And the City Council will continue to balance the city budget each year, just as it always has. But now City Council will have to do so not by increasing the property tax levy (maybe the City Council will do some things that increase non-property-tax revenue, but its ability to do so is heavily restricted by state law), but by reducing or eliminating services to reduce costs compared to what they would have been (meaning total spending in the budget probably will still increase, but not by as much as it otherwise would have).