One of the highlights of last month’s WLA Library Development & Legislation (LD&L) Committee webinar “Positioning the Library for a Post-Pandemic Sustainable Future,” was the section describing potential pandemic related impacts on the revenue stream for Wisconsin municipalities.
Wauwatosa Public Library Director Pete Loeffel advised library directors and their library board presidents to meet with their municipal administrator or finance officer ahead of budget discussions in order to better understand anticipated fiscal challenges. Loeffel’s comprehensive list of municipal revenue sources which may have been impacted by the 2020 pandemic has been added as a reference tool to the webinar links posted on the WVLS COVID webpage under Reopening/Curbside Services Resources.
Pieces of the 2020 and 2021 Wisconsin state, county and municipal fiscal puzzle are still falling into place. For example, on Tuesday, July 7, Governor Tony Evers and WISDOT Secretary-designee Thompson announced more than $160 million in transportaton aid for local governments. The local assistance increase is part of more than $465 million in new funding for transportation projects included in the governor’s 2019-2020 state budget. A list of local payments linked at the bottom of the Governor’s press release is organized by geographic region and searchable for municipal name by using Ctrl+F so you can look up how much transportation aid will be flowing to your community.
-Submitted by Kris Adams Wendt