Marshfield Residents Could See a New Street Light User Fee in 2024

Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 -- 1:01 PM

(Erik Pfantz, Marshfield News Herald) Property owners in the city could see a new street light user fee in 2024.

According to Erik Pfantz with the Marshfield News Herald, City Administrator Steve Barg and staff included the street light user fee as a source of revenue in Marshfield's proposed 2024 budget with an implementation date of March 1, 2024.

However, Barg told a Marshfield News-Herald reporter Thursday that the city’s Common Council has yet to give final approval to it. “The council has only officially voted to have Ehlers study it to tell them how much we’re going to charge,” Barg said.

Ehlers Inc. is the financial advising company the city contracts with. “If (the council) finds out that the amount that’s going to be charged to each property owner is higher than they think or they think different property owners are being treated unfairly, they may not vote for it.”

In 2005, the Wisconsin Legislature created “levy limits,” which significantly limited the amount municipalities could raise property taxes in a year, according to an Ehlers study on street light user fees presented to the village of Marshall earlier this year.

As a result of rising costs, local governments have needed to reduce services or look to other sources of revenue. One option is creating certain types of fees. “We’ve talked about wheel taxes, we’ve talked about stormwater utilities, we’ve talked about other ways to raise revenues,” Barg said.

“Cities are struggling because, until this last year, the state hasn’t really kept up with inflation in terms of the amount of aid that they give to cities, so we’ve been falling farther and farther behind.”

Barg said the current plan for the street light user fee would be a special charge on the utility bills property owners already receive from Marshfield Utilities. The Ehlers study for the village of Marshall, located in Dane County, shows how a few other communities in Wisconsin have implemented similar programs.

The city of Rice Lake, for example, which created their street light user fee in 2005, has separate residential and non-residential rates and the non-residential rate is further determined by the amount of street frontage the property has.

Others, like the village of Oregon or the village of Sauk City, simply charge a single different rate for residential and non-residential properties. The city of Milwaukee’s recently implemented system charges $1 per foot of street-facing property lines, according to WISN.

Barg said Marshfield’s proposed plan could have different rates for residential, commercial and industrial properties, though the details have yet to be decided. “Whether you’re in a cul-de-sac and you have one (street light) right in front of your house or you don’t have one 500 feet from you, it’s based on the fact we all benefit from them as we drive around town,” Barg said.

Since the charge would be added to utility bills instead of paid through property taxes, nonprofit companies, churches and other non-taxpaying entities would contribute to paying for street lighting whereas, under the current system, they do not.

The total estimated expense for street lighting in 2024 is about $257,000, according to Barg. The proposed budget takes into account an implementation date of March 1, so the city expects revenue from the program of about $200,000 in the first year.

In following years, the charge will cover the entire year’s cost, which will be determined by Marshfield Utilities. Marshfield’s Common Council will need to approve the plan within the next couple of months to meet the March 1 start date.

Otherwise, these figures will have to be re-estimated. The council has expressed little opposition to the plan so far through the budget process and expects the revenue from the program as part of balancing its budget next year, Barg said.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.