How does the levy limit impact your community's services?  Subsidies for the ambulance service and fire district go up so it cuts into our levy limits - we cannot adjust for those increases. Our library budget has not increased for 6 years - We have had to eliminate all of the summer programs for kids - swimming lessons, etc. We used to have lifeguards and summer rec programs. We also used to have music in the park.

How does the levy limit impact your community's budgeting practices and finances, eg, your amount of borrowing?  We use fund balance when we have it to pay for equipment and building needs to try to avoid borrowing money. Hard to budget for capital projects as our general expenses keep rising - electric, phone, computers, insurance, etc. We tend to budget less and less for capital outlay projects.

How did the levy limit impact your community's staffing levels and employee compensation?  We didn't replace one police officer and one public works employee. Employee compensation has not kept up with the cost of inflation - Premium and deductible increases rise more than their increases. We also cut back on one part-time person in our city hall.

Anything else you'd like to say regarding the impact of levy limits on your community?  We have cut back on many things over the years to keep our budgets down - staffing, programs for the youth, community events, postage meters, rug services, extermination services, legal services (by not having the attorney come to every meeting) Shared revenues and transportation aids have gone down but our expenses keep going up and we are struggling to keep up services. Keeping our levy limits down would be easier if the State did it's part in keep our costs down - helping with transportation and shared revenues.