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Starting in 2010, a city or village that wants to operate its police or fire departments more efficiently and save tax dollars will first need permission from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

.... A county or municipality may decrease the amount it spends for emergency services below its 2009 amount, with the Department of Revenue’s approval, if the decrease in expenditures is a result of operating more efficiently, as determined by the department.

....The politics of the new law, however, are perfectly clear. The police officers union and the firefighters union lobbied hard to persuade Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders to include “maintenance of effort for emergency services” in the 2009-11 state budget, signed into law on June 29 as Act 28. The union goal is to prevent city councils and village boards from reducing the number of police officers and firefighters on the municipal payroll.

Any city council or village board that requests an “efficiency waiver” from DOR should expect a vigorous challenge from the police or firefighters unions.

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