Action Areas

I believe that alders should keep their neighbors informed. Democracy is a process that involves all of us if it’s going to work. I’ve experienced our local government on multiple levels: voter, active participant—and hopefully—soon, alder. Over the last year, I’ve attended Council meetings and communicated with our outgoing alders so that I can be prepared to step into the role if I am honored to earn your vote.

What is the “levy limit” and how does it effect our city budget?

The levy limit caps how much a city can raise through property taxes.

Let's break down how the City's tax revenue can grow each year. The City can only increase the ceiling on property taxes based on one thing: new buildings and construction in Sun Prairie. Typically, this allows us to raise the tax ceiling by about 2-3% annually.

Here's the challenge: This limit doesn't consider how much things actually cost. Think of it like your household budget. When prices were stable and low (around 1.5%) after the 2008 financial crisis, the City could manage fine. But recently, with prices jumping dramatically - 8% in 2022 and 4% in 2023 - we're in a tough spot.

For example, when we collect that extra 2-3% in taxes from new construction, it's not helping us provide services to those new neighborhoods anymore. Instead, that money is just helping us keep up with the higher costs of everything else - from road salt to wages.

In simple terms: While Sun Prairie keeps growing with new homes and businesses, the extra tax money we can collect isn't enough to serve these new areas - it's all going toward paying the higher prices for existing services.

This puts our local government in a bind.

This levy limit will force the City to cut services as inflation eats away at the value of the dollar.

If the City hits the levy limit, which it is on track to do in the next couple of years, the City will have to start cutting services our residents use and on which they rely. Because there is a cap on how much we can raise, we will have to cut spending to combat inflation’s effect on the value of the dollar. This means, annually, we’ll see reduced hours at City buildings, such as the library. We’ll see longer waits for the streets to be plowed in the winter. Fewer staff to assist citizens. We might see cuts to funding for the Colonial Club, Community Schools, the Sunshine Place, and Neighborhood Navigators, harming our seniors, children, and most vulnerable.

If we reach the levy limit, the City will face systematic cuts to critical operations and programs on an annual basis.

There is a solution to avoid cutting important services: the people of Sun Prairie can vote to raise the levy limit.

This is called a referendum, and we're thinking about putting it on the ballot in April 2026.

This vote would ask residents if they're willing to pay more in taxes to maintain the services they count on every day - like keeping our library running, making sure we have enough police officers and firefighters, and maintaining our streets and parks.

But here's the challenge we face: Many residents might vote 'no' if they don't trust how the City manages money. Some people believe we're spending money on things we don't really need, and they want to see us cut those expenses first before asking for higher taxes.

That's why it's crucial for us to show everyone that we're already being careful with every tax dollar we spend. We need to prove that we're making smart financial decisions now, so when we ask for this increase in 2026, residents will understand it's truly needed to protect the services that make Sun Prairie a great place to live.

As your alder, I will only vote for budgets that spend your taxes wisely, so we can earn back trust from our neighbors. I am committing to voting only for budgets that raise taxes $100 on the average home.

Here’s why I’m confident that we can keep the tax hike at or near $100 and still provide robust services to meet the needs of our community.

To date, the City Council has not made cuts to the continuing operational costs of prior year budgets.

It’s known as the “cost-to-continue”—what it costs to do everything you did in last year’s budget, this year. In 2024, the cost to continue 2023’s budget was the largest factor in the 7.7% tax increase. Much of this was due to inflation. Over several budget sessions, each of which I attended in person as an interested citizen, I watched the City Council adopt last year’s budget without any changes. That was a mistake.

The City needs to demonstrate that we’ve made targeted, sensible spending decisions before going to referendum.

I have committed to voting only for budgets that raise taxes at or near $100, excluding refuse and recycling, on the average home.

Here’s an example of how I would analyze current spending more closely. In 2024, to limit the tax increase to $120 instead of $183, the City needed to cut $875,000 from the budget. A 10% reduction in budget lines for materials, supplies, and professional development, along with reallocating the $134,000 spent on an outside consultant, could have covered a quarter of that amount. These adjustments would have helped reduce the tax increase to 5% instead of 7.7%.

Your alder should take a precise, top-down approach to budget cuts, focusing on reducing inward facing expenses first to minimize the impact on our most vulnerable neighbors. When inflation affects everyone, we must also find ways to cut back at the City level.

Folks tell you not passing a referendum will simply force the City to live within its means, but they’re mistaken.

The levy limit is not tied to inflation. No matter how responsibly you spend, eventually, the inflationary impact on the value of the dollar will catch up to the levy limit. But folks aren’t wrong when they say the City can spend more wisely and earn back the trust of residents when the City Council asks for an increase to the levy limit. By demonstrating that the City has cut back on professional development, paused hiring, or reassessed benefits, we can go out with a straight face and honestly tell voters what the real impact of failing to pass a referendum will be.

As your alder, I will make careful budget decisions that prioritize essential services our residents need, and vote to spend our tax dollars wisely. The City should be treating tax dollars with as much care as residents do when the money is in their own pocket.

Our tax dollars support a variety of public good, often in partnership with non-profits. I am committing to protecting those services from cuts.

Beyond the parks, our library, and our Neighborhood Navigators, our Sun Prairie residents have a variety of needs that the City helps meet.

From senior activities to reducing student absences, your tax dollars are hard at work making Sun Prairie shine for everyone. Residents across the economic spectrum benefit from these community uplift initiatives the City helps fund, and the results speak for themselves. City funding for Community Schools, a partnership with the Sun Prairie Area School District, has reduced chronic absenteeism across community school sites by 8.5%. Your taxes help fund a housing case manager at the Sunshine Place, where 620 instances of housing assistance were recorded in 2024. And our Sun Prairie seniors have access to adult day care, home care, and two dozen programs in part because of City contributions to the Colonial Club.

Sun Prairie contributes funding to the Colonial Club, Community Schools, and the Sunshine Place. Pitching in to these non-profits amplifies the impact of our dollars.

For example, the City pitches in a mere $40,000 to the Sunshine Place, in addition to $25,000 through Sun Prairie Utilities to prevent utility disconnection. But the Sunshine Place has an approximately $1.7 million annual budget, and over the wide variety of programs it administers, the Sunshine Place provides nearly 1,650,000 pounds of food through the food pantry, provides 1,800 backpacks worth of school supplies to SPASD children, and helps 107 patrons with their legal needs. And more.

By partnering with non-profit organizations, we amplify the impact of our tax dollars, doing more to meet basic human needs together than we could ever do by ourselves. These partnerships take the taxes we all pay, including those most vulnerable, and return them to residents in programs that benefit elders, children, and adults alike.

I believe in putting our community first, which means protecting the services that our neighbors rely on every day. My priority is to ensure that your tax dollars continue supporting the programs that make a real difference in the daily lives our our neighbors.

I also care deeply about issues that extend beyond the scope of the City Council. As your alder, I'll be a voice for our community's broader needs and concerns. I’m ready to advocate for those things. Here are a few.

  • Knocking on doors in high school in 2006 in opposition to Wisconsin’s ban on equal marriage was my first entry into politics, and I’ve been vocal and active in advocating for queer equality since. In 2025, with the right to marry who you love potentially on the line before the Supreme Court, I’ve met with state representatives to ask they amend state statute to allow the city government to provide health insurance to same sex domestic partners should Wisconsin’s constitutional ban on marriage equality go back into effect.

  • Seniors on fixed income feel like they are being taxed out of their homes. Helping seniors age in place by using the Affordable Housing Fund to provide low interest home repair loans, advocating for state housing funds like WHEDA to support senior housing, and providing sustained support to the Colonial Club, we can make Sun Prairie a desirable and affordable place to live from childhood to your sunset years.

  • Sun Prairie residents value our urban green spaces and the surrounding agriculture that harkens back to our roots as a railroad stop on the outskirts of Madison. Keeping our rural agricultural buffer means keeping farming profitable and sustainable. Partnering with the Dane County Land and Resources Department and tapping into state and federal funding will support sustainable practices that keep our surrounding geography green or growing.

  • I’ve made supporting education my career - from large urban school districts to state education agencies. Students and educators are impacted by decisions made beyond the school board, and I’ll advocate to keep and improve bus service from Sun Prairie to Madison College so our dually enrolled high schoolers and our tech college students can have fast, safe, and reliable options to get to campus.

  • The easiest way to provide a balance between providing the appropriate revenue stream for local government and protecting residents from high property taxes is indexing the levy limit to inflation. That takes a change to statute, and I will push for that change.

  • Partnerships with our US Senators and Congressman help bring in millions of federal dollars to Sun Prairie. Federal funding supports our Main Street reconstruction project, and we need alders who can effectively advocate for bringing our federal tax dollars back home. With so many Sun Prairie residents tied to local, state, and federal or non-profit jobs funded with federal dollars, I’ll work with city staff and county, state, and national representatives to keep that federal funding here and defend the jobs our neighbors work hard at every day.

  • Bifurcating the heart of our downtown, State Highway 19 serves as a busy thoroughfare connecting Marshall to our east and DeForest to our west. While it brings in commerce, it also comes with heavy traffic, including semi-trucks, which are forced to navigate a sharp right turn at Bristol and Main. I’ll advocate for WISDOT to reroute the portion of Highway 19 that is shared with Main Street out of downtown.