NEW BERLIN — The City of New Berlin is in the early stages of reviewing a possible public safety referendum that could appear on the Nov. 3 election ballot; no referendum question has been approved.
Additional discussions are expected during Committee of the Whole and Common Council meetings scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. City officials are planning to present preliminary financial and budget information, along with operational updates from the police and fire departments regarding staffing, equipment and service demands.
The Common Council may decide whether to continue moving forward with the process necessary to potentially place a referendum question before voters in November.
The discussions follow several budget-related debates over the past year. In July 2025, residents and Common Council members voiced strong opposition to the possibility of a wheel tax, leading city officials to abandon the idea. Officials also previously considered an operating referendum.
In September, however, the Common Council opted not to pursue a public safety referendum at that time, choosing instead to focus on finalizing the city’s 2026 budget before deciding whether to seek voter approval to exceed state levy limits.
New Berlin Mayor Dave Ament said the current discussions are a continuation of conversations that began last year.
The wheel tax came out of a discussion mayors had with state officials about the growing issue of the shared revenue formula that the state uses, which is “severely outdated, and the restrictions that the state has on for revenue limits and additional mandates that they require of us, and this affects the county as well.”
Ament explained that state officials encouraged municipalities to use available revenue-generating tools, including wheel taxes and referendums.
“We asked what are those tools, and they said one would be a wheel tax, one would be a referendum,” he said. He said the wheel tax discussion last year was intended to gauge council support rather than propose a formal plan.
“I didn’t want to spend a lot of time and resources of myself and staff If they weren’t interested in doing it at all. The wheel tax was one of them. It was just to see what their appetite was for even having those included in my proposed budget,” he said.
Ament said the referendum discussion is tied to the city’s longterm public safety planning rather than addressing an immediate budget crisis.
“It was not meant to be a stopgap or to fill anything, it was meant to look at our long-term five- and 10-year public safety needs,” he said.
According to Ament, the city reduced police staffing by several officers around 2008 or 2009, while the fire department has continued expanding as New Berlin transitioned from a volunteer department to a municipal department.
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“We have gotten to a point now where, because of the budget restraints, we can’t add any more personnel unless we use one of these tools,” Ament said.
City officials are currently reviewing projected costs tied to adding 12 firefighters and several police officers, including salaries, equipment and insurance expenses. Preliminary figures are expected to be presented to the council on Tuesday.
“We’re looking at projected costs of 12 firefighters and their equipment, whatever they need … whatever it costs insurance,” Ament said. “The police department, three additional police officers.”
Ament said any referendum proposal would need to comply with state rules and would require approvals from the council, county and state by August before appearing on the ballot.
He also pointed to increasing strain on emergency services, particularly the fire department.
“Our fire department is stretched,” Ament said. “We have longer response times in certain instances. We’ve only got enough personnel at each station to take one call at a time, so if they go out on a call, there’s nobody left in the station to go out on another call if it comes in.”
Despite the discussion surrounding a referendum, Ament stressed that New Berlin remains financially stable.
“We don’t have a deficit,” he said. “We’re one of only four cities in the whole state that have a AAA bond rating.”
Ament said the referendum discussion is part of broader strategic planning aimed at maintaining service levels in the years ahead.
“The referendum is designed to make sure that the next five or 10 years that we can still provide the public safety that people expect,” he said.
He added that without long term planning, the city could eventually face more serious challenges.
“If we don’t do stuff like this, we will be in a crisis,” Ament said. “This is part of our long range strategic planning.”