As a friend of our agency, we want to keep you informed and up-to-date on the path before us. As you are most likely aware, we partnered with the City of Platteville to obtain a $3.5M grant from the Neighborhood Investment Fund Program through the State of Wisconsin. This grant is to construct a new building for our agency that will serve as our future office and shelter facility.
At this time, we are disappointed to report that the Platteville city council is proposing to require a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) on our agency as part of the developer’s agreement to construct our building. Family Advocates, Inc. is a non-profit organization and is exempt from traditional property taxes so the city council is proposing we pay a PILOT of $12,500 per year (increased for inflation annually) in our preliminary developer’s agreement. We feel the city's attempt to implement the PILOT in our developer’s agreement is an inappropriate use of the PILOT program. Being required to make a PILOT payment will take funds away from Family Advocates budget to provide direct services to those we serve. The grant award we received must be used for the construction of the building and cannot be used to pay operating expenses going forward.
We are discussing the developer’s agreement with the city council and trying to negotiate with them to remove the PILOT payment from our agreement. We are requesting your help to support Family Advocates by emailing your Platteville city council leaders to let them know you do not support the PILOT payment. We believe having supporters contact the city council to support our position will help in our efforts to get the PILOT payment removed from our developer’s agreement.
We asked that you copy and paste the email below and send it to the Platteville city council members and the city manager. We’ve provided their names and emails addresses for your convenience. Please be sure to include your full name, address and city in your signature on the email.
Thank you all for your support,
Aaron Cullen
Family Advocates Board of Directors
Steering Committee Chair and Treasurer
Dear Platteville City Council,
We are writing you to request that you approve the developer’s agreement with Family Advocates, Inc. without a payment in lieu of taxes requirement (PILOT). Family Advocates is a grant funded organization that provides vital community services to help victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault and child abuse. The agency operates on a very tight budget and is already facing budget cuts on future years due to reductions in grant funding at the Federal level. We believe imposing a PILOT on an agency such as Family Advocates in an inappropriate use of the PILOT programs intent. Any funds that would go to a payment in lieu of taxes would have a negative impact on the agency’s ability to service victims in need. Providing support and treatment for these people in need of help needs to be of utmost importance and a civil duty for us all.
Regards,
Your Full Name
Address
City
If the above link doesn't work for your email system, here are the council members' individual email addresses:
Todd Kasper | District 1 | (608) 642-3495 | toddkasper@platteville.org
Eileen Nickels | District 2 | (608) 348-6035 | eileennickels@platteville.org
Barbara Daus | District 3 | (608) 348-3365 | barbaradaus@platteville.org
Ken Kilian | District 4 | (608) 348-8479 | kenkilian@platteville.org
Kathy Kopp | At Large | (608) 642-9227 | kathykopp@platteville.org
Lynne Parrott | At-Large | (608) 642-2281 | lynneparrott@platteville.org
Jason Artz | At-Large | (608) 331-0897 | jasonartz@platteville.org
Adam Ruechel | City Manager | (608) 348-9741 x2222 | citymanager@platteville.org