Humane Society seeks rate hikes from county

Marathon County may be asking local municipalities to look at raising their dog licensing fees in order to honor a request for more money from the Humane Society of Marathon County (HSMC). However, even if those fees are increased, the county may have to change its own ordinance – and perhaps even petition for a state law change – to collect more license revenue.

Lisa Leitermann, executive director of HSMC, spoke to the Human Resources, Finance and Personnel (HRSP) Committee on July 7 about the unsigned 2023 contract between the county and the Humane Society, which has proposed several changes related to service charges.

The non-profit organization is asking the county to pay more for keeping stray dogs at the shelter and for quarantining dogs and cats for rabies monitoring after biting someone.

“We haven’t adjusted these rates since 2013, and as you can imagine, all of our expenses have increased,” Leitermann told the committee. “Thus far in 2023, we are continuing to provide services for Marathon County and have received no payments on our contract because we still don’t have this signed.”

Under the proposed contract, the daily rate for dog impoundments would increase from $16 to $27, and the daily rate for quarantined animals would go from $30 to $54. In addition, the charge for disposing of animals would jump from $160 to $270, with all veterinary bills being recouped at their actual cost.

Based on the current contract, which has remained unchanged since 2013, the county makes a minimum quarterly payment of $19,250 ($77,000 annually), with the actual amount based on how much the county collects in annual dog license revenues from cities, villages and towns. At the end of the year, anything over $1,000 left in the license fund is also turned over to HSMC.

Leitermann said HSMC has never billed the county more than $77,000 in any year, even though its costs have been greater than that.

Board chairman Kurt Gibbs said the county should reach out to local officials about possibly increasing their local fees in order to provide more revenue for the Humane Society.

“The discussion needs to take place at those municipalities because they probably haven’t raised their fees in the last 10 years either,” Gibbs said. “So, I think it’s incumbent upon us to have that discussion with them or they need to understand it’s going to go to tax levy.”

However, after last Wednesday’s meeting, county clerk Kim Trueblood said the county collects a maximum of $10 for every license issued for an unneutered/ unspayed dog and no more than $5 per spayed or neutered dog – regardless of what each municipality charges. These amounts are based on county ordinance 3.30, which cites a state statute adopted in 2001.

Trueblood said it’s unclear at this point whether the county can increase the amount of license revenue it collects by simply changing its ordinance, or if the state law needs to change first.

Since at least 2017, the dog license revenues collected from municipalities – minus payments to the state and the cost of dogs tags – have consistently fallen short of the minimum $77,000 payment to MCHS. The shortfall has had to come from elsewhere in the budget, Trueblood said.

Deputy county administrator Chris Holman said he and members of the public health staff have been meeting with Leitermann over the past couple of months to negotiate the terms of the contract. In a resolution presented to the committee, Holman included a provision to use the county’s contingency fund to cover any cost overruns in 2023.

Holman said it’s difficult to predict how much revenue is going to come in each year from dog licenses, so the county needs to decide how it wants to pay the HSMC contract when license revenues fall short.

Ultimately, the committee voted to defer action on the contract until its next meeting on June 20, which would still allow time for the county board to take action at its monthly meeting the following week. Leitermann agreed to provide information about the shelter’s average costs for county services in recent years.

Gibbs said he understands why HSMC is asking for more money after 10 years, but he wants to know how much the county can expect to be charged in the future.

“I can’t sign an open-ended contract without any expectation of where that limit is,” he said. “Historically, the Humane Society hasn’t billed us if there was a shortage based on the number of animals taken in, so we’re heading a down road that’s different than the one we’re currently on.”