If a municipality such as the city of Viroqua were to lose 10 percent of its shared revenue from the state, the impact would be hard to compensate for, Viroqua Mayor Larry Fanta said.

News of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau report last week that falling tax revenues may lead to cuts in state aid for municipalities for 2009-2010 was not welcome.

“We’ve been through budget cuts before with the state, where we’ve had to sharpen our pencils,” Fanta said. “We’re to the point now where we’ve cut and cut and cut. There’s nothing left to cut other than services and employees.”

The city of Viroqua has a $5.1 million overall budget from which it receives $1.06 million in shared revenue from the state. On its face, a 10 percent cut would be about $100,000.

However, Viroqua City Administrator Jeff Gohlke said he’s heard that the cuts to shared revenue would be anywhere from 1 to 6 percent, and using the “state brand of computation” that could be anywhere from $3,500 on up.

“There’s no question it’s going to be a difficult year,” Gohlke said.

However, Gohlke said that property value assessments in Viroqua have held well compared to other cities and it’s difficult to know now what the state budget will do to impact local governments.

“It’s definitely a moving target,” Gohlke said. “It’s hard to know.”

“If it’s 10 percent, that’s going to smart,” Fanta said.