Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Adopts 2018 Budget
Listens to Voters and Eliminates Abele's Proposal to Double the Wheel Tax to $60
MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors adopted the 2018 Milwaukee County budget today on a vote of 15-3 after adopting several amendments to County Executive Chris Abele‘s Recommended Budget, including an elimination of Abele’s wheel tax increase to $60.
Today the County Board adopted a balanced budget that avoids an increase in the wheel tax and preserves services for our citizens, and still gives the County Executive about 98% of what he asked for. County Executive Abele proposed a budget that was out of balance, and built around proposal to double the wheel tax – a proposal that voters rejected. Supervisors have listened to the people of Milwaukee County, who said “No” to the wheel tax increase. Supervisors found compromise, and crafted a responsible budget that spends millions less than Abele wanted to spend, borrows less, uses less of the county’s savings, and taxes homeowners less than Abele proposed,” said County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, Sr.
The 2018 Milwaukee County Adopted Budget includes several amendments to County Executive Abele’s proposal, including a restoration of the $200,000 that Abele cut from senior centers, new funding to bring awareness to the problem of sex trafficking, a plan to reduce evictions in Milwaukee County, pilot programs for lead abatement and AODA treatment in the House of Corrections (HOC), funds for youth job training, and $1.5 million to a contingency fund for emergency spending, among others.
Supervisors adopted an amendment (16-2, Alexander, Dimitrijevic) by Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, Sr. that eliminates Abele’s proposal to double the wheel tax to $60, which was rejected by 72% of voters in April.
Lipscomb’s amendment founds savings from a variety of methods, including an across the board reduction in departmental budgets of .75%, for a savings of $3.75 million, a rejection of about half of Abele’s request for new positions, saving over $1 million, and by delaying certain road projects that Abele’s own appointees to the Capital Improvement Committee did not recommend.
The 2018 Adopted Budget calls for a property tax levy of $292,828,329, which is $1,187,551 less than what County Executive Abele proposed, for a total expenditure of $1,148,961,486, or $16,372,631 less than what the County Executive proposed.
Supervisors will meet on November 13 to consider possible vetoes from the County Executive.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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