It’s City Budget Education Week
Why does Milwaukee face a fiscal crisis? What can be done? Virtual events will provide answers.
Jericho / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)
How much does the City of Milwaukee spend on libraries? Police? Trash pickup? Why don’t your property taxes cover all city services? Why might the city have to lay off one in four employees starting next year?
Those are all questions the city’s “Show Me the Money!” Budget Education Week event seeks to answer as the city enters what is likely to be the most difficult and controversial budget process in several decades, if not ever.
The 2023 budget will be a substantial one for the city’s future. It’s both the first one introduced by Johnson and also the first where the city will need to deal with a substantially increased pension-contribution requirement that threatens to consume more than $50 million annually. It’s also the first under new budget director Nik Kovac.
Each of the events is being recorded, so if you are unable to participate live, you can watch the recorded version at your leisure (and fast forward).
Johnson has also recorded a brief video for city employees, encouraging them not to be demoralized. “As you likely have heard, the city is facing some unprecedented budget challenges in the coming year,” says Johnson in the video. “I am intensely focused on limiting the negative impacts, but it is clear the challenges will affect the services we provide.”
You can read more about the city’s “calm before the storm” 2022 budget in our coverage from last year. More information on the city’s pension crisis and how the city is stockpiling federal funds to forestall the crisis are also available in our earlier coverage.
Event Schedule
- Making $ense of City Budgets – Aug. 23 – Watch recording
- Mayor’s Preliminary Budget Hearing – Aug. 24 – 5:30 p.m. – Watch live or watch the recording
- Budget Director’s Ask Me Anything – Aug. 25 – 5:30 p.m. – Watch live or watch the recording
Johnson’s Video
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More about the 2023 Milwaukee Budget
- City Hall: Council Overrides Mayor Johnson’s First Vetoes - Jeramey Jannene - Nov 22nd, 2022
- Mayoral budget vetoes to be taken up at Common Council meeting on November 22 - Common Council President Jose Perez - Nov 11th, 2022
- Mayor Vetoes Library, Fire Service Cut Restorations in 2023 Milwaukee Budget - Jeramey Jannene - Nov 11th, 2022
- Mayor’s Office Adds ‘Vision Zero’ Czar - Jeramey Jannene - Nov 8th, 2022
- Milwaukee Building New Cruise Ship Dock - Jeramey Jannene - Nov 7th, 2022
- Council Reverses Cuts, Raises Fees In Adopting 2023 Milwaukee Budget - Jeramey Jannene - Nov 4th, 2022
- City Hall: Council Beefing Up Negotiation Team In Advance of Public Safety Contract Talks - Jeramey Jannene - Oct 28th, 2022
- City Hall: Mayor, Council At Odds Over How To Prepare For Fiscal Cliff - Jeramey Jannene - Oct 27th, 2022
- City Hall: Proposed Budget Amendments Reverse Library, Fire Department Cuts - Jeramey Jannene - Oct 24th, 2022
- City Hall: Library Poised To Cut Services At 5 Branches In 2023 - Jeramey Jannene - Oct 14th, 2022
Read more about 2023 Milwaukee Budget here
Political Contributions Tracker
Displaying political contributions between people mentioned in this story. Learn more.
- May 7, 2015 - Nik Kovac received $10 from Cavalier Johnson
Here is the link to the 2023 proposed budget. They don’t make it easy to find.
There are 6 columns total. In the 4th from the left is each Department and subdivisions within that department. The 3 of note are the previous year (ie 2022) in column 3. Column 5 is the funding requests from each department head after the mayor/budget director review them, and eventually the amounts approved after horse trading by the common council will appear in column 6.
https://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/User/crystali/Budget-Books/2023RequestedBudget-2.pdf