State’s Local Revenue Plan Is Historic

Clarke Square Park

The last time local revenue reform happened in Wisconsin there were more payphones on the streets than cellphones, the quarterback for the Packers didn’t wear number 12 or 4, and “tweeting” was a job reserved for the birds. Needless to say, the world has changed a lot since then, that’s why recent proposals from the Legislature to improve local revenue conditions, including allowing Milwaukee County to issue a sales tax, are not only historic, but incredibly necessary as the demand for services across the state outpaces the ability local governments have to pay for them.

Nowhere are these challenges more urgent, though, than in the County and City of Milwaukee. In the County alone, our structural deficit is expected to exceed $100 million by 2028 without any action.

A projected deficit of this size will inevitably lead to drastic service reductions, which will fall disproportionately upon those who rely on county services the most. And I can tell you my number one priority – and I would bet the number one priority of municipal executives across the state – is keeping my residents safe and healthy, which would be nearly impossible with the cuts that would take place without action.

The proposed legislation includes provisions to increase and protect funding for critical public safety services, incentivize innovation and shared services and addresses Milwaukee County’s decades-old pension problem through enablement of an additional sales tax for the County at 0.375 percent.

Wisconsin exempts a long list of services and products from the sales tax, such as groceries, medicines, medical equipment, services (like an oil change or a haircut), and many other items. The exemptions reduce the burden on local families and instead target the visitors and commuters to Milwaukee County who are forecast to provide up to 30 percent of the revenue the new tax will bring.

It’s an important proposal as counties like ours play a critical role in Wisconsin and perform some of the most vital and on-the-ground services throughout the state. From the entire public safety continuum to additional core government services like transportation and health & human services, Milwaukee County is on the front lines in making sure residents are safe, healthy, and have opportunities to be successful.

Milwaukee County spends $137M per year on public safety services mandated by the state of Wisconsin. That includes everything from expressway patrol, to helping law enforcement respond to crime and emergencies with radio support, to coordinating emergency response between municipalities, to remote bail processing, and youth detention.

The county is also responsible for increasing costs related to pre-trail release and supervision. We have a billion-dollar capital project backlog, which includes a $450M courthouse need that we cannot replace with our current bonding capacity. Mental health services have a state mandated expenditure floor of $53M in tax levy. These state mandates will consume our entire local levy by 2028 and pension costs continue to divert critical resources from these core public safety services.

Having no tax levy available for non-mandated services would be devastating for our community and it would mean having to make deep cuts to the services people rely on each day to survive. In such a scenario, current non-mandated services like parks, public transit, emergency services, senior services, disability services, youth services, and cultural arts will face deep cuts to their budgets and these services will look nothing like they do today.

Some of the most pressing quality-of-life problems in Milwaukee County, like affordable housing, reliable public transit, accessible and affordable health and human services, and sustainability of the county-wide parks system, will all worsen if a revenue solution is not found.

Losing Health & Human Services programs would be devastating as Milwaukee County plays a role in housing, health care, mental health care and behavioral health care with partnerships throughout Milwaukee County.

Eliminating bus routes and specialized transit services would severely limit mobility for many residents who rely on public transit each day. Not to mention it would be a burden on local businesses who have employees and clientele who use our buses each day.

Milwaukee County doesn’t have many options to raise revenue at the scale of the problem. This historic proposal promises to get the County on stable financial footing by adding this additional source of revenue to pay down our pension obligations and free up tax levy to continue funding the services we currently have.

We stand at a historical crossroads for the future of our region. I’m proud to have forged a partnership with the State of Wisconsin that stands to set Milwaukee County up for success in the years ahead.

David Crowley is the Milwaukee County Executive.