County Board Opposes State Shared Revenue Plan

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

‘Yes’ to increased state funding and ‘No’ to any strings attached. That was the message sent by the Milwaukee County Board Thursday.

The board passed a resolution authored by Sup. Ryan Clancy supporting increased state aid “with full autonomy and without restrictions from the State of Wisconsin.”

The resolution was debated and voted on in the backdrop of ongoing negotiations at the state level over Republican-sponsored legislation that would change the way local governments across the state are funded. The legislation is a result of years of lobbying by the county, City of Milwaukee and municipalities and counties across the state, seeking reforms to the state’s “Shared Revenue” system for funding local governments. Shared revenue payments have been frozen for more than a decade, while annual inflation has driven government costs higher.

Bills making there way through Wisconsin State Legislature would give the county an increase in shared revenue (14.6% in the Assembly bill and 10% in the Senate bill) from the payment it received approximately a decade ago, and it would authorize it to hold a binding referendum on an additional 0.375% county sales tax atop the existing 0.5% county tax.

But the increased funding comes with restrictions. Namely, the board would need a two-thirds majority to create any new spending, whereas it currently only needs a simple majority. Additionally, supervisors would no longer be able to put information-seeking, advisory referendums on county ballots.

“This was authored by me about six weeks ago,” Clancy said of his resolution. The supervisor also serves as a representative in the Assembly. “I lacked the imagination, to even conceive of how many terrible things would be in [state shared revenue bills].”

Clancy said that the restrictions come attached to a smaller percentage increase in shared revenue than many other counties and municipalities are receiving. “They’re asking us to sell out for just crumbs,” he said. Clancy also said that the additional funding is actually “more of our own money back because Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are subsidizing the rest of the state.”

The board passed Clancy’s resolution, 14-2-1, with supervisors Steve Taylor and Patti Logsdon voting against, and Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson excused from the meeting at the time of the vote.

Taylor said he supports increased shared revenue, and doubts whether the proposed sales tax increase is enough to actually fix the county’s problems. On the restrictions, he said, “I believe in guardrails, and I think we should have strings attached and what we can spend the money on and what we should not spend the money on, because of our past history of how we spend money.”

Taylor referenced a road project that recently came back before the board in May. The board had previously scuttled the project in 2021, when it had state funding to cover construction costs, now the county will have to pay the entire bill.

Logsdon said she thought the restrictions were likely because of the 2001 pension scandal, which has fueled the county’s out-of-control pension costs.

Sup. Kathleen Vincent said she thought increased shared revenue without strings attached was an equity issue for the county. “The fact that Milwaukee County is the only county they’re doing this to should scream volumes to everyone,” she said.

Sup. Steven Shea disagreed with Taylor’s characterization that the county was asking for a “blank check,” saying the county was simply asking for its “fair share.”

“May I remind you, they spent $1 to $2 million on a project to find voter fraud that came up with zero,” Shea said. “So when it comes to spending funds wide wisely, the state legislature needs to lead by example.”

County Executive David Crowley, while still negotiating on aspects of the legislation, has supported the state proposal.