Board Will Do Homework on Sales Tax

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The Milwaukee County Board is not moving hastily to pass an increase to the sales tax, as the matter of whether the board will actually pass it is not quite settled.

The Milwaukee Common Council is already steaming ahead toward approval of a 2% sales tax for the City of Milwaukee. Council members could approve the tax as soon as July 11, and have already announced plans to sue the state over a number of policy restrictions that came attached to the new taxing authority.

Supervisors, who are part-time and have to contend with fewer new state restrictions in county governance, are preparing to do their homework on the sales tax during the month of July. Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson has not yet scheduled a meeting outside of the normal committee calendar in July to settle the sales tax question, and a spokesperson for the board said Wednesday that the chairwoman was still weighing her options.

At the end of their meeting Thursday, the board formally requested from a handful of county departments asking just how the sales tax increase would work.

The request comes by way of a resolution sponsored by Nicholson and co-sponsored by supervisors Peter Burgelis and Felesia Martin. It asks for reports on the fiscal impacts of the legislation containing the sales tax authorization, which was a bill largely crafted by Republicans in the state Legislature and includes a modest increase in state aid for the county.

Supervisors will hear reports next month from the county’s lobbyists, the budget office, the comptroller’s office, their attorneys and any other staff that are needed to analyze the implications of the bill. “It is critical to understand the various policy and fiscal provisions in Act 12 so policymakers can weigh carefully the impact to the county before considering a 0.4% increase in the sales tax,” says the resolution.

The most common response from the handful of supervisors that provided comments to Urban Milwaukee on the sales tax question was one of trepidation. Even supporters of the sales tax increase as good fiscal policy are considering the political implications of voting for it, deferring their decision until they can get a grasp of constituent opinion on the issue.

Over the years that county leaders have been advocating for the ability to increase the county sales tax, the policy discussed never sounded like the policy enacted. It was supposed to be a larger increase and not so narrowly tailored in use for only pension obligations and public safety. It was not discussed as a decision that would be left chiefly to the county board, which now has to raise taxes to pay for what largely amounts to a pension bailout that is in part the result of a disastrous pension policy the board passed approximately two decades ago. One supervisor, Kathleen Vincent, vocalized the changing political calculus on the sales tax question saying: “I, personally, would have liked to have seen this go to referendum. But my understanding is, they felt the referendum would have failed.”

In his recent email to constituents, Sup. Sheldon Wasserman said, “Know that I am committed to learning everything there is to know about this legislation, and will take your opinions into account when deciding how to vote on the possible sales tax. If you have yet to share your thoughts with me, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I want to hear from you!”

Nicholson, who supports increasing the sales tax, sketched a picture of the county’s finances in the resolution, which also notes that the county has been advocating for the ability to raise additional revenue for years, as it faces a structural deficit created by an annual imbalance in the amount of revenue the county receives and rising costs. She included a reference to the perilous financial position of the Milwaukee County Transit System, sitting on the edge of a fiscal cliff that could lead to half of the system’s routes being eliminated in 2025. Finally, the resolution notes that the county simply doesn’t have any other tools for capturing revenue.

The reports the board is seeking will be presented at public meetings, and will also serve double duty as the case supervisors make for the outcome of the sales tax vote.