Board and County Exec At Odds Over Debt, Spending

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The Milwaukee County Board is moving to pack as much spending as it can into the 2024 budget, and finds itself at odds with County Executive David Crowley and his administration over debt and spending that could contribute to future budget deficits.

The board’s Budget Committee has recommended a number of amendments to the 2024 budget and, heading into final budget adoption, is on track to exceed the county’s annual limit on new debt.

This limit is self-imposed, and not required by state law. In fact, state law has instead limited how much counties and municipalities can raise property taxes, leaving the the issuance of debt as the only tool local governments have to raise significant amounts of revenue. The board can exceed its debt cap if it chooses to, and voted twice in 2022 to greatly exceed the limit for the new Forensic Science Center and the new Milwaukee Public Museum.

The 2024 budget is the first time in decades county policymakers have had a significant budget surplus to work with, due to the pension-focused 0.4% sales tax approved in July. But the county is still projected to see budget deficits return by 2026.

Going into its meeting Friday, the board had already exceeded the county’s approximately $47 million debt cap by approximately $4.2 million. By the time the meeting was over, the board was now on track to exceed to debt limit by $7.8 million.

Two amendments recommended Friday would add a combined $3.6 million in debt to the county budget.

Both amendments are omnibus proposals, packages assembled out of a handful of supervisors’ policy priorities in order to secure full board support. The first was sponsored by Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson and co-sponsored by supervisors Sequanna Taylor, Steven Shea, Willie Johnson, Jr., Felesia Martin, Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, Juan Miguel Martinez, Peter Burgelis, Caroline Gómez-Tom, Kathleen Vincent, Patti Logsdon and Ryan Clancy.

Amendment 1

Several of the spending items in the amendment were drafted in response to public comments the board heard at its annual public budget hearing five days prior.

But county officials signaled that the full amendment package did not have the support of Crowley’s administration.

Joe Lamers, director of the Office of Performance, Strategy and Budget, told supervisors the administration was concerned that the board was moving to exceed the levy limit, and that it was using one-time funding in the form of debt to fund recurring costs.

Crowley addressed the Budget Committee directly Friday before it began working through amendments.

“We have an opportunity to maintain a positive fiscal position for extended period of time,” Crowley told supervisors. “Proposed amendments to reduce one time expenses in favor of ongoing operations will accelerate the return of our structural deficit.”

The amendment specifically was using debt to add operating funds to the county’s Pretrial Services Division, Milwaukee County Parks and Aging Division. Lamers noted that all three of the departments already had budget requests fully met, and that Parks received funding for infrastructure and operations in the county executive’s budget unprecedented in recent years.

The county board is working on a 2024 budget with the first major surplus in decades. But budget projections have shown the county’s budget deficits will likely return in 2026, and new recurring costs now translate to a larger budget deficit in years to come.

The amendment also earmarked $2 million for an affordable housing project on the Near West Side called Concordia 27. Lamers noted that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) typically goes through a public request for  proposals process, and that the cost per-unit at Concordia was significantly higher than a recent project awarded funding. “I don’t know that DHHS would have provided that funding to this project or recommended funding to this project versus others,” Lamers said. 

“I guess the comment I’ll just pose to you, and leave with you all, is, do we want to rubber stamp a budget that was handed to us?” Nicholson said. “Or do we want to invest in and impact some historical harms and disinvestments, after we finally created an additional revenue source where we can finally, you know, start to invest in our community.”

The amendment also included $1.2 million for a new paratransit taxi program, if possible; directs Parks to explore running its own coffee shop in Red Arrow Park; $250,000 for an audit of the Milwaukee County Jail and $500,000 for Parks improvements and activation.

Donna Brown-Martin, MCDOT director, told supervisors $1.2 million would not be enough to effectuate a new paratransit taxi program. Furthermore, the funding source was county debt, which is a one-time funding source being applied to a program that will have recurring annual costs, the director explained.

The Budget Committee unanimously recommended the amendment for adoption.

Amendment 2

The second amendment that contributed to the increase in debt for the 2024 budget, was built out of 11 infrastructure projects in the parks system.

This amendment was sponsored by the supervisors Burgelis, Taylor, Gómez-Tom, Martinez and Martin. Unlike the other super-amendment, the second amendment is directed at infrastructure projects, which do not lead to recurring annual operational costs.

“This is a plethora of park project priorities across the county,” Burgelis said. “It is targeted to constituent requests and neighborhood needs.”

The amendment used approximately $1.48 million in cash that was originally budgeted for repairs to the South Shore Breakwater and spread the funding over nine projects in the parks system and renovations to the War Memorial Center bathrooms.

Jim Tarantino, deputy Parks director, told the committee that all the projects are needs in the parks system. He acknowledged that the department does have a limited capacity to manage and implement projects. “We have dozens of capital projects that have been funded but haven’t been started yet,” he said, adding that the amendment included a “good mix” of projects that can be implemented in 2024, and some that will be implemented over more than one year.

The amendment was recommended for approval, 4 to 3 by the Budget Committee. Supervisors Steve Taylor, Shawn Rolland and Liz Sumner voted against the package. Rolland and Taylor both said the board should stick to projects that have been vetted and recommended by the county’s ad-hoc Capital Improvements Committee (CIC). Taylor also suggested his colleagues were spending too much money.

“We got a sales tax, we all know it,” Taylor said. “So let’s not just start spending money like drunken sailors, either.”

Update: A previous version of this story said $1.7 million was added for a paratransit taxi recommendation. $1.2 million was added.