Sales Tax Helps Fire Department Add Paramedics, Fire Engine

Mayor Cavalier Johnson speaks at press conference announcing new paramedic unit. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

As the calendar turns to 2024, the tangible impacts of the revenue-sharing deal between the Wisconsin State Legislature, the Governor and Milwaukee are becoming evident.

The sales tax rate in the city is up from 5.5% to 7.9%. But for the first time in recent history, the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are not cutting services as new budgets go into effect. In fact, city officials gathered Monday morning to celebrate the expansion of the Milwaukee Fire Department.

“Folks in Milwaukee will be able to get additional life-saving services, and that is the most important thing to take away from what we’ve done in the past year,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson at a press conference inside Station 36, 4060 N. 27th St. The complicated revenue sharing deal includes more shared revenue, a new 2% city sales tax, minimum public safety staffing levels and a host of policy changes for the city.

For the first time since 2006, MFD is adding a paramedic unit. “This paramedic unit, Med 2, will very simply help Milwaukeeans where the help is needed most. For that, I am very happy and extremely proud,” said Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.

The chief said the status quo had pushed the fire department into a “broken” state. Since 2009, budget cuts forced MFD to cut a combination of 18 engines, trucks and ambulances from its force.

In 2023, MFD got to reactivate one of the stations because of a geographical quirk in Wauwatosa’s street grid and a service-sharing agreement. The suburb moved into a MFD station near the Wauwatosa border and MFD relocated its engine to a near west side location. Lipski, at the time, joked that the idea of reopening fire stations was so foreign to MFD that officials had to scramble to figure out how to host a ribbon cutting.

Come 2024, MFD got to do it twice on the same day.

The northside press conference was followed by a similar event at Station 17, 4653 S. 13th St., where Engine 17 was restored. It was previously closed in 2021.

“Our firefighters and paramedics will take care better of you,” said Lipski in summarizing the result of the changes. The MFD budget is up $14.4 million to $146 million and the average daily staffing level in the department will increase from 192 to 198.

The chief has repeatedly warned of burnout amongst the MFD ranks as call volumes grew but capacity shrank. The advanced life support (ALS) ambulance based at Station 36 near N. 27th Street and W. Capitol Drive was receiving more than 5,000 calls per year, which Lipski said creates a compounding problem where the unit isn’t responding from the station, but must go directly from one incident to the next. The restored ALS ambulance will be a second unit in the same station, a first for MFD said Lipski, but a practical one given the call volume.

“Several of the most challenged neighborhoods in the state of Wisconsin will receive services because of the work we all did together,” said Johnson of the funding impact.

Area alderwoman Andrea Pratt said she had a personal connection to the northside station: the engine based there and the paramedic unit responded to a heart attack her grandmother suffered. “I want to thank the fire department for bringing calm to chaos day after day,” said the alderwoman.

Miriam Horwitz, the chair of the Fire & Police Commission and a retired deputy city attorney, echoed that sentiment. “I don’t have a speech to give; I just have a big thank you,” she told the dozens of people in attendance.

Lipski and Johnson attempted to thank everyone who made Act 12 possible, from outstate Republican assembly representatives to liberal-leaning labor officials. “This list of names is not normally read together,” said the chief. “Let that be a testament to keeping communication open.”

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