Board Approves Small Business Grant Program

4600 block of S. Packard Ave. Cudahy. Photo taken May 8, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

The Milwaukee County Board approved a new program intended to support brick-and-mortar small businesses around the county.

The program, called the “Building Bridges” program, was pushed forward by County Executive David Crowley‘s administration. It will make 20 competitive grants of $10,000 each available to local small businesses and create a new position to act as a liaison between the county, the small business community and local municipalities.

The grants will be available to small businesses looking for brick-and-mortar locations. A goal of the program is to bridge the gap between these entrepreneurs and municipalities seeking to activate commercial space.

The board approved the program nearly unanimously Thursday. Only Sup. Deanna Alexander voted against the proposal. Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson was absent from the meeting Thursday.

The board also adopted an amendment introduced by Sup. Steve Taylor that will require the administration to come before the board each September with a report detailing the new staff person’s activities and the “measurable” outcomes of the program.

“We all know that small businesses are the backbone of Milwaukee County’s local economy,” Crowley told supervisors on the Board’s Committee on Community, Environment and Economic Development earlier this month. “They create significant portions of local jobs, they add value to our tax base and help to create our identity right here throughout our community.”

The new program is being created using a $200,000 Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) grant the county successfully applied for in 2024 and $600,000 from an existing economic development fund the county created in 2011.

The funds WEDC will be used to make 20 competitive $10,000 grants for small businesses moving into, or already located in, brick-and-mortar locations. The county funding will be used to create a small business liaison providing direct business development assistance to the grantees.

The liaison will also build relationships in the local small business ecosystem, making the county a point of contact for small business development, Economic Development Director Celia Benton told the board’s Committee on Finance this month.

“[The grants are] a way for us to build out the infrastructure, build out the relationships for something much larger, with larger results,” Benton said.

Where Did County Money Come From?

The existing economic development fund became an issue as the program went through the board’s committee process. Taylor questioned why the fund was, seemingly, forgotten about for years.

Aaron Hertzberg, director of the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), said the fund was created in 2011 as a place to deposit 25% of county land sale proceeds for future economic development projects. A deposit was last made in 2014, and the last withdrawal was 2017, when the fund was tapped for an affordable housing project.

“We’re not sure why the funds stopped going into the account,” said Hertzberg, who was hired in 2018. Though, he said, the funding did not disappear and has always remained under the control of the county board.