Graham Kilmer
Transportation

After Shocking Budget Shortfall, County Orders Up MCTS Audit

County executive, board and comptroller all caught off guard by $11 million deficit.

By - Jun 27th, 2025 11:33 am

MCTS Connect 1 at Wisconsin Avenue Stop. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County will audit the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) after the transit system failed to report a $10.9 million budget deficit to the MIlwaukee County Board or the county administration.

County officials were caught off guard last week when MCTS announced a $10.9 million projected budget deficit and service cuts in a press release. The system plans to reduce bus frequency by 20,000 hours, which includes service reductions along 10 unidentified high-frequency routes.

Until a press release went out on June 17, the transit system, which has a budget of $151.6 million, had not reported the budget deficit to the comptroller, board or County Executive David Crowley‘s office. At a recent meeting of the board’s Committee on Finance, supervisors wondered whether MCTS had violated county ordinance by not reporting sooner.

The county has an ordinance requiring departments to report any operating budget deficit exceeding $100,000. Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) Director Donna Brown-Martin, who is not an MCTS employee, told supervisors she was informed that the budget deficit is being caused by the increasing cost of commodities and parts, rising overtime among mechanics and higher costs driven by its paratransit contractor TransDev.

On June 24, Crowley’s Chief of Staff Mary Jo Meyers reached out to the comptroller’s office asking for consideration of an audit. The administration doesn’t know how the transit system calculates its financial projections.

During the monthly meeting of the Milwaukee County Board Thursday, Sup. Jack Eckblad told his colleagues he had done the same. Eckblad told Urban Milwaukee that the comptroller’s audit division exists to provide clarity and guidance in “situations exactly like this.” The supervisor added that he has “every reason to believe” MCTS would cooperate with the audit and that it would ultimately be “financially healthier for it.”

Earlier that morning, Milwaukee County Comptroller Liz Sumner sent an email to Crowley and Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson and a handful of the county’s top officials, informing them her office will conduct a “thorough analysis” of the transit system’s finances, followed by a formal audit that will take nine to 12 months to complete.

“[The projected budget deficit] was particularly surprising given that financial reports filed with my office as recently as June 8th by the Department of Transportation (MCDOT) and MCTS projected a balanced budget for this year,” Sumner wrote.

The comptroller’s office will investigate the underlying causes of the projected deficit and attempt to identify when MCTS leadership should have taken notice of these issues.

“MCTS welcomes Milwaukee County Supervisors’ continued support to strengthen our public transit system,” an MCTS spokesperson told Urban Milwaukee. “We are committed to transparency and collaboration and are in favor of all efforts to ensure MCTS remains a vital resource that meets the needs and priorities of our community.”

Ecbklad told his colleagues he would bring a resolution to the board next month, authorizing the audit if it was legally necessary.

MCTS has long had a structural deficit, with the system costing more to operate than it has in available funding. In recent years, the budget gaps were plugged with federal stimulus funds released during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, MCTS canceled development of a second bus rapid transit route, citing unsustainable operating costs for the new route. Funding set aside for planning was reallocated to the MCTS budget and was intended to be sufficient to keep the system solvent until 2028.

Milwaukee County will likely be unable to provide increased funding for MCTS in 2026. The government is looking at a $46.7 million projected budget deficit of its own in 2026 and County Executive David Crowley has already told department heads to plan for a 10% budget reduction across the board.

If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.

Comments

  1. Oak Creek Steve says:

    This is a race to the bottom. Transit is a complicated operation and needs sophisticated executive leadership. The county needs to find transit professionals that have the experience and expertise to run the system. Hopefully the audit will find the financial blunders as well as identify the skills necessary for leadership personnel moving forward. It starts with the right people. I’m not even sure who the GM or Deputy Director is currently. They’ve done a good job hiding. Time for a change.

  2. jglab says:

    Hopefully this will wake people up to the need to continue pushing for an RTA

  3. jmpehoski says:

    Some major changes need to be made. Word is getting out among the freeloaders that nothing happens if you get on the bus without paying. More and more folks are doing it. I used to see it once or twice a week. Now it’s multiple times every time I take the bus.

    And for the first time in my life, I was late for an appointment thanks to the incompetence/laziness of MCTS. The bus that picked me up was headed to its “rest stop” at 8:35. so I thought it might be on schedule to stop at 8:47. Finally came at 9:28. My appointment was at 9:45. Arrived at 10. Had I gotten there one minute later, I would have had to reschedule and be charged for a missed appointment. . Used to be the operators took pride in doing a good job and being on time. No more. There are still some great operators, but overall the system is going downhill fast..

    Besides a financial audit, an investigation into the MCTS management should be conducted. In my opinion, there’s something very wrong there and the current management should be replaced by competent folks who take pride in maintaining a good reputation in the community.

    A good community is only as good as its public transit system, and MCTS is currently doing Milwaukee more harm than good. It has to get its act together soon.

  4. TosaGramps1315 says:

    Are the MCTS accountants the same as for MPS?
    Both are beyond ludicrous, instead sliding into complete incompetence.

  5. Colin says:

    I sure look forward to a day where riders aren’t referred to as “freeloaders”. Yeah the ones that get on “without paying”

    Riders on the bus = not people in cars, which causes traffic and more accidents and untold WAY more costs than the meager fare being skipped on.

    Ridership should be as incentivized as possible. Why aren’t all the costs of car stuff treated the same way as the bus? It’s crazy the dichotomy and car-centricness remain.

    Very curious of the results of this audit. Will it tease out MPS-style issues? Look forward to the findings and where money could be potentially saved. There can be efficiencies for sure. But painting fare evaders as the devil or criminals isn’t the way to resolve this situation.

  6. Oak Creek Steve says:

    Six Chiefs, 11 Directors, a General Manager, and a Deputy Director. That’s a lot of overhead. Kind of pathetic to blame it on fare evasion.

  7. robertm60a3 says:

    It does seem like A LOT OF OVERHEAD!

    More and more people are directing with the assistance of secretaries and administrators, and fewer and fewer people are doing the work. The problem is these chiefs, directors… are all paid huge salaries, and the bus drivers, cleaners, and maintainers – those that do the actual work are somehow lost. Perhaps there should be some downgrading and reassignments?

    You see it in the military. The US Army has more Generals than it did during World War II. Yet, the US Army can’t run family housing (which is contracted out) and is now contracting out barracks and dining facilities. There used to be leaders who took pride in their work success. Now they continue to expand the office.

  8. 45 years in the City says:

    Fare evasion is a complicated situation. Drivers are not police officers or security guards. Their job is to safely operate the vehicle. Drivers confronting evaders would only lead to delays, a verbal confrontation, or worse.

    So then, what is to be done? What action is to be taken on board, and who would do it? Random enforcement by undercover officials (this is common in Europe)?

    What would be the remedy? Denied boarding? An administrative fine? Municipal citation? Arrest under state statutes for theft of service? Any of the options that have due process would likely result in unpaid fines and non-appearances for hearings with default judgements that are unlikely to be collected.

    I wish I had a suggestion, but I don’t.

  9. jmpehoski says:

    Fare evasion is a tiny part of the problem. No way the entire shortfall is due to fare evasion. However, it is becoming more frequent in recent years,

    I think besides a financial audit, an inspection should be done of the current MCTS management. I think that is that root of all of the MCTS issues–not the fare evaders, not the operators, most of whom are superb, but the current management team.

  10. robertm60a3 says:

    Milwaukee Public Schools used to use MCTS to transport students. Is this lower cost than paying a private bus company?

    Would there be a reduction in cost to MPS and an increase in ridership to MCTS if students were issued bus cards to ride MCTS to school instead of a school bus?

    Believe that there needs to be some out-of-the-box thinking. However, the problem is that there is no accountability. With no accountability, why should there be any improvements? If no one is fired for failure, then why do anything?

    There appears to be some positive change at Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). But why did it take years to replace Keith Posely when there was no improvement? (And, Dr Posely wasn’t fired, he resigned with a payment of $160,000 in cash, $38,500 added to his retirement portfolio, and six months of paid health insurance.)

    What is the message? Shouldn’t there be something, reduced pay? Performance pay – no performance, no pay?

Leave a Reply

You must be an Urban Milwaukee member to leave a comment. Membership, which includes a host of perks, including an ad-free website, tickets to marquee events like Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Florentine Opera, a better photo browser and access to members-only, behind-the-scenes tours, starts at $9/month. Learn more.

Join now and cancel anytime.

If you are an existing member, sign-in to leave a comment.

Have questions? Need to report an error? Contact Us