Dimitrijevic’s Revised Budget Boosts Library Hours, Housing, City Wages

Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic in April 2024. Photo by Sophie Bolich.

Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic has big plans to improve Mayor Cavalier Johnson‘s proposed 2026 city budget.

Under a common theme of “investing in neighborhoods,” the finance committee chair is proposing to dramatically expand, not cut, Sunday library hours, boost pay for city workers and fund two popular housing programs.

The $6 million amendment, unveiled Tuesday, will be first reviewed Friday by the Finance & Personnel Committee and then considered by the full Common Council on Nov. 7. In an interview, the alderwoman told Urban Milwaukee she is confident she has the support of a “good amount” of her colleagues. She’ll need at least seven to sign on.

Dimitrijevic credits the proposal to the more than 50 people who testified at a budget hearing held Saturday, Oct. 18, at the new Martin Luther King Library. She pushed for the hearing as a way to grow engagement around the $2 billion budget and said it was important that it was held on a weekend and outside of City Hall. “I was really happy about it,” she said.

Libraries

The mayor proposed ending the two-year Sunday library hours experiment, dropping Sunday hours at the Tippecanoe and Good Hope libraries in favor of a reversion to only keeping Central Library open. As he did when he vetoed the original proposal, he cited cost as the main factor, but added in a September interview with Urban Milwaukee that 70% of Sunday visits were to Central Library.

Dimitrijevic said she didn’t want to go backward, but to go forward.

Her proposal, at a cost of $629,000, preserves Sunday hours of 1 to 5 p.m. at all three libraries and adds the Mitchell and Martin Luther King branches starting in July. She credits Library Director Joan Johnson for making the expansion possible. “I think she really heard the council as well as the residents, and she’s doing some new staffing model pilot in order to get those library hours,” said the alderwoman. “It’s exciting that she’s going to take a look at it and try to find a different way of staffing that so we can get those extra hours. Obviously, a dream would be that every library is open, but we’re taking steps in that direction.”

The Milwaukee Public Library‘s new staffing model is expected to yield substantial cost savings by utilizing staff from all branch libraries to work Sunday shifts on a rotating basis. A council amendment from an earlier budget included $750,000 to open Central, Tippecanoe and Good Hope on Sundays. Based on the proposed staffing model, the latest amendment would pay for more libraries at a lower cost.

City worker raises

The alderwoman’s proposal would also boost the financial fortunes of the several thousand general city workers. The mayor proposed a 2% raise for all general city employees, which excludes police and fire personnel protected by collective bargaining. Dimitrijevic is proposing a plan called “2-1-1.”

The alderwoman’s proposal would keep the mayor’s 2% increase and add another 1%. Then, she would boost the city’s 3% residency incentive to 4%. She said the proposal would provide a 4% raise to the approximately 70% of general city employees who are also city residents. The raise, she said, would offset inflation and boost spending in city neighborhoods. “These are some of the frontline folks that were out there during a hard year with floods and so this is something we think that’s worth investing in,” she said.

Ian Gunther, AFSCME chief steward and a Milwaukee Water Works employee, said during the Oct. 18 hearing that his union was seeking a 6.5% raise. “Our workers carried us through the recent floods, the global pandemic and even the floods of 2010. But will our paychecks carry us through the disasters and illnesses in our lives? For too many of us, the answer is no.” He said AFSCME members would remember how council members voted when Act 10 is struck down, which he said would occur next year. Labor groups hope the now-liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court repeals the law, which prohibits most government workers from collectively bargaining.

Because of the 2023 elected official pay raise package, council members and other elected officials would also benefit from raises. Elected officials are to receive an up to 3% raise, provided general city workers also receive an equal or larger raise.

Housing investment

The final major piece in Dimitrijevic’s amendment is an investment in housing. The amendment calls for more than doubling the $600,000 the mayor proposed for the city’s low-income down-payment assistance program. The proposal would provide $800,000 to expand the program to $1.4 million in 2026 – $150,000 below its 2025 level. It would also provide $100,000 to Eviction Free MKE’s right-to-counsel program, with Milwaukee County providing a matching $100,000.

“I like those different sides of the housing spectrum,” said Dimitrijevic of helping homebuyers and renters. She praised the Community Development Alliance (CDA) and Acts Housing for championing the downpayment program, which also includes a homebuyer counseling requirement. Three private partners, including Acts, directly provide the funding and counseling.

Several CDA members spoke during the hearing on the 18th.

“Between the 2008 financial crisis through 2019, we lost 1,000 homeowners of color each year,” said CDA Chief Alliance Executive Teig Whaley-Smith. For the past five years, Whaley-Smith said the city has managed to invest an average of $1.7 million annually in downpayment assistance and millions into other programs. “For the first time in 15 years, we have seen an increase in Black and Latino homeownership at the same time in Milwaukee, and that has increased the stability of our city.”

The downpayment assistance program provides grants of up to $7,000 to qualifying buyers. Recipients must live in the home for five years. In 2026, the city funding is expected to be merged with more than $4 million in philanthropic support.

The alderwoman said the $100,000 for the Eviction Free MKE program would ensure that individuals facing eviction receive legal representation.

“We’re driving this investment into neighborhoods and that’s what council members are always thinking about,” said Dimitrijevic.

How would it be paid for?

Dimitrijevic’s proposal relies on two primary funding sources: $2.2 million in unexpected revenue recently recognized by Comptroller Bill Christianson and a $3.7 million property tax increase.

The proposal would also cut the proposed “jobs job” from the Department of City Development, freeing up $130,000. The mayor proposed creating the position to attract new employers and jobs. “We’re going to wait on that and do our job in the neighborhoods,” said Dimitrijevic.

The alderwoman said the impact of the property tax increase would be small. It would amount to about a 1% increase on the planned $333 million property tax levy. Past amendments that involved much smaller levy increases have resulted in reduced council support and yielded mayoral vetoes.

Dimitrijevic’s proposal is structured as an omnibus amendment that bundles several changes into a single package for an up-or-down vote. The council has used the strategy in recent years to build political support for a package of changes.

She has the most crucial supporter on board: Council President José G. Pérez. He told Urban Milwaukee he is supportive of the amendment. He’s also interested in seeing the impact a non-fiscal component of the proposal will have.

The amendment would reallocate an “innovation analyst” position from the Department of Administration to the City Clerk’s Office, placing the role under council control. The individual, said Pérez, would be responsible for following up on Ald. Scott Spiker‘s push for departments to find ways to use generative artificial intelligence to be more efficient and to look at ways to make the newly-created innovation district in Walker’s Point successful. The hope, said the council president, is create other innovation districts across the city. Jim Bohl, the city directior of innovation, would remain in the Department of Administration.

The council is scheduled to discuss approximately 100 amendments, many of which are non-fiscal policy footnotes, at its Oct. 31 finance committee meeting. But it will almost certainly start with Dimitrijevic’s big plan.