Crowley, Nicholson Herald 2024 Budget As ‘New Day’ for Milwaukee

For Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson it’s “a new day” in Milwaukee County.

That’s the phrase the county executive and the chairwoman have repeatedly employed to describe a 2024 county budget that would have been impossible just a year ago.

The 2024 budget was assembled with the first budget surplus in more than a decade and it will provide the first property tax relief for county residents in 20 years. And that’s all due to the additional 0.4% county sales tax the board approved in July.

Crowley and Nicholson signed the budget Wednesday in the gutted shell of a building on N. 27th Street. It’s the site of Concordia 27, an affordable housing project on the city of Milwaukee’s Near West Side that will be developed with $2 million in support from the county. Nicholson added the funding to the budget through the board’s amendment process, and said the area is currently an “affordable housing desert.”

The budget includes another $2 million for affordable housing projects, funding for homeless outreach, major investments in Milwaukee County Parks staffing and infrastructure, critical funding to maintain transit operations over the next three years, more funding for mental health care in the county’s detention facilities and mental health treatment courts and free phone calls for people incarcerated by the county.

The board added significant funding to the budget for a number of government services, and one of the major changes to the budget initiated by the board was a significant increase in pay for the county’s corrections officers. The new $30 an hour starting salary is intended to stabilize staffing in the Milwaukee County Jail, House of Correction and Vel R. Phillips Juvenile Justice Facility.

The 2024 budget will also advance the largest infrastructure project in county government history: the development of a new Criminal Courthouse.

Were it not for the additional sales tax, policymakers likely would have spent the past month looking for areas of the budget that could be cut in preparation for massive budget deficits that were previously projected.

The funding from the sales tax “gives us the opportunity to really invest back into our community and back into our residents,” Crowley said, “while also making sure that we keep in mind that we’re not out of the woods yet.”

The county’s budget deficits are projected to return in 2026. However, because of new sales tax revenue, they will be a fraction of the deficits policymakers were expecting a year ago.

“I’ve been here eight years, and each budget, we were continuing with cuts, we weren’t able to invest in areas,” Nicholson said. “So for the first time, we’re able to invest very substantial amounts of dollars in quality-of-life services that, quite frankly, people rely on.”

The board added substantial funding to the budget, reducing the property tax reduction Crowley proposed, and also exceeded the county’s self-imposed debt limit. Initially, Crowley’s administration expressed concern about the additional spending and signalled the county executive could veto some of it. But, in the spirit of compromise, the budget was signed without vetoes.

Nicholson called the approved budget for next year a “collaborative achievement” and noted that much of what the board added to the budget was pulled directly from testimony given by members of the public.