Crowley Signs 2025 Budget Without Vetoes

County Executive David Crowley at Coggs Center Groundbreaking. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley signed the 2025 county budget Wednesday morning without issuing any vetoes.

In the spirit of collaboration, Crowley released a joint statement with County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson announcing that he signed the budget sent to his desk by the board last week.

The budget Crowley signed Wednesday does not include many changes from the budget he recommended to the board in September. The county has returned to deficit budgeting and the majority of county departments were forced to find funding to continue operations next year within their existing budgets, despite annual inflation.

The $1.4 billion 2025 budget includes a $298.6 million property tax levy, amounting to a 2.5% increase over the 2024 budget.

“We have worked to solve long-standing problems, preserve services, and make the tough choices to put Milwaukee County on a path to financial sustainability,” Crowley said in a statement. “While challenges remain, Milwaukee County has made significant progress in realizing this goal.”

In 2023, Milwaukee County enacted a new 0.4% sales tax, providing policymakers with a historic budget surplus heading into 2024. The sales tax was authorized by Wisconsin Act 12, which also included reforms to the county’s troubled pension system, and it has greatly reduced the county’s structural deficit. The long-term budget gap has been reduced by approximately $73 million over the next four years, according to the county executive’s office.

Budget deficits returned sooner than expected. Policymakers had to close a $19 million gap midway through 2024 and a $14 million gap in the 2025 budget.

Before the sales tax county policymakers were looking at doomsday budget projections requiring massive budget cuts. While the situation has greatly improved the cost of state mandated services continues to exceed what the county has to pay for them. Prior to the passage of Act 12, policymakers were faced with the possibility of having to cut tax levy funding for non-mandated services like transit and parks to cover this cost.

The 2025 budget included a $13 million budget increase for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and the Community Reintegration Center (CRC) to fund increased overtime expenses, add deputies to the court system and cover increased costs for the food service in the jail and CRC.

“To be clear, state law requires Milwaukee County to carry out these mandated services, and they are impacting our ability to invest back in the community,” Crowley said. “While I recognize the importance of the services we deliver on behalf of the state, I would prefer to use our local dollars to invest in local priorities, like affordable housing, mental health services, public transit, safer streets, and our parks.”

The budget includes $6 million to maintain progress on the county’s new Criminal Courthouse, which will be the most expensive infrastructure project in county government history. It’s estimated the courthouse will cost as much as $500 million to develop.

Supervisors added more than a dozen amendments to the budget, including some that administration officials disagreed with, but nothing that rose to the level of a veto, a spokesperson for Crowley told Urban Milwaukee.

The board also added a plan to restore the Mitchell Park Domes and redevelop Mitchell Park in the budget. The amendment did not allocate any funding to the complex project being led by the non-profit Friends of the Domes, but it did include a $30 million commitment from the county for the project; pending a development agreement agreed to by the board.

“Supervisors focused on the County’s vision for equity, and the Board unanimously adopted a budget that invests in upstream services for our community, including housing support and revitalized parks,” a statement by Chairwoman Nicholson said. “With this budget, we are protecting essential services and laying a foundation for continued progress in Milwaukee County.”