Haas Discovery Adds Potential $500,000 for Parks to 2017 Budget

MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee County Board’s Amended Budget is expected to include a provision by Supervisor Jason Haas that allocates $250,000 to the Parks Amenities Matching Fund (PAMF) that was previously unaccounted for.

“This is a great day for Milwaukee County Parks,” said Haas. “I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve found previously unaccounted for money that can keep the Parks Amenities Matching Fund alive, which will provide much-needed resources to address some of our backlog in parks maintenance and improvements,” said Haas.

The Parks Amenities Matching Fund provides dollar-for-dollar matching funds to groups that are able to raise private funds for parks improvements. Typically, groups organized as one of the 39 parks “Friends Groups” take advantage of the PAMF matching funds.

Supervisor Haas discovered that revenue generated by the O’Donnell Park parking structure had not been accounted for in the County Executive’s 2017 Recommended Budget, and offered a budget amendment transferring these funds to the PAMF.

The County Executive’s Recommended Budget proposed no new funds for the Parks Amenities Matching Fund, which would have been eliminated.

If adopted by the Board on Monday and not vetoed, Supervisor Haas’s discovery and resolution will ultimately provide $500,000 in new resources for Milwaukee County Parks if groups are able to take advantage of the matching funds available through the program.

The Finance Committee voted unanimously to recommend Haas’s proposal to the full Board, which will consider adoption into the 2017 County budget during Monday’s annual meeting.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.