They were all passedby the majority of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors this afternoon.
These are nonbindingcounty referendums, of course, and they need to survive Milwaukee CountyExecutive Chris Abele’s likely vetoes.
Some supervisors tookissue with them because they would increase the cost of printing the Novemberballot. That’s Abele’s position, too, claiming that it would add $120,000 tothe cost of printing the ballot.
But Supervisor TonyStaskunas explained these “phantom costs.” To determine the “cost” of areferendum question—or any ballot question—the cost of printing the ballot isdivided by the number of questions. So, yeah, each question “costs” something,but that isn’t really the cost of the question.
A number ofsupervisors noted that Abele seemed to have no problem with the “cost” ofputting the Act 14 referendum on the spring ballot, the one that let votersslash supervisors’ pay.
Back to thequestions:
- Supervisor KhalifRainey’s referendum to raisethe state minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. This one passed 13-4.
- A Citizen Action ofWisconsin-backed referendum to allow the county toaccept enhanced Affordable Care Act funds to boost BadgerCare in thecounty. Eau Claire and Dunn counties have already adopted this referndum andthe Dane County board will vote on it in July. This passed 13-4.
- A referendumauthored by Supervisor Willie Johnson Jr. to ask if Milwaukee County wanted toget rid of the county executive model (adopted in 1960) and move to a county administrator model.This passed 11-6.
It takes 12 votes to override a veto, so the only iffy one seems to be the county administrator question. If any of these survivelikely Abele vetoes, they will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot, along with the anti-CitizensUnited referendum to strike back at corporate money in politics.
