OK, lemme get this straight:
In November 2008 Milwaukee County voters approved an advisory referendum that would allow the sales tax to be raised 1% to fund mass transit, the parks, cultural assets and EMS. Those entities would then be taken off the property tax. The owner of a home assessed at $150,000 would save about $165 a year on property taxes, while non-residents of Milwaukee County would help to pick up the tab for the targeted entities via the sales tax.
The hitch of course is that the Legislature had to approve the sales tax hike.
And this is where it got complicated.
Because instead of listening to Milwaukee County voters who are giving lawmakers permission to make this tax shift legislators, the governor and special interests had to mess it up. (I could use stronger language, but this is a family-friendly blog.)
So the Assembly broke the resolution in two and only saved the transit portion, which would be funded via a half-cent sales tax. That made it into the Assembly version of the budget.
Why? Because the business groups wanted it. They wanted secure funding for transit, which would help them to get their employees to work, but they don’t give a rat’s behind about parks and museums. Why? Because these folks don’t appreciate our public parks system. (Created by a socialist, of course.) They have big suburban houses with lawns. They can afford to go to country clubs. They can afford to pay for golf courses and admission for museums and the zoo. Keeps the riff-raff out, right?
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Parks and cultural assets got scuttled by the Assembly in their budget. (But a separate bill was introduced by state Rep. Tamara Grigsby to cover those entities. Unfortunately, it never got any traction in the Assembly.)
While the Assembly only preserved the transit portion, the Senate kept the Milwaukee-approved one-cent sales tax.
Didn’t matter, though. The Assembly version made it into the budget and Gov. Doyle promptly vetoed it.
So the RTA legislation came back, eventually, revised.
And because Milwaukee had voted on a version of the sales tax increase, it was exempt from having to go back to the polls to approve it.
Not anymore.
The Assembly has approved an amendment that makes the transit sales tax increase conditional on Milwaukee County holding a binding referendum on it before it can be implemented.
The final bill hasn’t passed the Assembly, but Wispolitics.com’s Quorum Call is reporting that it may be taken up again today. Thursday is the last day of the session.
So here’s what I need to get straight.
Milwaukee County sent legislators a clear message about how they wanted to fund transit, parks, cultural assets and EMS.
Legislators didn’t care.
And now they’re asking Milwaukee County voters to approve what they think Milwaukee needs.
And it’s taken us a year and a half to get to this point.
If you think your legislator should listen to you, the voter, give them a call now.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jeramey Jannene
