Photo Credit: Eric Allix Rogers
Milwaukee County Courthouse
The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors may have found little with which to agree with County Executive Chris Abele over the years, but on this much they now see eye-to-eye: Milwaukee County will never be able to extricate itself from its long-standing financial troubles without some help from the State of Wisconsin.
This recognition was put into official form on Thursday, Feb. 7, when the County Board and the County Executive took the unusual step of passing and signing a new resolution on the same day. The proposed remedy—given the shorthand name “A Fair Deal for Milwaukee County”—gives a brief summary of the county’s financial difficulties and then recommends a number of steps state lawmakers can take to help.
Among the liabilities, the resolution lists between $500 million and $1 billion needed for capital projects, such as a new criminal courthouse and medical examiner’s office and repairs to the Mitchell Park Domes. Also noted are the ever-increasing cost of pensions for retired public employees, $200 million worth of deferred maintenance at county parks and a “structural deficit” that’s projected to come to $80 million by 2023.
As remedies, local officials propose letting the county raise revenue from some new source, most likely a sales tax that would be offset by a corresponding reduction in local property taxes. They also call on lawmakers to reimburse Milwaukee County for its obligation to patrol local stretches of highway (no other county is under a similar mandate); to evenly divide money collected from court fees between the state and the county (80% of which currently goes to the state); and to help reduce local governments’ healthcare costs by accepting money offered under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Beyond that, officials are hoping for some recognition that Milwaukee and its neighboring municipalities remain the economic engines of the state. Even as income taxes generated locally have increased over the years, the amounts sent back in the form of shared revenue have remained stagnant. The result, according to estimates, has been a net export of $400 million per year to the state between 2009 and 2015.
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“I think we are just seeking some recognition that the county has been sending more resources to the state, and that is how they’ve seen their growth,” said Milwaukee County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb. “We need to renew our partnership. I think too often we end up begging in Madison rather than saying, ‘We are partners.’”
Tough Sell to Republicans
But, no matter how strong the arguments in its favor, the Fair Deal resolution is likely to be a tough sell to the Republicans who now control the State Legislature. Top GOP lawmakers like Assembly Speaker Robin Vos have long resisted attempts to let local governments adopt additional taxes and have made their opposition to the ACA a central part of their political identities.
Lipscomb, though, is not alone in being optimistic about the Fair Deal resolution’s prospects. True, Republicans have shown little inclination over the years to help a county that many perceive as a hive of left-leaning voters; high turnout in both Milwaukee and Dane counties was credited in large part for giving Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, a victory over Scott Walker last November. Even before that election, some of the policies adopted by the Republicans who control the State Legislature seemed meant mainly to block Milwaukee County officials at every pass.
But, despite its undeniable lean toward Democrats, Milwaukee County remains partly represented by Republicans. State Sen. Dale Kooyenga, a Republican from Brookfield, has a district that crosses over into western Milwaukee County; and State Sen. Alberta Darling, a Republican who holds a powerful seat on the state’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, hails from the northern suburb of River Hills. (Neither could be reached for comment for this article.)
Just as much as with local legislators, though, Lipscomb hopes to strike a sympathetic note with Republican lawmakers from throughout the state. Like many, Lipscomb is quick to note that, although Milwaukee County’s obligations might be unique in some ways among Wisconsin’s 72 counties, its problems are not. Local officials have long strained under property tax caps that tie the amount of money they can levy in any given year to the value of new construction in the previous year. The resulting budgetary pressures have been felt in places about as far away from Milwaukee County as it’s possible to get in Wisconsin.
Public Campaign for Change
On Friday, Feb. 8, a delegation from the far northwestern city of Superior came to Madison for an annual event named Superior Days. State Rep. Evan Goyke, a Democrat representing the city of Milwaukee, said Superior officials again expressed a desire for legislative permission to collect food and beverage and hotel room taxes to support local economic development. Goyke said the more that local officials from far-flung corners of the state get behind such pushes, the harder they will be to resist.
“I think we don’t need to worry about Republicans now,” he said. “What we need is to come together—cities, counties, suburbs and public and private users of government services—and run one hell of a public campaign together to get this law changed. It’s easy to say no now. Let’s make it hard to say no later.”
Lipscomb said work is already underway to build a coalition. On Monday, Feb. 11, representatives of the 19 cities and villages that make up the Milwaukee County Intergovernmental Cooperation Council voted to support the Fair Deal resolution. In an even bigger sign of this cause’s rallying force, Lipscomb and Abele have elected to put aside their past differences over everything from the County Board’s powers to the county’s recently adopted wheel tax to present a unified front to the state. In an email statement, Abele agreed that an even bigger coalition is needed. “Republicans and Democrats in the State Legislature—and the public—have a vested interest in building a better Milwaukee County and a stronger Wisconsin,” he said.
Lipscomb said county officials were able last year to avoid many difficult decisions, such as Abele’s proposal calling for parking fees in public parks, largely because of their belief that the state will eventually step up to help. If that doesn’t happen, tough choices will be all but inevitable.
“I don’t think this is something that’s one and done, and I don’t think we’ll get everything we need in this biennium,” Lipscomb concluded. “But this isn’t going away. And without some serious sort of action, things are only going to get more contentious.”
