A Fair Deal for Milwaukee

A Looming Crisis Calls for a New Partnership

Milwaukee County is reaching a crisis point. For too long, Milwaukee County has been forced to delay necessary maintenance in our parks and facilities, and put off important investments in public infrastructure and popular cultural venues. In recent years, budget cuts have threatened public services that our neighbors depend on every day.

This is why Milwaukee County leaders have joined together with business and community leaders to propose a Fair Deal for Milwaukee County. The Fair Deal proposal would create a new partnership with the State of Wisconsin to protect public services and invest in our future.

Balancing the Budget, Investing in the Future

Milwaukee County's ability to generate revenue is limited by state laws. This leads to two problems, both of which are growing worse. The first is a lack of adequate funding for operations, which leads to a budget gap that must be closed each year. The second is an inability to fund urgently needed repairs to crumbling infrastructure and invest in the future.

As costs continue to outpace revenues, Milwaukee County will face a $300 million budget gap over the next 20 years without added revenue.

Putting Milwaukee County on the Road to Success

Former County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, Sr., and former Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele led the effort to prevent a serious crisis. The Fair Deal for Milwaukee County Workgroup, which they co-chaired, identified and proposed viable solutions that could help put the County on the road to success.

The workgroup looked closely at causes of the problem and analyzed many solutions. Their conclusion was that solutions have to address the root cause of the problem – a rapidly growing imbalance between the cost of providing services and the ability to generate sufficient revenue to meet Milwaukee County's needs. These recommendations represent shared priorities in strengthening the partnership between Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin:

• Allowing Milwaukee County local control to generate new revenue and reduce the current reliance on property taxes through a binding referendum process
• Increased, fair contributions from the state toward the provision of current and any new state-mandated services
• Fully reimbursing the County for the cost of patrolling freeways (Milwaukee County is the only Wisconsin county required by state law to patrol freeways)
• Equally sharing Circuit Court and Register of Deeds fees collected by the County (currently 80% goes to the state and 20% remains with the County)
• Adjusting state Shared Revenue payments and other state aids to align with any inflationary increases in the cost of adequately providing public programs and services
• Accepting federal funds to expand BadgerCare coverage for 80,000 Wisconsin residents
• Adequately funding any youth justice facilities located in the County
• Rejecting any reduction in existing funding below amounts received in the 2019 Adopted Budget

The convening of the Fair Deal for Milwaukee County Workgroup brought together a diverse group of stakeholders – from community advocates to business interests – who all share one thing in common: they each understand the importance of the services that local government provides and are committed to being part of a solution.

The Workgroup, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors and the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council, which is made up of every executive from Milwaukee County's 19 municipalities, each unanimously approved this set of recommendations. These recommendations are an important step in creating a united voice for Milwaukee County.

Chairwoman Nicholson, County Executive Crowley Support a Fair Deal

In April 2020, Marcelia Nicholson was elected Chairwoman of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors by her colleagues and David Crowley was elected County Executive. Chairwoman Nicholson and County Executive Crowley have continued to advocate for the recommendations put forward by the Fair Deal Workgroup.

A Shared Revenue Formula With Unintended Consequences

Counties provide state-mandated services on a local level, like court services and certain social services. State law also allows counties to provide other, non-mandated services and amenities, like public transit, parks and cultural venues.

To fund these services and amenities, Milwaukee County collects revenue through a variety of sources, such as property taxes and user fees. Much of the tax revenue collected by Milwaukee County is sent to the State of Wisconsin. Some of the tax revenue sent to Madison comes back to Milwaukee County to help fund state-mandated and other services. How much comes back to Milwaukee County as "shared revenue" is determined by a well-intentioned formula that has produced unintended consequences. 

A look at the last 10 years of growth in Milwaukee illustrates how the shared revenue formula limits Milwaukee County's success when our economy is growing and healthy. When the economy began to recover from the Great Recession of 2008, the amount of tax revenue collected by Milwaukee County and sent to the state started to increase, but shared revenue stayed flat.

What's Happening Now

Community leaders, businesses, and local organizations are coming together to support one of the Workgroup's recommendations, which called for "new, additional revenue, and a reduction in the reliance on property taxes, through enabling legislation and a binding County-wide referendum." 

In September 2019, the Move Forward MKE coalition formed to advocate for giving voters the power to decide if their local government will be allowed to generate the revenue it needs to adequately fund public services and invest in the future. 

Support for our idea has grown in that time. In October 2019, Representative Evan Goyke introduced AB 521 in the Assembly, and Senator LaTonya Johnson introduced SB 471 in the Senate. The bill received a public hearing in March 2020.

Governor Tony Evers included a proposal in his 2021-2023 state budget that would allow counties to raise their sales tax by .5% percent if approved by voters through a referendum process.

What You Can Do To Help

Contact your state legislators and tell them that you support a Fair Deal for Milwaukee County and giving Milwaukee County residents the ability to invest local dollars in local priorities.

Find Your Legislator using your address to get the names and contact information for your representatives.