Let's protect the county services people depend on

Dear friends and neighbors,?

Before I ran for the Milwaukee County Board, a friend of mine asked me why in the world I would want to run. “Milwaukee County is broke financially,” he told me. “All you’re going to do is tell people, ‘no, we can’t afford to do that’ all the time. That doesn’t sound fun.”

I ran, because I wanted to be in the room when people decided what to do with limited resources. I wanted to ensure that the county was run strategically and logically in pursuit of clear goals to maintain and enhance our quality of life.

In the coming weeks, Milwaukee County’s 2023 budget building effort will begin.

This month, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley will hold five budget town hall meetings. These town halls are excellent opportunities for people to hear about our county’s financial condition and help shape next year’s budget before it’s even drafted. If you’re able to join, I strongly encourage anyone to attend one of the events. To register, visit https://county.milwaukee.gov/budget2023 .

Additionally, I will be holding a 2023 Budget Town Hall event on Monday, August 29 at 7 pm at the Wauwatosa Public Library in the Firefly Room. If you’re willing and able to join, I hope to see you there! But if you’d like to send your thoughts in advance, don’t hesitate to contact me via email: [email protected] .

Milwaukee County will start the 2023 budget building process needing to close a $12.6 million deficit.

Why is there a deficit? Well, different people have differing opinions.

Some point their finger at the Milwaukee County Board. A vote the board made 22 years ago committed the county to provide millions of dollars in pension sweetener payouts every year as long as each retiree lives, and there’s no legal way for supervisors on today’s county board to unwind it. Some also say that the county board isn’t always as disciplined as it should be, with supervisors submitting well-intentioned but incomplete proposals that call for spending more money than we have without making cuts or finding new revenues to pay for them .

Others point their finger at the state legislature. They say it’s because the state leaders unfairly rigged Wisconsin’s “shared revenue” formula in a way that would capture and keep more of the sales tax revenue that Milwaukee County generates (including funds from last year’s Milwaukee Bucks championship run ) than it should to pay for state government initiatives and to pad its rainy day fund (a state surplus that totals $3.8 billion !). They also blame the state legislature for disallowing counties and cities from raising their own sales taxes , a solution that’s widely supported by Milwaukee County’s business and philanthropic community. The sales tax solution could provide a steady revenue stream for Milwaukee County’s cash-strapped services without raising property taxes (in fact, the increase in sales taxes could actually result in lower property taxes).

After serving for three years on the county board, I can tell you that both groups are correct. The state legislature has indeed refused to provide a fair share of shared revenue to Milwaukee County , keeping more than its fair share of Milwaukee County’s sales tax revenues (your tax dollars) for itself.

Milwaukee County is now sending at least $500 million dollars more each year to the state than it did in 2009. However, the amount of shared revenue that the state legislature sends back to Milwaukee County has either stayed flat or declined since 2010.

Moreover, the state legislature decided to adjourn head-scratchingly early in 2022 (after working for only a handful of weeks) before State Senator Dale Kooyenga’s sales tax solution legislation could even be introduced . Mr. Kooyenga subsequently decided not to run for re-election in 2022, so a sales tax solution will need a new legislative champion to move forward. Applicants are welcome…

And yes, more than two decades ago, the Milwaukee County Board did indeed make a cataclysmically-unfortunate decision when it voted for the backdrop payments for its employees, adding $1.34B (that’s BILLION with a B!) in cost, according to an Urban Milwaukee estimate .

Additionally I’ve watched my county board colleagues vote for recent proposals without explaining how we would actually pay for them . But, the good news is this: a group of intellectually-honest and fiscally-responsible supervisors (me, included) has pushed back hard on these kinds of proposals, and for the most part, we’ve been successful in stopping spending that would make the deficit worse. We should not spend money that we don’t have – because if we do, we will have to cut programs, staff and services that our people rely on every day: buses, parks, pools, court staff, mental health practitioners, public safety officers, senior centers, cultural attractions, and more.

Service and staffing cuts are not a theoretical possibility in some far-off time. The crisis is here. Staffing shortages are already happening, and we are feeling the impacts.

One in five Milwaukee County jobs (20%) is unfilled as we speak. At the Milwaukee County Jail, only about half of the correctional officer positions are filled , and earlier this month, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel described the Milwaukee County Jail’s staffing crisis as a “ticking time bomb .” The Milwaukee County Parks System used to have 1,100+ full-time staff to maintain the grounds and equipment. Today, there are only 200 employees . A shortage of court reporters, public defenders and other courthouse staff is “straining an already overloaded criminal justice system .” All of the freeway flyers and special service buses that took visitors to festivals like Summerfest were canceled because – you guessed it – a staffing shortage of bus drivers. Only 18 Milwaukee County pools were open in 2022; 25 pools were shuttered due to lifeguard staffing shortages , causing significant overcrowding concerns and long lines at the pools like the TOSA Pool at Hoyt Park that remained open this summer.

As someone who aims to be a strategic, results-driven, socially-progressive and fiscally-responsible person, it’s been a difficult time. There have been several proposals that I’ve wanted to support, but the county simply could not afford them or they were not as impactful as other ideas. It’s meant that I had to say “respectfully, no” to a lot of people I deeply admire. So, as it turns out, my friend was right. This is hard! But it’s the right thing to do, and I’m happy to be here.

Help us balance Milwaukee County’s 2023 budget.

Milwaukee County’s Balancing Act tool enables anyone to interact with our $1.2 billion budget and increase, maintain, or decrease funds allocated for each expenditure category. Give it a shot. Use the tool, help us solve our county’s $12.6 million projected deficit and maintain services.

What can we do about the deficits? How can we maintain and enhance services?

These are great questions. There are several things that the Milwaukee County Board has already done. We are carefully allocating the $183.6 million we received as part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to reduce our county’s annual deficit , making investments that will meaningfully reduce ongoing future expenses. As a proud co-chair of the county’s ARPA Task Force , I promise that that work will continue. The annual deficit of $12.6 million is a lot, but just recently, the deficit was even larger! We’re making progress and chipping away.

But, there are several things anyone can do to help. We can urge the state legislature to allow Milwaukee County to slightly increase its sales tax and provide our county with a fair amount of shared revenue each year so we can fund our parks, ensure public safety, provide public transportation so people can get to work and wherever they need to go, patch up our roads, protect our museums and institutions, and more – without raising anyone’s property taxes. That’s the goal.

And as always, we can urge the Milwaukee County Board to always make fiscally-responsible decisions in pursuit of clear, measurable goals that improve our quality of life – even when it’s hard, even when interest groups and our close friends are telling us to add to the deficit.

If you ever have any specific questions or needs, related or unrelated to the budget, please don’t hesitate to contact my office directly . Hope you’re well! Thanks for putting your trust in me to serve you.

Sincerely, ?

Supervisor Shawn Rolland ?

Representing neighborhoods in Wauwatosa and Milwaukee’s Washington Heights