Wisconsin is sitting on a $4
billion surplus.
Some counties would like a bigger
piece of that pie through the
state's shared revenue.
Back in 2023, a much
heralded bipartisan shared revenue
plan for local governments was
passed, allowing Milwaukee
to raise its sales tax to shore
up services, while at the same time
boosting state revenue coming to
locals across the state.
But now the richest county
in the state, Waukesha County,
is looking at a $5 million budget
shortfall in 2025
and is beseeching the state
to give more.
Marquette University professor of
political science Phillip Rocco,
is an expert in all of this
and he joins us now.
Thanks very much for being here.
Good to be with you.
So I thought that this 2023
shared revenue plan was a
great deal for local
governments. What happened?
It was a big deal, right?
It was the single largest increase
in shared revenue that local
governments had received since 2000.
But the reality is that
compared to what
cities, towns, villages
and counties had lost
since the early 2000s, because
the formula wasn't updated for
inflation and because there were
several big cuts to shared revenue,
it's really a fraction
of what local
governments and county governments
had lost in inflation adjusted
terms since the early 2000s.
And at the same time, inflation
has sort of proceeded a pace
that raises the cost of services
for local governments.
And so while it was by no
means a small thing, there
are still challenges
that local governments around the
state are facing.
Is it striking that a county like
Waukesha County, regarded as the
wealthiest in Wisconsin,
would be in this position?
No, I don't think it's particularly
surprising, in part because
the shared revenue formula
is not necessarily designed to
advantage counties
like Waukesha receives one of the
largest or lowest shares
in per capita aid
among counties in the state.
At the same time, the pressures
that are on counties
and municipalities around the state
are really pretty constant,
regardless of their
wealth. So, for example,
there are inflation pressures
which raise the cost of doing things
like sidewalk repair and street
repair.
But at the same time, the
property tax levy limit that the
state sets has not been adjusted
to sort of take account of those
inflationary pressures.
And that really puts counties
and municipalities in a squeeze
position.
Is it your expectation
that the state would do something
around those levy limits?
I think that's possible.
I think that that is if you talk to
local officials, both
in counties, municipalities, that's
one of their key agenda items.
And so I would expect to see
movement on that before
I would expect to see movement on
sort of increasing formula
funding under Act 12.
So other counties raise
their state sales tax to fund
needs. And Waukesha wanted
to.
What happened with that?
I think that was one of the things
that helps explain the shortfall and
maybe why Waukesha is in this
position, which is like a lot
of other counties, there was a push
to increase the sales tax
by 0.5%.
But there was unlike in Milwaukee,
where the business community was in
favor of that
measure, both for the county and the
city and Waukesha County, the
the business community that
the Chamber of Commerce really
opposed that. And so the legislation
was pulled sort of
at the last minute to reevaluate
it.
Why are counties in particular
so strapped?
Counties are important because they
really pull double duty.
In Wisconsin government,
they're both local governments in
their own right that offer things
on a discretionary basis to their
residents. But at the same time,
they are service providers and
agencies of the state.
And so they have a lot of
responsibilities that they can't
easily get out of.
And a lot of their budget is
sort of spoken for by the state.
And so that
especially in in conditions
where there's sort of inflationary
pressure that can put an additional
vise grip, I think, on
county finances.
And so when you look at what
counties are asking for
in the 2025 to 27
budget, what they're asking
for is not additional
shared revenue of the sort that
that they got to direct.
Well, but the
sorts of special revenue
programs or aid programs
that help them to support
the services that they provide on
behalf of the state.
What are some examples
of those services?
That they provide on behalf of the
state that are different.
So there's all sorts of mental
health services that counties are
the sort of main provider of.
If you think about the state court
system that really
operates through counties,
jails as well are
county functions
but mandated in a way by
the state.
And there's really a host of
additional kind of mandatory
programs that counties
administer.
All right, Professor Philip Rocco,
thanks very much. We'll be looking
at that next state budget to see
what it holds. Thank you.
Thank you.
For more on this and other issues
facing Wisconsin, visit our Web site
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on PBS, Wisconsin and Wisconsin
Public Radio for Governor
Tony Evers, State of the State
Address at the Capitol, along
with the Republican response.
That's our program for tonight.
I'm Fredericka Freiberg.
Have a good weekend.