Thank you.
What a swing, even with a new county sales tax increase that helped Milwaukee County
see a budget surplus for the first time in decades in 2024, the county government is
now staring down a nearly $20 million deficit by the end of the year.
What is happening?
We turn to Milwaukee County Supervisor Steve Taylor, who warns of tough times ahead, and
thanks for being here.
You're welcome.
Side of the ear.
As a surplus, now you're grappling with projected deficits.
What is happening?
Well, it's a combination of things.
We have a big deficit in the sheriff's budget in the overtime.
That's over $7 million, and that number is not going to get smaller.
We've not seen the projected sales tax revenue come in.
I mean, people are not spending as much as we projected.
So the sales tax projections that revenue is lower.
And then we look in that future of the health care costs.
Those are on the rise, and those are things that are difficult to control.
We've made departments that are running, you know, positive, but there's just some areas
in the county budget that are struggling a big time right now.
So I understand that the sales tax hike was supposed to generate $82 million in revenue
since last July, and then there was another $7 million that came from the state by way
of shared revenue.
How much worse would it have been without that?
Well, yeah, that, I mean, we wouldn't be able to start tackling the pension problems
that we had based on, you know, the scandal back in the early 2000s.
So we would be in a worse position without the sales tax, but we still were always looking
at major issues in the next five years.
I mean, those numbers have gotten easier.
They'll be easier to deal with or grab with, but they're still going to be challenging
days and years ahead.
Well, what is the situation with the sheriff's department over time?
Why is that happening?
Well, we just don't have enough deputies and they're doing their mandated services and
it's coming at a cost at over time.
We could go out and hire, you know, 50 or 60 deputies, and we're going to lose, you
know, 40 or 50 through attrition, the retirement, going to other municipalities in the state
of Wisconsin ranks 50 out of 50 in law enforcement spending.
So that's not, I think, a category of the state should be proud of.
So I think that's something that that Milwaukee County and all counties and municipalities
should be looking at having a conversation with the state to see if we can get more money
for that law enforcement.
We're funding our sheriff's department.
We always don't have enough bodies to do it, to do what's necessary.
So you're looking to the state to give you more money to help with that sheriff's department
deficit.
Well, I think that's one conversation that needs to take place.
I mean, I don't think the solution is pulling our sheriffs off the highways and we're mandated
to do that.
I think we want to have our sheriffs in our parks.
I mean, we're mandated to have them in the core rooms.
You know, we have to have them in the jails and the house of correction.
And so the solution is not just let's not work on what we have to.
And these are officers and these deputies.
They don't want to always be working all this overtime.
It's coming at the expense of their personal well-being and their health, you know.
So it's a very difficult situation.
But I think the state needs to step up.
And what have you heard from the state legislature as to whether or not that's something that
they would consider doing?
You know, we haven't had those conversations.
I mean, this was just brought to us, you know, how dire it is, but it really shouldn't
be a shock.
I mean, it took a lot to get the sales tax and to do this whole shared revenue plan.
And I don't think the county was treated fairly to begin with.
I don't know why we had to tax our residents an additional 0.4% when we ship.
They should have been fixing the shared revenue in a different manner.
I mean, we ship over a half a billion dollars more to the state every year.
And when they decided to do this new formula, they're giving us $8 million and saying go
tax your residents another 80.
I think we got really shafted by the state.
So, you know, we're the economic engine of the state.
And, you know, we are funding things in superior and La Crosse and Oshkosh and Madison
and Middleton and Sun Prairie.
And yet, you know, we have to tax our residents to just, you know, can cost to continue, basically.
Are you being heard on that in Madison?
I don't know if we're being heard or not, but I mean, I think they look at us at some
in the state legislature, look at a giant sucking sound of money being just vacuumed
out of the state coffers.
That's how it's been for decades, that kind of mindset.
And then they make, I think, poor decisions as well, like, why should the taxpayers be
on the hook for Amfam Field?
When you have an owner, you know, spending money on European soccer teams, why should
the county taxpayers pay $4 million a year for the Pfizer when one of the owners sold
his share and made $660 million?
So this is the state.
This is decisions that the state has made.
After $6.5 million right there, the state has taken away from Milwaukee County and put
towards, you know, stadiums for billionaires.
So I don't know how far we'll get, you know, on help with the sheriff's department.
All right.
We leave it there.
Supervisor Steve Taylor, we'll be, we'll be watching this as it develops.
Thanks so much.
You're very welcome, thank you.
That was good.
I wish we had another minute.
But we didn't.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I can go.
Yeah, I can go on those subjects between the, between the bucks and the brewers and just
some of the decisions have been made to really, like, tie our hands.
I give these lectures many times on the board floor because it's frustrating.
I know they want to talk about, like, why do we have to tax people when they should just
give us some of our money back?
Do you have any sense that just in terms of that tax, whether people are deciding to
go outside the county to buy stuff?
Well, see, it's, that's kind of interesting because on, on small purchases, yes, like
grocery shopping or, you know, going to Coles or something like that.
But if, like, in terms of a purchase of, they have a car, it's registered to where you live.
So you can't get away with that.
You could, you know, you, you can't go to Waukesha County and go buy a brand new car and think
you're going to save, you know, X amount of money because it's, you know, registered
to your address and then you pay that sales tax.
So when I've bought in cars in Ohio, because my brother is a new car manager there, I'm
still paying all the Wisconsin taxes and stuff like that.
So, um, so I think on, I don't know why that's the case, why we're lagging, to be honest
with you, that's, that's where we really haven't quite figured that out yet.
I mean, you know, the weather hasn't been the greatest, so people maybe aren't going out
as much because it's been crummy, you know, I, I don't know, um, because I was supposed
to be a big savior right there.
Well, it was, it was like, if you looked at the position we were in, we were not going
to be able to fund just some of our mandate services anymore.
So we'd have to literally stop some funding the parks department and our seniors centers
and that.
So that'll allow those, those things to survive.
But like, for example, by mid next year, we'll run on money on regarding transit.
We don't have it unless we work on getting a dedicated funding.
So we got to really slash routes or, you know, come up with additional money and we don't,
we don't have it.
So the state's got to step up there as well.
So, and like, for example, we have a 400, we have $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance,
half a billion of that's in parks.
That doesn't include a $490 million safety building that we're mandated to perform those
services.
So my thinking is like, let's just say we're not going to do it anymore.
Like you take it over with state of Wisconsin.
You take over the, the, the court system, you know, you build the new building.
I mean, that's not going to happen.
But like when we played chicken with them and it's been, you know, it's been both sides,
both sides of the aisle.
I mean, when we wanted to do initial sales tax back in 2008, before my time, it was
a Democrat legislator and governor Doyle and he, he vetoed it.
So yeah, or didn't view it, it just didn't pass.
It didn't pass.
I should say you didn't veto it.
But okay.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, interesting stuff and I'm sorry.
Yeah.
In the middle of it.
But thanks for talking with us.
I signed up for it.
Thank you.
Indeed.
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
Take care.
Yeah.
Okay.
Bye.