Budget crunch: Why cities like Milwaukee are scrambling to keep up with core service costs

MILWAUKEE — It is finances season for Milwaukee and native governments throughout the state and meaning exhausting questions like those you might be having at house: How a lot to spend and what to chop.

TMJ4’s Charles Benson talked with Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson about one other massive dialog happening round how a lot cash the state must be sharing with municipalities.

The property taxes from your own home are a key income supply to assist run the town authorities – however it’s not sufficient.

Shared income can also be necessary. It’s cash collected by the state from earnings, gross sales, and company taxes and shared with Milwaukee and all native governments – however once more, it is not sufficient.

That is an issue for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson as he places his first metropolis finances collectively subsequent month.

“The revenues simply usually are not flowing the way in which that they used to, after which that is having a direct impact on our potential to fund core metropolis companies,” Johnson stated.

Johnson says shared income not solely dropped however flatlined since 2000. This is what that state cash paid for 22 years in the past.

“We used to get sufficient cash to pay for the whole thing of the police division finances, which is our largest finances expenditure, the whole thing of the hearth division finances and have a number of thousands and thousands of {dollars} left over to spend money on roads, spend money on different priorities for the town,” Johnson stated. “Now we do not even get sufficient again in shared income to pay for the police division’s finances.”

Johnson is speaking with lawmakers to beef up the shared income, particularly with the state having fun with an anticipated $5.4 billion greenback finances surplus.

“Sure, we do,” stated Johnson when requested if the town wants one other income to faucet into.

The mayor says if Milwaukee might get an extra half-cent gross sales tax on cash spent within the metropolis – one thing state lawmakers must enable – it might assist with core prices and probably cut back property taxes.

“Each different giant metropolis in America has the flexibility to generate {dollars} on the native degree exterior of the property tax,” stated Johnson. “We should always have that very same energy right here in Milwaukee.”

In response to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, cities in neighboring states of Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota have a extra various income supply to pay for native companies together with gross sales tax choices.

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