Milwaukee County residents fight to protect crucial public structures

» Background
» Alliance to Protect the Public Good brochure (pdf)
» Alternative budget plan (pdf)
» List of Endorsers
» The Alliance in the News

» 2006 Alliance Events

»Hundreds Gather to Fight For What They Value Most in Milwaukee County (Oct. 2006)

»Groups Unite to Save Milwaukee County (Sept. 2006)

»Alliance Vows to Protect Milwaukee County Structures and Programs (Aug. 2006)

Background

Generations of Milwaukeeans built public structures to help make our lives secure, healthy and successful. They established transportation and legal systems, social services, natural green spaces, cultural resources and a governing process to create maximum opportunity for all. These structures are in danger as “anti-government” leaders use financial problems as an excuse to slash programs, privatize services and eliminate resources that serve many thousands of families.

Each year, the cost to maintain public sector operations rises with inflation, population growth, health insurance costs, energy costs, etc. Each year the level of state shared revenue to local government falls (in real dollars).

Unable to raise local dollars to fill the gap because of a state-imposed tax freeze — the county has been forced to cut staff, programs, and assistance to children, the disabled and people in poverty. As the gap gets bigger every year, the cuts are more extensive. Citizens wait in long lines for driver’s license renewals, watch snow pile up on roads, see garbage collected less often, read about schools closing, and find fewer support services for elderly relatives. When they hear anti-government rhetoric, it correlates with their own experience that government can’t do anything right.

During the 2007 budget process, Milwaukee County faced a serious financial challenge caused primarily by inadequate state aid and revenue limits imposed by the legislature. The County Executive believed county government should be dismantled. His response to the fiscal problems would have left Milwaukee County with a stripped down park system, almost no public pools, no cleaning or maintenance in public buildings or grounds, a bus system that costs more but takes longer and goes fewer places, as well as reductions in programs that serve the elderly, children, families in crisis as well as people with disabilities.

County residents and workers were not willing to let this happen. They formed the Alliance to Protect the Public Good to fight these budget cuts in 2007 and find better ways to cover the cost of county systems over the long term through a tax system that collects adequate funds in a fair way from all residents and businesses.

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006, voted 14-5 to override County Executive Scott Walker’s veto of the entire 2007 county budget.

The $1.3 billion budget, restores funds for public safety, parks, pools and the arts, and blocked the abolishment of more than 230 county jobs.

A key element in the budget is a 3.6% property tax increase, which the county executuve consistently opposed. The increase is a huge victory for those who believe in investing in public structures.

Credit for the successful budget campaign goes first to the 14 supervisors who stayed together both to pass the budget and then override Walker’s veto.

And the victory wouldn’t have been possible without the strong lobbying by the Alliance to Protect the Public Good. The Alliance, which included dozens of community and labor organizations, was the public face of the movement to support strong, effective, good government.