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Wisconsin shared revenue: Wauwatosa could get 98% more, Milwaukee 10%
More state money could be heading to your town for police, fire and roads, but some city leaders say it’s still not enough to avert a fiscal crisis.
MILWAUKEE - Every Wisconsin county, city, village and town would see at least a 10% boost in state shared revenue, if a Republican proposal was realized, but some local Milwaukee County leaders said they'd still face a fiscal crisis ahead.
Wauwatosa would get 98% more in shared revenue if the Assembly Republican plan becomes law.
"This is a good start," Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride told FOX6 News. "It’s not a finish, so people shouldn’t think this solves all problems for all times for all communities. It’s going to be extremely helpful."
Right now, Wisconsin sends Wauwatosa $703,000 a year. Under the new proposal, it would get nearly $1.4 million.
Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride
"It’s a partial solution," said McBride. "It’s not a full solution. Although I’m grateful, we still have work to do because Wauwatosa, which is a pretty well-off community, will still go over the fiscal cliff in a few years if things aren’t changed."
McBride said they could reach that cliff, even with the boost in shared revenue, in four to five years. He said they also need to be able to raise the property tax levy cap. Otherwise, cuts could come.
"Will garbage collections be affected?" said McBride. "Will snow plowing be affected? Will road paving be affected? We already can’t pave all the roads we have. We can’t keep up with the schedule we should."
Wauwatosa
For Wauwatosa, McBride said the total proposed money might cover the cost of one firetruck.
Thiensville would get 191% more, an extra $85,000. Village President Van Mobley said that won't go that far in his Ozaukee County village.
"The shared revenue proposal on the table would provide Thiensville enough money to pay for a single employee (roughly, if benefits are factored in), or about .25 of our new garbage truck, or maybe 1/8 of a mile of road repair (depending upon cost of asphalt and condition of the road)," he wrote. "It is appreciated and will be used wisely, but it is by no means a windfall."
Milwaukee would see a 10% boost in shared revenue, going from $217 million to $239 million, under the Assembly Republican proposal.
Jerry Deschane, League of Wisconsin Municipalities
It’s all based on the proposed new shared revenue formulas.
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"Can I explain it in a five-second soundbite? No way," said Jerry Deschane, League of Wisconsin Municipalities. "They broke the formula down per capita, and right now, there’s a huge swing between small communities, large communities in what that per capita amount is. They tried to compress that, but at the same time, make sure that every city and village and town gets more, so that’s why you’re seeing these significant swings for some smaller communities and not so large swings for the bigger communities."
The governor threatened to veto the proposal, saying it doesn’t give local communities enough.
The GOP plan also adds strings. For instance, the new money would only be able to be used for law enforcement, fire protection, emergency medical services, emergency response communications, public works and transportation.
Milwaukee County's city and village leaders had a lot of questions about the plan to boost shared revenue to every Wisconsin municipality. They huddled inside the Shorewood Library, where they had a regular meeting, which also included learning more about the new proposal.
The same day, Monday, May 8, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors' Committee on Intergovernmental Relations advanced a non-binding resolution that would urge the state to increase shared revenue "with full autonomy and without restrictions from the State of Wisconsin." It still needs approval of the full county board.
From streets to police, shared revenue is helping pay your town's bill. When your income tax is pulled out of your paycheck, or you spend money at the store, that tax money goes to the state, and the state then sends some of that money back to counties and municipalities.
For the first time since 2004, Wisconsin's shared revenue formulas could be changing.
"This would be the biggest increase in state support of local governments, frankly, in a generation," added Deschane.
Check out how much your town would get, under the proposal: