Milwaukee Common Council adopts 2024 budget. What to know about property tax increases
The Milwaukee Common Council on Friday adopted a $1.92 billion 2024 budget that boosts services instead of cutting them — and also increases property taxes and fees.
The lack of cuts is notable considering the years of service reductions, including this year, as the city slid into a fast-approaching financial disaster. And while experts say the coming years won't be as rosy as 2024, next year's budget reflects a major shift.
"At this time last year, we faced a lot of uncertainty. We weren't sure that the city would be solvent. That wasn't an exaggeration, nor was it a threat. Now things are a little better," Common Council President José G. Pérez said after the vote.
Those challenges were averted in large part through this year's landmark local government funding law that provided Milwaukee with $200 million or so in additional revenue next year, including through a new 2% city sales tax that is anticipated to bring in about $184 million next year. (The law also imposed major new costs on the city.)
Even as Milwaukee is seeing a boost in funding — and the sales tax in the city rises to a total of 7.9% next year, including county and state sales taxes — property taxes and fees are going up.
How much does the adopted budget increase fees and property taxes in 2024?
Mayor Cavalier Johnson proposed raising the property tax levy and fees by 2% next year.
The adopted budget's 2.1% increase in the property tax levy — the total amount collected in property taxes — translates to a total of about $1,378.84 for a median home valued at $145,600 in 2023, according to the Budget Office. The figure reflects an increase of $51.55.
All five major user fees ― solid waste, snow and ice, stormwater, sewer, and street lighting ― will also increase 2%, or about $10.73 for the median home, according to the Budget Office.
What is the total tax levy in 2024 compared to 2023?
The budget the council adopted increases the overall tax levy by 2.1%, from $311.2 million in 2023 to $317.7 million in 2024.
Johnson had proposed an increase in 2024 to $317.4 million.
What comments have Milwaukee officials made about the increase in taxes and fees?
The 15-member council adopted the budget on a 14-1 vote, with Ald. Mark Borkowski citing the increasing property taxes as the basis of his objection.
"I have had a problem with this budget from day one," he said. "What was that problem? Well, some of us took great heat this past summer when we had to vote — yes, we had to vote — for the 2% sales tax increase. ... You would have thought that in the work of good faith, that maybe, just maybe we could have thrown our Milwaukee taxpayers a bone and not had a tax increase this year for the first time in, like, forever."
Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who chairs the powerful Finance and Personnel Committee that oversees the council's budget deliberations, after the meeting said the budget and its spending represented a package with return on investment for residents. The budget builds on the sales tax that helped the city avoid the quickly approaching financial crisis, she said.
"In 2024, you're going to have Sunday library hours, I think you're going to see more trees pruned and planted, you're going to see streets being smoother, you're going to see an extra fire engine," she said.
Jeff Fleming, spokesman for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, on Friday noted the sales tax money could only be used for pension costs and public safety. He also said the fees are dedicated to other specific services and are increasing well below the inflation rate.
Why was Milwaukee able to maintain services in 2024?
The city's ability to maintain services is largely due to an influx of funds from this year's local government funding law, known as Act 12. The law allowed Milwaukee's elected officials to implement the 2% city sales tax that starts Jan. 1 and boosts the revenue that returns to the city from the state, known as shared revenue. However, the law also imposed significant new costs on the city, along with a bevy of non-fiscal requirements.
That new law played a big role in shaping Johnson's $1.92 billion 2024 budget proposal, as did his plan to use the city's remaining federal pandemic aid next year.
Budget boosts services, including Milwaukee police, fire and libraries that had faced cuts in prior years
Both Johnson's proposed budget and a broad amendment the Common Council approved Friday include increases in services, partially a reflection of requirements of Act 12 and partially of elected leaders' priorities.
Johnson's budget included increases in police and fire staffing, which he said previously was not only an effort to comply with staffing requirements in the new state law but also to reach his own goals as mayor.
The budget increases Police Department sworn members by about 15 police officers next year, after retirements are taken into account, bringing the average sworn strength to 1,645 over the course of 2024.
Fire Department daily staffing rises from 192 to 198. Four of those additional six positions are to be assigned to a fire engine that would be put back into service and the remaining two on a new paramedic unit.
In all, Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said the department will need 21 more firefighters total to staff the new positions in the three 24-hour shifts that take place in a row and to ensure sufficient backup personnel.
Lipski plans to reopen Fire Station 17, 4653 S. 13th St., near Mitchell International Airport in 2024.
The major amendment the Common Council approved Friday adds Sunday library hours, funds more street repairs, launches a preventative lead abatement loan program and opens two more early voting locations.
Specifically, the adopted amendment includes:
$750,000 for a pilot program to provide Sunday hours from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Central Library throughout 2024 and at two other branches starting July 1. Milwaukee Public Library Director Joan Johnson previously told the finance committee she'd offer Sunday hours at the Tippecanoe and Good Hope branches if the amendment passes.
$750,000 for a revolving loan fund meant to help prevent lead poisoning in Milwaukee's children instead of addressing lead hazards in homes, such as chipping paint, only once a child has been poisoned.
An additional $750,000 for high-impact paving, which involves surface repairs to extend the life of a road. (Johnson proposed spending about $16 million in 2024 on high-impact paving and local road reconstruction as opposed to the $14 million or $15 million spent in previous years.)
$500,000 for traffic-calming projects.
$250,000 for bicycle infrastructure.
$118,444 to fund two Department of Neighborhood Services inspectors dedicated to addressing complaints at Housing Authority for the City of Milwaukee properties. The move comes after residents and activists raised concerns about health and safety inside the properties. (On a divided vote, the council also approved an amendment that allocated $250,000 to accelerating maintenance and repair work at housing authority properties.)
Budget uses up federal pandemic aid, leaving a fraction for task force
Some council members have voiced frustration over a decision to use the remaining federal pandemic aid in the 2024 budget and leave just a fraction of the nearly $400 million the city received for a task force created to ensure diverse input from residents and set criteria for proposed projects.
The aid, known as American Rescue Plan Act funding, has so far been used to keep city services afloat but also for affordable housing, lead paint abatement, pandemic response and more.
Johnson's 2024 budget uses the remaining $92.7 million in unallocated aid in addition to $17.5 million reallocated from other projects. According to a Budget Office presentation, this approach ensures the city complies with federal deadlines to use the dollars but also reflects changes in project funding needs and federal guidelines around how the money may be spent.
That leaves the task force with $5 million in the "One Milwaukee Citizen-Led Transformational Fund."
The catch-all amendment the council adopted reduces that sum to $2.4 million. Voting against the amendment at committee and council were Alds. Milele Coggs and Mark Chambers, Jr., the chair and a member of the task force, respectively.
Before the committee vote last week and on the council floor, Coggs thanked those involved in the task force and the residents who shared their ideas. The task force had hoped a good amount of the second half of the $400 million would remain, she said at committee.
"As the person who led that process, I just want to say I think most everybody involved in that process intended to do exactly what we set out to do," she said. "If ultimately that changes or if ultimately that is not as large as we would have wanted it to be, I still want to say thank you to the hundreds of residents who filled out surveys, who came to public meetings and who shared their opinions with us."
Don't get comfortable: Difficult years could still be ahead in Milwaukee.
Next year will represent a unique situation where the city can use its remaining federal pandemic aid at the same time it sees an influx in funds from the new local government funding law.
But the years after the federal aid runs out may not be so easy, according to experts.
The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum in its analysis of Johnson's budget proposal found that tight budgets could re-emerge as soon as 2025.
The pressures that put Milwaukee on the "precipice of fiscal crisis" are no longer in play for 2024, but there remains the prospect for "renewed structural challenges in 2025 and beyond," the report states.
Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee council adopts 2024 city budget that ups property tax levy
