South Milwaukeeans: Get ready to feel the pain from Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget.
While we’re still sorting through all of the potential impacts of Walker’s plan announced Tuesday, it’s very clear that the governor has decided to balance the state budget on the backs of local governments (in addition to the poor, middle-class teachers and other public employees, unions and countless other constituencies who dared not support him during his campaign).
Does this surprise anyone? It shouldn’t.
My biggest objection: The further erosion of local control through new and ridiculous mandates on local communities from a governor who somehow claims to be in favor of smaller government while at the same time loves telling local leaders what we must do to govern local residents.
Among my biggest complaints with his hypocritical plan:
- Shared revenue cuts. As expected, Walker is using cuts in shared revenue to local governments as a key part of his plan to balance the state budget, and why not? Passing the buck like this is easy. The average cut is expected to be more than 12 percent … which for us could quickly punch a nearly $400,000 hole in our budget. And it could be more. Just what will that mean for services in the short and medium term? Stay tuned.
- Levy limits. At the same time he slices state aid to local governments, Walker wants to limit how much communities can increase their tax levies to fund the services facing the cuts. His proposal: Allow local governments to only raise property tax levies equal to the amount of new construction. For South Milwaukee, where new construction is almost non-existent, that likely means we will not be able to raise taxes at all going forward. Now, I’m no fan of large tax increases, nor could I see supporting one, but I stand behind the approximately 2% percent increases we’ve delivered in our last two budgets – fair and reasonable increases that reflect the fact that costs to deliver our first-class city services go up every year. In Scott Walker’s world, apparently there is no such thing as inflation.
- Recycling. This is perhaps the most hypocritical part of Walker’s plan. He is proposing that the state no longer help local governments pay for their recycling programs – while removing the mandate that communities offer these programs at all. The state now provides South Milwaukee more than $120,000 for this purpose. Without it, we will likely have to pass on the full cost of our recycling efforts to residents, resulting in higher fees for this service. The alternative? Get out of recycling altogether, which simply can’t be an option if you at all care about the planet. Plus, we recently signed a long-term deal with Veolia to run the South Milwaukee recycling program, so that can’t happen anyway. When you see this increase on your bill, I ask you to remember that it is brought to you by a Republican governor who campaigned against higher taxes and fees.
Couple all of that with Walker’s “budget repair bill” — his attempt at killing public unions and providing so-called “tools” that likely won’t come close to closing the shortfall he would create with the three items mentioned above — and you have a terrible piece of legislation that will deliver nothing but pain to local residents.
And it will be painful. Count on it. South Milwaukeeans will see real impacts from Walker’s budget through cuts in services, and there is simply no way around it. Our budget is so tight already – our staffing so lean – that it is inevitable. I wish it weren’t, but it is.
Yet, it could be worse. I can’t even begin to get into the potential impacts of Walker’s budget proposal on local schools. That’s another post for another day.
But rest assured that our kids will feel the pain even worse than we will at City Hall thanks to Scott Walker’s “reform budget.” As the parent of a Rawson Elementary kindergartner and husband of an ESL teacher for the Whitnall School District, that scares the heck out of me.
South Milwaukee Blog 
To combine levy limits with cuts in shared revenue almost demands layoffs.
Dave: Unfortunately, you may be right. I hope not, but we’ll see. This much I do know: In South Milwaukee, any cut to people at this point equals a cut in service. That’s how lean we are.
Do you mean to say that we are so short-sighted that we are signing long-term contracts with no escape clause for changes in the regulatory environment, or any other means of escaping? The recycling industry is the ONLY industry that I am aware of that has such a racket that they demand payment to obtain raw materials, process them, and then sell them. Everybody else pays for the inputs and collects for the outputs. I, for one, will be glad when I no longer have to waste precious (and expensive) water to wash my GARBAGE.
While I understand that taxes may be going up, I would expect that we don’t just jump to that conclusion. For example, I pay taxes and fees for my driveway and garage. I would expect that as a first step we extend the parking permit procedure for all 12 months. I’m always amazed that come winter how many cars miraculously disappear from the street, but also how many unticketed cars are on some places like Memorial Drive. If I have to pay for parking, everyone should.
You mention that new construction is non-existent, but why then aren’t we trying to do something with the wasted land that used to be the high school. I challenge you to go by there on a regular basis and count the number of days that it is actually being used and then compare that with the amount of fees we are collecting.
Finally, while we can’t do anything now, I hope that the city has created a “lessons learned” document from handing Bucyrus the TIF district and everything else we have done for them. We must make sure that any new incentives, also contain dis-incentives for abandoning our needs.
Also, why does “City Hall” have to be open full time??? Wht not go to a “Part-time” office. It appears that over the last couple years the staffing has increased. I remember years back the office had two employees working behind the counter. Recycling….that is now big business and I am also surprised that there is no escape clause to opt out. Tax increases….2% one year, 2% another year, 2% future year adds up to 6%. The last 2 to 3 years should have been 0% due to the economy. Looks like the Council will have to cut, cut, cut. You might not be popular with the City employees, but Oh Well!!!
Cut, cut, cut indeed. I just hope residents understand that any cuts will mean real reductions in what we can deliver for them. People will notice the changes, and that’s too bad. One reason I chose to live in South Milwaukee is because we have great government-funded services, be it schools, libraries, public health services, or any number of others we use every day. I am willing to pay for them through reasonable property taxes and reasonable tax increases, and I hope others are too. But thanks to Scott Walker’s budget slashing and unfair restrictions on local governments, cuts may be coming to those services … and we won’t have the ultimate “tool” for dealing with them: local decision making.
Well, if there are any increases in revenue due to tax increases, it appears it would be by referendum to obtain permission to increase spending, and in SM that is not going to happen. Our taxes are way too high here in SM for what we get. I prefer lower taxes and no tax increases. Collect garbage once every two weeks….I sure was not impressed by the quality of snowplowing in SM when compared to other municipalities.
Before South Milwaukee increases my recycling fee, I would like to know how I can return my recycling cart and have this charge taken off my tax bill.