Here & Now

Mayor Cavalier Johnson on Milwaukee's Shared Revenue Needs

Frederica Freyberg:

At the state Capitol this week, lawmakers from the Senate considered their version of the shared revenue bill to increase funding to local governments as the very survival of the bill hangs in the balance. The tipping point, whether or not to bring a referendum question before Milwaukee voters to increase the sales tax by 2% for the city of Milwaukee and by .375% for the county to pay for outstanding pension obligations that have been growing for years. Last week, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said their version of the bill requires the referendum and they are done negotiating. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu took issue with that, concerned that the referendum could fail. Speaking before the Senate committee this week was Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. He joins us now and mayor, thanks very much for being here.

Cavalier Johnson:

Frederica, thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So from your understanding, where does this shared revenue bill stand as of this moment? Is there room for negotiation?

Cavalier Johnson:

Frederica, I would imagine that there is room for negotiation. Look. I’ve not had the ability, the privilege to serve in a bicameral legislative body such as we have in our state legislature, but my understanding, though, is that one house creates a bill, and if there’s any difference with the other house, they come together, they conference the bill. That’s negotiation. And so I would suspect that there still would be room for both the Assembly as well as the Senate to have the opportunity to have a conversation and put forward a bill that can pass both houses that can get the support that it needs in the legislature that can also be signed by the governor.

Frederica Freyberg:

What are you specifically lobbying for?

Cavalier Johnson:

Look. In the bill, there are a number of things that I’ve been lobbying for. You mentioned the issue about whether it’s a referendum or whether it’s enabling legislation allowing for both Milwaukee County Council as well as Milwaukee County Board to pass legislation, then to be signed by the executives in those jurisdictions, myself being one of them. Look. I’d like further to be consistency here. When the state of Wisconsin allows local governments to implement or increase a tax, whether it’s a county sales tax, .5% sales tax, that’s 68 of our 72 counties have implemented, those happened by a simple majority of the legislative body. They are not sent to referendum. When the state of Wisconsin allows local governments to enact a PRAT tax, a premier resort area tax, those are imposed via a vote of the local legislative body. They are not sent out to the masses via referendum. So I’m looking for consistency here from the state legislature in allowing us to implement a 2% sales tax in the city of Milwaukee allowing the Common council to be able to vote on that and then me, as the executive of this jurisdiction, to be able to sign that into law and to implement it. There are some other Milwaukee-specific items in the bill and my request has been on those things to allow local officials to make those decisions that purely affect us at the local level.

Frederica Freyberg:

What are your concerns about taking that extra 2% sales tax to voters? Do you think it wouldn’t pass?

Cavalier Johnson:

I have great concerns about whether or not a referendum would be able to pass in Milwaukee. I’ve got a number of concerns about it. The question, I think, posed would be too large, too overly confusing, too overly cumbersome for us to be able to educate the public about the dire need that’s available here, and then there are a couple of other reasons why I’ve got severe concerns. In the city of Milwaukee, in years past, what we had done before we implemented a wheel tax, that’s 20 bucks a year that folks pay when they register their vehicle, we essentially had a referendum when the Department of Public Works would go to a particular street in the city to reconstruct that street. We would send out a postcard to the residents on that block and say, hey, we’re coming to reconstruct the street. It’s going to cost you say $3000 roughly. That was a referendum and folks would vote those down consistently because they wouldn’t want to pay the additional dollar. What happened, though, was then that we would have a street and several streets throughout the city that would be reduced to gravel. So there are those sorts of concerns about a referendum. We need the money to be able to do these things, to be able to provide city services, just like we did before with fixing the street. The other thing that I have a grave concern with is that in Milwaukee, talking about issues around pensions, I think it’s sort of taboo. Folks recall about two decades ago or so some of the challenges that happened around pensions in Milwaukee, and I don’t want those bad feelings from the past to be intermingled with what we need to accomplish here right now in terms of getting more revenues to us at the local level so that we can maintain services here in the city of Milwaukee, including making sure that we maintain and increase police service, that we maintain and increase fire service, and also that we maintain our library system that means so much to citizens all across the city.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your message to the people of the state about how dire things are fiscally in Milwaukee right now in the absence of any kind of even overall boost in shared revenue from the state?

Cavalier Johnson:

Well, Frederica, what happens in Milwaukee has an outsize impact on the rest of the state of Wisconsin. It really, really does. You think about the services that we provide here. They are good, not just for my constituents, the residents in the city of Milwaukee; they’re good for our regional economy and we’ve got, you know, thousands of people who drive into the city each and every single day for work and for dining and the like, and from the Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington County suburbs. We, in the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee generally, we’re the largest tourism destination in the state of Wisconsin. About a quarter of all tourists who interface with our state and then therefore pay sales tax that go to Madison and then are diverted to other communities around the state. They come to Milwaukee. Right? And experience the hospitality, the tourism that we have here in this city. And then of course some of the most iconic businesses in the entire state of Wisconsin are located right here in the city of Milwaukee. Now, if we’re not able to provide those sort of city services that all of those constituencies depend on, that would put us in a situation, I think a dire situation, where those visitors don’t come. Where those businesses perhaps decide to leave, and if those things were to happen, the ripple effect doesn’t just happen in the city of Milwaukee. It happens in the region and it happens in other parts of the state of Wisconsin as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We leave it there. Mayor Cavalier Johnson, thanks very much.

Cavalier Johnson:

Okay. Frederica, thanks for having me.