Here & Now

Mayor Cavalier Johnson on Milwaukee's 2% Sales Tax Increase

Robert Bauman:

And as we’ve all been briefed by the budget office in great detail, the wolf is at the door. We can’t chase the wolf away anymore and we are dealing with some serious challenges which have to be addressed. We did get a solution. The state legislature did enable us to adopt a local option sales tax of 2%, which raises real revenue. I mean, we’re talking $193 billion a year plus and presumably that will grow as the economy grows in years going forward.

Frederica Freyberg:

City of Milwaukee leaders are breathing a sigh of relief after the Common Council there this week voted in favor of an additional 2% sales tax to stave off deep service cuts and layoffs due to mounting pension debt, but as part of the negotiated shared revenue to local government package in the state budget, the Milwaukee sales tax came with policy provisions that deeply divide the city. Things like returning police officers to the city schools, eliminating funding for diversity programs, and requiring minimum police and fire staffing. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in taking this action, the council has protected Milwaukee and its residents from unimaginable cuts to library and public safety services. Mayor Johnson joins us now. Thanks very much for doing so.

Cavalier Johnson:

Thank you, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

How does it feel to have signed this into law today?

Cavalier Johnson:

It feels great. Really, really does. This is a problem four decades in the making. It eluded mayors and city councils and governors and legislatures in years past, but working together in a collaborative, bipartisan way, we were able to get this done and put the city on a stronger financial footing for now and for the foreseeable future. And I feel very gratified to have been able to deliver this for the citizens of Milwaukee, for our daily commuters, for our visitors, and there are several in town for Bastille Days and Harley-Davidson’s 120th anniversary, and some of the most iconic businesses that call the city of Milwaukee home.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you feel like there’s room for more collaborative work with the legislature after this?

Cavalier Johnson:

I do, I really, really do. On a whole host of things, but particularly on something that the city’s been challenged with, especially as we entered into and are coming out of the COVID years, and that’s gun violence. I now understand that the legislature is what it is. I’ve always been a political realist as it relates to dealing with the legislature. So there won’t be sweeping legislation, but there must be things on the margins that we’re able to work on, because when I get up and I get phone calls and text messages from the Milwaukee Police Department about people being shot and killed in our city, and including our kids, I think that that probably also troubles legislators as well, including Republican legislators too. And I think that there’s something that all of us can do collectively in order to take on that challenge that affects citizens in this city and in this state.

Frederica Freyberg:

On the 2% sales tax, let’s listen to one of the three council members who voted against the sales tax.

Andrea Pratt:

Throughout this process, I have asked that we prioritize those among us who do not earn a family-sustaining wage and are on fixed incomes, contrary to the narrative that has been fashioned, I love Milwaukee. I’d argue that choosing to remain here knowing all of the statistics only compounds that love. I do not want to see us fail. I also do not want to save a city by sacrificing citizens.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your message to those who say that this new tax, when added to the existing tax and then potentially a new county tax will amount to a 7.9% sales tax in Milwaukee. Is that a legitimate hardship for low-income residents as some people are suggesting?

Cavalier Johnson:

First, Frederica, let me just say that I don’t doubt that any council member, including those council members that voted “no” on this had any less love or desire for the city of Milwaukee than I do or those council members, their colleagues that voted “yes” on this. But what I will say is that the action that the council took was extraordinarily importantly. Those council members who voted “yes” on this took the position to save services that its citizens, including those citizens who live in challenged neighborhoods, those low-income residents in Milwaukee, depend on. It’s districts like those where people call the police the most. It’s districts like those where fire services and medical services provided by our fire department are depended on the most. It’s districts like those where library services are depended on the most. And so the action by the council, particularly those council members who voted “yes” on the 2% sales tax increase, puts us in a position where we’re able to continue to provide those services to all of those residents, who actually need them in neighborhoods across Milwaukee and including in low-income districts across the city.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the council introduced legislation opposing the policy part of this deal with the legislature, including lawsuits to block provisions like eliminating diversity programs, police officers in schools, etc. Do you support litigation over those things?

Cavalier Johnson:

I believe that there are opportunities for us to work together, to still get the city’s values implemented. For us to still work on implementing diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the city of Milwaukee. I think there are workarounds for us to be able to do that and I intend to do just that. I’m supporting efforts to get our intergovernmental relations team to go back to the legislature to start to work towards the repeal of the policy provisions that were there that, quite frankly, I don’t think had any place being in the bill. They didn’t need to be there. I wish that it were simply an up-and-down vote on the city’s finances which, of course, was not an issue that was specifically related only to the city of Milwaukee. Communities across the entire state of Wisconsin had an issue with funding coming back from the state of Wisconsin. So it’s my desire, again, to continue to make sure that we work to deliver diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Milwaukee and I think there are ways for us to go about it even now.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you say to people who said that you negotiated a bad deal?

Cavalier Johnson:

I say to those people that they’re wrong. They simply are. Look, this was a big, difficult, complex, but ultimately triumph for the city of Milwaukee. And the Republicans in the legislature, they knew that the only way that they’d be able to see the policies that they wanted to implement in Milwaukee on all of these issues come to fruition was to attach it to something that the city needed. And after four decades of stagnation and revenues coming back to Milwaukee and our fiscal cliff inching closer and closer, the opportunity was ripe for them to do that. So, yes, there are negative things that they attached to the bill that I fought against and have a strong aversion to, but we also have to remember that we were also able to get the Republicans to move considerably from their position, more than 20 years, probably 30 years of not adding a tax for the city of Milwaukee. So there’s compromise on both sides. We got something done that was extraordinary for Milwaukee and sets the city up for success in the future.

Frederica Freyberg:

Mayor Cavalier Johnson, thanks very much.

Cavalier Johnson:

Thank you, Frederica.