Milwaukee leaders call for more shared revenue
Barrett touts city as big state contributor
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Monday that he wants the Legislature and state residents to know that Wisconsin’s largest city is not a drain on state resources but is instead a major contributor to state coffers.
City residents and businesses sent $1.37 billion to Madison in 2015 from all income, sales, utility and other taxes while the state returned only $227 million in the form of shared revenue payments, a difference of more than $1.1 billion, Barrett said. He spoke to several dozen corporate leaders Monday at a meeting of the Greater Milwaukee Committee.
Barrett announced the launching of a fact-based “offensive to change the narrative” about Milwaukee sucking up an excessive amount of state funds, and he asked the business group to support the effort.
He has heard the old stereotype about Milwaukee repeated many times over the years, but the record shows exactly the opposite, Barrett said.
Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton described Milwaukee as “a net exporter” of revenue to the state. The city should be recognized by the Legislature for that contribution, he said Monday.
A city budget office review of state data supports the “net export” perspective each year from 2007 to 2015, Barrett said. In 2007, the city sent $1.2 billion to Madison while receiving $239.4 million back in shared revenue payments, according to the budget office analysis.
While the city’s revenue exports to Madison increased by more than $173.6 million during that period, the state’s shared revenue payments to the city fell by more than $12.2 million, records show.
“The state benefits from the economy in the city of Milwaukee,” Barrett said.
The disparity in this twoway exchange of dollars will widen unless the Legislature “re-establishes the historic grand bargain between local governments and the state government of more than a century ago” that set up revenue sharing, he said.
“My goal is to have an honest conversation about all the benefits the city of Milwaukee brings to the state,” Barrett said.
He acknowledged that legislators might counter his new offensive by pointing out that the city has the highest concentration of poor people in the state and that generates a social services burden. “We can counter that by saying we are still the state’s economic engine,” Barrett said.
In September, the Public Policy Forum said in a report that the continuing decline of state shared revenue payments to the city has placed severe and growing pressure on property taxes and charges for services.
The city’s finances are too reliant on property taxes without state legislative approval of additional revenue-generating tools, Public Policy Forum President Rob Henken said in the report, “Making Ends Meet.”
The forum report recommended the Legislature consider a local sales tax, local gas tax or local cigarette tax so state municipalities could boost their revenue to keep pace with inflation in costs of services.
Barrett and city Budget Director Mark Nicolini said their preference is increasing shared revenue payments.