City ranks first in improvement districts
Report says lack of data makes hard to know effectiveness
Milwaukee, relative to its population, has more business and neighborhood improvement districts than any other American city, a new study says.
But a lack of performance data makes it difficult to measure their effectiveness, according to a report released Monday by the Public Policy Forum.
Business improvement districts are formed by commercial property owners, who pay additional charges on their annual property bills to fund them.
The cash pays for such things as marketing campaigns and events for the district’s stores and restaurants; street cleaning, landscaping and other beautifi-
cation efforts; and security services.
Neighborhood improvement districts are financed with surcharges on residential properties and can be used to pay for similar services.
Both business and neighborhood improvement districts require Common Council approval and are operated by their own boards.
Some of Milwaukee’s largest business improvement districts are in downtown; the Historic Third Ward; the Menomonee Valley; the Gateway district, which covers the area around Mitchell International Airport; and the Granville area, near the former Northridge Mall.
Milwaukee has 32 business districts and seven neighborhood districts — more per capita than any other U.S. city, said Christopher Hillard, the Public Policy Forum’s 2016-’17 Norman N. Gill Fellow and the report’s lead author.
Milwaukee has more than double the number of districts per capita as Minneapolis, which ranks second in the report, and more than five times as many per capita as New York, Hillard said.
In absolute numbers of business improvement districts, Milwaukee is tied for third with Los Angeles, the nation’s secondlargest city. The two cities with more business districts — New York (72) and Chicago (53) — are the nation’s largest and third-largest cities.
However, the lack of performance data greatly restricts the ability to measure the effectiveness of Milwaukee’s districts, the report said.
While districts are required to submit annual operating plans for city approval, most lack clear goals and metrics.
Also, their annual audits often fail to distinguish between program, administrative and fundraising expenses, it said.
As a result, the businesses and residents funding the districts have no way of knowing whether management and fundraising expenses are in line with those of other districts, the report said.
The report recommends that audits should do a better job of detailing expenses, districts should create measurable goals and districts should work together more — including sharing administrative services.
Also, business districts could expand their boards beyond property and business owners to include apartment tenants, whose rent might be indirectly paying part of the annual assessment.
The Milwaukee-based Public Policy Forum is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that researches public policy issues.