Bus service to Waukesha County jobs preserved in 2019 budget

Permanent funds sought after 8 months approved

Milwaukee County would spend nearly $662,000 in property tax dollars next year to provide eight months of bus service for a few hundred county residents to jobs in Menomonee Falls, under a proposed 2019 county budget amendment.

The amendment extends the current Route 61 JobLines service into Waukesha County along state Highway 175 and frontage roads off I-41 through August 2019.

The eight months of funding would provide time for Milwaukee County officials to work with their counterparts in Waukesha County, employers along the route and state officials to obtain permanent funding for the service, according to amendment sponsors Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic and Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr.

“I have a responsibility to county residents,” Dimtrijevic said in support of the proposal. “It’s getting our people to jobs” in the suburbs.

“What does a border mean if you’re trying to get to work,” Lipscomb said.

“With current funding running out soon we have an opportunity to continue the routes for a limited time, but we need a long-term fix to finance our transit system,” Lipscomb said. “We’ll use this as an example of our challenges when we go to Madison to seek solutions to Milwaukee County’s

looming fiscal crisis.”

The County Board’s finance committee on Wednesday recommended approval of the amendment on a 6-0 vote.

The finance committee on Wednesday completed its review of County Executive Chris Abele’s recommended $1.187 billion budget for 2019.

On a 6-0 vote, the committee approved a $1.188 billion budget for next year, up nearly $1 million from Abele’s plan and an increase of more than $39.6 million, or 3.4%, from 2018.

The county’s tax levy for 2019 would be set at nearly $294.4 million, an increase of more than $1.5 million, or 0.54%, from this year, as part of the committee’s spending plan.

The board will adopt a final 2019 budget Monday. The entire Route 61 service was set to expire at the end of this year with the end of four-years of funding provided by a 2014 settlement in a lawsuit alleging the state discriminated against urban minorities by not providing transit improvements as part of the Zoo Interchange reconstruction.

The Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope and the Black Health Coalition filed the lawsuit and representatives of the two groups have urged the Milwaukee County Board to continue funding JobLines service on Route 61.

MICAH and other transit advocates estimate that 296 Milwaukee residents take the service to jobs in Menomonee Falls on weekdays. Milwaukee County Transit System officials said that 135 weekday rides on Route 61 rides extend into Waukesha County at this time.

“The community called for action and we listened,” Dimitrijevic said Wednesday.

“JobLines are critical to inner-city workers’ ability to get to family supporting jobs in Waukesha County,” Joyce Ellwanger, a MICAH representative, said Wednesday at a news conference before the committee meeting. “With this amendment we are looking forward to collaborating on finding a permanent solution.”

This year, the Milwaukee County Transit System said it would reconfigure Route 57 in 2019 so that it provides service for central-city residents currently using Route 61 out to the county line at North 124th Street on West Silver Spring Drive but not beyond.

Under the budget amendment, Route 57 would continue next year into Waukesha County along that portion of the JobLines service.