Consider hike in sales tax
In 2008, a majority of Milwaukee County residents said they supported a county sales tax to help pay for parks and some other services. It’s time to revisit that question. Arts and cultural facilities such as the Mitchell Park Domes, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Milwaukee County Zoo are every bit as important as the new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks.
The closing of the Mitchell Park Domes because of falling debris offers a stark reminder of just how urgent this issue has become. Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele says that refurbishing the Mitchell Park Domes could cost between $65 million and $75 million. The iconic Milwaukee landmark, visited by millions since its completion in the 1960s, would have to be entirely reconstructed if officials decided to move ahead with repairs of the conservatory.
To be sure, there’s a lot of talk about who is to blame. State Sen. Chris Larson, a former county supervisor who is running for county executive, said the problems have been known for years and that Abele has done little to address deferred maintenance at the Domes and throughout the county parks system. In response, Abele said that since 2013, he has supported $500,000 in interim repairs and assessment.
Yes, the county needs to take care of the assets it owns, from the parks to the Domes to the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, making sure it does what it can to maintain them, and doesn’t continue to add to the backlog of deferred maintenance.
But the Domes and the county parks aren’t alone. The Public Policy Forum, a nonpartisan research group, found that the capital needs of Milwaukee County’s arts and cultural facilities and parks totaled $246 million over the next five years. The forum noted that, since 2001, tax dollars for county-owned cultural facilities have been cut by more than 40% in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Last fall, a task force of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce recommended that new public funding be found for such assets, which serve a community far larger than Milwaukee County and are in jeopardy without more public support because of a decline in public funding and a deferral of maintenance and capital needs.
Among the MMAC’s task force recommendations was consideration of a regional sales tax, a recommendation that makes a lot of sense. But the reaction from neighboring counties has left that idea dead in the water, according to Steve Baas, the MMAC’s point man for moving forward on the task force report.
We’d still vote for a regional funding mechanism, but if that’s out of the question then let’s put on the table ideas that may work, such as a modest hike in the sales tax and other revenue streams, such as increasing nonresident fees for the facilities. And let’s move forward quickly.
“The situation at the Domes shows why you can’t ignore this,” Baas said in an interview last week. “We have to take this as seriously as we took the Bucks. Our sports and arts facilities are amenities that make us a desirable place. They help define who we are as a region.”