MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Tom Barrett: Sales tax could raise $35 million a year for Milwaukee police, fire departments

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said a half-cent local sales tax could raise $35 million per year for the city's police and fire departments.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett warns the city could be forced to eliminate 84 police officer positions in its 2018 budget.

The Democratic mayor called on Republican Gov. Scott Walker and state lawmakers to approve the proposal, warning of steep cuts to police and fire departments in the 2018 city budget if Milwaukee does not implement a sales tax.

"If the governor and the Legislature don't give us this authority, or if the council or the public vote it down, we are going to see severe cuts in both the Police Department and the Fire Department," Barrett said. "I don't want to see that happen."

Walker spokesman Tom Evenson did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

At a Tuesday night public hearing on the budget, Barrett said Milwaukee can no longer rely just on shared revenue money from the state and property taxes.

"It's really a question of priorities," he said. "Local government is simply not a priority for state government."

The mayor repeated his warnings that the city could be forced to cut 84 police officer positions in next year's budget.

"The Pac-Man that's eating everything right now is public safety," he said.

The mayor said he wants the proposal to go before voters as a referendum next year on the April ballot. If enacted, it would take effect in October 2018.

Barrett said the new tax would allow Milwaukee to increase the number of sworn police officers, pay for fire equipment, fund two community prosecution units and add two trauma-informed care counseling units for two police districts.

The Trauma Response Team pairs Milwaukee police officers and county mental health professionals. First-responding officers — who can see if children witnessed shootings, car crashes or other traumatic events — refer families to the team. The team reaches out to families who choose to participate and then offers referrals for further counseling.

In recent years, criminal justice and child welfare officials nationwide have considered the lifelong effects of childhood trauma when creating policy and programs.

Ald. Khalif Rainey said Wednesday he is open to a new tax.

"I think there is some need for us to explore innovative ways to generate revenue," he said. "There's not enough money coming in, there's a possibility we may lose money from the federal government."

Rainey called for innovative ways to approach public safety, but also stressed the need for enough officers.

"We rely greatly on the Police Department. At the end of the day, we're calling the police. That's who we have to reach out to no matter how we attempt to mitigate the issue," he said. "So we need the police without question and my neighbors and myself greatly rely on them."

A recent Public Policy Forum report found Milwaukee is unique among cities of its size because it is limited to using property taxes as the sole form of local taxation. The report — "On The Money?" — found Wisconsin is the only state in the Midwest that limits municipalities to the property tax as the sole form of local taxation. And it's the only state whose largest city has the same tax structure as all other municipalities.

That analysis also said each of the cities studied in the report except Milwaukee has multiple taxes, and most have general or selective sales taxes, such as taxes on entertainment or food and liquor. Other findings included that state aid is typically a minor source of revenue for most of those cities, and cities with larger populations tend to draw more heavily on the sales tax and less on the property tax.

"At this point where they're stressed, there's not enough police officers out there to respond to simple things such as traffic, that's something we have to explore closely," Rainey said of the sales tax.