Removing lead hazards from Milwaukee homes a focus of Mayor Tom Barrett's 2019 budget plan
Lead paint and other hazards would be removed from more Milwaukee homes. Thousands of water filters would be given to city residents, and 1,000 lead pipes would be removed. And a special team would be created to focus on homes with lead-poisoned children living in them.
Those are among the proposals included in Mayor Tom Barrett’s 2019 budget plan, which includes $20 million devoted to addressing Milwaukee’s ongoing lead crisis.
“It’s a historic investment to address this issue,” Barrett said Friday in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
That money would be used in part to help turn around the troubled Milwaukee Health Department, which has been under fire for months over its failure to manage its programs aimed at preventing lead hazards. The crisis lead to the resignation of former longtime Health Commissioner Bevan Baker in January.
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Barrett’s budget also would include a slight increase in the number of Milwaukee police officers and no cuts to the city’s Fire Department. That’s in stark contrast to last year’s budget, which forced the closure of six fire stations.
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Barrett's proposal would Increase taxes and fees by about $49.58 for the owner of a $109,000 home.
Barrett is scheduled to present his budget plan to the Common Council on Tuesday.
His proposal would include $7.6 million for the Milwaukee Health Department specifically for addressing lead. Most of that money would be used to remove lead paint and other lead hazards from homes. Some would be used to create a team focused on meeting the lead cleanup requirements laid out by federal officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“My priority is we want to be in a situation where we will be eligible for HUD grants,” Barrett said.
Another $12.4 million would be used to address the risks of lead in water. Some of that money would be used to fund the replacement of 1,000 lead pipes, or lead service lines, and to buy water filters to be distributed to city residents.
The lead pipes of about 100 child care centers and 450 properties that have had emergencies such as leaks would be replaced next year under the plan.
The budget also includes plans to hire 15 new Water Works employees. That includes adding city staffers who will work to replace publicly owned lead laterals, which would reduce the need to outsource the work to contractors.
That move comes after one company, American Sewer Services, lost two city contracts over the behavior of employees elected officials considered offensive and racist. In those incidents, some employees brought guns to at least one city work site and one displayed a Ku Klux Klan sticker at another site.
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Barrett’s budget plan would include funding for 100 new police recruits, which would amount to a 10-officer increase in the department’s sworn strength. That’s because many of those new hires would replace longtime officers who are retiring.
The tax levy would increase by 2.4% and fees would increase by 3% under Barrett’s budget plan.
Barrett's budget proposal also includes:
•Devoting $300,000 of the Police Department budget to addressing requirements of the ACLU settlement following its lawsuit over "stop and frisk practices."
• Two additional Fire Department staffers hired to help frequent 911 callers in an effort to reduce emergency calls.
• 25 miles of road improvements and 23 miles of sewer replacements.