Milwaukee property owners have started receiving their tax bills, and just about everyone winces as they open the envelope. A big portion of city expenses are covered by the property tax in Wisconsin, and we could not maintain police, fire, libraries, or health departments without that revenue. I know people all across Milwaukee are straining to make financial ends meet. So, a big tax bill is unwelcome.
The budget I proposed was a careful balance of priorities. I aimed to keep the property tax levy as low as possible while preserving the basic city services Milwaukee residents expect. Yes, my proposed budget modestly increased municipal revenue, but that was solely to maintain services. That is a reflection of my fiscal philosophy: we should not collect one dollar more than we need to fund municipal government services.
The city’s legislative arm, the Common Council took a different approach. Through amendments, the council tacked on millions of dollars in additional property taxes. For an average Milwaukee homeowner, that added twenty dollars, money that squeezes already tight household budgets. For the owner of a downtown office building, that could well be thousands of dollars more…