Re: 'Then we'll go bankrupt': Milwaukee residents bristle at 2% sales tax path to stave off financial crisis

[Democrat fraud]

On 04 Feb 2022, Bob Duncan <bob7d...@gmail.com> posted some
news:stitii$vjq3$6...@news.freedyn.de:

> Democrats are overall dishonest and unaccepting of reality.

Scores of Milwaukee residents turned out Thursday evening to voice their
opposition to a proposed 2% city sales tax just days before Common Council
members are set to take a critical vote on the new revenue source.

"They're telling us if we don't pass the 2% sales tax then we're going to
go bankrupt. Well, then we'll go bankrupt," Beverly Hamilton-Williams said
to applause at a town hall at Clinton Rose Senior Center, 3045 N. King Dr.

The dominant emotion at the meeting was outrage. Residents castigated the
city's negotiating in Madison over the new law that allowed the sales tax
but also includes what they see as unfair limits on Milwaukee's autonomy.

And they slammed the prospect of more taxes, especially for those on a
fixed income. Speakers encouraging rejection of the sales tax were greeted
with applause, while those encouraging council members to vote for the
sales tax and avoid cuts were loudly booed.

The frustration residents at the senior center expressed over the sales
tax — and the bevy of changes to Milwaukee policies included in the new
law that allows the city to enact it — stood in stark contrast to a
smaller, more conversational town hall held at the same time by council
members from the city's south side.

While about 90 people attended the meeting held by six council members
representing the city's north side, about a dozen went to the south side
event at the Forest Home Cemetery Chapel, 2405 W. Forest Home Ave.

At the chapel, some of the dozen or so residents raised questions about
the city’s management of its finances and why the annual pension
contribution has spiked. But they were also amenable to a sales tax, with
some providing ideas for how to lessen the impact on low-income residents
and others saying afterward that it's needed so the city can maintain the
services it provides.

How residents' testimony will ultimately impact council members' votes on
Tuesday remains to be seen.

Ten of the 15 council members must vote in favor of the tax in order for
it to pass. The state estimates the tax could bring in approximately
$193.6 million in additional revenue, which would have to be used for its
pension and, over 10 years, increasing the number of police and
firefighters the city employs to meet state-imposed minimums.

Proponents of a sales tax argue that its enactment would give Milwaukee a
funding source that cities across the nation already have and allow the
city to capitalize on the economic activity generated by people who visit
for work or leisure as opposed to putting that burden largely on
residents.

Opponents have cited concerns, including that sales taxes are regressive,
falling hardest on those who can least afford an increase in costs.

The funding is part of a sweeping local government funding bill passed by
the Republican-controlled state Legislature and signed into law by
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Even as the new law provides the opportunity
for much-needed funding in Milwaukee, it also increases the city's costs
and forces policy changes to police and fire oversight, funding for the
city's streetcar and local diversity initiatives, and more.

The policy changes targeting Milwaukee go into effect regardless of
whether city elected officials enact a sales tax.

In late June, the council's Steering and Rules Committee recommended
approval of the tax, with six in favor and two abstaining after lengthy
public testimony in which speakers expressed frustration about the policy
changes but nonetheless urged council members to support the new revenue
stream in order to avoid deep service cuts.

More: The Milwaukee sales tax bill comes with big strings attached. Here
are 5 changes coming to the city.

More: Sales tax could help Milwaukee but new state law also comes with
steep costs. Here's how.

At north side town hall, most residents challenge sales tax
At the senior center meeting, city Budget Director Nik Kovac spent the
first hour laying out the case for a sales tax to address the city's
budget gap and avoid what he described as "borderline unimaginable" cuts.

But residents were mostly uninterested in his pitch.

Regardless of their opinion on the sales tax, attendees universally
expressed opposition to the policy changes the local government funding
law requires for the city, even if the sales tax isn't imposed.

Hamilton-Williams described the restrictions placed on Milwaukee as
"apartheid stipulations." She called on the council to reject the sales
tax and demand the state government use some of its record $7 billion
surplus to address a spike in the amount the city has to contribute to its
pension each year.

Aurelia Ceja, a member of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and
Political Repression, implored the council members to take action to
repeal the policy provisions in the new law, known as Act 12, and find
workarounds for the restrictions placed on them by the state government.

"The sales tax is a Band-Aid solution on the harm Act 12 is going to cause
Milwaukee, and it will not stop the bleeding," Ceja told the town hall.

More: Can Milwaukee still expand the streetcar? Here's one approach.

Clarence Nicholas, president of NAACP Milwaukee, spoke against the sales
tax because it did not promote economic growth.

Nicholas urged council members to advance a legal challenge to the law,
arguing that the new state requirement that school resource officers be
returned to Milwaukee Public Schools was an illegal overreach of state
authority under the Wisconsin Constitution.

Some attendees did encourage council members to vote in favor of the sales
tax, citing the dramatic cuts that Kovac said would be required of fire
and police services without it.

Bruce Wiggins encouraged council members to "be political realists" and
vote for the tax, a position that was met with a chorus of boos.

After speaking, he expressed frustration with the limits Republicans in
the Legislature had put on the city, especially on the use of tax money to
promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

At the same time, "as long as the Republicans hold the Legislature, this
is probably the best deal that we can get," he said.

After more than 20 speakers expressed their opposition to the sales tax,
Fire Chief Aaron Lipski closed the meeting by making one last appeal for
council members to support the tax.

Lipski called the choice in front of the council "bonkers and dystopian"
but made clear that voting against the tax would "dramatically reduce" the
department's ability to keep people safe. He predicted that the department
would be forced to close 11 fire stations and shut half of the force's
ladder trucks if the tax did not pass.

The meeting was held jointly by Alds. Russell W. Stamper II, Milele A.
Coggs, Larresa Taylor, Andrea M. Pratt, Khalif J. Rainey, Mark Chambers
Jr.

After the meeting, Coggs, Chambers, Rainey and Pratt all declined to share
how they would be voting on Tuesday. All four of them cited the
opportunity to listen to their constituents as helpful in making that
decision.

In an interview after the meeting, Coggs said that the deep cuts to
services without the sales tax detailed by Kovac were "not predetermined,"
but did not provide an alternative solution.

Earlier this year, the city conducted an analysis of the cuts that would
take place if it did not get access to new revenue sources. The
departments likely to face the most dramatic cuts are the police,
libraries and the fire department, with a 10% to 25% cut in those three
departments alone requiring the elimination of between about 355 and 890
full-time staff members.

The city has been sliding into ever-more-difficult budgets for quite a few
years and, without significant additional revenue, faces a "fiscal cliff"
in 2025.

Its problems have been caused by the state's decision to return a stagnant
amount of shared revenue to the city for more than two decades and state-
imposed limits on local governments' ability to raise revenue through
other means such as sales taxes or by increasing property taxes. At the
same time, the city's annual pension contribution is spiking while other
costs are rising and reserves are dwindling, including the nearly $400
million Milwaukee received in pandemic aid.

Residents at south side town hall more amenable to sales tax
The south side meeting was decidedly less contentious.

After the meeting, Art Alamo, 61, said he attended out of interest in the
future of the city and its services. Maintaining services not only would
help keep residents safe but also draw more people to Milwaukee, he said.

Today, he said, services in the city are OK, but the real test comes in
how quickly emergency services can respond to a call to 911.

He said the increased costs from a sales tax are "well worth it" to ensure
services don't see a massive decline.

Alamo is represented by Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa, who hosted the meeting
along with Common Council President José G. Pérez and Ald. Mark Borkowski.

Zamarripa told those gathered that while it was a difficult vote, she
planned to support the sales tax on Tuesday.

She spoke about going to Lipski during the last city budget negotiations
to ask him not to close the firehouse in her district, before the Common
Council reversed the cuts proposed by Mayor Cavalier Johnson in light of
the increasingly challenging years on the horizon.

"But we knew we were living on borrowed time and continue to live on
borrowed time," she told those gathered.

Will city residents get better services with a sales tax? Not so fast.
That a sales tax will not necessarily go to enhancing services across city
departments has been the source of consternation for some council members.

Paris Miller, who lives in Coggs' district, expressed frustration with the
deal, especially the fact that any money raised by the sales tax would go
toward police and fire staffing levels instead of improving social
services.

“The only real winner out of this deal is the police,” he said to nods and
applause. Miller described the services that were at risk of being cut as
a "hostage" designed to give police more funding.

Before the Steering and Rules Committee vote on June 26, Borkowski raised
concerns about blowback from constituents if council members were to vote
to implement a sales tax that doesn't enhance city services.

"Current services suck," he said.

Johnson's administration expects that the sales tax would allow the city
to maintain current services besides police and fire staffing, which the
law requires the city to not just maintain but to increase over the next
10 years.

Kovac told the committee if the new revenue structure works out well,
"we'll even have money to increase everything."

"It's possible that scenario will work out, but we certainly have a path
to at a minimum maintaining all services and slightly increasing police
and fire," Kovac said. "Without the sales tax, it's going to get
unimaginably worse."

He also said the sales tax and the shared revenue in the new law are
expected to grow with time, unlike the previously stagnant revenue sources
that are a major factor in the city's budget problems because they have
not kept up with the cost of services over the decades.

Even with the potential for significantly increased revenue next year,
however, Kovac anticipated the city would have to use much of its
remaining federal pandemic aid to plug a gap in 2024 between the amount of
revenue the city expects and its costs to maintain services at their
current levels.

Alison Dirr can be reached at ad...@jrn.com. Nathaniel Rosenberg can be
reached at NRose...@gannett.com.

DML
1 day ago

Why is the solution never reduce spending? Let's just raise taxes over and
over and over. If you're a city that's creating an environment where
people want to live and spend money you shouldn't have to constantly raise
taxes for revenue.

Kelli
9 hours ago

They are following in the footsteps of many cities in California where
there is never talk about reducing spending but always talk about raising
taxes.

https://news.yahoo.com/then-well-bankrupt-milwaukee-residents-
015549472.html

[Just Wondering]

On 7/9/2023 12:57 AM, Democrat fraud wrote:
>
> Scores of Milwaukee residents turned out Thursday evening to voice their
> opposition to a proposed 2% city sales tax just days before Common Council
> members are set to take a critical vote on the new revenue source.
>
> "They're telling us if we don't pass the 2% sales tax then we're going to
> go bankrupt. Well, then we'll go bankrupt," Beverly Hamilton-Williams said
> to applause at a town hall at Clinton Rose Senior Center, 3045 N. King Dr.
>

Funny how the government solution to money shortages
is never to cut expenses.

[Klaus Schadenfreude]

[Default] On Sun, 9 Jul 2023 11:57:49 -0600, Just Wondering
<J...@jw.com> typed:

[thumbs up]

And they will-- without exception-- always say they have to start with
police and fire budgets.