MADISON – In order to force a deal with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, Republican leaders of the state Legislature are threatening to strip out measures intended to save Milwaukee from falling off a fiscal cliff in a bill aimed at boosting funding for local municipalities across the state.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Wednesday afternoon said he was halting work on the state budget and threatened to strip the Milwaukee-related proposals from the bill if a deal between legislative Republicans and Evers isn’t struck this week.
By evening, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu went a step further and said if Evers did not immediately agree to support a version of the bill Assembly and Senate Republicans had agreed upon, he would move forward with a proposal that did not allow Milwaukee to raise additional sales tax revenue − a key provision for Milwaukee leaders.
The negotiation tactics come months after lawmakers and Evers first began hashing out a proposal to boost a state funding stream known as shared revenue and three weeks since Vos split from LeMahieu and Evers on requiring voter approval to raise sales taxes, leading to a stalemate.
“Today we made our last, best offer to the Governor. If an agreement is not reached today, the Senate will pursue a shared revenue proposal that does not include an option for Milwaukee to raise additional sales tax revenue,” LeMahieu said in a statement. He did not include details of the latest proposal being considered.
“The offer we put forth is fair. It is a product of months of work and negotiations. The Governor has a chance to save Wisconsin’s largest city and most populous county from bankruptcy. We hope he takes it.”
Vos told reporters earlier Wednesday, “if we do not get a deal this week, I think we should strip out all of the Milwaukee things and we will just focus on the balance of the bill, which is repealing the personal property tax and making sure that every community around the state is not held hostage by Milwaukee’s problems.”
“That is not my first option. That’s what we passed — the bill which had solutions in it. But if we don’t get it done this week, the only option they’re really leaving us just to kind of pass the bill that we have,” he said.
LeMahieu and Vos have an apparent agreement after disagreeing publicly in May over how the legislation should be crafted, with Vos arguing to include in the bill a requirement for Milwaukee voters to approve sales tax increases. LeMahieu and Evers opposed the idea because of the low likelihood of voters voting Yes.
Evers told reporters in Racine on Wednesday, before Vos and LeMahieu made their comments during a press conference at the state Capitol, that he had a “good conversation” with Vos and LeMahieu on Monday about the bill to boost funding known as shared revenue and is “very hopeful that we will have a good outcome by the end of this week or very soon.”
In its current form, the bill would allow the City of Milwaukee to implement a 2% sales tax while Milwaukee County could add a 0.375% sales tax to its current 0.5% tax – but both would require voters’ approval. The bill requires that the funding be used for pension obligations at the city and county, which each have their own pension systems, and for public safety services.
The funding from both additional sales taxes is considered key by Milwaukee and Milwaukee County leaders to balancing each local government’s budget following years of stagnant revenue and rising costs.
However, whether Milwaukee and Milwaukee County voters would approve a sales tax is a major unknown. For that reason, Milwaukee-area leaders have pushed state legislators to remove the referendum provision and instead allow the taxes to be implemented through votes of the Common Council and County Board.
Milwaukee leaders have also expressed deep frustration over provisions of the bill that are separate from the local government funding issue. Those include diversity, equity and inclusion restrictions in addition to requiring the city to maintain law enforcement and Fire Department personnel, removing authority from the city’s Fire and Police Commission, requiring Milwaukee Public Schools to ensure that 25 school resource officers are in schools and precluding tax money from being spent on the city’s streetcar and other initiatives.
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The sweeping piece of legislation that has been the subject of negotiations for months was put in jeopardy in May after LeMahieu said his caucus won’t support the provision that would require Milwaukee officials to get approval from voters before raising sales taxes — a move that Vos said could kill the bill that his caucus already passed.
Vos said on May 17 his caucus was “done negotiating” on the bill Assembly Republicans passed even though Evers said he wanted to continue to discuss with the Legislature’s two GOP leaders. A key provision Vos said he did not want to amend was requiring a referendum before raising sales taxes in Milwaukee.
LeMahieu said at the time Senate Republicans would move forward with a bill that did not include the referendum requirement, citing a low likelihood of voters supporting increasing their own taxes. But on Sunday he said he now didn’t have the votes to remove the requirement.
Sen. LaTonya Johnson, D-Milwaukee, said Wednesday if the bill includes such a requirement, it would be a “death sentence” for Milwaukee because voters would not approve it and the community would hurtle toward a fiscal cliff without the added revenue.
Evers said in May he agreed with LeMahieu’s approach after initially proposing to allow Milwaukee County to impose an additional 1% sales tax, if approved by voters through a referendum. The current proposal gives the City of Milwaukee the ability to seek a 2% sales tax for Milwaukee County to add 0.375%, on top of an existing 0.5% tax in the county.
Vos blamed Evers, in part, for the stalemate.
“Evers needs to be willing to look at the bill that we have in front of us, to negotiate on that, and not try to use it as some kind of leverage to be able to negotiate the entire budget from beginning to end and that’s just not gonna happen,” Vos said.
Evers’ spokeswoman Britt Cudaback did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jeff Fleming, spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, said in a statement that the city “continues to work toward reasonable solutions to the fiscal challenges of our city and other municipalities around the state.”
“Our discussions in Madison continue,” Fleming said.
Brandon Weathersby, spokesman for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, said “we still are encouraged by conversations and we’re confident and optimistic that a deal will get done between leaders in Madison.”
Molly Beck, Alison Dirr and Jessie Opoien can be reached at [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected].
