City of Milwaukee reports $20 million surplus

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced this week that the city has a $20 million budget surplus, crediting cooperation between city and public employees for a piece of it.
"We got great cooperation from our employees … and through managing hires, through furloughs, through energy savings, through management of overtime, we were able to take that situation and finish the year with a $20 million surplus, which will go into our tax stabilization fund," Barrett said.
He noted that the was achieved even though the city made a $49 million payment to its pension program. "I’m now very, very proud to say we have a pension system that is fully funded, has zero debt," he said.
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, one of Barrett’s Republican challengers in the governor’s race, announced earlier this month the county will end the fiscal year with an $8.9 million surplus.
Walker’s campaign said in a statement the county exec plans to use the county surplus to reduce the tax levy next year, while Barrett has "chosen every single year to raise taxes."
*See the Walker campaign statement:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=194651.
*See a power point presentation on the city’s surplus: http://wispolitics.com/1006/large/090043_finalreport.ppt
Barrett, Walker and Republican candidate Mark Neumann each made appearances at the BizTech Expo this week.
– WisPolitics.com