Walker’s proposed biennial state budget, which will cut shared revenue and state aid to municipalities across the state, could cause significant short- and medium-term pain in communities such as Milwaukee, which receive large amounts of funding from the state.
However, the cuts could spur some of the reforms to public services in Milwaukee County that entities such as the Greater Milwaukee Committee seek.
“Ultimately, there could be more of an ability for shared service delivery on the municipal level and a whole new model,” said Julia Taylor, president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee. “I think (the state’s finances) have been in crisis for quite a few years. There has been a structural deficit at the state and many municipal levels.”
Many municipalities are struggling with how to fund transit, parks, health services and other programs, and the new state budget could force some of them to begin serious talks about consolidating or sharing services, Taylor said.
“We’ve been working on our initiative (GMC’s look at Milwaukee County), which will have more of an opportunity to be implemented at this point because of some of the pieces of the state budget,” she said. “It’s going to have to. The same pieces of difficulty (that the state is having) will have to happen at the local level too.”
Despite the looming cuts in Wisconsin’s next biennial budget, Taylor remains optimistic about Milwaukee’s future.
“My level of optimism hasn’t changed. Companies aren’t leaving town,” she said. “There could be more opportunity to have government figure out how to cooperate and share services, which could be a real advantage for the region.”
