A new study from the Public Policy Forum commends Milwaukee County for taking steps to reduce health care and incarceration costs while pursuing public-private partnerships.
However, the study still finds the county faces a potential $20 million to $45 million deficit, a gap that could balloon to as much as $126 million by 2016.
After successive years of trimming staff and discretionary and administrative expenditures, there is "little to cut in those areas," the report says. For a long-term solution, the county may have to look at a combination of tax increases, program cuts and reductions in fringe benefits for employees, the report says.
The Greater Milwaukee Committee, which commissioned the report, will work with a coalition of residents and organizations to develop recommendations for solving the budget crisis.
"The time to act is now," said GMC President Julia Taylor. "The time of short-term ‘solutions’ and one-time ‘fixes’ is at an end. Without significant structural changes, the County faces the need to eliminate whole areas of vital services to our community.
See more: http://wispolitics.com/1006/100713PPF_release.pdf.
– WisPolitics.com
