Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker won a political battle last year when the Milwaukee County Board failed to override three of his budget vetoes that paved the way for the privatization of the county’s housekeeping work.
Those vetoes will result in a $2.6 million annual savings for the county.
In his recent State of the County address, Walker, who is running as a Republican candidate for governor, called for more privatization of Milwaukee County operations to cut costs.
“We must balance the importance of maintaining vital human services and investing in our future with the need to control the growth of government spending to reflect the taxpayers’ ability to pay,” Walker said. “With 48 percent of the county budget going to fund wages and benefits for county employees, and the cost of benefits growing at an alarming rate, these reforms are needed to balance the escalating cost of public sector employee benefits with the taxpayers ability to pay, and to ensure that Milwaukee County remains solvent well into the future.”
Walker says the county could reduce costs by privatizing security work and park maintenance services.
“Private firms currently provide security at the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee and the Reuss federal building,” Walker said. “Any many of the best parks systems in the country contract for basic services like mowing, garbage removal and painting.”
Walker also called for privatizing the operations at General Mitchell International Airport, which he says would provide a windfall for the county’s coffers.
“By bidding out airport operations, the county can actually turn a profit and use the revenue to pay down debt, and to help fund our mass transit system without relying on an increase in the sales or property tax,” he said.
In his 2011 budget, Walker said he plans to seek a reduction in the property tax levy, which is the total amount of property taxes collected.
“Simply freezing taxes at current levels will not be enough to turn our economy around,” he said.
However, Walker’s critics say his efforts to reduce spending have harmed the county workforce and diminished the quality of the services that the county provides.
“County Executive Scott Walker continues to promote the same failed policy of cutting the workforce, borrowing excessively and dismantling county services as solutions to Milwaukee County’s structural deficit,” said Milwaukee County Supervisor Johnny L. Thomas. “The county executive’s neglectful leadership has reached its limits. These are huge burdens that can no longer be ignored by the administration. Parks deferred maintenance has reached $200 million. Projections from Scott Walker’s own administration reveal a $48 million budget hole for 2011. We must be proactive in addressing these challenges, which will not be resolved by limiting services including public safety.”
“Cutting hundreds of jobs and doubling furloughs for deputies as the county executive has done erodes service quality and makes our community less safe,” said Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb. “These are not characteristics of leadership. They are policies of long-term decline. The comparison in business is a CEO who manages based on the next quarter’s performance and personal opportunity to benefit while undermining the company’s long-term fundamentals. Far from being actual fixes, these are short-term maneuvers that bear no relation to the real demand for county services.”
Thomas said the county needs a sales tax increase to address its budget woes and improve services.
“To stabilize the budget, eliminate debt and bolster essential services, we must diversify our revenue stream by implementing a one-cent sales tax – as approved by Milwaukee County voters – to support parks, transit, and emergency medical services and lower property taxes,” Thomas said.
