The news for Milwaukee County Parks in the upcoming budget is not good, to put it mildly. County Executive Scott Walker has put forth a devastating budget proposal for the Milwaukee County Park system that will irreparably hurt our parks by tearing down what has taken generations to build.
The highlights, or perhaps low lights, are now being circulated:
- First off, a cut in the tax levy support for the parks from $19.8 million to $15.1 million. A 24% reduction in funding for the park system via the property tax levy.
- Closing the Martin Luther Kind and Kosciusko Park Community Centers.
- Installing parking meters on Lincoln Memorial Drive and elsewhere along the lakefront.
- Shut down every outdoor pool. The pools at Washington Park, Sheridan Park, Jackson Park, McCarty Park, Wilson Park, Grobschmidt Park, Holler Park, Hales Corner Park and Pelican Cove would all be shut down. There would be no outdoor pools in the Milwaukee County Park system.
- Cutting the positions of 48 full time maintenance workers. A total of 85 people, 15% of full time employees, would be laid off.
- Privatizing or selling off the 108 public acres at Crystal Ridge.
- Cut maintenance work (snow plowing, plumbing, electric, etc.) to the senior citizen centers, apparently leaving seniors to shovel out their own parking lots and replace light bulbs. That includes Kelly, McGovern, Rose, Washington and Wilson Park senior centers.
As always, it will fall to the County Board to try to repair this damage. But when you’re starting from six feet under, it’s hard to dig yourself out.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
The property tax rates the citizens of Milwaukee (city and county – and quite honestly the state of Wisconsin) have to endure is abhorent. Instead of constantly ripping on Walker, I suggest two things 1) realize and comment on how we got to this economic well – mismanagement by the previous county board members and executives, and 2) come up with a list of ideas to hold the line on taxes (or God forbid, reduce them) while keeping up all of these services. Problem is, especially on the second point, you can’t. Hard decisions had/have to be made because our wonderful representatives, over the past several generations, have used the tax payers of Milwaukee as a never ending money tree, and it had/has to stop.
This is why politicians keep trying to kick hard decisions down the line. It looks to me that by making program cuts, Walker is trying to stretch the money he has to work with rather than place a higher tax burden on the people, and he’s getting beaten up for it by the people who refused to make the tough calls earlier.
Dan, I know you refer to saving a “few dollars” on property taxes, but for many small businesses it could actually be a devastating increase.
Is there no private money out there for Milwaukee’s parks? No foundation that will proffer a grant? Can’t park advocates go to the people for donations rather than having gov’t take the money by force?
Matt, thanks for your comments, you raise some good questions.
There is a significant amount of private money going into the parks today. The work that was done on the Mitchell Park Domes, new baseball dugouts at Greenfield Park, the weekly free concert series at Washington, Humboldt and Boerner, and the lifeguards at Bradford Beach are just a few examples of things that have been done with the help of private donors. Everyone is thankful for the money that private donors are contributing to the parks, there’s no doubt about that.
In fact, the Park People have injected nearly $300,000 of private donations back into the park since I’ve been President of that group, and working with private donors is something we’re 100% committed to making happen going forward.
We’re working our tails off to get private donations to backfill what the County can’t do anymore, with great success I might add.
At the end of the day though, the long term viability of any public resource, the parks included, can’t and shouldn’t rest upon the philanthropy or generosity of a limited number of private individuals. If that’s the case, then they’re not “public” anymore.
Today, the Milwaukee County parks are only 55% funded by tax dollars. The rest comes from revenue at the golf courses, the marina, fees for the Domes/Boerner, and other revenue generating ventures in the parks. The amount allocated to parks funding through our property taxes is literally several dollars per year.
It’s my opinion that the full funding for the parks through the property tax is worth the couple cups of coffee that it would cost all of us per year. That’s why funding the parks, even at last years levels, wouldn’t be a devastating increase. It would just be the same relatively small amount of our property taxes that we paid the year before.
One last thing… This will be the 29th straight year that the parks budget has been cut. This years cuts will be the largest ever percentage wise. No one is asking for a huge increase in funding via property taxes right now. What I and others are pointing out that in the grand scheme of things, cost vs. benefit, the Milwaukee County parks system needs help.
Dan, let me first say that I love the parks and I appreciate the efforts of those who work to make them great. I frequent the dog park and have helped out there myself to keep it maintained and clean…but
$15 million is not several dollars per year, it a lot of money. So it the $4.5 million that will be saved. We give in to this line of thinking. Oh, we say, it just a few million. Not so much. Every group has something worth a few million that they would love to have. It adds up to a fortune. It adds up to deficits, high taxes, and untouchable entitlements that are literally killing our county, state and nation from within like a slow cancer. I admire Walker for being willing to stand up to face the wrath of those who just want a few million and did not get it. We don’t have a few million anymore, Dan.
I work for a city fire department. Our budget and staffing has been cut for the last 10 years in a row. We don’t like it either. We do more and more with less and less until we are literally doing everything with nothing. Some people whine about the budget cuts. I will save my wrath for the wastrels and spendthrifts who got us into this mess by buying votes with taxpayer dollars.
I understand your position, but I hope you understand mine too.
I’ll get the numbers regarding how much of our property taxes in Milwaukee County go to the parks system. You might be surprised what you’re paying.
And if there’s no one willing to fight to make those things like dog parks that you find valuable available, in a few years they might not be around.
And to be clear, there’s a difference between simply ‘whining’ and advocating for something. I’d hope you’d put me in the latter category if nothing else.
I clearly understand why you feel the need to be an advocate for the parks system. I would hope that any cuts that are made are done so with specific well thought out targets in mind. The parks are one of the few service areas provided by the county that are not duplicated by another level of government and clearly of use to the citizens as a whole.
Many of us are having to make due with cuts at work, and at home. Government must do the same. I do not envy Walker the job of trying to trim things that are so politically charged. County government is a minefield of special interest groups and pandering politicians. While the bloated and inefficient government in Milwaukee County was not his fault, the fiduciary responsibility to keep down property tax falls on him.
I hope he makes wise choices like switching full time positions that were not needed in winter to multiple part time jobs that actually enhanced the parks at a savings. I would not mind seeing a small user fee added to services like pools and water parks. There are surely other choices that can be made to retain good parks without adding to our tax burden. I hope you see the truth in that statement, Dan.
The problem of parks funding could be solved if our branches of government followed Dan’s call for government officials to use Biblical standards to form and enact policy (found in”Walker Proposals to Kick the Homeless to the Curb and Kill Programs for Elderly Isn’t Just Wrong, It’s Immoral”-July 15th). More specifically, if our branches of government practiced the kind of Biblical good stewardship needed for each of us to run our homes and which I’m sure Dan and the Parks People use to run their organization, the parks could be fully funded and maintained, and we could all enjoy a reduction in our tax bills.
The halls of government have overflowing vats of coffee; there is no need to grab more cups of coffee out of the hands of taxpayers. My advice is for the Parks People to demand money from some of the arms of government which have been highlighted in the JS lately for waste and fraud. First, go to MPS and the school boardand ask them to fork over some of the $100 million they waste each year because of simple, inept business practices. Second, go and retrieve some of the money stolen from the taxpayers as the result of child care fraud. Third, go to the county pension scammers and shame them into turning over some of the extra $900 million that they will collect. Fourth, go to the government officials who use taxpayer money to take expensive trips that have nothing to do with government business and force them to give back the funds.
The Biblical talk from before has me forming a second prophecy. If President Obama’s poll numbers keep going down, some in the media will blame racism for his growing unpopularity.
Speaking of prophecies, kudos to Joe Klein who called for some government sharing and consolidation to increase efficiency. He apparently is thinking along the same lines as County Executive Walker, who has been working on the ultimate consolidation plan where a whole surplus layer of government (Milwaukee County) would be eradicated.
Wing-nut logic! Walker is incapable of fixing the problems because of “mismanagement by the previous county board members and executives” after eight years but Barack Obama is fully responsible for the national economy after six months.
Many of the financial problems of Milwaukee County could be tackled by seeking greater cooperation with Milwaukee City and the constituent cites and villages that compose the county. How about one DPW, one call and dispatch center, one information technology department? These alone would save millions but it would negate outsourcing consulting services to political cronies.
A surefire recipe for disaster is an inflexible ideologue in office, be it County Executive or Governor. Walker is good at political games (always propose budgets so draconian that the board overrides them) and poor at providing true political leadership. Leadership would require good faith negotiation and compromises which he has so far proven himself incapable of. Leadership takes political vision and the determination to tackle the balkanized fiefdoms that dominate all levels of government in Milwaukee County.
To maintain an ideological stance in the face of apposing empirical evidence is the hallmark of irrationality. Milwaukee County keeps declining after eight years of Walker’s “leadership;” how hard do you need to be hit in the head with the 2×4 before you figure out who is hitting you?
Joe, nice job comparing apples and bowling balls. Perhaps you are a new resident in the area and you missed the part where county government voted in ridiculously lavish pensions for itself. We now have to pay those pensions and that money comes out of the pot first. Walker can not change that, he can only work to mitigate the damage. Mr Obama has created more deficit in 6 months than all previous presidents combined. He, and his congress bear that torch alone.
Also…Most cities do not want to turn over their services to the county. They prefer local control of services to retain responsiveness to their constituencies. Leadership is not the art of compromise, that just leads to ineffective government that satisfies no one. Leadership is having ideals and a vision, presenting it to the voters, getting elected, and then standing on those principals that you promised to uphold.
Wing-nut logic?!?!?! All I can say, Joe, is “Pot, where’s Kettle?”
Only time will fix the problems caused by the last administration, because they engaged in more than mismanagement. It was corruption on a grand scale which we will be paying for year in and year out over the next generation. And Obama is not being held “fully responsible for the national economy after six months.” But as his dropping poll numbers indicate, the public is increasingly thinking that his policies, if enacted, will exacerbate our economic woes.
Joe Klein had some good ideas about greater cooperation that could save millions of dollars, but how does one go about enacting that cooperation while being vilified by the left and the press for doing something that may cost some government-union jobs?
As for the budget, cuts are being made to help cover the $90 million gap in the 2010 budget. Otherwise, to cover the shortfall, a 35% increase in the county property tax levy would need to be enacted. Now that kind of tax increase on many cash strapped and fixed income citizens would be immoral. But the good news is that when these people are forced out into the streets to eat cat food and then die at least there will be an extra $300,000 lying around to help bury them.
In an earlier entry, I was glad to see Dan suggest that our Sunday School training should be used to make policy decisions. But is he going to be able to keep his liberal-in-good-standing status by encouraging Scott Walker to use Biblical standards when forming government legislation. What will our friends at the “Shepherd Express” and NPR think!? And will Dan also want our other public officials on the democrat side of the political aisle to be held to the same Biblical standards?
This religious talk makes me want to make a prophecy…Until the time of the next election for Governor of Wisconsin, the left will bear false witness against Scott Walker many times over using innuendo, half truths, and outright lies to try and portray him as some sort of Badgerland anti-christ. As it is written, so it shall be done.
Are there any cuts that you’d support? Any at all?