The Quality of Life Alliance, a group I’m a part of, released the following press release today asking for the Joint Finance Committee to include the voter approved 1% sales tax for Milwaukee County in the upcoming budget.
For the sake of our Park System, Transit, and Emergency Medical Systems, we are asking the Joint Finance Committee to include in the next State budget what the citizens of Milwaukee County have already approved: a one percent sales tax increase that will provide sustainable, dedicated funding for Parks, Transit and EMS.
“Please don?t continue to allow the voices of the 400,000 people who voted in November?s referendum to be ignored”, remarked Cheri Briscoe of Sierra Club-Great Waters Group and Quality of Life Alliance member. The referendum was advisory and requires action from the state to be enacted.
“Our Milwaukee County Park System, once proud and strong, is now limping along with an ever decreasing staff to perform daily maintenance and a log of deferred maintenance for its facilities of nearly $275 million,” added Jim Goulee, a QLA member who is also on the Board of Directors for Preserve our Parks.
This group’s attempt to gain local legislative support for enabling legislation from our state legislators was unfortunately, a tough sell. The Governor instead inserted the creation of RTA for Milwaukee, Kenosha, and Racine and funded by a sales and use tax in his proposed budget, leaving out any support for Milwaukee County Parks.
It is now becoming apparent that the proposal for the creation of the Southeastern Wisconsin RTA is not finding the necessary support from the Joint Finance Committee and may not be included in their version of the state budget. Instituting the sales tax increase in Milwaukee County would, in fact, provide the source of funding needed for a Milwaukee County RTA and could easily accommodate a broader RTA if and when it is created.
“Milwaukee County needs property tax relief and we need a solution to our looming transit and parks crisis,” commented County Supervisor Chris Larson, Quality of Life Alliance spokesperson. “Milwaukee County needs the 1% sales tax that was passed in referendum nearly months ago. Property tax payers can?t wait any longer, transit riders can?t wait, any longer, and all our neighbors who love our parks shouldn?t have to wait any longer to see these problems fixed.”
Quality of Life Alliance (QLA) is a grassroots organization made up of representing a wide swatch of Milwaukee County?s concerned citizens set out to improve our community for a stronger future. Members of the Quality of Life Alliance include transit riders, union leaders, parks supporters, and business men and women, and everyday citizens who are deeply concerned about the future of Milwaukee County and all of Southeastern Wisconsin. Quality of Life Alliance provided the advocacy effort that led to the passage of the sales tax/property tax relief referendum last November. The Quality of Life Alliance is a registered political action committee based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It’s important the members of the Joint Finance Committee understand the importance of this dedicated funding source to the regions well being for decades to come. All we’re asking is to let the voices of the people of Milwaukee County be heard on this issue.
If you know any of the members of the JFC from the Milwaukee area like Rep. Tamara Grigsby, Rep. Pedro Colon, Sen. Lena Taylor or Sen. Alberta Darling, please contact them to voice your support.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
This is a tough one for me. I am generally against tax increases, however, since the public approved it, then it should pass.
That being said, Chris Larson is living in a fairy tale story if he believes this going to help with property tax relief.
When you take the parks, transit, and EMS budget off the property tax levy, that means the property tax levy is lower.
That means lower property taxes as a result. Pretty simple.
As a retiree, I look forward to another tax increase. Like Dan H., I have absolutely no confidence my property taxes will decrease in any meaningful way, if at all.
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=108932&
Dan I’m a little worried about the Quality of Life Alliance playing off efforts to form the RTA, because I truly believe the best long term solution for transit in Milwaukee and South East Wisconsin is through the RTA, and the efforts should really be working together.
Dan, with all due respect, they are asking to increase the budgets for the parks and busses and probably EMS. When they say they need $275 million for just the parks, you know that is not going to come from the sales tax alone. And if they want to do light rail, that will cost millions of dollars a year to operate and maintain, not to mention build. The sales tax isn’t going to cover that.
If the sales tax would cover those things and it will permentally take off the transit, parks and EMS, I would have no problem with that, but you knopw in your heart of hearts, it just ain’t going to happen.
Who’s asking to increase the budget Dan? First I’ve heard of that, and I have my ear pretty close to the ground.
“Our Milwaukee County Park System, once proud and strong, is now limping along with an ever decreasing staff to perform daily maintenance and a log of deferred maintenance for its facilities of nearly $275 million”
I’m pretty sure their budget is less than $275 million.
Hence the word “deferred”.
Score one for shopping in Menomonee Falls! Double word score if Milwaukee adds another .5% on top of it. The politicians fiddle and tax to the Parks and Rec song, and dance a little Light Rail jig. The jobs fail (Harley lost 400 more to taxes) or flee to Louisiana. Soon we will have beautiful parks to sit in while we await our unemployment check, and nice empty trains to ride… as there will be little need for them to take us to jobs that no longer exist.
Sigh. I’m out of hope, and change is all I have I have left of my paycheck.
The tax island myth of people leaving Milwaukee, or any city with a higher sales tax rate, to shop has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked by myself and other time and time again, so it’s kind of silly to trot out that tired old argument again.
As for your paycheck, you should take a look at it closely. As of April 1st, thanks to the Obama stimulus plan, unless you’re in the top 5% of wage earners, the amount of take home pay has increased and the FICA taxes have decreased.
Seriously. Compare your most recent paycheck and one from a year ago.
It is hard to take you seriously when you point to a $13 reduction in payroll deductions as something of significance. Will that help my my ballooning energy bill? Or my soaring property taxes? Not so much. $13 is nice if you like to take the kids out for a happy meal or if you are a politician trying to find some tiny ray of sunshine in the black tax and fee cloud that is creeping across the land. For real people, $13 a paycheck (dropping to $8 next year and then going away) is not much of a bailout in comparison to the trillion we just gave away.
As for debunking the tax island theory, slanting facts about dis-similar municipalities won’t do it for me. I’ll go with common sense anytime. If you live near an area where prices are lower, why would you pick the higher priced store to purchase the same goods? When one gas station is 5 cents less a gallon, I go there. It might only be $1 extra a tank at the high priced station, but that adds up for me. Maybe you buy the higher priced gas, but I doubt most people do.
But I love how you liberals love soaking the very poor with this tax increase. While the tax increase may bother you rich elite liberals, it will hurt the very poor who will have to pay the tax almost everytime they go shoppping. Congratulations on screwing the poor.
Now you’re just skipping from defense to defense Dan.
Where was your concern for the poor when there was a 50% increase on bus fares per day? That affects the poor more than a sales tax ever will, and I’ll point out again that “the basics” aren’t taxable today. Groceries, medicine, etc.
I guess the poor don’t need clothes, school supplies, and I guess they don’t ever need candy or soda, or go to the Quickie Mart and buy some food, go to a restaurant, ever have to call for repairs for household items or buy excerise equipment. Keep them in the dark regarding technology. Way to keep them down, Dan.
As far as the bus fares, I don’t know if raising the fares 50% was agood idea, but if the costs went up signifcantly, then yes, the bus fares should be raised.
Dan,
It’s not just the poor who get whacked by this tax increase; it’s also retired people like me who live on a pension and the income from my investments (I don’t have to tell what has happened to my investment income).
It’s not just a sales tax increase that hurts us, it’s also the relentless increase in other federal, state and local taxes and the dismal prospect of greatly increased
energy bills (can you say cap and trade?).
A great park system is a definite plus but being able to afford to live in my house and pay my utilities is even a bigger one.
Wisconsin is ranked the worst state in the union
for a retired person to live—and it’s only going to get worse as the cost of living goes up.
Right now retired people, college graduates and manufacturing jobs are leaving Wisconsin. In the next couple of year I’ll have to make that decision.
There you go with the stimulus thing again Dan. Let me give you some econ 101, Massivelly printing worthless money is called inflation. This hidden tax which may be duping you will harm the people you claim to care about the most, the “poor”.
Where is Wisconsin ranked the worst state in the union
for a retired person to live? It’s not even that way on Belling.com.
Alba: http://www.widigest.com/html/jj91505.htm
Alba, I’d encourage you to find your own sources other than the severely outdated and biased Wisconsin Conservative Digest. Is it the best for retirees? No. But it’s not the “WORST!!!” as the Wisconsin Conservative Digest or those who finance it would have you believe.
Dan: “Way to keep them down, Dan.” I can’t tell how sarcastic you’re being in that comment, but I’ll assume you’re going for full effect by playing me personally as the villain who’s “keeping down the poor people!”.
Cutting property taxes is something around here people want. Putting this 1% sales tax into effect would do that while literally saving transit and culture/recreation/parks in this County. I get that you’re against that, and rock on. However, the majority of people who actually live in this County disagree with you and our County Exec. including large numbers of the “poor” who would be – and ARE – affected by this.
“the majority of people who actually live in this County disagree with you and our County Exec.” Dan where do we start, are you refering to the majority in a county that elected him twice? Are you kidding us with your property tax shell game which says that by raising one tax, well lower another, give us a break? The teachers union own website told members it was a good idea to move out of Wisconsin when they retire until they embarrasingly had to pull it off. Congratulations to our great county exec for balancing his budget in this climate where the governor put us 2.9 billion in the hole. To you liberals out there, a balanced budget means spending only what you have.
Actually, Dan, in my first post, i said it shopuld pass because the voters approved the referendum.
Yes, I was being a little sarcastic- I’m just pointing out that the very poor are going to be hurt the most. But like I said, you are living in a fairy tale if you suggest property taxes are going to go down.
Finally, while Milwaukee County’s share of the property tax may go down for the short time, it will be far offset by the other tax and fees the State, communities and other taxing authorities will impose.
Dan,
My assertion that Wisconsin is the WORST state in the Union for retirees was NOT based on the Wisconsin Conservative Digest.
http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=108932&
Just living in Wisconsin day-to-day, paying taxes and bills, enduring the winters is a trial for many retirees.
That’s why so many of them leave. It’s only bonds of family and friends that keeps me here.