The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors adopted (17 -1) the 2019 Milwaukee County budget today after adopting several amendments to County Executive Chris Abele’s Recommended Budget, including a plan to preserve funding for a transit route to key job sites.

Today the County Board adopted a balanced and responsible budget that preserves essential services for our citizens and signals a new era of collaboration on Milwaukee County’s biggest challenges. Balancing the Milwaukee County budget becomes more difficult each year due to state limits on our revenue, and we face a real crisis in the near future without a solution to this issue. I’m looking forward to working with County Executive Abele as we seek a Fair Deal with the State of Wisconsin that provides long term stability for county taxpayers,” said County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, Sr.

Supervisor James “Luigi” Schmitt chairs the Committee on Finance and Audit.

The current level of cooperation between the Abele administration and the County Board is unprecedented and made it much easier to get this budget done. I am very hopeful that this spirit of cooperation continues as we look down the road to addressing some of our major fiscal challenges. We have to continue to work together as we seek a fair solution to our revenue limitations with the State of Wisconsin,” said Schmitt.

The 2019 Milwaukee County Adopted Budget includes several amendments to County Executive Abele’s budget proposal. Amendments from Chairman Lipscomb include one to double the proposed pay increase for county employees from 1% to 2%, an amendment that begins the county’s transition to a clean energy future by authorizing the purchase of up to 15 battery electric buses, and one from Lipscomb and Supervisor Dimitrijevic to preserve funding for MCTS bus service previously known as JobLines.  Supervisors unanimously adopted another Lipscomb amendment increases the county’s rainy day fund by a little more than $650,000.

The 2018 Adopted Budget calls for a property tax levy of $294,395,459 for a total expenditure of $1,188,577,674. The 2019 levy is a .54% increase over 2018 the tax levy and far less than the 1.43% increase in net new construction, which determines the allowable levy increase.

Supervisors could meet on November 12 to consider any vetoes from the County Executive.