 By Alexandria Staubach Milwaukee County’s 2025 budget shows how recent state legislation helped improve revenue, but analysis shows that spending is increasing even more. Last week, Milwaukee County unanimously adopted its 2025 budget. With reserves shored up by new taxes, the budget seems positive. Recent state legislation known as Act 12 permitted the county to raise Milwaukee County’s sales tax from 0.5% to 0.9% in 2024. However, the Wisconsin Policy Forum’s annual review warns that “the fiscal stability produced by Act 12 is likely to be short lived.” Budget gains anticipated from the tax for 2024 fell short of projections and are quickly gobbled up by required spending on law enforcement. In the 2025 budget, $161.1 million will be spent on public safety alone. According to the Forum’s review, year-over-year increases in costs demonstrate “if these trends continue—that public safety expenditure pressures will consume much of the annual revenue growth promised by Act 12, or all of it in years like 2025 when sales tax growth is modest.” The Forum warns that “unless new strategies are developed to control annual cost increases in the public safety function, the future impact of Act 12 in helping resolve the county’s structural deficit may be eclipsed.” Among the biggest beneficiaries of 2025’s budget is the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, which according to the Forum’s review will receive “the largest percentage increase of any functional area in the budget besides non-departmental expenses.” A new $5 million have been allocated to the sheriff’s department, bringing its 2025 budget to $64.7 million. According to the Forum, that’s a 42.2% increase over 2021. The sheriff’s office funding will cover nine new bailiff positions plus $800,000 for salary and benefit increases under a new labor agreement with the Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs' Association. Another $2.1 million are allocated for overtime expenses, as the department continues to struggle with staffing shortages. The Community Reintegration Center will see a boost to its budget, from $60.2 million in 2024 to $65.5 million in 2025. Here, too, $1 million has been allocated for overtime, as the center also struggles with staffing shortages, which reached 36% in 2022. $4.1 million is attributed to rising healthcare and food-service contract costs. The budget adds $2.7 million to the court system, some of which will fund eight new full-time positions in children’s court. A separate $1.7 million is allocated to pay attorneys taking cases that would otherwise be eligible for service from the State Public Defender’s Office, but for which that office has a conflict. Operating costs and costs allocated to acquiring or maintaining land, buildings, and equipment also foreshadow significant expenses moving forward. According to the review, the 2024 budget allocated $9.4 million dollars to start a much-needed project to replace the county’s decaying Safety Building. The 2025 budget includes another $6 million directed at planning and design of the new courthouse building, plus an authorization to transfer an additional $5 million if necessary. Another $23.7 million is anticipated for the same project in 2026, all before a shovel hits the ground. “Future short comings will be exacerbated by much needed but unprecedented spending to build a new criminal courthouse” in the coming years, the Forum review said.
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