The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors serves a valuable purpose and does the citizens of Milwaukee County, bus riders and non-bus riders alike, a valuable service. Members of the Milwaukee Transit Riders Union know this, which is why we were disappointed to hear that a piece of legislation will be introduced at the State level to all but dismantle the County Board under the guise of reform. State Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-15th Assembly/West Allis) is the author of this proposal, similar to one that he introduced as a County Supervisor that failed due to a lack of support.

This proposal is a blatant violation of Milwaukee County’s home rule. We are not saying that the County isn’t facing challenges; to the contrary, we think a strong County Board will be effective in meeting these challenges. If reform is needed, we believe that the dialogue around it needs to happen at the local level and in an open and honest fashion. Unfortunately, this proposal falls short in both of these categories.

The arguments surrounding this proposal are disingenuous and have more to do with spite than Milwaukee County citizens’ best interests in our opinion.
Our responses to the arguments made by advocates of the bill
Argument: The County Board doesn’t do enough work to be a full time body.
Fact: To the contrary, the Milwaukee County Board has a lot of responsibilities. Here are just some of them:

• Transit
• Paratransit/TransitPLUS
• Parks
• General Mitchell International
• Courts
• Mental Health
• Senior Programs
• Family Care
• Sheriff funding
• County highways
• Jail
• House of Correction
• Medical Examiner’s Office
• County Ordinances

This is in addition to their core duty of representation. On average, a Milwaukee County Supervisor represents a comparable number of citizens as a member of a the State Assembly.

Argument: 71 out of Wisconsin’s 72 counties have part-time boards.
Fact: While it is true that all of the other Wisconsin Counties have part-time boards, the comparison between these counties is disingenuous. The size and demographics of Milwaukee County make it unique to Wisconsin. Milwaukee County has a significantly larger and more diverse population that any other county in Wisconsin. More people means more services are needed, which means much more is demanded of Milwaukee County Supervisors than, for example, Iron County Supervisors who run a county with a population that is less than 1% of the size of Milwaukee’s.

Argument: Milwaukee County voters endorsed County Board cuts in April 2012.
Fact: Advocates of the bill have been arguing that it is not a violation of local control because of ‘a referendum’ held in April 2012 that went in favor of board cuts and part-time status. This is misleading. There was no county-wide referendum on this issue in April 2012. What did happen was a series of municipal referendums in a dozen suburbs. Each of these suburbs conducted their own referendums. All of these referendums occurred on April 3, on the same ballot as the Republican Presidential Primary and an uncontested Democratic Presidential nomination, resulting in a skewed turnout. What makes the results of this vote even more dubious is the fact that the City of Milwaukee, which accounts for two-thirds of Milwaukee County’s population, was not part of this. With these issues in mind, we feel that the suburban referendums should not be construed as an indicator of widespread support for this bill.

Argument: This bill doesn’t violate home rule because of the referendum it mandates
Fact: A key provision of this bill, cutting 85% of the County Board’s budget and capping it at 0.4% of the tax levy will not go before voters, it will be dictated by the bill. Such a cut would leave almost no money for the operations, meetings, analysis and research of the County Board. The results of the referendum will be largely ceremonial since if it goes in favor of keeping a full time board there will be no money to operate it. There may not even be enough money to run a part-time board.

What does the bill do?
We have serious concerns that the Milwaukee County Board will not be able to perform it’s duties if this bill became law. Here are some of the reasons:

• It will cut the budget of the board by 85% and arbitrarily cap it at 0.4% of the tax levy.
• It will cut the pay of County Supervisors by 70%. Supervisors will make $15,000 a year, making it unlikely that anyone who is not independently wealthy will be able to serve as a Supervisor.
• It will preclude the county from putting any other referendum on the ballot in the April election

With the aforementioned concerns in mind, the Milwaukee Transit Riders Union is proud to stand against this effort to diminish the representation of Milwaukee County citizens. We stand firmly behind the citizens and Supervisors of Milwaukee County.