Madison, Brookfield mayors ask for more state aid, face pushback
(The Center Square) – The mayors of two very different Wisconsin cities are asking for more money from the state.
Brookfield Mayor Steve Ponto and Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway last week wrote a joint op-ed pressing lawmakers in Madison to send them more money, and to allow them to raise local taxes.
“State government continues to disinvest in cities. In the last two decades, under both political parties, the state’s financial commitment to cities has been on a steady downward trend,” the mayors wrote. “At the same time, the state tightly restricts the ability of municipalities to raise their own revenues to fund the services people and businesses expect.”
Specifically, Rhodes-Conway says Madison has lost just over $3 million in shared revenue from the state since 2003. Ponto says Brookfield has lost about $500,000 over the same 18 years.
“Unless these policies are changed, municipalities in Wisconsin will be unable to provide the same level and quality of local services that they have,” the mayors warned in their op-ed.
But the calls for more from the state and local taxpayers come as both Madison and Brookfield have grown and spent more over the past nearly two decades.
“It’s a non-starter, politically, for local governments to ask the state to both give them the ability to raise taxes and send more state revenue to local governments,” CJ Szafir, President of the Institute for Reforming Government told The Center Square Monday.
Szafir says neither Madison or Brookfield, or any other Wisconsin city for that matter, should be lacking new money this year.
“The American Rescue Plan is sending over $780 million to metro cities in Wisconsin, including a projected $49 million to Madison. More pots of money will be available through federal community development grants,” Szafir explained. “Before any new state dollars are sent to local governments, the state legislature should ask local leaders how they plan to spend the federal COVID relief money.”
Brookfield is one of Wisconsin’s more conservative and affluent communities. Madison is one of the state’s most liberal communities and has a large number of low-income families who are struggling.
Szafir said allowing both to simply raise taxes would not help either.
“A net increase in local taxes will hurt the small businesses and middle class families who are trying to dig themselves out of the economic recession,” Szafir said. “At all levels of government, Wisconsin lawmakers need to be hyper-focused on creating a low tax, low regulatory policy environment especially as Washington DC is going in the opposite direction.”
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