Milwaukee County Wants Higher Taxes!

Milwaukee County is in serious trouble and leaders are asking the State Legislature to allow the county to raise the sales tax by 1%. What the heck is going on here?

Here’s Five Fast Facts about Milwaukee County’s Budget Crisis:

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1. 🧾Beyond Massive - Milwaukee County is in a jaw-dropping amount of debt. They’ve had to put off maintenance for parks and buildings to the degree that it will now cost a total of $1B to fix it. 
2. 💰Gimme - Over 70% of local tax money goes to state-run services and the county doesn’t have much to spend. This setup has forced cuts in police, fire, and library services elsewhere in the state.
3. 📉Still Low - Sales tax is at 5% right now. By way of comparison, Illinois’ is 6.25% and Minnesota’s is 6.875%.
4. 💸State Law? - State officials get a say in the state tax increase thanks to a 2005 Wisconsin law that limits how much a local government can raise its sales tax. It doesn’t take a math expert to figure out why that might not work.
5. 🤑Big Numbers - A 1% sales tax increase would give the county an additional $180M a year. 

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🔥Bottom line: Milwaukee County (among other places in the state) is about to fall apart and it’s being hamstrung by a state legislature that clearly has other priorities. Because of this deadlock, it looks like things are only going to get worse. The only thing that may be able to change this lies at the polls.

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Should Milwaukee County get to raise its sales tax?

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