Global Courant
A plan to prevent Milwaukee from going bankrupt, drafted by Republican lawmakers, leaders in the strongly Democratic city and Governor Tony Evers, was expected to receive bipartisan approval in the Wisconsin legislature on Wednesday.
The move is part of a larger deal reached with the Democratic governor and the Republicans who control the legislature that also sees more than $1 billion more spent on K-12 schools. Once approved by the legislature, the bills would go to Evers, who is expected to sign them into law.
Both the Milwaukee plan and the accompanying school funding proposal have their detractors, despite the bipartisan deal.
Conservatives are deriding the Milwaukee bill as a bailout for the state’s largest and most Democratic city, saying local sales tax increases need voters’ approval. The teachers’ union does not like an increase in voucher payments to private schools that are part of the education financing plan and called on Evers to veto it.
“I think we can do better,” Representative Evan Goyke said Tuesday. He is one of many Democratic lawmakers who have vowed to vote against the education spending plan. The Milwaukee funding bill is expected to gain wider bipartisan support.
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Evers and Republicans have hailed the deals as transformational victories for Milwaukee and local governors, as well as the state’s schools, while admitting there are elements they oppose.
Evers, a former state superintendent, has long opposed expanding the state’s private school voucher system, which would allow public school students to attend private schools for free. Under the deal, payments private schools receive to accept public school students would increase. That would reduce costs to allow schools to expand the number of non-voucher students they accept.
Voucher school advocates say the extra funding will help slow the closure of cramped voucher schools. More than 40% of private schools that received vouchers have closed since the program began in Milwaukee in 1990. That was the first voucher program in the country. It expanded statewide in Wisconsin in 2013, but there are enrollment limits that wouldn’t grow under the deal.
The Milwaukee, Wisconsin skyline is shown on September 6, 2022. A plan to prevent Milwaukee from going bankrupt is expected to receive bipartisan approval in the Wisconsin legislature on June 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
The plan also calls for $50 million more to be spent on reading and literacy programs in schools, but exactly what those programs are is not detailed. Republicans are pushing for a plan they negotiated with the Evers administration to change the way most public schools teach children to read. It would require reading through a sound-based approach that focuses on learning how to sound letters and phrases.
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The bill will also increase a special education allowance to cover one-third of the district’s expenses and allocate $30 million to address mental health in schools, both priorities for Evers and Democrats.
The long-sought plan to send more money to all of Wisconsin’s cities, towns, cities and counties became a top priority in the legislature this year amid warnings of impending financial doom in Milwaukee. Leaders there warned of dire consequences and catastrophic cuts as the city faces bankruptcy by 2025.
Milwaukee struggles with an underfunded retirement system and not enough money to maintain essential police, fire and emergency services.
The deal resolved the biggest sticking point over who could determine whether the City and County of Milwaukee can raise local sales taxes to pay for retirement and emergency services. Under the bill, that power rests with the Milwaukee County Board and the Milwaukee Common Council. Some Republicans wanted to demand voters’ approval before raising taxes.
About $1.6 billion in aid to local governments — known as shared revenue — would be paid for by tapping 20% of the state’s 5-cent sales tax. The aid then grows along with the income from the sales tax.
Global Courant
Local leaders had pushed for the change, hoping that getting their funding from the sales tax would remove the need to constantly lobby the legislature for increases.
Shared revenue for local governments has remained virtually unchanged for almost 30 years and was reduced in 2004, 2010 and 2012.
