Posts Tagged ‘2009 budget’

Parks Department budget cut slashes maintenance funding

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

The Parks Department would slash its major maintenance funding by 72%, from $918,000 to $252,500, under the department’s budget request for 2009.

The department uses the fund to pay for small or mid-size unexpected repairs, said County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin, who represents Story Hill and other portions of the city’s west side on the County Board.

A good size for that budget is $400,000 to $500,000, though it has varied over the years.

“Every year you go on with less and less in there you end up with more of those (large repair) issues,” she said.

Cutting the budget by $665,500 would be a problem even if the Parks Department gets a generous capital budget.

“You can’t capitalize redoing a single window,” she said. There also are legal restrictions on using capital budgets for maintenance, she said. “You just can’t flip that money back and forth,” she said.

The requested maintenance budget would be a “true impact,” she said. “There’s still a hole and it’s not getting fixed.”


Conditions in the parks have been deteriorating for years as the
Parks Department budgets have been squeezed. This picture was taken
last week in a restroom along the Menomonee River Parkway.

The Parks Department’s request also includes:

  • Closing the Martin Luther King and Kosciuszko Community Centers, which would save $735,000.
  • Eliminating 50 park worker positions for salary savings of $2 million, and adding about $1 million in seasonal labor.
  • Creating a Security, Safety and Training Section to oversee the Park Ranger program and coordinate with the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department, municipal police departments and internal staff. This section also would manage training.
  • A proposal to contract out the parking concession at O’Donnell Park. “Based on similar parking structures in the area and on information provided by the Department ofAdministrative Services, this proposal could provide the Department approximately $200,000 in additional revenues that are built into the base budget,” according to the request.
  • Additional proposals to privatize some golf course concession stands and to find businesses, such as day care centers, that may want to operate in Parks Department facilities.
  • 10 new dog parks across the county. The sites of the dog parks are not identified.

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Posted in County Board, Milwaukee County, News, Story Hill | 2 Comments »

House seeks to close fish hatchery, end job training pact

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Back in 2006, the county increased by as much as 68% the price inmates at the House of Correction and County Jail must pay to make collect phone calls from their places of incarceration. The rates rose to $5.55 per 15 minute collect call, up from $3.30. The rate remained at $3.30 for inmates who use debit cards to make their calls.

County officials justified the high rates, in part, because the money would be used to support the fish hatchery at the House.

Fast forward a couple years the House of Correction is proposing to keep the money and kill the fish hatchery. It’s not just the telephone revenue the House wants to use — a small share of electronic surveillance and Huber fees charged to inmates promised to the fish hatchery in 2006 would be moved to support the general House operations. The total the House could divert by closing the fish hatchery is about $188,000.

The House, in another proposed budget cut, is proposing to end a contract for Job Development and Job Readiness with Wisconsin Community Services. The move would save $242,217.

And with less for the inmates to do, the House also is proposing in its 2009 budget request to crowd more of them into fewer dorms to save money. From the budget request:

The House of Correction anticipates operating with five dorms closed for the entire year in 2009 and one additional dorm closed for the final three months of the year when the population has historically declined. The 2008 Adopted Budget anticipated operating with two dorms closed. The closing of three additional dorms in 2009 results in savings of $1,017,965 and is due to the following:

o Increasing the number of beds in dorms from 60 to 64 where possible
o Placing any inmate within one month of release onto home detention
o A 9% decline in bookings over 2007 levels

Finally, in an era of significant food price inflation, the House of Correction is project a decline in per-inmate meal costs from the current level of $1.17.

The House of Correction has been plagued by bad management and operated by an exhausted staff.  A federal report released earlier this year said that ”the House of Correction is a seriously troubled institution” with a “bad history and a negative, counter-productive organizational culture.”

The budget does not address those findings or include funding to address them.

County Executive Scott Walker presents his 2009 proposed budget next month.

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Posted in County Board, Milwaukee County, News | 1 Comment »

Courts want that fine revenue

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

The Milwaukee County Circuit Court System is looking to keep the $2.8 million in fines that has traditionally gone to the Sheriff’s Department, according to the court’s 2009 budget request.

The Sheriff’s Department, on the other hand, does not indicate it has any plan to give up that revenue in its own budget request. Sheriff David Clarke is asking for an $8.5 million property tax levy increase, up 11.6% from the $73.4 million levy for this year’s budget.

The courts are asking for a levy increase of $2 million, up 5.4% from the $36.7 million levy for this year.

Of the fine revenue, the courts budget request says that “In an effort to align with state practices, the Clerk of Courts will collect and receipt fines and county forfeitures. Prior to 2009, these revenues were turned over to the Sheriff’s department. It has been the practice in all other counties of Wisconsin to retain these collections.”

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Posted in Milwaukee County, News, Politics | No Comments »

More transit service cuts sought in budget request

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Buses will run for a lot fewer hours next year, under the budget request for the Milwaukee County Transit System.

While it is true that the request does not include fare increases and does include an $11 million spending increase, it also includes a drop in property tax support and a cut number of hours buses are scheduled to be running.

Buses are proposed to be on the road for 1,322,692 hours in 2009, or or 1.3% fewer hours than are budgeted for this year. That may not sound like much, until you figure that 1.3% is the equivalent of 16,920 hours, which equates to 705 days, which equates to 1.9 years. The cuts being pondered are significant.

Property tax support would be $21.5 million, a decrease of $670,507, or 3%, under the budget request.

The County Board adopted a measure calling for a non-binding referendum on whether to establish a sales tax to support transit and parks. County Executive Scott Walker vetoed the resolution, and the Board has not yet held an override vote.

Here are the funding details for the transit request: The total transit and paratransit budget requested is $174.9 million, up $11.2 million, or 6.4%, from this year’s budget of $163.8 million. Requested transit operating expenses are up $7.5 million, or 5.6%, due to higher fuel prices. They are projected at $4 per gallon for 2009, while they were budgeted at $2.30 per gallon this year.

Despite the service cuts, bus ridership is projected to increase by 705,125 rides next year, up 1.7% from the number budgeted for this year. The cost per mile to operate buses is expected to rise from $7.51 to $7.98, a jump of 6.3%. Passenger revenue per mile, though, is projected to increase just a penny, from $1.04 to $1.05.

On the paratransit side, the number of trips taken is expected to increase to 1,158,820, up 82,079, or 7.6%, from this year. The cost per ride is expected to go up 51 cents a trip, or 2.37%.

Things are not looking up for transit riders in Milwaukee County.

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Posted in County Board, News, Transit | 4 Comments »