2025 was a big year in politics. For many Wisconsinites, the year brought uncertainty and cuts in services, despite paying more for most necessities. That includes major increases in property taxes and bus fares, alongside cuts to bus services.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley joins Lake Effect's Joy Powers to talk about what the past year has been like for the county, and his hopes for the future. County Executive, thanks so much for being here.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
So, as you look back at the year of 2025, what would you say were the biggest challenges facing the county?
You know, when you're serving in local government, there's been a lot of different challenges — especially as it relates to making sure you have enough revenues to pay for the programs and services that folks rely on. But I would say this year, particularly with many of the current federal budget cuts, as well as the proposed federal budget cuts, it really put us in a bind in really figuring out how do we make sure we plug many of these gaps that the federal funding would actually fill. And so, it was a challenge when it comes down to this budget, but it's going to be a challenge moving forward as well. And so, we're just making sure to continually build and strengthen the relationships that we have with both our state and federal partners to make sure that we can deliver those services.
One of the things I think a lot of Milwaukeeans and probably Wisconsinites are talking about right now is property taxes. They're up by a lot, both at the local and the county levels. What is driving these major increases?
Well, I'm glad that, particularly for Milwaukee County, we were able to create the largest property tax cut in Milwaukee County's history, making sure that all of our residents had the ability to keep more money in their pockets. But what's really driving a lot of this is that there isn't a lot of wiggle room or opportunities for local municipalities to raise revenue. And as many folks may know, you know, Wisconsin is one of the six highest property tax burdened states in the entire country. And so ,we rely on property taxes to pay for our local services, as well as many of our state services as well.And so,I think that this is going to require our state legislature actually taking a hard look at our taxes, just in general–on how we're raising revenues, how we're spending those revenues. But, we need to give local units of government more tools in the toolbox in how we can actually raise revenues without putting it on the backs of our property tax owners.
I think that's a real concern for a lot of people here. Property taxes have gotten so high that we've reached a place where many people are asking themselves,“is owning a home financially feasible?” And to me, the ability to own a home has been one of Milwaukee's greatest selling points. Are you afraid that these rising taxes–as a result of, as you mentioned, our inability to raise a lot of other types of taxes–are going to keep people away from Milwaukee?
You know, I mean, let's just be honest. You know, this is not a situation that's just facing, you know, Milwaukee County, right? I think every municipality across the state of Wisconsin are looking at how they can raise enough revenues just to pay for their public safety, continue to, you know, fix the roads that are all across our state. And I think there is some concern as far as how do we make suret hat we continue to have our property taxes in check so, you know, things become more affordable. When you think about young people, right, I think the average age in our state is about 40 years old of people buying their first house right now because of how expensive it is to own. But I would say that what we have to focus on is how do we continue to build, you know. In a place like Milwaukee County, where we can create more density, moving more people into our community, keeping the great people who are also here as well? Because that density will help to lower property taxes for everyone. So, when we have the opportunity to improve our economic abilities, our economic growth here in our region, that should make things cheaper. And I think that as long as we can focus on building more affordable homes–not just affordable homes, but attainable homes as well, for those who can absolutely afford to move into a new home, but yet the supply isn't necessarily there. I think that's what we should be focusing on is: how do we make sure that there's enough housing stock to keep prices low, but also keep our property taxes in check?
As we're thinking about both the county and the city's relationship with the state of Wisconsin, there has been a lot of conversation about Act 12. It passed a couple of years back, you were part of that. We were told this would help with our mounting financial troubles here in Milwaukee County. We are still facing major budget deficits. Why hasn't Act 12 been enough?
So, Act 12 definitely put Milwaukee County in the best position possible in the past 20 years. You know, when you think about the level of property taxes that was going towards the pension, or having to figure out how we continue to have our non-mandated services continue to go, while competing with state mandated services, has definitely been a challenge. And we had an opportunity to really fix those problems, but we just couldn't get there when negotiating with the state legislature. But without Act 12, you know, the $46 million deficit Milwaukee County was facing would have looked more like$160million deficit. And so, this really put us in a place where we were able to manage this particular budget. I'm glad the comptroller was able to put out a report at the end of October that it's a possibility we may end this particular year with a surplus, a $14 million surplus. And things fluctuate based off of sales tax collections and things of that nature. But I think that this is the conversation that not just Milwaukee County, but cities, towns, villages, counties across this state are continuously having with our Wisconsin State Legislature because we need a great partnership. We need to make sure that we can invest in the programs and services that people rely on. People need fire, they need police, they need their roads fixed. They need to make sure that they have a great public school system at the exact same time. And so, I think that it's time to take a real hard look at not only how we bring in revenues at the state, but also how we spend and be as transparent as possible and making sure that the public is aware — bringing folks like, you know, academia, business leaders, you know, local community leaders as well and really have a transparent conversation about how we make sure that we are in the best place possible when it comes down to the revenues that we collect and making sure that they're going towards the programs and services that folks need every day.
I often hear this phrase that Milwaukee is the economic engine of the state. And yet, we've continued to face budget deficit after budget deficit, which, as you've mentioned, is at least in part due to the Wisconsin legislature's relationship with the city and the county. Is it time for the county to negotiate something else to make sure that more of our money is coming back to our community, more of the money made in Milwaukee County, in the city of Milwaukee, is actually going to help the people who live there?
Well, after we passed and negotiated Act 12, the conversation definitely never stopped, right? We continue to have those conversations. I'm glad that we were able to negotiate, you know, an extra $20 million per year in this last biennial budget to come back to Milwaukee County, to help reimburse us for our highway patrol, for example–something that we have, as the only county in the entire state, have been paying for almost 60 years. And so, I do believe that we have to continue to have these ongoing discussions. You know, we are the economic engine of the state, but it's hard to say that without feeling like you're beating on your chest. Now, we need communities across our state to know that we do this in partnership. We can't do this and move our state forward, like our motto says, without working with communities and cities, towns, villages all across Wisconsin.And so,we have to continue to have this conversation, and I think that we have to become much more creative.And for me, I think it's time to kind of put in a Blue Ribbon Commission, to be honest with you. We haven't looked at our revenues and taxes and things of that nature since Governor Tommy Thompson back in the ‘80s. And I think it's time for us to really move forward into the 21st century, be as transparent as possible with our communities and residents to make sure that whatever is in place works for everyone in our state.
When you say Blue Ribbon Commission, can you unpack that? What would that look like?
So, a blue ribbon commission is when a governor basically brings in folks from academia, from business groups. It could be local elected officials. It can be just the public in general–really just creating a public forum to look at how we actually bring in revenues to the state of Wisconsin, but also how we spend those dollars. And I would charge that Blue Ribbon Commission to look at other states. What is working in those states? What can we begin to adopt in the state of Wisconsin to make sure we have enough revenues ,and that we're actually spending our dollars wisely on programs and services that help to improve the quality of life of our residents? And I think it's time for our state to do that again.
Moving to transportation, specifically MCTS, fares are being raised from $2 to $2.75 for regular fare. That's a big jump, and the community response has not been great. So first, why so high?
Well, one, I definitely understand the concerns that the community members have. Our Market County Transit System fares have not changed in almost a decade, probably even more. But we have to, you know, we have to make some tough decisions and really take a hard look at how we right-size this system to make sure that our visitors and our residents have the opportunity to have a transit system that's going to continue to be there for generations to come. And so, the fares that are being raised is to make sure that we can continue to have this system, make it solvent, because we don't have any other way to really raise any revenue for Milwaukee County in general. The only tool that we have in the toolbox is the vehicle registration fee. And so, we want to make sure that we're balancing a community needs as well as, you know, what we have in the bank as far as the resources and revenues that we have coming in. But, this increase is to make sure that Milwaukee County Transit System is successful ,and that we're not interrupting people's ability to get to work, to school, or their medical appointments.
MCTS was actually called out recently by Wisconsin Congressman Brian Steil for having high levels of fare evasion. What's being done to change that? Because it does seem like that's part of this scenario. As a bus rider myself, I don't see massive amounts of people avoiding fares, but I do see it pretty regularly.
Yeah, I mean, fare evasion is not unique to Milwaukee County. There are public transit systems all across the country, even the largest ones, who are dealing with fare evasion in some type of capacity. And, you know, we've charged our new president and CEO, Steve Fuentes, to really tackle this issue. And, you know, we've invested dollars and resources to making sure that there's security that is there to make sure that, one, they're keeping our riders and our operators safe, but to have a level of accountability to make sure that folks are actually paying their fair share when it comes down to riding our buses. And so, it's extremely important that folks understand that this is — I mean, close to $3 million for Milwaukee County, if I'm not mistaken, have been identified as far as fare evasions. But that's not the reason why we're having problems. When it comes down to making sure that we can replace these buses and continue to have a system that is solvent, we haven't seen an increase in aids from the state of Wisconsin, and the dollars that we do receive from the federal government can only go towards, you know, bus replacement capital projects. But even with the proposed cuts that we're seeing now, right, what is it at the federal level? Close to $120 million that would affect our entire state. That's about $25 to $30 million that would be affected here in Milwaukee County if they make a decision to remove guaranteed public transit dollars to local communities and to states across our country.And so, you know, there are a lot of things that aren't necessarily out of our control, but we are working every single day to make sure that we are holding those bad actors accountable, but more importantly, strengthening the system to make sure that people can believe in it.
When you talk about strengthening the system, there have been different proposals for cutting or curtailing services. It seems like the biggest cuts have been avoided in the next budget, but there will be some cuts to services with some lines operating only during peak times of day. Fares are rising, services are being decreased. That has a big impact on the utility of the bus line in the short term. Fewer lines also means there's more people on your bus. It slows down services. It becomes less reliable. You are waiting longer at different stops because, you know, a wheel chair has to get off, it has to get on, and now you're doing that much more than you would otherwise. What is your message to people who rely on the bus for their day-to-day transportation about the short-term health of this system?
I want folks to know that right now there won't be any major cuts. Yes, you're going to see some service reductions during non-peak hours. And we've taken a hard look at the historical data that we have within our transit system and looking at certain particular routes where the frequency won't be as much. And what we mean by that is, you know, there may have been a bus that may have come every 15 minutes. And now, in order to make sure that we have a solvent system, it may come every 25 minutes. And those are only going to be on certain routes. But I want riders to know that we're doing everything in our power to make sure that the county transit system continues to be the lifeline that it is for folks that are out there. This is still the cheapest mode of transportation. It's definitely cheaper than any of the transportation network companies. And we want to make sure that we can continue to have an affordable opportunity for folks to ride our county transit system. And so, in the short term, our transit systems will be running. You will see some reductions in frequency. But long term, we're looking, we want to make sure that this system continues to be here. And we know when we compare ourselves to other communities across the entire country, we are in a much better position than most. But we know that we have to tackle this issue and we're going to continue to work with, again, our state and federal partners, the Milwaukee County Board, as well as businesses in the community to make sure that this system is here to stay.
So, as you look to the year to come, 2026, what are you excited about for Milwaukee County?
I'm excited about a lot of things. You know, it's not much that's going to be happening at the state level for us to be continuing to make the lobbying efforts that we need to bring the necessary resources back. But we still have a lot of great programs and services that we've had the opportunity to invest in. Making sure that we continue to invest in affordable housing options for folks all throughout Milwaukee County — seven different projects that we've been able to invest in. We are actually wrapping up a project right now of building 100 brand new homes for first-time home buyers, affordable new homes in the King Park neighborhood. We've been able to set aside funding for some critical capital projects, making sure that we continue to improve our infrastructure, not just focused on the public safety buildings specifically, but how we're going to be continuously investing in our roads as well as our Milwaukee County parks and even other things. So, there's a lot for us to be excited about, but we still need greater partnerships. And I'm always going to stress that because, you know, local units of government, no matter where you are, we are struggling because of the relationship that we have at the state level and because of the forever changing financial realities that we live in, particularly at the federal level.But I'm really excited about the opportunity to continue to serve as a county executive in working with community members and organizations and business leaders to make sure that we continue to provide these great services.
