The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors this week passed an amended budget for the coming fiscal year. The changes were made to what was proposed by County Executive Chris Abele.
The new document has some key similarities to what Abele proposed but also some major differences. Abele is expected to make vetoes of parts in the coming days, and the County Board will follow with a meeting at which the vetoes can be overridden.
However Abele is very optimistic about all that this year's budget accomplishes, despite the differences highlighted. He credits the flexibility this budget offers to the fiscally responsible decisions made over the past five years that have built up the county's reserve funds.
"The fact that we can do all of this - give departments what they want, give the biggest employee bump we've ever done on top of our initiative to end chronic homelessness - as the Public Policy Forum put it, would've been 'unthinkable' five years ago," says Abele.
Stay tuned in the coming week as we hear from Theo Lipscomb, chair of the county board of supervisors, on Monday’s show. You can also view Lake Effect'sanalysis of the budget with Public Policy Forum President Rob Henken.
