Vos in Milwaukee County as local funding negotiations continue

GREENFIELD, Wis. (CBS 58) -- As budget negotiations continue at the Wisconsin statehouse, Milwaukee city and county leaders said Monday they're still confident a deal will be reached to fund local government.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was in Milwaukee County Monday night for the swearing-in ceremony of new State Representative Bob Donovan. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley were also there to speak.

It was a collegial atmosphere as Donovan was sworn in. Speaker Vos and Mayor Johnson sat side-by-side and shared several laughs. But behind the scenes an important battle rages on: Speaker Vos will not loosen the state's purse strings until the city and the county make reforms to his liking.

Vos said Monday, "I understand why they don't want to have any more control, but if they can solve the problem themselves, they should do that." So if the city and county are coming to the state for help, they have to play by his rules.

Vos said he'd like to treat every municipality the same, but Milwaukee has unique challenges that require a different solution. "That's probably a little bit harder conversation that we're working our way into."

Vos wants a list of reforms from the city and county before providing what he calls a "bailout". Vos said, "I'm certainly willing to listen. But bringing Milwaukee in also means the rest of the state has to absorb either some of those costs or figure a way to help deal with the increase in demand for services in Milwaukee."

Vos claimed years of mistakes have led to missed pension payments and deepening financial holes, but the city refutes those claims.

Jeff Fleming, the Communications Director for the city of Milwaukee, said in a statement, "To be clear, I cannot identify one “mistake” on the part of city government that contributed to our fiscal situation.  We have cut about one-thousand positions from the budget since 2000. We have found remarkable ways to save money on healthcare costs and workers comp costs.  And, in many cases, city employee salaries have fallen markedly behind comparable private sector salaries."

Fleming also wrote that the city has never missed a pension payment, writing, "To be clear, if state shared revenue had simply kept up with inflation, there city would have received in the neighborhood of $150-million dollars additional this year.  That would have been sufficient to avoid cuts and maintain services in the current budget.  That cut in our revenue is entirely in the hands of state officials."

He added, "The biggest driver of our pension costs are locked into contracts with our sworn police and fire employees.  And those benefits are largely driven by state law – not local decisions."

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said all parties agree there's no way forward without the help of state government.

He added that he wished shared revenue hadn't been broken in the first place, but that it happened 30 years ago, and he's a political realist in the present. Johnson said, "That's something that all of us inherited. Right now, I think the important thing is for all of us to work together --Democrats, Republicans, mayors and speakers, county executives and governors-- to fix the problem."

Mayor Johnson said the city is actively working on a list of reforms and efficiencies to present to Vos.

So is County Executive David Crowley, but Crowley said he doesn't want to be punished for reforms already implemented. And he added reforms at the county level will look very different with 19 different municipalities to consider.

Still, Crowley said, "I'm very optimistic that we're still having conversations at the state Capitol with both sides of the aisle, the governor. Everybody so far has been on the same page."

For his part, Donovan -the state's newest representative- believes there is a consensus among his new colleagues that something needs to be done. Donovan said, "I'm cautiously optimistic that some good things will occur in the area of shared revenue."

Earlier in the evening, Vos, Johnson, and Crowley all made public remarks at Donovan's ceremony, praising the spirit of bipartisanship and the importance of local government.