Milwaukee would lose 120 police officer positions through attrition under Mayor Tom Barrett's proposed $1.55 billion 2021 budget, which he presented to the Common Council on Tuesday.

The Fire Department will lose one engine, which could likely result in a firehouse being closed, and vacant positions will go unfilled in other city departments, Barrett said. There will be an additional fee for street lighting and a $10 increase in the wheel tax.


"I have presented many budgets to the council and we have worked on them together, but this is by far the most sobering one because it's really the year when our budget challenges have reached a pretty dramatic crescendo," Barrett told the Journal Sentinel.

The city knew it was going to be facing a difficult budget even before the coronavirus pandemic and economic fallout and the marches for racial justice, he said.

Standard & Poor's also cut the city's bond rating by two notches from AA- to A, meaning the city's debt costs are higher. It's a reflection, Barrett said, that the city has limited sources of revenue and that it has been forced to draw down its reserves.

And its fiscal situation is going to make it difficult to please anyone when it comes to the ongoing debate over policing, whether those who want to see a sharp cut in funding for the Police Department redistributed to other areas or those who want to see an increase, Barrett said.

Even as the department would lose 120 positions, its total budget will drop by less than $1 million from where it is this year, Barrett said.

The proposal comes on the heels of a loss of 60 positions in the 2020 budget, which took the number of sworn positions in the police department from 1,864 to 1,804.

Barrett said the projected sworn strength would now be 1,682.

The 2020 adopted budget allocated $297.4 million to the police department while the proposed 2021 budget would allocate $296.9 million — a drop of $433,822.

This change is mandated by our current budget reality," Barrett said. "And as the cost of public safety climbs more and more, we simply don't have the money to cover these increased expenses."

Savings that would come from an $8.5 million cut in salaries are reversed by increased police health care and other personnel costs, Barrett said.

A Journal Sentinel examination found that Milwaukee is an outlier among cities with comparable demographics in terms of how much money from its general fund goes to police. In the 2020 budget, the city spent 46% of its general fund on police.

The budget also consolidates 911 dispatchers and operators from the police department and dispatchers from the fire department into a new division within the Fire and Police Commission, the Office of Emergency Communication.


Barrett said the new office would provide "better service in a more cost-effective way. I want shorter wait times, fewer transfers of calls and better overall service for our citizens."

That change would happen in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Barrett also said he was concerned about the level of militarization in the police department and called for a "dramatic improvement" in the department's relationship with the community. He also called on the Fire and Police Commission to endorse the "Eight Can't Wait" reform initiative.

Meanwhile, the cut of a fire engine raises the specter of past fire department losses, including the closure of fire stations.

Barrett ties cuts to stagnant revenue from state

Barrett drew a line from the cuts directly to the stagnant shared revenue coming back to the city from the state and the inability to raise the county sales tax, saying this dearth of funding is affecting services.

"A lot of the changes that you're going to see in this year's budget are really driven by that, and the fact of the matter is that we really have very few options," Barrett said. "So we're cutting the number of employees, we're cutting services."

The state Legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, needs to recognize the seriousness of the city's fiscal situation before it has to make more draconian cuts, Barrett said in his address, which he gave virtually from his City Hall office.

Raising the county sales tax to 1.5% from 0.5% could make it possible to avoid some of those cuts, he said. Municipalities in Milwaukee County would receive a share of the new sales tax revenue.