Gov. Evers signs shared revenue bill with provisions for quarry regulations, minority contracting

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Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday signed the statewide shared revenue legislation known as Assembly Bill 245, which will raise funding for local governments and steer Milwaukee away from a fiscal cliff by means of allowing cities and counties to vote on local sales tax.

The legislation will allow Milwaukee city and county to authorize a sales tax through a two-thirds majority vote by members of the county board and city common council and will allow the county to levy a 0.4% sales tax. The bill will shift power over the Milwaukee Police Department to the police chief instead of the Police and Fire Commission and will restrict the largest city’s power to fund maintenance and operation costs for The Hop streetcar.

“For far too long our local communities have been forced to do more with less,” Evers said in front of elected officials and media at a firehouse in Wausau.

For construction, officials from the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) – Wisconsin said they were concerned about a provision within the bill to eliminate preferential contracting programming for cities and counties for construction projects that didn’t have federal funding.

The preferences were put in place to address discrimination and make sure everyone has equal chance to get government contracts for public projects, NAMC officials said in a written statement.

Milwaukee doesn’t have race-based employment or contracting preferences and the city’s Residents Preferred Program would be unaffected, a city spokesperson told The Daily Reporter.

The City of Milwaukee has a policy to provide equal employment opportunities without regard for things such as race, color, age, disability. Similarly, the City of Minneapolis recruits and promotes workers without regard to race, color, creed, religion and more.

The City of Chicago prohibits employers from refusing to hire or promote people based on protected class and publishing job advertisements suggesting preferences for applicants based on a particular protected class.

AB 245 also has a provision to limit local governments’ regulation of quarry operations, such as when a city or town wants to halt the extraction or materials processing at night for transportation construction. Building on provisions Evers wrote in his biennial budget, the bill will allow quarries to operate and night and cut costs of trucking gravel for material roads, supporters said.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley called the signage a “historic step forward” for communities across the state. The governor signing the bill steers Milwaukee County away from a fiscal cliff in a few years, Crowley added.

“As deliberations on the sole issue of additional revenue turn to local legislative bodies, it’s important that Milwaukee County, as an arm of the state, acknowledge the fiscal realities that we must confront,” Crowley noted, and said the fiscal cliff was the “biggest threat” to increasing quality of life for residents.

“There is too much at state for Milwaukee County to miss the mark on the opportunity ahead of us to avoid major services cuts and staff reductions across the board,” he added.

When the bill cleared the Legislature last week, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a statement the legislation was an “important milestone” to resolving Milwaukee’s financial problems. He thanked lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for their efforts.

“We have reached an important milestone in the work to resolve Milwaukee’s fiscal challenges. Today’s legislative votes have empowered the City of Milwaukee to overcome financial problems that were decades in the making and asked the Common Council to join him in support of raising a sales tax.

“I look forward to improving basic municipal functions that will be possible because of this legislation. We anticipate quicker response times for emergency medical, fire, and police calls for service. Our libraries will continue to modernize, offering innovative programing and facilities for our residents,” Johnson added.