City and county officials have been pursuing option for over a year. By Jeramey Jannene - Feb 12th, 2021 01:26 pm //end headline wrapper ?>Milwaukee Center from City Hall. Photo taken September 23rd, 2012 by Erik Ljung.
With state shared revenue declining and property taxes capped, Mayor
Tom Barrett has been advocating for a sales tax to bail out Milwaukee’s budget for more than a decade.
Governor
Tony Evers‘ budget proposal would give him his wish, and possibly a path forward for the cash-strapped city.
Evers announced Friday that his budget, due to be released next week, would include an option for communities to enact a new 0.5% sales tax via referendum.
Currently, federal statute prohibits any form of federal health coverage for incarcerated individuals except under very limited circumstances. In most states, Medicaid coverage is immediately terminated when someone is sent to a correctional setting. This creates a serious coverage gap when individuals are released, as they often have no access to health care or addiction treatment during a stressful and dangerous time. This bill is a bipartisan response to this issue, following alarming evidence published in the New England Journal of Medicine that individuals reentering society are
129 times likelier than the general population to die of a drug overdose during the first two weeks after release.
Council unanimously approves naming entire street to honor civil rights leader. By Jeramey Jannene - Feb 9th, 2021 12:10 pm //end headline wrapper ?>Part of Third Street became Old World 3rd Street. Photo by Carl Baehr.
Tuesday morning the Common Council unanimously approved renaming a downtown street to match its north side name.
N. Old World Third Street will become N. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, eliminating a 1984 political compromise that saw N. 3rd St. split into two different names instead of being entirely named for the civil rights leader.
The compromise was brokered back then to appease merchants on the street, including Usinger’s Famous Sausage, who objected to the name change and said it would negatively impact tourism.
Some county officials say no, and are pushing to withdraw from the group. By Graham Kilmer - Jan 25th, 2021 10:04 am //end headline wrapper ?>Get a daily rundown of the top stories on Urban Milwaukee
Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Sulfur at English Wikipedia (GFDL) or (CC-BY-SA-3.0), via Wikimedia CommonsMembers of the Milwaukee County Board held a lengthy debate Thursday concerning whether they should remain members of the Wisconsin Counties Association (WCA).
This association is an organization that is meant to represent and advocate for all 72 counties at the state level for legislative agendas and policies that meet the interests of county governments.