WisGOP calls Crowley a tax hiker in MKE Co. WisGOPs think Sconnies won't look into the facts

I saw some ad the other day from the Tiffany campaign trying to call David Crowley a tax hiker because of his record as Milwaukee County Executive. So I decided to dig into last year's Milwaukee County budget document and see where things stand in the most-populous county in the state.

The 2026 budget for Milwaukee County levies $309,014,834 in taxes on property during the year, which is an increase from the 2025 Adopted budget of approximately $10.4 million. However, the 2026 Budget still levies less in property taxes than the 2023 Adopted Budget as a result of Wisconsin 2023 Act 12. The 2026 Budget is a reduction of $3.9 million from the 2023 budget property taxes levied.

Act 12 was the shared revenue deal at the state level that gave a large increase in shared revenues to villages and towns in Wisconsin, to make up for 12 years of negligence under the WisGOP Legislature. The bill also allowed Milwaukee County to add a 0.4% sales tax and the City of Milwaukee to put in a 2.0% sales tax, in exchange for smaller % increases in shared revenues.

That deal allowing a sales tax came after years of stagnant and/or declining aids from the state being sent to Milwaukee County.

In 2010, Milwaukee County received $66.5 million of mass transit operating assistance; in 2026 the County anticipates receiving an amount of $66.7 million in state aid for transit (85.20). State shared revenue has declined from $37 million in 2010 to $35.5 million in 2026. Basic community aids have declined from $48.6 million in 2010 to $35.0 million in 2026. General transportation aids have increased from $4.3 million in 2010 to $5.8 million in 2026.

Combined, these four revenue sources have been reduced from $156.5 million in 2010 to an estimated $143.1 million in 2026. This is a reduction in real dollars not even adjusting for inflation. If Milwaukee County had received inflationary adjustments across these revenue sources since 2000, for example, the 2026 revenue budget for these state aids would be $115 million more than it is. This issue has contributed significantly to Milwaukee County’s historical structural deficit.

The County budget office adds that another big reason their budget is under stress is that they have to pay for an increasing amount of services under state law, without getting much more in resources to pay for them.

From 2021 through 2025, local tax levy required to provide Milwaukee County’s mandated services increased from 59.7% of county tax levy in 2021 to 78.2% of county tax levy in 2025. In 2026, Milwaukee County will spend $230.4 million dollars of County property tax levy on state mandated services. This is a slight decrease to 74.6% of total property taxes levied. This reduction is a direct result of support provided by the state of Wisconsin in the form of Expressway Policing Aids. The 2025-2027 state budget recognized the unique mandate to Milwaukee County to patrol Milwaukee County’s expressways and provided the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office with $19 million in Expressway Policing Aids for 2026.

Based on information from the Milwaukee City Assessor’s office, let’s look at what has happened to the County’s property tax rate, starting with the 2020 budget that Crowley inherited.

That’s a cut in property tax rates by nearly 35% since Crowley has taken ovcer. Sure, the overall amount of property taxes have gone up, because Milwaukee has become one of the hottest housing markets in America, and the median sale price of a home in the County has gone up by 58%, from $190,500 in July 2020 to $301,750 in July 2026.

But the other part of that "tax hiker" argyument by Tiffany and WisGOP is that Milwaukee County got a new sales tax of 0.4%. So let’s look at what that has come in or been estimated for the sales tax totals.

Milwaukee County Sales Tax Collections
2020 $82.0 million
2021 $92.1 million
2022 $90.0 million
2023 $103.5 million
(sales tax increase of 0.4% is passed)

2024 $181.5 million
2025 $188.1 million
2026 $195.6 million

So that's quite a difference in taxes being brought in with the new sales tax in Milwaukee County.

Know what other community just boosted their sales tax? Tom Tiffany’s hometown!

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue reminds retailers about the adoption of a 0.5% premier resort area tax in the Town of Minocqua starting July 1, 2026.

Residents voted to adopt this premier resort area tax as a local retail sales tax in 2018 with authorization by the Wisconsin Legislature for 2026. Generally, proceeds from a premier resort area tax may only be used by the local government to pay for infrastructure expenses within the jurisdiction of that premier resort area.

Effective July 1, 2026, certain sellers must collect the 0.5% premier resort area tax on taxable sales made to customers in the Town of Minocqua.

I’ll add that Tom Tiffany voted to allow a similar 0.5% sales tax for the City of Rhinelander when he was in the Legislature, as part of the 2015-17 state budget. That tax has been in effect since July 2017. The cities of Eagle River and Bayfield also have local sales taxes of 0.5%, which also are communities currently represented by Tom Tiffany.

So it seems like Tom Tiffany can be OK with local sales taxes for his Northwoods constituents to take pressure off of their property taxes, but somehow David Crowley is a tax hiker for a smaller tax increase in the county that is the Number 1 attractor of tourism dollars in the state?

Of course, Tom Tiffany and WisGOP don’t think that voters will understand how Milwaukee County takes up a small portion of the overall property tax bill for its residents. The “rising taxes” argument is generally due to the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools – budgets that David Crowley has little to no control over.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, citizens and businesses pay a total of approximately $2.1 billion in property taxes to the various taxing entities in Milwaukee County. These entities include:

Milwaukee County government.
Municipal governments (cities and villages).
School districts.
Technical college.
Special districts (such as the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District or the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission).
Tax Incremental Finance districts.

Of this $2.1 billion total, Milwaukee County government makes up about 14%.

There’s a bigger bottom line here, given that Tom Tiffany has now dealt with several federal budgets in Congress. That seems especially important as US debt just hit $40 trillion on Wednesday, with this year’s federal deficit on track to go over $2 million.

And a signficant reason why the debt and deficit keeps growing? Because of Tom Tiffany and his fellow Republicans in Congress keep voting for tax cuts that overwhelmingly have favored the rich, as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out last March.

This is coupled with Tiffany's votes in the last 14 months for massive increases in spending in the last 12 months for ICE, and being fine with a bloated military and a stupid war in Iran – neither of which have improved Wisconsin’s economy one whit, and have increased the cost of gasoline.

So does Tom Tiffany and the GOP really want to talk about David Crowley's budget choices in this Fall's elections? Because if we look at the reality and have that debate, it's one the WisGOPs deserve to lose. Milwaukee County's property tax rates have gone down significantly under Crowley, while Tom Tiffany voted to defund K-12 schools and local governments while in the Legislature, causing property taxes to rise throughout Wisconsin. And Tiffany's reckless votes in DC to give even more tax cuts for the rich and corporate have caused long-term interest rates to rise, raising borrowing costs for businesses and homeowners.

But the Crowley campaign and the WisDems have to make the argument to make the average voter think about these facts. So get to it, guys.