Milwaukee Common Council budget vote, questions over legality
Questions over common council budget vote
There's a new debate over your tax money at work and this one centers on a vote the Milwaukee Common Council took last week. Was the vote legal? Well, it depends on who you ask.
MILWAUKEE - There's a new debate about the Milwaukee Common Council's vote to override the mayor's vetoes.
Was the vote legal?
The city clerk and the common council members FOX6 spoke to said yes, it was legal.
But the mayor says the best thing to do is probably for the common council to re-vote.
Milwaukee Common Council
One vote to override budget vetoes
What we know:
When the Milwaukee Common Council voted to override the mayor's budget vetoes, they voted just once on all of his vetoes.
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It was a single, unanimous 15-to-0 vote.
However, Wisconsin state law says: "The common council shall vote on each item disapproved by the mayor separately."
The city charter—which serves like the city constitution—says the same about a "separate" vote.
Snippet of Milwaukee city charter
What they're saying:
"Do you think that these vetoes that were voted en block were legal?" asked FOX6's Jason Calvi.
"Look, that's a question I think that the city attorney can answer," responded Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. "But I, from what I've seen and read, I think the state law is pretty clear that when the mayor disapproves of items in the budget, that those items should be voted on separately."
FOX6 asked the mayor if he would challenge the vote?
"Ultimately, I think the best thing to do, probably is for the council to look at their own action and then possibly, maybe even re-vote."
"I think if we did that, it'd be the same outcome," stated Alderman Lamont Westmoreland.
City Clerk Jim Owczarski says he satisfied the law by saying all the mayor's vetoes right before the council voted the one time, so the alders didn't need to have separate votes. Common Council members told FOX6 they think the vote was legal.
"What I remember from 2019 is my good friend, Cavalier Johnson, sitting in the audience with us and doing the exact same thing we did back then," said Milwaukee Alderman Scott Spiker. "He didn't seem to have any objections to it then. His sour grapes reaction right now is obviously a reaction to being overturned on every one at his vetoes unanimously. I would be upset too, but to lash out in this way is inconsistent and ineffective."
Johnson was a first-term alderman in 2019, the last time the council voted once to override multiple vetoes.
Milwaukee Common Council
The common council's vetoes this time added $9 million more to the budget.
"I think the state law is clear on that, because folks deserve to know how their elected officials vote on these items," added Mayor Johnson. "They deserve to know where their elected officials stand on these matters. And if you vote to raise folks’ taxes, and there's no discussion at all, which is what happened at the council meeting, then I think that doesn't align with the letter of the law that we have in the State of Wisconsin."
"We voted on the record 15 to zero," noted Milwaukee Alderman Bob Bauman.
"Everybody on the council, in my view, is a big boy or big girl, and I think if someone wanted this taken up separately, they would have asked for it. Nobody did that," added Westmoreland.
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What changed with the overrides
What we know:
- The mayor's vetoes left $6 million dollars for new fire trucks. The overrides added another $4 million.
- The common council also added more Sunday hours for libraries.
- It also moves the city's violence prevention office into its own department. Right now, it's under the City of Milwaukee's Department of Administration.
The Source: This story was produced by FOX6 with interviews conducted with the Milwaukee mayor and aldermen.