Protect Our Parks Call for Fair Funding for Our Public Parks » Urban Milwaukee

Protect Our Parks (POP) is the primary nonprofit advocacy group for Milwaukee County parks. We shout long live Volunteers! However, POP is disappointed to see another reduction in tax levy support for our parks in the proposed budget; especially since POP and many Friends groups supported the county’s request for an additional sales tax last year, hoping to see an improvement in parks funding. While the district has offset this decline in part with additional revenue from operating funds, this work is diverting park staff from ecological and horticultural projects in the parks.

The Parks Department is aggressively looking to add more park friends and volunteers; The new goal is to increase the number of volunteers to 1,300 and to increase the Friends groups to 60 with 24,000 volunteer hours. POP applauds these volunteers, but this is no substitute for equitable funding of parks.

“ Oak Leaf Path It is the most attended sports facility in our district and is free and open to all users. “However, in financing capital projects, priority is given to projects that support private, for-profit sports teams,” he said. Patricia Jursik.

Last year, a 2.5 million dollar cut was made by the State to continue the Stadium Zone until 2030. It also has an annual debt repayment obligation of $4 million. Fiserv Forum. As an arm of the State Government, the county must pay these contributions over any objection from our local leaders. It took a lot of courage for these legislators to stop shared revenue and then come to our district for the RNC convention, use our public parks, and even close them off to the public who pay for and support these assets. All the while the state is sitting on a 5B surplus while revenues are collected largely from SE Wisconsin while state mandates underfund county government.

POP is building a coalition of park, environmental and waterway groups to advocate for private funding of our beleaguered park system. There is huge support for private financing. “There is a well-documented capital gap in our parks of over $500 million to repair and maintain park infrastructure, including trails, roads and pavilions.” Jursik stated.

POP asks Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Restoring $375,000 in tax revenues to equal last year’s tax levy support and adding more capital projects to the Parks Capital Budget to begin addressing the backlog of projects. It is time to stop this erosion of funding for our public parks.

NOTE: This press release is addressed to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. Although believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

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