Wisconsin Watch, a left-leaning nonprofit whose work the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel republishes as fact checks, concluded this week that major Milwaukee County taxes have gone up under County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor. The outlet’s verdict was a single word: “Yes.”
Crowley’s campaign touts “the largest property tax cut in the county’s history.” Wisconsin Watch placed that cut after Act 12, the 2023 state law that let Milwaukee city and county raise sales taxes and sent more shared revenue to local governments. Crowley signed the county piece: a 0.4-percentage-point sales-tax increase, from 0.5 percent to 0.9 percent, after the County Board approved it 15-3. Combined with the state’s 5 percent and Milwaukee’s separate city tax, shoppers in the city pay among the highest combined rates in Wisconsin. Crowley later said a 0.4 percent sales-tax hike “isn’t a burden.” The extra county rate took effect in January 2024 and is dedicated largely to pensions for up to 30 years. County budget documents project about $192 million in sales-tax collections in 2026.
Wisconsin Watch published the property-tax levy under Crowley, who took office in May 2020:
2020: $304.8 million
2021: $310.3 million (up 1.8 percent)
2022: $313.8 million (up 1.1 percent)
2023: $292.3 million (down 6.9 percent)
2024: $299.6 million (up 2.5 percent)
2025: $309.9 million (up 3.4 percent)
The one-year drop is the cut Crowley advertises. The levy rose in the two years before and the two years after. The 2026 adopted budget adds about $12 million more, which Crowley’s office tied to debt service on a forensic science facility and a nature and culture museum. Even with that increase, the administration says the levy remains below 2023 and about $25 million under pre-Act 12 projections. Wisconsin Watch noted the 2020–2023 levy change was smaller than the statewide average of 2.6 percent over that shorter window. It still answered the question it posed: sales and property taxes have generally increased on his watch.
Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin has separately listed Crowley as raising the levy three years running after the 2023 cut and as a longtime advocate of a larger county sales tax. In 2020, he called himself “a huge supporter of the 1% sales tax.” In 2022, he said that if he had his way, the county would seek a 1 percent increase. He later signed the 0.4 percent hike the Legislature authorized. The county is projecting a roughly $50 million gap heading into the 2027 budget he must propose this fall.
Wisconsin Watch did not rate Crowley’s campaign slogan. It rated the tax record. The sales tax is higher. The property levy is higher than the year of the cut and higher than when he took office. The fact-check that said so came from an outlet that is rarely willing to give Republicans an inch.
