Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley admitted on Friday that he knew about a $4.6 million budget gap on October 21 but kept that information from the County Board until after he was elected Governor.
“You knew about this before the election?” ‘Upfront’ host Matt Smith asked Crowley during the taping of an interview that will air Sunday.
“We knew about this, yes,” Crowley answered.
Crowley added that the disclosure “just happened to coincide with the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors budget meeting. That’s all that was.”
The admission comes after the county’s budget office sent a memo to supervisors on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Crowley defeated Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany. The office said the $4.56 million gap stemmed from a formula error in a newly automated process that overstated tax-levy savings in two airport-related accounts.
Budget Director Nick Sinram admitted on Thursday that Crowley’s office knew about the budget gap as soon as it was discovered on October 21st but that it was decided to hold off on informing the Board (or the public) until just before its meeting on Thursday. He also claimed that the post-Election Day timing was just a coincidence.
“We choose to bring solutions to the board, not just problems,” Sinram told reporters shortly before the Board passed Crowley’s $1.5 billion budget.
“You didn’t have solutions until after the election?” a reporter asked.
“It takes time,” Sinram asnwered. “It’s a complicated budget issue. We need to make sure we have investigated completely, thoroughly and come with realistic solutions for the County Board.”
Milwaukee County Board Finance Committee Chairman Steve Taylor said this appears to have been a political decision to keep the Board in the dark until after Tuesday’s election.
“I mean that’s just an awful excuse,” he said. “It was an AI or Excel problem. They realize, okay there’s an issue. They knew what it was and to tell me they took two weeks to come up with a solution? It’s just ridiculous. If it takes two weeks to deliver a three-page memo, then we got real problems.”
In spite of his skepticism, Taylor joined all other County Board members in unanimously approving the budget Thursday. The Board is now asking the Crowley Administration for a detailed timeline of when the error was discovered, how exactly it took two weeks to properly prepare a solution and explanation for the Board, and why the day that explanation was ready just happened to be the day after Crowley’s election.
