Understanding David Crowley and Milwaukee County’s budget challenges does not require an accounting degree. You only need to look at a few key figures.
County departments have submitted their budget requests for 2027, and taken together, they’re asking for $2.4 billion in spending. That’s more than $1 billion higher than the county’s adopted 2026 budget.
County Executive David Crowley is now running for governor, and this budget snapshot highlights ongoing fiscal challenges under his administration. Even at the request stage, the proposed spending growth would require additional taxpayer funding. If approved, the county property tax levy would increase from approximately $309 million to $386.5 million, a 25 percent rise in one year.
Think about that for a second. Families aren’t seeing their paychecks increase 25 percent. Small businesses aren’t magically making 25 percent more money. People are already dealing with higher grocery bills, housing costs, insurance premiums and just about everything else. Yet David Crowley’s Milwaukee County is starting the budget conversation with requests that would require dramatically more from taxpayers.
And here’s where it gets even more concerning: Milwaukee County already knows it has a major long-term spending problem. The County Comptroller’s latest five-year financial forecast projects a $50.8 million structural deficit in 2027, increasing to $75.8 million in 2028, $104.3 million in 2029, $137.6 million in 2030, and $168.7 million by 2031.
Under David Crowley, county spending is once again projected to grow much faster than the revenue available to pay for it. And get this, Crowley and his departments are proposing even more spending. But there’s an even bigger issue here.
In 2023, Crowley championed an additional 0.4 percent sales tax increase, doubling the county sales tax to 0.9 percent. He described this as a long-term solution to Milwaukee County’s financial challenges. Three years later, the county is again facing a significant structural deficit and proposals for increased spending.
That raises a simple question:
What happened to the long-term solution?
Taxpayers were told that additional revenue was needed to put Milwaukee County on solid financial footing. Crowley celebrated the sales-tax increase as securing the county’s fiscal future. Yet here we are, just a few years later, talking about another enormous fiscal hole. And the pattern matters because David Crowley is no longer asking voters only to judge him as Milwaukee County Executive. He is now the Democratic nominee for Governor of Wisconsin, facing Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany in November. That means his record running Milwaukee County deserves serious scrutiny from voters across Wisconsin.
Crowley has tried to position himself as a pragmatic, fiscally responsible executive, but voters should look at the results. Milwaukee County got a new source of tax revenue. Spending continued to grow. The county is again facing substantial deficits. And now departments are submitting requests that could require even more from taxpayers. That’s not a record that gives me confidence in what Crowley would do with a $111 billion state budget. This doesn’t even account for the borrowing Milwaukee County is planning—more than $1 billion worth, 90% of which will be borrowed.
Debt isn’t free money; it carries long-term obligations. Every dollar Crowley and the county borrow today creates principal and interest payments tomorrow. The taxes required to pay for the county’s debt would rise from about $38.4 million to $59.3 million – a 54.5 percent increase. The County Executive’s job isn’t simply to add up every department’s wish list, add his own, and send taxpayers the bill.
It’s to prioritize. And that’s ultimately why Crowley’s record in Milwaukee County should matter in this governor’s race. David Crowley’s track record is one of increasing taxes and increasing spending. That’s a hamster wheel to higher taxes and more debt that none of us want for Wisconsin.
