Milwaukee's Water Utility To Become A 'Cash Cow'

Milwaukee is turning its water utility into a “cash cow” for the city, according to Milwaukee Magazine. Critics say structuring city finances in this way neglects pricey water infrastructure repairs. 
 
About $13 million will flow from the water utility’s bank account to the city’s general fund this year, the report said. That amounts to about 10 percent of the funds taken in by the utility, largely from water bill payments. 
 
“Depending on who you ask, this payment is either a backdoor means for propping up city finances — at a time when the money could be used to replace dangerous lead water pipes — or a routine, irreplaceable part of city finances,” the report said. 
 
Milwaukee is not the only city that structure its finances this way. 
 
“Nearly all municipalities in Wisconsin that operate a water utility make a similar ‘payment in lieu of taxes,’ as defined under state law, according to Mark Nicolini, the city’s budget director. A city analysis ranks Milwaukee’s payment as slightly below average for the state,” the report said. 
 
Nicolini said the city council would have to act in order to change the current funding structure and allow the water utility to hang onto more funding for infrastructure upgrades. 
 
Some city activists are calling on local lawmakers to do exactly that, arguing that the city should be doing more to safeguard tap water from lead by upgrading and replacing lead infrastructure, the report said. 
 
Milwaukee has been singled out as forward-thinking for its water infrastructure policies. Mayor Tom Barrett signed an ordinance planning the replacement of nearly 70,000 residential lead pipes, according to Chicago Tonight. “Although parts of the plan have been criticized, local advocates think it can serve as a model for kickstarting” massive projects like this in other cities.
 
Meanwhile, Madison, WI, the state capital, is one of the rare cities to tackle lead woes by replacing every pipe. Madison’s decision “was so aggressive that only one other major municipality in the United States has followed its approach so far. It’s also why some people now call Madison the anti-Flint, a place where water problems linked to the toxic substance simply couldn’t happen today,” The Washington Post reported.

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