From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: February 8, 2010

Municipal leaders throughout Milwaukee County voiced fears Monday that they would soon be saddled with paying the full cost of paramedic services, either through restructuring county government or through county budget cuts.

County Executive Scott Walker later sought to put those fears to rest, vowing to oppose any move that would leave cities and villages without paramedic funding.

"You'd better be prepared not to have the (paramedic funding) from the county," Oak Creek Mayor Richard Bolender warned fellow mayors and village presidents at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council. "I think I have a bad feeling about this." . . . it's just going to die.

Bolender said he expected the cash-strapped county to cut off funding for the service within a year or two. Others, such as Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor, were concerned about what would happen to paramedics and other services if state and county officials dismantle or revamp county government, as discussed in a recent report by the Public Policy Forum.

That report, commissioned by the Greater Milwaukee Committee, talks about giving municipalities responsibility for running paramedic service and maintaining county highways, "but I didn't hear anything about the transfer of dollars or revenue," Taylor said. Funding also would be a problem if municipalities had to take over county parks, he added.

The paramedic system divides the county into five zones in which communities share paramedic service with each other. The county pays $3 million in subsidies to communities where paramedic units are based, plus $3.8 million more to provide paramedic training and medical supervision. But municipal governments are already spending at least $2 million to $3 million of their own money to supplement county funding, Taylor said.

Taylor is the chairman of the council, which includes representatives of the county and every municipal government within its boundaries. He said municipal officials should be involved in debates about the county's future because shifting control of services could have a major impact on their governments and budgets.

South Milwaukee Mayor Tom Zepecki urged municipal leaders to focus their efforts on the paramedic service, because "it works great" and local governments would want to keep it, but would be hard-pressed to do so without county funding.

After the meeting, Walker said support for paramedic service "is going to continue to be a core part of our relationship with all 19 municipalities." Speaking both as county executive and as a Republican candidate for governor, Walker said any plan to transfer control of paramedics or other services should have the support of municipal governments.

And, Walker added, "things should only be passed on if they come with funding attached." That goes for county highways as well as paramedics, he said. Discussion about shifting control of county parks has focused on an independent parks district, not on giving them to municipalities, Walker noted.

Also at the meeting, County Treasurer Dan Diliberti defended the role of county government, saying it streamlined services and saved money by avoiding duplication.

Greenfield Mayor Michael Neitzke replied that the county had a chance to play I'm just personally . . . the role Diliberti outlined, but "it sort of blew it. not prepared to give the county another shot."

St. Francis Mayor Al Richards lashed out at County Board Chairman Lee Holloway's support for merging municipal health departments into a county agency. Richards called Holloway's comments "divisive," and compared them to the city-suburban tensions in the days of former Milwaukee mayors Henry Maier and John O. Norquist.

Terry Cooley, the board's chief of staff, said later that Holloway was simply advocating the economies of scale that other counties achieve through their countywide health departments.

The council named Taylor, Neitzke, Glendale Mayor Jerome Tepper, Greendale Village President John Hermes and Shorewood Village President Guy Johnson to discuss options for the county's future with the Greater Milwaukee Committee and county officials.

In another matter, the council went on record opposing a state proposal to shift property tax assessments from municipal and town governments to counties. Zepecki said the plan would needlessly increase costs.

Diliberti and Milwaukee city lobbyist Jennifer Gonda said the state Department of Revenue already had abandoned the plan and was now advocating assessment consortia for towns only. But Zepecki said it was municipal opposition that made the department back down.

The council approved Zepecki's resolution 14-1, with Gonda opposed.