Budget Brief
Milwaukee County 2009 Executive Budget
October, 2008

Milwaukee County has faced excruciatingly difficult budgets for each of the past several years, and the 2009 budget is no different. What is different, however, is the very clear emphasis on privatization by County Executive Scott Walker as the primary strategy for addressing the county's structural budget shortfall in 2009, and going forward.

While piecemeal privatization proposals, primarily in human services, have been a staple of the county executive's previous budgets and a perennial source of conflict with the county board, his 2009 Recommended Budget is dominated by such proposals in several different areas of the budget and on a much larger scale.