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Lawsuit: Keeping Money from Traffic Fines
There is a new lawsuit that challenges Milwaukee’s special deal that allows the city to keep all of its traffic fine money.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Wednesday filed a suit against what it’s calling the Cream City Carve-Out.
"Under a provision tucked away in the current state budget, Milwaukee County may take 100% of all traffic fines and forfeitures, while other counties must deposit most of this money into the Common School Fund. Milwaukee County is now the only county that benefits from this carve out in the state budget," WILL said in a statement.
The Common School Fund is the catch-all for traffic fine money across Wisconsin. Other communities are required, by law, to send 50% of their fine and forfeiture dollars to the fund.
That money is then used to support schools and libraries across the state. In fact, the Common School Fund is the largest source of money for libraries in the state.
WILL's Lauren Greuel said that so many libraries depend on the Common School Fund makes it all the more egregious that Milwaukee is being allowed not to pay-in.
“The ‘Cream City Carve Out,’ is a flagrant and unconstitutional money grab by Milwaukee County, okayed by the last state budget. Our constitution requires these funds to go into the Common School Fund, and this budget provision is plainly unlawful,” Greuel said. “Library funding should be protected to ensure this vital resource continues to serve Wisconsinites for generations to come.”
WILL said that Milwaukee’s carve-out is worth about $2.2 million per-year. That’s about 1.5% of the entire $70 million Common School Fund.
“If this provision is allowed to stand, what is stopping the next budget from including all sorts of carve-outs for Milwaukee, Dane, or whatever other county they want to appease next,” WILL added in its announcement.
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