Scott Walker Saves County Taxpayers $200,000,000

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Walker's speech pushes more privatization
The Business Journal of Milwaukee
by Pete Millard
   
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is pushing a plan to privatize the operations of General Mitchell International Airport in his 2010 “State-of-the-County” address.

By bidding out the airport operations, Milwaukee County can turn a profit and use the airport revenue to pay down debt and help fund mass transit without relying on an increase in sales or property taxes, said Walker.
“This is an idea whose time has come,” he said.

Walker boasted that the county has lowered its debt by 10 percent and reduced its work force by more than 20 percent since 2002, enabling the county to finish 2009 with a small budget surplus.

Walker’s “State-of-the-County” address, delivered at the new headquarters and manufacturing facility of TAPCO in Brown Deer, also discussed the county’s refinancing of the Pension Obligation Bond plan that resulted in saving county residents $237 million over the next 20 years.

“We accomplished this while proposing no increase in property tax levy, and we protected essential services and community assets,” Walker said.

Walker gave his speech at TAPCO to highlight the company’s decision to relocate to a renovated 128,000-square-foot facility in Brown Deer from a 57,000-square-foot building in Elm Grove.

The county executive said the 2010 budget also includes $50 million in structural expenditure reductions that will save county taxpayers $200 million over four years.

General Mitchell International Airport, one of the county’s most valuable assets, has been the beneficiary of $199 million in new investments since 2002 in renovations and expansions without increasing the property tax levy, said Walker. Moreover, he said the county will spend $340 million in airport improvements by 2012.

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2010/01/11/daily24.html