The shared revenue bill just signed into law in Wisconsin follows a scary trend of state governments undermining the authority and independence of local governments across the country. Not only does this stripping of power silence the voices of the politicians and leaders closest to the communities most impacted by local government, but these attacks have also almost exclusively targeted cities with high populations of communities of color and queer people.
2023 Wisconsin Act 12 would remove many decision-making powers from Milwaukee’s decision-makers. After the majority white state legislature debated stripping Milwaukee’s leaders of their authority over the past few months, it’s important to note that for the first time in state history, four of the most influential decision-makers in Milwaukee’s City and County government come from Black and Brown communities. More importantly, this bill will force local governments to hand over their power to politicians in Madison, allowing them to impose their will on Milwaukee and override the discretion of elected officials at the city level. All throughout the negotiations, leaders in the state legislature demonstrated that they were trying to hold Milwaukee hostage. They would only give Milwaukee the resources it needed to survive if the city handed power over to them.
Restrictions on local governments across the country
What’s happening in Milwaukee isn’t unique. Houston, St. Louis, Jackson, and other cities this year have either had their local authority stripped or attacked by their state legislature in 2023. The Texas legislature recently passed a bill preventing cities and counties from passing or enforcing any local policy that exceeds the minimum requirements set by state laws. Previously under Texas Law, the “Home Rule Amendment: gave large, diverse cities like Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio the power to self-govern as long as their local laws didn’t conflict with state law. The new bill will undermine the previous local control of Texas’s most diverse cities. More blatantly racist, The Texas Education Agency will also take control of the Houston Independent School District, undemocratically ousting the elected Black, Latinx, and women leaders of the district with a population of nearly 90 percent students of color.
St. Louis, like Houston, had its local control attacked this year when the primarily white Missouri State Legislature attempted to place the St. Louis Police Department under state control. This would’ve removed local communities and elected officials' power to hold their local police department accountable and maintain control of it.
A similar situation happened in Jackson, Mississippi, the state’s capital city, where Black people make up more than 82% of the population. The Mississippi State Legislature passed a bill to establish a separate court system for parts of Jackson, with judges appointed by the state chief justice and the area under the system’s jurisdiction patrolled by a state-run police force. These attacks on local criminal justice system control are highly undemocratic and racist. Purposefully or not, removing the power of communities and their elected officials in cities that are disproportionately Black and other communities of color is racist.
Attacks on Milwaukee
State lawmakers from across the state should not have the power to impose their policy views on cities made up of communities of Black and Brown people. Allowing state lawmakers and voters from other districts across the state to influence the local matters of a city they do not live in strips the power of the communities inside the city to govern themselves.
Why should lawmakers who never set foot in Milwaukee have more influence than local leaders who live, work, raise a family and serve the city daily? Limiting a city’s ability to govern itself suppresses residents' voices and makes political representation at the local level less meaningful. In cities like Milwaukee, this results in silencing Black and Brown residents, whose concerns are often overlooked. Milwaukee is the economic engine of the state of Wisconsin, and it is in everyone’s best interest to protect the stability, autonomy, and growth of the city. Part of that is allowing the communities that know and live in Milwaukee to lead it.