WHAT IS LOVE YOUR PARKS?

Love Your Parks aims to build a path to support the equitable, long term sustainability of the parks system through community education and action. The campaign includes three focus areas around Parks:
1 – Benefits, 2 – Funding Needs, and 3 – Call to Action.

158

Parks

125

Miles of Trails

9

Public Beaches

7,500

Acres of Natural Areas
Dann Petty image

Why should you love your parks?

Health
Economy
Quality of Life
Wildlife
Recreation
Creativity

Parks Improve Our Health

Parks are crucial to the physical, mental, and emotional wellness of our community. Parks are essential to supporting the health of our lands, waters, wildlife, plants, and people. too. They clean our air, process water, and provide habitat.

Parks Improve Our Economy

Parks are secret economic engines that increase property values, improving the local tax base. Studies show that property values surrounding parks are generally higher. Parks are also cited among the top three reasons for relocation.

Parks Improve Our Quality of Life

Parks are a primary contributor to our quality of life and a direct reflection of our community. They represent our social identity, and are one of the most important factors that make a community livable.

Parks Provide Vital Habitats

Natural areas, parks and rivers are vital habitats for a wide variety of native plants, birds, fish, reptiles, insects and mammals.

Parks are Spaces to Play

Trails, athletic fields, sports courts, youth and adult leagues, playgrounds and the lakes and rivers all provide accessible spaces for recreation and fitness.

Parks Inspire

The best ideas don't happen at a desk or computer, they're sparked when the mind is free to wander. Parks and trails provide a connect to nature that can spark the imagination and spur creativity and innovation.

Unser Zahnersatz ist um ein weites günstiger als aus anderen Dentallabors innerhalb Deutschlands. Hinzukommt, dass Sie keine zeit- und kostenintensiven Beratungsgespräche mit Ihrem Zahnarzt führen müssen, denn wir beraten Sie gerne kostenlos per Telefon oder bei uns vor Ort im Dentallabor. Da freut sich das Sparschwein!

Preiswert

Bei uns erhalten Sie alles was Sie benötigen, um bald wieder herzhaft lachen zu können. Beschäftigen Sie sich nicht damit, verschiedene Praxen aufzusuchen, um das günstigste Angebot zu finden, sondern bleiben Sie Ihren Vertrauenszahnarzt treu und konzentrieren Sie sich auf Ihre Gesundheit.

All-in-One

Bei uns erhalten Sie alles was Sie benötigen, um bald wieder herzhaft lachen zu können. Beschäftigen Sie sich nicht damit, verschiedene Praxen aufzusuchen, um das günstigste Angebot zu finden, sondern bleiben Sie Ihren Vertrauenszahnarzt treu und konzentrieren Sie sich auf Ihre Gesundheit.

All-in-One

About Your Parks

State Support
Racial Equity
Only $1.50 a Month From Taxes
County taxpayers contribute around $50 a year to Parks through taxes, which means every resident only contributes $1.50 a month. This makes up only ~40% of Parks annual operating budget. The remaining ~60% of Parks’operating budget is funded through revenues from user fees and sales.
$400m in Deferred Maintenance
Parks struggles to fund it’s annual operating budget; the county is unable to adequately fund the ~$400 million in Parks’ deferred maintenance and capital costs.
Little State Support
Parks receives little-to-no funding from the state because it is a non-mandated service. There’s nothing left to trim but services. Over the past decade, operations and commodities (supplies) have been cut past lean. Our staff have carried the burden of these cuts for years, doing more with less and less.
Parks & Racial Equity
We know that historically government has played a role in creating and perpetuating disparities in our communities of color. Parks is a part of the solution, committed to advancing the County’s vision that… By achieving racial equity, Milwaukee is the healthiest county in Wisconsin.

Funding challenge

We know that Milwaukee County residents love their parks, but many residents are not aware that Milwaukee County parks are a non-mandated service.
This means that county governments deliver state-mandated services to their community, and they can also provide additional services their community wants. In tough fiscal times, mandated services must be funded. Since Parks are not mandated, there is not a legal requirement to fund them, so they are often one of the first services to be cut.
Additionally, the Parks department relies on revenue to fund around 60% of its annual operating budget. Parks typically generates more than half it’s annual budget through user fees from things like golf, beer gardens, picnic rentals, and more. The national average for Parks & Recreation department revenue generation is a striking 23% of their annual operating budgets and most of these departments are heavy in programming.
Milwaukee County Parks is light in programming and heavy in providing facilities. Parks funding has been in jeopardy for some time, deferred maintenance has long been an issue, and the impacts of COVID-19 are adding to the extreme challenges of our non-mandated, revenue-dependent parks system – threatening its long-term viability.
Impacts of COVID-19
Parks has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in all-time staffing lows, county spending freezes, and revenue losses from the closure and delayed opening of the majority of our revenue generating activities and facilities. Parks is projecting a $10 million deficit in 2020, and scrambling to fill it.
Building Back Better
Milwaukee County Parks system funding has been broken for years, so going back to the way things were pre-COVID won’t provide a long-term fix. Instead, we need to grow community support to build back better and find innovative, creative ways to fund our parks in the future. This summer our residents will experience what a summer in Milwaukee is like without many of the park services they love, and with parks in peril, we hope our community will rally around parks to ensure they don’t just survive, but thrive.

Love Your Parks is a campaign to champion parks

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