We’re happy to say, the County restored the $200,000.00 in funding for Milwaukee emergency shelters in the 2018 County budget.
We’re happy to say, the County restored the $200,000.00 in funding for Milwaukee emergency shelters in the 2018 County budget.
Homeless individuals and families in Milwaukee County are at serious risk this winter. County Executive Abele and the Head of the Department of Health and Human Services chose to cut funding cuts for homeless shelters in the 2018 County budget. We need to convince them to protect the shelters and cut back in other items such as communications.
Three nights a week, volunteer Street Angels of Milwaukee assist more than 100 homeless people -- men, women, and children living under bridges, in abandoned buildings, in remote encampments in parks and open spaces. People are cold, hungry, and desperate for human kindness. Street Angels give out hot meals, tents, sleeping bags, and help finding shelters.
Recently they came upon a family in a park -- a mom and two teens with their paralyzed grandma in a wheelchair. They had been on the streets for a week. They found an elderly man who had his social security check, coat, phone, and belongings stolen. He wore a thin long-sleeved shirt with no coat, hat or gloves when the temperature was in the 20’s. He was treated for hypothermia by a local hospital and sent back on the streets. Street Angels did what they could, but they are volunteers without the resources of local government.
The waiting list for shelter is close to a thousand people in our town who are in serious crisis and need a place to be safe, protected, and helped.
In spite of the needs and existing shortfalls, the County Executive and Department Head of Health and Human Service cut $200,000 in funding for Milwaukee emergency shelters in the 2018 County budget. We can join the Street Angels, the Shelter managers and other concerned citizens to get this money back. The Health and Human service budget is $340 million. There are other cuts that will not endanger people in such fundamental need.
Many of us are donating food and hats to the homeless for the holidays. It is a wonderful gesture, but shelter is more crucial. After people spoke out at the County Board meeting Monday, the full $200,000.00 for shelters was restored to the budget!
URGENT MESSAGE:
Stop the Tax Plan by the Wealthy for the Wealthy
The Republican Tax Plan is on a fast track in the Senate with a vote in the coming two weeks. This would be a disaster for the United States.
This tax plan:
This tax plan:
- redistributes money from the middle-class to the wealthy,
- cuts funds for public infrastructure that would pay for police, parks and education
- destabilizes Obamacare, leaving over 13 million people without health care
- adds 1.5 trillion to the national budget deficit – the kind of debt that will require major cuts to Social Security and Medicare in the near future.
How will this plan affect your pocketbook?
By 2027, every income level below seventy-five thousand dollars a year will face a tax increase, while everybody above that level will have a continued tax decrease, with the greatest cut in taxes accruing to those making more than a million dollars a year.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-shocking-math-of-the-republican-tax-plan
Time Magazine provides a calculator that shows how the tax plan affects different income groups (income includes salary and benefits.) See an example below:
- A household with an income of $40,000 now pays $4,360 in taxes (10.9%)
- Under the Republican plan, in 2019, the household would pay $3,960 (9.9%) saving $400.
- By 2027, the tax rate will rise to 11.5%, and the family will pay $4,600 -- $240 more than their current tax cost. Source:
Joint Committee on Taxation
