MILWAUKEE — They’re falling like gold-plated luminescent dominoes across the city and every time they crash to the ground, if you listen closely enough, the cha-ching of a cash register resonates in every taxpayer’s ear.
Streetlight and traffic signal replacements have reached a level that the city can no longer ignore, thanks to reckless driving.
“We are at about $2.4, $2.5 million a year in costs,” Milwaukee City Engineer Kevin Muhs said. “That can vary year-to-year.”
That year-to-year variance topped out at $2.8 million in 2022. So, the city waved the white towel and added a line item to the budget; $2.4 million allotted annually to account for this destructive behavior.
“That’s 15 to 20 percent of our typical capital budget for that item,” Muhs said. “It’s a substantial chunk of the expenditures.”
Since 2017, Department of Public Works data shows between 1,400 and nearly 1,600 streetlights and traffic signals are knocked down annually. Muhs says each individual light replacement could cost between $10,000 and $50,000 depending on how intricate the lighting system is.
Milwaukee does collect money from the at-fault driver’s vehicle insurance, but it’s a nominal amount in the grand scheme. Out of the $14,429,035.46 in knocked-down lights since 2017, Milwaukee has collected $3,370,610.63, or 23.4 percent. The losses ultimately end up on the taxpayers of Milwaukee.
“It’s not fair,” Leroy Wilson of Milwaukee said. “But let me tell you, what can we do?”
Wilson’s main mode of transportation is the soles on his shoes. He gave up his car after his car got hit a few years back and the transmission was shot. He’s in no rush to get back into his own automobile because of the costs but he’s frustrated that he’s on the hook for things he has no responsibility for.
“It’s bizarre,” Wilson said. “It shouldn’t be like that. Slow down. There are kids out here. You’re just knocking down poles now but when you run over these kids out here, that’s a lot of life.”
Bizarre is one take. Ridiculous is another.
“How ridiculous,” Andrew Wagner, Milwaukee Police Association President said.
The $2.4 million DPW has budgeted for these costs could not be transferred to the Milwaukee Police but if MPD had that kind of money, Wagner says, they could hire 25 full-time officers.
“The city is paying for the mistakes of these people that are driving like this in their cities,” Wagner said. “It’s a huge problem to our city and the people that are doing the right thing and driving safely, just trying to get to work and back every day, they’ll pay in that cost.”
To get an idea of how 25 officers could impact the city, Wagner points to the newest Shared Revenue Plan, which includes a plan to bring back 25 School Resource Officers. Not only could that kind of money fully fund the SRO program, but it would also free up officers to do other police work, Wagner says.
“That’s 1,700 calls for service that [SRO’s] will be answering and taking off the books of our other officers every single semester,” Wagner said. “So then, we would have the ability to put those other officers in places like traffic patrol and traffic enforcement. Then we can start curbing some of this reckless driving.”
These damages are serious to DPW. When it comes to traffic signal replacements, they consider those “emergency situations” according to Muhs. People should call the Unified Call Center at 414-286-CITY (2489) and crews will replace the light within 24 hours.
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