Because taxes just aren’t high enough.

Milwaukee County vehicle owners will begin paying an annual $30 wheel tax next year, as part of a $1.1 billion spending plan for 2017 approved Monday by the County Board.

The county property tax levy for 2017 will rise 1.43%, or $4 million, to $291.07 million, to help pay for county government next year. The total levy is $96,286 less than the amount included in County Executive Chris Abele’s recommended 2017 budget, according to Steve Cady, research and policy director in the Comptroller’s Office.

The tax rate needed to generate the levy falls slightly from around $5.12 per $1,000 of equalized value this year to $5.08 for 2017, Cady said. Other revenue sources include direct charges for services, a county sales tax, state aid, state shared revenue payments, federal grants, bond proceeds and grants from private sources.

On a 10-7 vote, the board approved a $30 vehicle registration fee ordinance during its annual budget adoption meeting.

Property taxes up… new tax on cars… increasing spending with no additional value by raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour… boy, that’s a kick in the crotch for Milwaukee County taxpayers.

Wow. This is stunningly bad.

The Milwaukee Art Museum would become the owner of its buildings on the Lake Michigan shore, as well as Milwaukee County’s O’Donnell Park and its multilevel parking garage, in a deal valued at more than $28.8 million, officials said Tuesday.

The museum would take responsibility for up to $6 million worth of repairs on an O’Donnell Park priority list if the County Board approves the noncash transaction, museum director Dan Keegan said. The board will be asked to sign off on the deal at a March 17 meeting.

Here’re the operative details.

In the proposed transaction, the museum would end an 84-year lease with the county and take ownership of its buildings, including the lower level of the building that is home to the War Memorial Center. As the new owner, the museum would assume liability for their long-term maintenance and repairs, which is now the responsibility of the county and its taxpayers, according to Keegan.

That liability for the museum buildings is estimated to cost about $88 million over the next several decades, but its current value in today’s dollars is about $28.8 million, Keegan said.

This requires some context. A couple of years ago, Northwestern Mutual offered the county $14.4 million in cash. In that offer, NML would take over the property, revitalize it, and create green space. But the liberals on the board abhorred the thought of selling county property to a private interest, so they rejected the offer.

Now the county is GIVING the property to another private interest and that interest will take over maintenance, which NML would have done too. And the county is trying to spin this as a deal for taxpayers. So instead of the county getting $14.4 million in cash and absolving the taxpayers of future obligations, the taxpayers are getting nothing.

Are the county leaders this stupid or do they just think that we are?

He reveals what all of us who live here already know… Milwaukee County is dysfunctional.

Q: Did going away give you more of an appreciation for Dayton?

A:”Before I left, people here did a lot to try to keep me. So I knew I was leaving a good situation to go up there, to go to a bigger airport. I think the perspective I got from being in Milwaukee is just how much easier it is to get things done (in Dayton). We have a city commission and mayor, good leadership, that’s on the same page. You don’t have a lot of infighting. Up there, they had a board of supervisors that are at each others throats. It was a completely different political environment.”

Q: How tough was the decision to leave and come back, both personally and professionally?

A: “It was hard, but it was the right thing for me to do for my family. Also, the situation up there wasn’t a good environment for me. I didn’t have a lot of autonomy. I was being pretty heavily managed by my boss. I’ll be curious to see how they fill that job because I think they’re going to have a hard time getting a professional airport director who is seasoned. They really had a lot of ideas about what they wanted that I just don’t think fit our business.”