Milwaukee Alderman Scott Spiker does not like the Milwaukee streetcar, a.k.a. The Hop.

How can we tell? Because Spiker has issued at least four press releases about the streetcar in October alone. And argued about it during at least one Common Council committee meeting. And penned a letter to the federal government about it. And created at least one stupid AI video about it. If Milwaukee was a sexy ’80s psychological thriller and Spiker was a spurned lover, the streetcar would be coming home to a boiled bunny right…about…now!

But seriously, it’s budget season in Milwaukee, and Spiker has made stopping the eight-year-old streetcar his PET project. His anti-streetcar argument BOILS down to this:

• The thing doesn’t go anywhere.

• Only the “unhoused” and “well-heeled” ride it.

• Thanks to specific state laws and the general political climate, there’s no realistic hope of expanding it.

• It currently runs at a $4.2 million deficit.

• That $4.2 million could be better spent elsewhere.

• If we just asked the federal government nicely they would totally forgive the $48 million we’d have to pay back if we scrapped the thing.

(The pro-streetcar answer to this argument BOILS down to this: “It is a strategic investment that grows downtown’s economy, raises property values, and reduces tax pressure on homeowners across the city.”)

So there you go. Argue about the streetcar. God knows everyone else is. Here are the press releases Spiker has issued about the streetcar so far.

Kill the Wheel Tax? Stop the Streetcar!

Statement of Alderman Scott Spiker
October 8, 2025

I don’t have to tell you: these are hard times. Buying a house, renting an apartment, filling your grocery bag, repairing your vehicle: all of these are more expensive propositions than they used to be.

Government shouldn’t be making things harder on people.

Just as families around the City have learned to tighten their belts, we in City Government have to look hard at how we can tighten ours. That’s because, to the extent we don’t – to the extent we continue business as usual – we bury our residents under a mountain of mounting taxes and fees.

Take the wheel tax…please.

The City’s vehicle registration fee, as it is worse known, was established at $20 in 2008, raised (though not by me!) another $10 in 2021, and is proposed to be raised by the Mayor another $10 in his suggested budget for 2026.

That’s $40 in fees for the City alone on top of the County’s own $30 wheel tax and the State’s base $85 wheel tax. Doing some quick math, that’s $155 in vehicle registration fees if you drive a car, even more if you drive a truck, and lord help you if you are trying to help the environment: you’ll pay $75 extra for the privilege of driving a hybrid and a staggering $175 extra if you drive an electric vehicle.

I don’t know about you, but I think we have a wheel problem here.

But what to do about it? The City’s wheel tax raises wheel money, money that’s needed and used to repave, resurface, and repair local roadways.

The Mayor’s proposed increase of $10 per vehicle, for instance, could raise up to $2.7 million, depending on when it’s enacted. That’s $2.7 million we won’t have for roads if we don’t raise the fee.

Or won’t we? I have another idea for avoiding the increase.

STOP THE STREETCAR.

Barrett’s Bird, the albatross that has hung around the neck of every budget director since 2018, is killing us. Largely a device for transporting the unhoused and the well-heeled, the Milwaukee Streetcar costs upwards of $7 million dollars a year to travel two whole miles, mostly in a circle and largely downtown.

What’s more, State Legislation passed in 2023 known as Act 12 prevents the City from levying taxes or using another tool known as tax incremental financing to expand the current 2.1-mile loop into the realm of relevancy.

In other words, future streetcar expansion is, for all intents and purposes, dead in its tracks.

Given that reality, wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to shelve the streetcar permanently (or until things change radically at the federal and state level), take that $7 million annual savings, and do some good with it?

And shouldn’t we at least start with eliminating the Mayor’s proposed $10 increase in the wheel tax?

I know, I know. Our Commissioner of Public Works will remind us that if we stop the streetcar, we risk having the feds attempt to claw back some or all of the $69 million they gave us in the form of a CMAQ grant (never mind the acronym) to help us create the streetcar system in the first place.

Two rejoinders to this argument. First, as running the streetcar becomes, year after year, an ever more expensive proposition, the number of years it will take to make back any money lost becomes fewer and fewer. (E.g., when it cost $5 million a year to run, it would have taken around 14 years to make back our $69 million. At $7 million a year, it would take less than 10.)

But second, and more importantly, have you met our federal government recently?

I don’t see them clawing back bupkis from us. I see them, instead, heralding our newfound fiscal responsibility when we throw in the towel on a flawed transit system…I call it “The Hot Mess Express”…that does nothing but bleed cash, cash that we – and most importantly, our residents – simply do not have.

(Nevertheless, to be cautious, I plan on asking our congressional delegation for their assistance here, and would urge the Mayor to do the same.)

In conclusion, we can’t afford what our residents can no longer endure. For too long, we have reached into their pockets instead of reaching out with more imaginative and efficient ways of delivering city services. This simply has to stop.

Stopping the streetcar, and using the savings to eliminate the Mayor’s proposed increase to the wheel tax, is where we have to start.

N.B.: AI? As if…

Good Money after Bad: Committee Hears Why We Spend Over $4 Million Net on the Streetcar while Raising Taxes and Fees

Statement of Alderman Scott Spiker
October 15, 2025

Do you know why we spend over $4 million a year (net; $7 million gross) on a streetcar system that goes nowhere and that no one outside of downtown rides?

Neither do I.

Fortunately, on Thursday, October 16th at 1 p.m. in Room 301-B at City Hall, our questions – though not our prayers – will be answered.

The Department of Public Works will attempt to shed light on the Mayor’s choice in his 2026 proposed budget to continue sending good money after bad by supporting a streetcar system with no possibility of growth and every certainty of losing money.

The galling context framing this discussion is his attendant proposal to raise taxes and fees – including our favorite, the Wheel Tax – at the same damn time.

The Fourth Estate should attend this hearing to learn why the only people who think this is a good idea reside in leadership in the Mayor’s Office and his Department of Public Works.

I, for one, will be waiting with baited [sic] breath. Get out your popcorn.

N.B.: AI? As if…

Ald. Spiker issues letter urging Secretary Duffy to release Milwaukee from streetcar grant obligations

October 28, 2025

A letter (attached) issued today by Alderman Scott Spiker urges U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to release the City of Milwaukee from the remainder of its grant obligations incurred during the development of the Milwaukee streetcar. Additionally, Alderman Spiker requests that the City be held harmless in future grant requests through the Federal Transit Administration.

Alderman Spiker notes that the streetcar continues to operate at a deficit of approximately $4.2 million a year, money that cannot then be used to support other municipal needs.

In part, the letter states: “I realize the somber significance of this request. I am asking your department, as an alderman speaking only for myself and those I represent, to throw us a lifeline. I am asking you to remove an albatross that has been hanging around our necks for far too long now. You did not put it there, but neither did the taxpayers of Milwaukee. They were never asked whether they wished to take on the burden they now bear. They bear it nevertheless. It has become too heavy to endure.”

October 28, 2025
The Honorable,
Mr. Sean Duffy, Secretary
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

Dear Mr. Secretary,

I write today to ask you to assist the current leadership of the City of Milwaukee with a predicament that is not of its own making. The Milwaukee streetcar – known colloquially as “The Hop” – came into existence as part of a system that was erected back in 2018 with a mix of funding, including federal grants. In 2023, as part of the passage of Act 12 by the State of Wisconsin, that system was ossified into a two-mile loop downtown with no meaningful prospects for expansion.

The Milwaukee streetcar continues to operate each year at a loss, with an expected deficit in 2026 estimated at approximately $4.2 million. That is $4.2 million that we cannot use next year to lower taxes and fees, keep our libraries open, repave our dilapidated local streets, or replace our aging vehicle fleet for the fire and police departments.

Mr. Secretary, we need your help. I ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to release the City of Milwaukee from the remainder of the grant obligations it incurred during the development of the Milwaukee streetcar. Moreover, I ask that the City be held harmless in future grant requests (e.g., for funding for streets) through the Federal Transit Administration.

I realize the somber significance of this request. I am asking your department, as an alderman speaking only for myself and those I represent, to throw us a lifeline. I am asking you to remove an albatross that has been hanging around our necks for far too long now. You did not put it there, but neither did the taxpayers of Milwaukee. They were never asked whether they wished to take on the burden they now bear. They bear it nevertheless. It has become too heavy to endure.

I appreciate your consideration of this proposal to release the City of Milwaukee from its federal grant obligations for the streetcar with the goal of ending its operations. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Scott P. Spiker
Alderman, 13th District

cc: Senator Ron Johnson,
Senator Tammy Baldwin,
Representative Gwen Moore

Truth in Advertising: Parking Tickets to be Renamed “Streetcar Stubs”

Statement of Alderman Scott Spiker
October 30, 2025

Do you park illegally on City streets? Have you received a parking ticket for your transgression? Well, I have good news for you.

The Mayor’s Office, in collaboration with his Department of Public Works, will allow you to take that parking ticket and use it to ride for free on the economic-development engine of the Downtown: The Milwaukee Streetcar!

Oh, happy day! Now you, too, can join residents of the Couture in schlepping it in style from the Lakefront to Milwaukee’s Public Market to the Post Office, and even all the way to Burns Commons…assuming you have the two hours it usually takes for the streetcar to traverse even short distances.

Can’t be bothered to drive or bus into downtown to actually obtain access to the two-mile oval of opulence that is your Milwaukee Streetcar route? That’s O.K.!

For a limited time only, you can donate the funds from your parking ticket to support the ridership of an economically-challenged Couture dweller. Who says there is no such thing as a free ride? You just paid for one!

******

Setting levity to one side for a moment, here’s the situation.

The Transportation Fund for the City is in bad shape…we’re talking life-support. It has accumulated a $32.3 million cash debt that it has no prospects for repaying under the current regime. The only hope is either to increase revenue or cut expenses.

Since obtaining efficiencies appears anathema to the Mayor’s team (Charge fares for riding the Streetcar? Too hard!), cutting expenses appears to be off the table for them.

That leaves only the prospect of raising revenue. They have two main strategies here. Charge more for meters, and write more parking tickets.

More fully, downtown meters are going to run to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday by the end of spring, and parking enforcement officers are going to – somehow, someway – write 65,000(!) more tickets next year.

There’s gotta be a better way to climb out of the hole that the Transportation Fund is in. I have suggested sandbagging the Milwaukee Streetcar as a way of saving $4.2 million annually. The Mayor suggests writing more tickets (Where in the City? Great question.) and charging more for the luxury of driving into downtown and parking your car.

This strategy, in my mind, is a ticket to nowhere. It does not address the fundamental flaw in the system, and it fails to cognize the inequality that his approach breeds. When you have poor people in densely-parked areas paying for rich people downtown to have a perk that only they can enjoy – that, my friend, is unfair.

It is high time that we finally reckon with that disparity and Stop the Hop!

N.B.: AI? As if…

Addendum: A 100% very real representation of this situation can be seen here.