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Joel Brennan: “The City of Milwaukee had pretty much cut everything that it…”

Featuring: Joel Brennan, Democratic | Candidate, Governor of Wisconsin

Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race?

Published June 19, 2026 | Video Starts at 33:24

During that time, I worked very closely with the mayor and the whole city. And I'll tell you what that showed was that The City of Milwaukee had pretty much cut everything that it could cut. They didn't have a spending problem, they had a revenue problem. And the only way that they raised revenue in the City of Milwaukee generally is to get money from the state or to rely on local property tax. (33:24–33:33)

CLAIM

Asserts Milwaukee's financial issues stem from insufficient revenue, not overspending.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Joel Brennan

“In the state of Wisconsin, we have 72 counties; at any given time, there's probably 26 counties that don't have a practicing OBGYN in them.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 08:51-09:00
“If you're a black mother, you know, giving birth, you're three times more likely to die in childbirth than, you know, than a white woman.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 09:03-09:12
“Many other states, 40 other states expanded Medicaid since Obamacare was passed. Wisconsin never did that.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 09:18-09:26
“The statistics say that maybe a quarter of daycares around the state of Wisconsin could close in the next six months to a year.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 16:09-16:17
“There's about a billion and a half dollars in productivity that sits on the sideline year, mainly women in Wisconsin because they can't find…”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 16:21-16:34
“In Minnesota state, that's same size, same population, same crime rate. They have about 8,000 people incarcerated in state prisons.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 42:24-42:33
“We got more people working in the department, Department of Corrections, that they have in state prisons in Minnesota.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 42:35-42:40
“Responsible for human resources for 35,000 people in state government [as Secretary of Administration for Wisconsin].”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 02:30-02:36
“Responsible for putting together the state budget [as Secretary of Administration for Wisconsin].”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 02:30-02:49
“Responsible for procurement, all the facilities and real estate [as Secretary of Administration for Wisconsin].”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 02:30-02:49
“Responsible for negotiating the compacts and regulating Indian gaming in the state of Wisconsin.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 02:30-02:49
“During COVID, had the additional responsibility for how to spend money with people, farmers, small businesses, renters, and homeowners.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 02:53-03:12
“Took over [Discovery World] in a time where it was absolutely struggling and danger of potentially shutting down.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 05:31-05:36
“Built about a $15 million expansion [at Discovery World].”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 05:38-05:41
“Helped Tony Evers run the executive branch and repair damage that Scott Walker and the right-wing legislature had done between 2010 and…”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 05:46-05:58
“Taken a leave of absence from the job that I've had for the last four years running the Greater Milwaukee Committee.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 06:47-06:54
“There's still about 5% of kids in the state of Wisconsin that don't have any coverage.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 09:41-09:46
“We're forcing all these referendums down to the local level, and people are deciding, do I want to tax myself where I'm in danger of being…”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 10:01-10:15
“Getting rid of the state funding formula that we've had over the last 30 years, that hasn't worked.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 10:20-10:25
“The Legislative Fiscal Bureau... said that if they did all the things that were in this surplus package, that we would go into the next…”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 12:28-12:42
“It's expected that we're going to have a $2.5 billion surplus.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 13:02-13:06
“About 30% of the people in the state of Wisconsin weren't going to get these $300 or $600 tax credits or checks.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 13:26-13:37
“The state of Wisconsin was one of the last states to actually start spending state money on early childhood education, on daycares.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 15:38-15:44
“Last year, for the first time, we put in money to help prop up what is generally failing system [of early childhood education and daycares].”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 15:49-15:56
“It's about $110 million. It runs out on June 30 and on July 1.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 15:56-16:02
“It would cost us $110 million to at least prop up the system that we have now for the next year.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 16:34-16:41
“We were responsible for procurement and we're responsible for some of the diversity efforts at the state level.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 22:07-22:14
“There are rules that happen at the local level. There are rules that happen at the state level.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 24:14-24:19
“I have the same perspective on this that the governor, the Democratic governor of Colorado has.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 25:15-25:21
“At the federal level, they are undoing the Department of Education.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 25:48-25:53
“There are democratic proposals that have gone through like 12 drafts on putting some guardrails up related to data centers.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 27:16-27:24
“I want to make sure that Wisconsin union labor is building all of these things.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 27:49-27:54
“The legislature did not put any guardrails in [when Wisconsin got into the data center game].”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 28:41-28:47
“I think it's reasonable to put a pause on the approval of new data centers until we have these guardrails in place.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 28:58-29:08
“For 15 years, the state of Wisconsin just kind of stopped paying any more money to local units of government.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 32:00-32:08
“We went and ensured Milwaukee could get a 2% sales tax in the city.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 32:13-32:18
“We were in a position where the city was not going to be able to meet very basic needs around law enforcement, around fire protection…”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 33:40-33:52
“The city needs the resources to be able to do the basic functions and make sure that we can do it.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 36:00-36:05
“I don't find a lot of people who say that there are too many police in their neighborhoods.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 36:19-36:24
“We gotta make sure that there is an appropriate law enforcement presence.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 36:41-36:45
“Wisconsin finish[ed], like, out of 38 states that they measured how to do, how are you recovering in Math? We finished 33rd.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 40:09-40:17
“When it comes to reading, there were 35 states. We finished 30th.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 40:17-40:21
“In places like the city of Milwaukee, we're operating. We're doing worse than almost any other city in lots of ways.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 40:30-40:36
“50,000 kids who are now going to either charter schools or private schools.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 41:20-41:24
“There's like 11,000 people who work in the Department of Corrections out of 35,000 people in state government.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 42:16-42:23
“We got, like, 23,000 in Milwaukee.”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 42:32-42:36
“Have red states done things that have significantly reduced what they're spending on prisons and maybe spend that money at the front end in…”
Can executive experience make the difference in Wisconsin's next governor's race? | Uploaded June 19, 2026 | 42:47-42:58