(CAFR FOR THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE QUICK WALKTHROUGH)

City of Milwaukee 2000 - 2009 - http://www.ci.mil.wi.us/ComprehensiveAnnualF12281.htm

By page number listed on bottom of each page of the report, not the (.pdf) reader.
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Statement of Net Assets ................................................................................................................... 36
Statement of Activities ..................................................................................................................... 38
The assets of the City of Milwaukee exceeded its liabilities at the close of fiscal year 2009 by $929
million (net assets);
$248 million in governmental activities and
$681 million in business-type activities.
Governmental activities’ unrestricted assets are a deficit of $283 million.

(These are the least important figures, but the do show the hard capital assets like buildings, vehicles
etc...)
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Fund Descriptions ............................................................................................................................. 101
COMBINING BALANCE SHEET -
NONMAJOR GOVERNMENTAL FUNDS .................................................................................... 103
***Look at the "Total Liabilities and Fund Balances" line at bottom of chart on page 103 to see
each individual fund. These 4 funds are listed on top of chart across from left to right, with the fund
balances at the bottom from left to right. The chart is just one page. If it were more pages, the pages
would go together left to right as one chart until the total for all funds is listed. It is (listed in
thousands), meaning you add 3 0's to the total (,000). It states in the "Total Nonmajor Governmental
Funds" column (top to bottom) that Milwaukee has $65,366,000 in these funds. These are cash and/or
liquid investments.

These funds are listed in separate graphs after that, one each on pages 104 - 106, except for the
delinquent tax fund. These are redundant, so don't worry about them.
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Now it starts over with the next set of funds, the "Nonmajor Enterprise Funds". The only difference
between this CAFR and the Aurora CAFR is that the Aurora CAFR listed all of these funds on one
chart. Milwakee split them up into groups with separate charts. Remember to add 3 - 000's to totals.
Descriptions of these funds are on page 107.
NONMAJOR ENTERPRISE FUNDS COMBINING STATEMENT OF REVENUES, EXPENSES
AND CHANGES IN FUND NET ASSETS (chart) ..................................................................................
.. 109
Two funds here... "Total Nonmajor Enterprise Funds" column states that there is $14,892,000 in this
set of funds.
***IMPORTANT*** Note though that the actual assets in the fund are listed at $39,783,000. These are
cash and investments. If you read the "liabilities" column, you will see that all liabilities are for future
debt obligations, including government contributions (taxpayer money) to the pension fund. So
technically, these liabilities don't count since they haven't been charged yet. Just another way to hide
the true value of the funds.
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NONMAJOR ENTERPRISE FUNDS
COMBINING STATEMENT OF REVENUES, EXPENSES AND CHANGES IN FUND NET
ASSETS chart shows the beginning of the fiscal year fund balance compared to the end of the fiscal
year balance. "Changes in net assets" are claimed to be + $15,000 (15 + ,000 --- 3 zeros).
The "Net Change in Fund Balances" for the previous funds, the Nonmajor Governmental Funds was
listed as + $6,176,000
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Now the next set of funds...
Agency Funds description -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
111

COMBINING SCHEDULE OF CHANGES IN ASSETS AND LIABILITIES ----------------------- 112

- 113
This one is a bit harder to read, but you'll get used to it. Funds are listed on top of each other (top to
bottom instead of left to right). Remember to add three 000's. From the total column...
BOARD OF SCHOOL DIRECTORS FUND - $228,896,000
PROPERTY TAX FUND - $106,143,000
PAYROLL DEDUCTIONS FUND - $191,000
FEES, PENALTIES AND SALES TAX FUND (This is where the money goes for the traffic fines you
pay, once the private corporation known as the police and the private corporation known as the traffic
court take their cut, or before.) - $384,000
OTHER- $1,320,000
TOTAL - ALL AGENCY FUNDS - $336,934,000
Remember to compare the fund balances from beginning of year, left hand column, and the end of year
to see profit or loss to fund. Also, again the liabilities listed are future liabilities, and so these totals are
the cash and investments on hand end of fiscal year. Liabilities are not really in play here, since they
are future obligations.
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Page 117 is the COMBINED SCHEDULE OF CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AND
INVESTMENTS - PRIMARY GOVERNMENT chart.
It lists other investments we haven't covered, as well as some we have...
Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments - Fund (in thousands):

General ......................................................... $47,02,000

General Obligation Debt Service .................. $124,41,000

Public Debt Amortization ............................... $46,94,000

Capital Projects ............................................. $4,361,000

Nonmajor Governmental Funds .................... $18,878,000 (Discrepancy in above chart total???)

Water Works ................................................. $7,232,000

Sewer Maintenance ...................................... $10,492,000

Parking .......................................................... $21,019,000

Nonmajor Enterprise Funds ........................... -

Pension and Other Employee Benefit Trusts... $402,000

Private-Purpose Trusts ................................. $5,045,000

Agency Funds ............................................... $336,934,000

Total Cash and Cash Equivalents and

Investments - Fund ............................... $622,742,000

***Notice that the chart states that only $1,159,000 of this is restricted funds, leaving over
$600,000,000 in unrestricted funds. The rest could be used or transferred anywhere they want, anytime
they want.
For descriptions of these funds, you'll have to read the CAFR, or search for the names of the funds with
the pdf search option on your program.
For instance... Water Works, Sewer Maintenance, and Parking are listed as well on the graph on
page 50-51. They are called "enterprise operations". In other words, they are revenue generating
businesses the government is running and investing the money! Golf courses would fall under this
category.
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Page 128 - 129 lists the CAPITAL PROJECTS BY PURPOSE SCHEDULE OF ACCOUNT
BALANCES
This is the capital projects funds listed separately. You'll have to figure out by reading the report on
"Capital Projects" whether these individual funds are listed in the other "Nonmajor Funds". Don't want
to add things twice! But then, that's probably why they make it so damn difficult to read.
In the Total Assets column (left to right), this represents the cash and investments that are in these
funds, waiting to be used for construction, etc... Of course they invest this money while delaying and
legislating when to start the projects.
Think about it this way... If you've ever wondered why it takes the government so long to build things,
expand or repave roads, and repair potholes, etc... it's because the longer these projects can be delayed,
the longer the money in the funds can be invested and turn a profit. Of course they can build a whole
casino in Las Vegas that's an exact replica of Venice or Paris in less than 6 months. But a repaving a
road or building a new off-ramp from the freeway to the new Wallmart takes 5 years of planning
(stalling) and two years of construction.
Now this mystery should make sense! Profit. There is always a motive. While its more profitable to
build a casino as quickly as possible to get gamblers in there as soon as possible, it is much more
profitable to deley and poorly build public infrastructure so that the fund money (tax money) can be
invested and earn interest and capital gains. Everything starts to make sense once you understand the
CAFR accounting and investment structure of government!
Totals in these "construction" type of funds are at $28,553,000
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Page 132 -133 - General Fund...

Just look at the difference in these two charts. One says the fund is at a negative balance of -$2,409,000
The next chart shows a positive balance of +$18,271,000
Notice that the second chart states at the top that it is the "2009 Actual". We know the definition of the
word actual. It's real, not based on future obligations.
*** Now let's go back to the Financial Highlights section on page 19 and read what it says about
the General Fund...
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• The General Fund balance at year-end 2009 totaled $71 million – a $2 million reduction compared to
2008 (-3%). This ending Fund balance is about 10% of General Fund expenditures and transfers.

• The operating expenditures of the General Fund were $18 million less than budgeted.
Hopefully you can see where they pull some of these numbers from now, and that is is very tricky
financial reporting. - 2 million on one chart and + 18 million on the other chart, even though it states
that the balance of the fund it is talking about is stated at $71 million. Confusing... yes! Confusing on
purpose... YES!!!
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Well, it's late and I am getting heavy-eyed. You can add these totals up yourself, and be sure and not
add some of the funds twice. There is definitely over a billion or two hanging around here though. I
didn't look for the investments in "self insurance" which is usually called a "risk management fund"
and I didn't look for city investments in the "state investment fund" among other things like the
"pension funds" and other "insurance funds". You can look for those, but this should be sufficient to
point the stink-finger of blame at your local government crooks. Smiles...
The county shouldn't look too much different than this. Probably more wealthy though. And I'm sure
that there are many cities within the county surrounding Milwaukee proper that are just as wealthy.
Each suburb city or township has their own CAFR as well... in fact, here they are:
• Bayside
• Brown Deer
• Cudahy
• Fox Point
• Franklin
• Glendale
• Greendale
• Greenfield
• Hales Corners
• Milwaukee
• Oak Creek
• River Hills
• Shorewood
• South Milwaukee
• St. Francis
• Wauwatosa
• West Allis
• West Milwaukee
• Whitefish Bay
Each one has a CAFR. Plus the County. Plus the school and other districts. Plus the pension funds. Plus
infinity...
Pass this on if you wish...