By Karen Stokes
Gregory Gracz (Photo / Gracz for Comptroller)
Gregory Gracz announced his candidacy for the office of City of Milwaukee Comptroller, the city’s chief financial officer.
This is a job Gracz believes he is ready to do with a specific goal.
“My goal is basically that I want to be the taxpayers watchdog,” Gracz said. “The city comptroller is supposed to be responsible for the city’s financial health and well being. A responsibility for the comptroller is to maintain discipline for the city’s budget, to prevent overspending and misallocation of funds to make sure the taxpayers money is used efficiently.”
He will be facing Bill Christianson, the current Deputy Comptroller of the City of Milwaukee. Current Comptroller Aycha Sawa announced in a statement that she won’t seek a second four-year term.
“I’ve been a city resident my entire life and I’ve worked for the city, I’ve worked for the county and I’ve worked for the state. I’ve been very interested in how the city is doing for its neighborhoods. I just don’t feel that the taxpayers are getting their money’s worth,” Gracz said.
He believes a lot of the reason for the recent 2% sales tax increase is because it’s self inflicted.
“It seems that taxes are going up. I think that we have had the same people running the internal city hall that have been there for years and I think it needs some fresh blood to give it a different vision, to look out more for the taxpayers,” said Gracz.
“I see that over the last several years, like the pothole situation, that’s unbelievable. No matter what street you’re going down, you hit a pothole. That’s another tax on the person driving that car and it’s ok for someone who is making $200,000 a year because all they have to do is take it to a shop and it’s no big deal for them but what about the person whose living paycheck to paycheck if their cars laid up how do they get to work, how do they take care of their family?,” Gracz said.
“It’s little things like that,” he continued, “I think there needs to be somebody there to look at how the city is spending their money. To make sure the taxpayers, no matter if they’re rich or poor, are taken care of. This city is a melting pot. You have neighborhoods on the north side, east side, the south side, the African American neighborhoods, the Hispanic neighborhood, you have the Hmong, the Polish, the Germans and they all should be taken care of.”
Gracz explained the comptroller should be an independent voice; it shouldn’t be a rubber stamp for the mayor or the Common Council. The comptroller’s job is to audit all the departments and make sure the programs are operating efficiently to make sure that those programs are operating within the law and that the money is being well spent.
Gracz has a degree in Business Administration from Marquette University. He spent 28 years in the Milwaukee Fire Department reaching the rank of Captain. For the last 20 years he was Union President where he worked well with both Democrats and Republicans and worked with the state legislature to make sure the department got its fair share of revenue.
Gracz and his wife Ruth have three adult children, David, Jenny and Daniel. Daniel passed away from a fentanyl overdose on Christmas 2016.
“That is another reason I’m thrilled to be involved in the city. Fentanyl affects everyone no matter what walk of life,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what neighborhood you’re from, it doesn’t matter the financial situation you’re in, you’re in the sights of the fentanyl problem. It doesn’t just affect the person passing away, it affects the entire community. A lot of the criminal actions going on are due to drug problems.
General Election is April 2, 2024.