Milwaukee Comptroller Wally Morics Will Call It Quits After Five Elections

CHICAGO — A few years after picking up and moving from Chicago, where he worked for a major accounting firm, to settle in a small Colorado town, W. Martin “Wally” Morics was itching for more of a challenge. Encouraged by his wife, Cathy, he applied for an opening as the deputy comptroller of Milwaukee.

At 29, he figured he didn’t stand a chance.

“Milwaukee has more employees than Leadville, Colorado, has residents,” Morics recalled in an interview Wednesday. But Comptroller James McCann hired Morics in 1976, and in 1992 when McCann retired, Morics successfully ran for the position as the city’s chief financial officer and has won re-election four times.

Morics announced this week he won’t seek another term next April.

Born in Germany and raised in Chicago, Morics went to work as an accountant after obtaining his MBA degree. After a few years, he decided to relocate to Leadville to work as a CPA.

“It was the 1970s and John Denver was singing 'Rocky Mountain High.’ That was my hippie period,” said Morics, who got a haircut before the Milwaukee interview and sports a neatly pressed suit and short-cropped hairstyle in his official picture.

Morics, 65, said during his early years in the office he sought to make structural improvements to the city’s finances and positively influence the decisions of mayors and members of the Common Council. He worked to clean up the city’s balance sheet and improve daily liquidity.

On debt management, he steered the office through a modernization. “It was just plain bread-and-butter issuance back then. We’ve expanded to use variable-rate debt, swaps and commercial paper,” he said.

As comptroller, Morics sits on the city employees’ pension fund and is proud of management decisions that have kept it fully funded. It’s the sum of many small decisions over the years rather than any headline-grabbing one Morics points to as accomplishments. “I’m proud that I’ve been able to help the city manage its long-term obligations and not overextend itself,” he said.

The comptroller’s office manages Milwaukee’s financial affairs, including debt management, establishes accounting policies for city departments, and manages cash flow, audits and financial analysis of projects. The comptroller also sits on several boards and is secretary to the city’s public debt commission.

Moody’s Investors Service rates Milwaukee’s $750 million of general obligation bonds Aa1 with a negative outlook, Standard & Poor’s rates them AA and stable, while Fitch Ratings assigns a AA-plus and negative outlook.

“Mr. Morics is the quintessential public servant and a consummate professional who has brought a humble commitment to protecting the long-term fiscal health of the city,” Alderman Michael Murphy, chairman of the Common Council’s Finance and Personnel Committee, said in a statement.

Morics credits the government’s fiscal position to city leaders for heeding his advice — on many but not all occasions — and his finance team. The team that works on debt management includes deputy comptroller Michael Daun, public debt specialist Richard Li, director of financial services Craig Kammholz and special deputy John Egan.

Morics said his biggest regret is retiring before the city deals with its structural woes. “The structural problem is not solved and no one seems to be talking about it,” he said.

About 80% of the general fund comes from property taxes and state aid, and neither keeps pace with inflation. State aid levels have remained flat since 1995 but the new Wisconsin budget includes a more than 4% cut while the city faces property-tax levy caps.

“The city needs elastic revenues that can grow with the economy,” Morics said.

Rating agencies agree, saying the city’s overall credit profile remains strong, with rapid repayment of manageable debt levels and a fully funded pension system, but its exposure to state actions and limited revenue-raising options pose a threat.

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