The Wisconsin Alliance of Cities’ policy is to foster healthy, sustainable neighborhoods and economies in both urban and rural Wisconsin. A healthy state economy depends on healthy local economies, and healthy local economies depend on healthy cities.

The Alliance seeks to promote a sustainable urban environment by supporting results-oriented legislation that invests in and enhances local economies and infrastructure. Urban and rural Wisconsin have complementary goals: maintaining quality urban and rural environments, respectively. Unmanaged suburban and exurban development harm both. State policy must recognize the contribution cities make to the regional economy.

Communities and their local, elected representatives are best able to chart a sustainable future that meets their needs. State and federal mandates that take local resources away from local decision makers hinder the ability of communities to become sustainable.

To best foster sustainable urban economies, state government should:

• respect local autonomy;
• develop a comprehensive and responsible land-use policy;
• create programs to invest in urban neighborhoods;
• expand local authority; and
• reduce reliance on the property tax.

While the list of services supported by the property tax has grown, the state’s investment in its cities has not kept up with inflation. State government should strengthen the state-local partnership by:

• investing in neighborhoods and local economies in a regular and predictable manner;
• sustaining the local tax base and increasing revenue options; preserving local borrowing capacity;

Sustainable cities must provide a full range of urban services to their citizens. It is folly for cities to subsidize services provided to residents who live outside their boundaries. Yet city taxpayers shoulder a variety of governmental costs that are not imposed on suburban taxpayers, ranging from providing urban services to the bulk of Wisconsin’s tax-exempt property to paying twice for some services for which a town taxpayer pays only once.

Compact urban expansion that provides a full range of urban services is not sprawl. But existing policies encourage growth without the extension of full urban services. They concentrate poverty in central cities and contribute to educational and social segregation.

To promote sustainable cities, state policies should promote intergovernmental cooperation and the notion that urban services should be provided only by urban governments. They should not promote suburban sprawl or other short-term land use decisions.

State government now has two sets of pollution-control rules. One set of rules applies to urban polluters.

A second, weaker set of standards applies to non-urban polluters.

In order to restore Wisconsin’s watersheds, everyone who has a stake in surface and ground water quality should be treated equally.