June 19, 2002 e-newsletter

Metropatterns Revisited
Participants Issue Blueprint 
for Change

Myron Orfield and Thomas Luce found growing poverty, declining tax base, inefficient growth and racial and social segregation in seven metropolitan areas of Wisconsin in their February, 2002 study, Wisconsin Metropatterns: Regional Cooperation , Economic Growth and Environmental Protection.

Economic development, planning, governmental service delivery and taxation on a regional level can remedy the situation that Orfield and Luce found, grow Wisconsin's economy, improve the environment, conserve threatened farmland,  and save taxpayers huge sums in the process,  participants in Wisconsin Metropatterns working groups concluded after followup meetings in Wauwatosa in May and June.

They  recommended that the following be performed on a regional basis in keeping with Orfield and Luce’s vision:

Economic development; planning; selected governmental service delivery; and taxation

Mayor Ray Glowacki (right) makes point at Metropatterns working session. To his left is St. Francis Mayor Larry Burazin. In the background: Wauwatosa Mayor Terry Estness and David Cieslewicz of 1000 Friends of Wisconsin.

They crafted a blueprint to accomplish those goals while preserving local units of government.

The challenge is to build broader regional communities while preserving what we have. To find out how working group participants want to do so, please go here.

Milwaukee's North Shore
Fire Consolidation Studied

It wasn't a miracle that seven communities north of Milwaukee — Bayside, Brown Deer, Fox Point, Glendale, River Hills, Shorewood, and Whitefish Bay —  came together to form a cooperative Fire and Rescue Department in the mid-1990s, but it was a miraculous confluence of events that got them there, Sammis B. White, professor of urban planning at the UWM Center for Urban Initiatives and Research, concludes in a new study.

Task Force Has Work Ahead
Regionalism Touted at First Meeting

By Rich Eggleston

The Task Force on State & Local Government began work June 12 with each member saying what he or she hoped the group would accomplish.

Members were just over half way around the table before someone mentioned the word "regional."

Yet when there's new development, only the municipality inside whose borders the development occurs benefits directly, Mayor Hanna said.

"The state is a collection of regional economies that don't follow municipal boundaries," he said. And "the system we have today encourages us to compete with each other."

Changing the role of municipalities from one of competition  to one of cooperation will enable us to grow our regional economies and benefit our citizens, Mayor Hanna said.

In southeastern Wisconsin, local governments could save $60 million a year with a regional transportation authority, said Bill Mielke of Ruekert-Mielke, the consulting firm that devised a revenue sharing plan for eastern Racine County. He said that plan gives affected municipalities economic parity, thus ending turf battles.

"If you can't get past the turf battles, you don't go anywhere," Mielke said. Revenue sharing among Racine and six suburban communities cut the tax rate disparity in the region in half.

Mielke also said the state's shared revenue program is flawed, and the formula can be rewritten to provide incentives for municipalities to pull with each other for economic development.

Rick Gale, president of Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, and Racine County Executive Jean Jacobson also lauded regional cooperation. Gale's example was the North Shore Fire District, mentioned above.

Task Force chair Tim Sheehy said he would like the task force to focus on recommendations that are "actionable — things that local governments can do, that the Legislature can enact."

Tom Leverich, chairman of the town of Angelo in Monroe County, was optimistic.

"When I look around here today I don't see any spittoons, so I know change is possible," Leverich said.

Mayor Mike Miller is new Alliance president

U.S. Conference
Mayors Outnumber Protesters

Health cost nightmare told

This year, retiree health premiums consume 15% of Beloit's tax levy. By 2011, that will grow to 25% of the levy, City Manager Jane Wood told Rep. Terri McCormick's task force on local government health partnerships May 29.

In the mid 1970s, Wood explained, an arbitrator extended lifetime health benefits to both police and fire personnel. Only in the last 10 years, as workers eligible for the benefits began to retire, did costs shoot up. The city's liability for future retiree health and life insurance benefits now totals more than $55 million, she said.

DNR Lacks Authority to Impose Water Fee

An innocent item I put in the Alliance of Cities' May 28 newsletter prompted questions about how the DNR intends to handle proposed General Purpose Revenue budget cuts.

The item was prompted by Wisconsin Rural Water Association fears that lack of funding for public water supply monitoring activities could result in fee increases for public water systems. The funding cuts would seriously hit DNR's water division, which  protects the quality of Wisconsin's groundwater, surface water and aquatic ecosystems. The division also safeguards the safety of the state's drinking water systems and private wells,regulates polluters and runs the state's fish hatcheries.

The division has just 40% of DNR's GPR spending authority, but absorbed 80% of the first round of cuts to state agencies in Act 16, the 2001-02 state budget, a $2 million cut. The next round of cuts could represent an additional $458,000 for the water division.

Here's the response by Jill Jonas of the DNR to our questions:

Q.  Does DNR have authority to impose fees on municipal water systems, both public and private?

A.  We do not have that authority.

Q. Does the agency intend to dismantle its oversight of public water supplies (less government being one of Gov.Scott McCallum's stated goals)?

A.  No, we are not dismantling our public water surveillance program and in fact, it is of highest priority. We are making reductions in other areas of our program.

Q. Is there anything else afoot re: municipal water systems that we don't know about?

A. I am not aware of anything afoot. We have no immediate plans regarding a fee program. The budget reductions have spurred conversations from various groups such as WRWA on the use of fees. That is probably what you have heard.

Freeway project slams poor: ACLU

The $6.2 billion freeway expansion project proposed by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission would hurt poor minority residents of the region by separating them from new jobs, says the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.

The proposed project is just another chapter in the public policy manual that has segregated people by race and income in southeastern Wisconsin, and infrastructure planners remain blind to the effects of their actions, the ACLU's June 13 press release suggests.

"Sooner or later an environmental impact statement that considers environmental justice issues will need to be done," Christopher Ahmuty of the ACLU said in a letter to SEWRPC advisory committee chair William Drew.

A week earlier Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist told a public forum that the plan can't be realized without a gas tax increase, and the state just can't afford it, given Gov. Scott McCallum's election-year promise not to raise taxes.

"If what the governor has  in mind is a Miller-Park-style tax for southeastern Wisconsin, that would face strong taxpayer opposition," Norquist said.

Wausau Mayor asks McCallum help with merger

Wausau Mayor Linda Lawrence says Gov. Scott McCallum should appoint a state agency to guide the Wausau area in merging into a single city with 73,000 people or merging services.

"We need a firm leader involved who's not seen as having something to gain," Mayor Lawrence said. "I'm probably one of the firmest believers (in a merger), but I'm seen as trying to get people to rescue Wausau's tax problem. So I can't be the one pushing this."

Five municipalities  — Wausau, Rib Mountain, Weston, Schofield, Rothchild, Kronenwetter and Stettin  — are involved in merger talks, but the move is not very popular with citizens who contact their local officials, the Wausau Daily Herald reported June 5. For its story, look here.