WisGOP anti-Milwaukee mentality is killing jobs and services

This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its jobs report for all metropolitan areas in the US. And Wisconsin’s largest metro area stood out in a very bad way.

The largest over-the-year decrease in employment occurred in Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC (-4,500), followed by Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI (-3,100), and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA (-2,100). The largest over-the-year percentage decrease in employment occurred in Beckley, WV (-3.1 percent), followed by Michigan City-La Porte, IN (-2.6 percent), and Cape Girardeau, MO-IL (-2.5 percent).

Over the year, nonfarm employment rose in 48 of the 51 metropolitan areas with a 2010 Census population of 1 million or more and fell in 3. The largest over-the-year percentage increases in employment in these large metropolitan areas occurred in Raleigh, NC (+3.5 percent), Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL (+3.3 percent), and Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA, and Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV (+3.2 percent each). The over-the-year percentage decreases occurred in Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC (-0.6 percent), Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI (-0.4 percent), and Rochester, NY (-0.3 percent).

That’s horrid enough, but take a look at how Milwaukee trails other Midwestern metros over the last 12 months. And take a look who’s Number 1!

Detroit +44,900 (+2.3%)
Twin Cities, MN +44,800 (+2.3%)
Cincinnati +29,900 (+2.8%)
Chicago +24,700 (+0.5%)
Columbus, OH +22,300 (+2.1%)
Indianapolis +19,200 (+1.8%)
Des Moines +11,300 (+3.1%)
Cleveland +9,700
Milwaukee -3,100 (-0.4%)

In addition, the Milwaukee area’s employment began flattening out in 2016 after a good runup in the previous 5 years, so the metro area is only 2,100 jobs ahead of where it was at this time 2 years ago.



So how is voting for race-baiting GOPs that defund and bad-mouth Milwaukee working out for you in the burbs? Talent doesn’t want relocate and live in a place with such a regressive reputation (both at the state and suburban levels), so your wages and job opportunities suck too. Add in vouchers stealing money from your local school districts, and the advantages you had of living a distance from your job are quickly going away.

But the MMAC and other Milwaukee corporate oligarchs continue to back the GOP that has been in charge of the state over the last 6 years, and want to double down on cronyist giveaways and wage-suppressing BS? It proves again that Tim Sheehy and his old boys’ club don’t give a fuck about improving the economy of the state’s largest metro area- they just want to grab more for themselves.

Even worse, the suburban-based, anti-Milwaukee GOP majority at the Capitol have imposed fiscal handcuffs off of the City because of ….self-serving arrogance and/or racism? (it sure isn’t improving outcomes) This squeezes the city into the horrible position of having to cut services in a time when they need them more than ever, because they aren't allowed to tax enough to provide the funding for the services a high-density city requires (especially one in a metro area that has such economic segregation with high pockets of poverty concentrated in the main city).

This is manifested in Mayor Tom Barrett's newly-released 2018 City budget, as Urban Milwaukee’s Jeremy Jannene reports.

The mayor, after stating that this was the most difficult budget his office has had to prepare, reiterated his recent campaign around “the Milwaukee dividend.” He noted that while state revenue has seen a 59 percent increase in the past 14 years in a row (sic) , the city continues to receive less back from the state than it contributes. The gap, which has grown tremendously in recent years, now leaves the city short tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue it previously received as part of the state shared revenue formula. The state shared revenue formula is used to return income and sales taxes collected by the state to the municipalities in which they’re generated. (it’s also supposed to try to keep certain areas of the state from falling behind others because it lacks tax base or population).

The budget, which reduces the number of police officers by 33 and fire fighters by 75, would not result in any layoffs. Illustrating the stark challenges the city faces in funding its public safety needs, the mayor’s budget anticipates raising $273.5 million from the property tax levy, while spending $293.4 million directly on the Milwaukee Police Department. The Milwaukee Police Department currently has a sworn strength of 1,888.

A big portion of the budget gap is caused by the need to increase the annual pension contribution. The city is required to keep the pension fully funded, and due to an actuarial change, will need to contribute an additional $22 million this year. In his address Barrett noted that 90 percent of those increased funds will go towards contributions for public safety employees, who are exempt from Act 10. So while the budget cuts the number of police and fire fighters, the amount the city is spending on the two departments will actually increase. The total pension contribution is $83 million.

The exemptions from Act 10 for cops and fire fighters were a political move by Scott Walker and Wisconsin GOP in exchange for their endorsements, and on top of those extra costs and the state’s reductions in shared revenue to Milwaukee have been combined with WisGOP’s tight property tax limits. Those limits are a direct result of WisGOPs wanting to sucker voters with a “lower property taxes” talking point regardless of the consequences of such a mentality.

So you end up with charts on Milwaukee's taxes and spending that look like this.



However, Milwaukee County is the largest attractor of tourist dollars out of any county in Wisconsin, so maybe we should allow the city that gets those tourists to SE Wisconsin be allowed to retain some of those dollars? That’s what Mayor Tom Barrett has asked for numerous times over the last year, as a means of maintaining quality of life in the City and easing the City’s budget issues. He repeated that request yesterday, in reaction to the public blowback to the proposed budget cuts.

“I said yesterday that there is a big difference between hope and reality and the reality is that we are not getting any additional state shared revenues, we have an $80 million employer pension obligation mainly for police and fire, and because of the lack of increases in state shared revenue there is too much pressure on the property tax.

“I would ask the critics to step up and take a long hard look at the City’s revenue structure. We are, as the Milwaukee Public Policy Forum has stated, “between a rock and a hard place.” There is no question that in order to address our current and future public safety needs the City must have a new source of revenue.

“Make your voices heard in Madison. Ask the legislature and the Governor to let Milwaukee voters decide whether or not to enact a half cents public safety sales tax. The citizens of Milwaukee should have their voices heard.

So what’s the reaction of Wisconsin Republicans to the bad jobs numbers and terrible fiscal squeeze that Milwaukee is in? The equivalent of a bully grabbing a smaller kid’s hands, whacking them in the face, and saying “Stop hitting yourself!” Read this piece of crap from Brookfield State Sen. (and US Senate candidate) Leah Vukmir.

“Mayor Barrett wants us to believe the only way we can keep Milwaukee safe is to raise taxes. It’s a lie. We’ve proven at the state level that you can both fund your priorities and keep taxes low. Leaving the city in a risky position by reducing the number of firefighters in addition to police officers is baffling.

“Unfortunately, Mayor Barrett’s budget priorities lack all common sense. When criminal behavior is on the rise and the carjacking epidemic continues to spread, he intends to cut police positions. The absurdity of this proposal is dumbfounding. In simple terms, Mayor Barrett will gamble with your safety in order to play politics. Inexcusable.

Vukmir follows with talk radio-based whining about the City’s streetcar project The streetcar costs very few City tax dollars for 2018 and doesn’t get a dime of state money, but the ALEC Queen somehow claims that it sucks up money that could be used for more police officers.

But if State Sen. Vukmir is so concerned about Milwaukee’s lack of officers, then she’ll be glad to sponsor a bill that would allow City voters to choose whether they want a sales tax that can ONLY be used for police and fire fighters, right? OF COURSE NOT! Because why would a suburba-GOP ever want to pay a higher tax into the City when they can pay nothing and still take advantage of the entertainment, careers and suburban hotel stays that result from Milwaukee? Instead, it’s much politically easier for 262 types to see Milwaukee decline, which allows them distract from the stagnant life that’s going on in their own soulless cesspool of mediocre whiteness.

As long as that mentality dominates suburban Milwaukee and as long as their representatives run things at the Capitol, then the Milwaukee metro and the State of Wisconsin will continue to be left behind. So can you 'burbans recognize that we are all tied together in this thing, drop the superiority act (you’re nothing special, anyway), do something constructive beyond your own front yard, and work together as a REGION to stop the slide?

Thanks in advance from someone who lives in the one area that’s keeping this state from going under (Madison, +2,800 jobs last 12 months and 11% job growth since 2011).