Milwaukee County is going ahead with executing a plan for its pension system that involves borrowing money, investing it in the market, and hoping to earn a 2% profit. The plan has garnered support from County Executive Walker, the County Board, and the county’s actuary consultant.

“Today I’m a little disappointed in my alma mater,” said Supervisor Lipscomb at the Thursday, May 21st Milwaukee County Board Meeting during the discussion of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s purchase of part of the Milwaukee County Grounds for an engineering school. As a graduate of UWM’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning his words and actions showed he understood how this proposal flew in the face of the school’s own teachings.

As the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors barrel ahead towards Thursday’s vote on the Milwaukee County Ground land sale to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee word comes, according to the Daily Reporter article Main Campus Still in Play for UWM Engineering Building, that UWM’s own planning includes possible development sites for College of Engineering and Applied Science buildings on the East Side campus.

The Milwaukee County pension troubles are a serious issue that affect everyone in the Milwaukee area. By eating a significant portion of the county’s budget every year in the form of increased pension payments, the pension scandal has forced cuts in county services and tax increases. Milwaukee County has taken Mercer to court over the highly-flawed pension system, and a decision in Milwaukee County’s favor could relieve a lot of stress at the county level.

We often hear about the lack of “transparency” or that “the process wasn’t followed,” and it is actually my belief that often enough this isn’t true. Most of the time public meetings go fine, input is taken, and decisions are made respectfully and properly. That said what I have recently experienced were a couple of poorly run, if not rude, unprofessional public hearings on high profile issues. Hearings like these give the public pause, divide communities, and do a disservice to the process.

The proposed Regional Transit Authority recommendations were on the agenda after being delayed at a previous meeting of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.  At the previous meeting a task force was created and charged with putting together a positive message from the county supporting regional transportation.
Supervisor Jursik explained that despite the task force’s work [...]

This meeting of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors featured the much debated resolution regarding the proposed Regional Transit Authority. Supervisors Mayo, Clark, andWeishan led the efforts to pass a resolution rejecting the RTA’s proposal. They raised concerns regarding the proposed governance structure of the RTA, and that not all of Racine would be included in the taxing area. In addition to these concerns Supervisor Clark added that she doesn’t want the RTA “take our authority away, and then took aim at the RTA’s proposed use of a sales tax funding source saying, “all of a sudden they have a novel idea.”

Milwaukee should explore how land sales are managed in order to achieve the highest and best use. If Milwaukee can become better at converting land from public and vacant to private and developed it will only be a benefit to the entire city by building a better urban fabric and raising the city tax base.

At a time when Milwaukee County is cutting transit service and neglecting our parks, Supervisor Coggs is promoting a $3,600 pay raise for Milwaukee County Board members. This raise would be in the form of a $300 per month transportation allowance and although this new benefit would only cost Milwaukee County an additional $68,400 per year, just the mere requesting of these funds is troubling. It’s troubling because it shows a clear disconnect between Supervisor Coggs and the citizens of Milwaukee. While they are struggling to pay their mortgage and fill up their gas tanks it seems inappropriate for an elected official to be asking for a raise, especially a transportation allowance.