Eyes on Milwaukee

This week’s Eyes on Milwaukee column explores Herb Kohl’s commitment to a new arena, the idea of another downtown strip club, Northwestern Mutual’s potential new downtown building, and a whole lot more.

Herb Kohl’s Arena Commitment

At his annual end of the season press conference, team owner Herb Kohl announced his commitment to helping finance a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks. Kohl got a lot of attention for committing to help finance a new arena, but avoided getting into details. It’s important to note that even though new stadiums are often built with substantial public investment, the teams themselves often contribute to the facility. This is no more clear than in Minnesota, where the Minnesota Vikings’ team share is one of the hot button issues for their new facility.

While Kohl said his commitment would be “not insignificant,” it’s unreasonable to hold our breath assuming he’ll pay for the majority of a new facility himself. Milwaukee got lucky once with Jane and Lloyd Pettit paying for the entire Bradley Center (with the hope of landing an NHL team – which is part of the reason the facility has so quickly become outdated), but it’s pretty clear that won’t happen again.

For a point of reference on current arena costs, the newest arena in the NBA, the Amway Center in Orlando, cost $480 million. I would guess a new facility in Milwaukee would cost less than that, but it’s not going to come in under $100 million like the Bradley Center did.

All in all, the most significant thing Herb Kohl did is start the public push for a new arena. We should expect whomever owns the Bucks to contribute to the costs of a new arena. That said, Kohl’s move of publicly announcing his commitment was certainly a shrewd public relations move.

We will certainly discuss this topic at length in the future. We’ve even in the past discussed tearing down the Bradley Center for a new facility.

A Second Downtown Milwaukee Strip Club

Silk owner Jon Ferraro is back with another license application for a strip club on Old World Third Street. He is applying at the same location he previously applied at, 730 N. Old World Third St., Of note, Jon Ferraro’s lawsuit against the city regarding his previous application for a strip club in this space (in 2010) is still pending. I assume the two are related, and I’m pretty sure we will find out soon how.

It’s important to note that if granted, Silk East would be the second strip club downtown. Art’s Performing Center is located at 144 E. Juneau Ave. Although only garnering 1 and a half stars on Yelp, Art’s clearly hasn’t damaged the image of downtown, and there isn’t any reason to believe Silk East would either. Aspiring to be like downtown Minneapolis and its numerous strip clubs on the other hand, that’s a bad idea.

Northwestern Mutual’s Possible New Downtown Building Staying Quiet

The Quiet Company has succeeded in keeping their development of a new facility to house hundreds of employees quiet. As a reminder, Northwestern Mutual announced in September of 2011 that they would demolish the 16-story brown office building located on the southeast corner of Mason and Cass streets because of looming long-term maintenance costs. In December it was announced they would buy the building located at 733 N. Van Buren Street from Joel Lee’s Van Buren Building Co, with the intent to close on the purchase in 2012 and move employees in 2013. The newly acquired building, formerly home of Cramer-Krasselt, was assessed at $4,502,000 in 2011.

Will the company stay and keep this batch of employees downtown? That remains to be seen, as the firm indicated they’re looking at their options for a new building downtown (where it currently has employees 3,000) or relocating the employees to the Franklin campus (2,000 existing employees). With the failure of Mayor Barrett to fit a square peg into a round hole by getting Kohl’s to move to the Park East, expect the city to throw everything they can at Northwestern Mutual to make sure their new building is downtown.

If the City fails to land the new building it will be quite ironic to see the Downtown Transit Center redeveloped while Northwestern Mutual replaces their 500,000 square foot building with a parking lot or empty park.

Facade Repair

Jeff Sherman notes the new “facade” given to the covered buildings on the 600 block of N. Broadway, just south of Wisconsin Ave. The buildings were formerly covered by an ugly wood facade, but it’s now painted to resemble resemble a building. While the new “facade” is a significant improvement, it’s a shame it took years to come together, and a real tenant would certainly be far more desired.

Sherman noted the new Marriott Hotel under construction a block away, but even more appreciative of the improvement to this empty building are likely the owners of the Hilton Garden Inn. The hotel, which is under construction on the same block, will occupy the rehabbed Loyalty Building. The website for the Hilton Garden Inn is now online.

As far as facade upgrades in the area go, the pair of buildings around the corner on Wisconsin Ave take the cake for an improvement (all part of the same parcel as the hidden the Broadway buildings). Ultimately though, all are a hollow effort until actual tenants move in.

For what it’s worth I’m also eager to see renovations get underway to improve the Iron Block Building at the corner of Water and Wisconsin. The Iron Block Building is one of the historic buildings that help give downtown Milwaukee its charming character.

Development News

The Milwaukee County Transportation, Public Works, and Transit Committee unanimously authorized the Director of the Department of Transportation to declare surplus and offer for sale the Downtown Transit Center today. This move keeps the redevelopment of the Downtown Transit Center on track. The authorization will now go before the full Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Of note, the proceeds from the sale of the land will need to go for capital projects for transit in Milwaukee County, not for operating funds.

Openings and Closings

Cafe Centraal is expanding east. The Lowlands Group restaurant will occupy the space immediately to its east on E. Lincoln Ave that formerly housed an acupuncture and massage therapy business.

City.Net Cafe is coming soon to E. Wisconsin Avenue just east of Broadway. The original City.Net Cafe is open at 7211 W. Burgleigh Street. The website for the existing cafe is CityNetJazz.com, not City.Net. The cafe is owned by Sam Belton.

The Dogg House on Jefferson Street will be short-lived, at least for now. At the first regular meeting of the Licenses Committee during the current Milwaukee Common Council session, owner Mazen Muna was informed that he has likely been operating illegally (despite his understanding that the Health Dept had cleared his operation). Muna currently operates four other locations within the City of Milwaukee. This only goes to show how the City’s licensing process is at times quite confusing and ripe for overhaul. As of lunch today, the restaurant is still open presumably using some form of double jeopardy defense.

Greek Village Gyros intends to open at 1888 N. Humboldt Ave. the location was formerly home to Meglio Pizzeria. The registered agent on the liquor license application is George Dimitropoulos.

O’Lydia’s Bar and Grill, 338 S. 1st Street (formerly Slim McGinn’s), is opening an art gallery on its second floor. OnMilwaukee has more.

Rumor Lounge, an upscale lounge, has had their liquor license approved at Monday’s Licenses Committee meeting. The lounge will open at the corner of Pittsburgh Avenue and 1st Street in Vetter Denk’s headquarters (161 South 1st Street).

The Twisted Fisherman Crab Shack also had their liquor license approved at Monday’s Licenses Committee meeting. The Crab Shack is the latest venture from Russ Davis and will open in a converted warehouse in the Menomonee Valley. Davis also has operated Rio West Cantina, Lakefront Brewery Palm Garden, Riverwalk Boat Tours and the Hubbard Park Lodge. He formerly operated Cafe Vecchio and later The Red Accordian in the space currently occupied by The Loaded Slate.

Eyes on Milwaukee

The 11th installment of Eyes on Milwaukee focuses on transit, development, and new restaurants. The Downtown Transit Center’s redevelopment is inching closer to reality. The Milwaukee Museum Mile is a new marketing effort for some overlooked museums. Service reductions are coming to the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha commuter bus service. Lower East Side residents are getting a glimpse of what a modern bus system could entail, and the Milwaukee City Clerk is still tweeting, thankfully.

Downtown Transit Center Redevelopment Moving Along, Proposals Received

The long overdue redevelopment of the Downtown Transit Center is moving along. I’ve advocated for this redevelopment before, as the Downtown Transit Center is located on the lakefront, not the center of town, and is used as a bus staging area, not a major transfer point. Most recently, the deadline for proposals past and Milwaukee County announced their were “a handful” of submissions, which was what the County expected given the scale of the project.

What did the submissions include? A high-rise apartment tower, hotel, and mixed public-private uses. What should you think about this? Most importantly, avoid judging a book by its cover. At this point, the financial details of the projects aren’t publicly available, and it’s impossible for an outsider to assess the viability of any of the proposals. It is, however, encouraging that proposals have come back.

The next step in the process will take place in front of the Milwaukee County Transportation, Public Works, and Transit Committee on May 9th, 2012, where the Director of the Department of Transportation (former WisDOT head Frank Busalacchi) is requesting authorization to declare the facility surplus and offer it for sale.

Milwaukee Museum Mile

Five Milwaukee museums, that are too often overlooked, have banded together to create the Milwaukee Museum Mile. The Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Charles Allis Art Museum, Museum of Wisconsin Art at St. John’s On The Lake, Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum and North Point Lighthouse at Lake Park all will be part of the marketing effort, which kicks off this weekend. Sunday, May 6th, admission will be free to all of the museums between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Light refreshments and shuttle service will be provided, but if it’s a nice day out I suggest walking between the museums. All of the museums are located either on Prospect Avenue or a few blocks East.

I’m happy to see this collaborative marketing effort, and I hope it succeeds. When many think of museums in Milwaukee they think of the Milwaukee Art Museum, then the Milwaukee Public Museum, maybe Discovery World and the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, and that’s it. Milwaukee has far more than that, and it’s time those institutions band together to draw more attention.

Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha Commuter Bus Service Cuts Coming

Due to the wording in the recent Wisconsin state budget and subsequent cuts in state and federal funding, a 10 to 15% reduction in service is coming to the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha commuter bus service. The route currently links UWM, Milwaukee Intermodal Station, General Mitchell Airport, downtown Milwaukee, Oak Creek, Caledonia, Carthage College, Racine and Kenosha including bus stations and the Metra train station, with several additional stops along the route. The service is scheduled to be reduced from eight to seven trips per weekday.

Under the recently rebid contract, Wisconsin Coach Lines, the only respondent, will continue to operate the service. The line, which is administered by the City of Racine, received $715,000 in state and federal aid last year. The commuter bus service will begin serving UW-Parkside for at least two trips a day as part of the service changes. Parkside is currently not linked to Racine by bus after a route was eliminated in 2006.

In a related change, the line will no longer connect to UWM starting May 20th, and will instead terminate at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station.

The Racine Transit Commission has scheduled a hearing on the changes on May 16th, at 4:30 P.M. at Racine City Hall.

Better Bus Service Temporarily for Lower East Side

Due to construction along Oakland Avenue between North Avenue and Brady Street, Lower East Side bus riders are getting a taste of what a better version of Milwaukee’s express bus service could be like. The new MetroEXpress Green Line (Bayshore to the Airport) has been temporarily rerouted onto the one-way pair of Farwell and Prospect Avenues while Oakland is closed. The route 30, which operates on the pair is sharing select stops with the Green Line. This presents riders at many stops with two options to get downtown with a bus roughly every five minutes to get downtown. While the increase in service at individual stops is certainly welcome, the express service isn’t much faster than the standard service provided by the 30 route.

The “express” Green Line is the product of the use federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds by Milwaukee County to plug a continually deteriorating Milwaukee County Transit System budget. Stops were removed to make the service comply with CMAQ funding standards, but not enough to make the service significantly faster than the previous Route 15. This was done to avoid a significant reduction in service as the standard service currently operating where much of the new service was deployed was eliminated.

In an ideal world, with a well-funded bus transit system, express service with stops approaching every half-mile would operate on much the same route as standard service with stops every eighth of a mile with both services having frequent headways. This would help draw increased ridership, provide more frequent and faster service to many, and enabled infrastructure investment and transit-oriented development around key stops. While not completely delivering, the detour at the least gives Lower East Side riders a glimpse of what could be.

New Milwaukee City Clerk Still Tweeting

Jim Owczarski is still tweeting, albeit from a different account. The new Milwaukee City Clerk is continuing his live tweeting of City of Milwaukee Common Council meetings at his new account @MKEClerk. I had speculated about this in a prior Eyes on Milwaukee column.

Development News

There are only a few more days to get your team together to purchase the failed Residences on Water – Staybridge Suites hotel development. As previously mentioned the auction will take place May 8th at the Milwaukee Athletic Club.

The law firm, which is currently in the 411 Building on Wisconsin Ave, is exploring other space options in east end of downtown.   At the very least, Quarles & Brady is attempting to get a better deal on their lease. At the most, they are seeking to move their sign to the top of a new office tower. That said, there aren’t any other buildings in the area that have the space available to house the firm. Will the dormant Washington Square Tower proposal, which was dealt a setback when Baker Tilley signed a lease to move to the US Bank Center, be the future home of Quarles? Or could they end up in another new building?  BizTimes has more.

Downtown condo sales rose 122% year-over-year in April according to the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors. After all was said and done, 51 units changed hands in April of 2012. Andrew Weiland has more.

The raze order is up on the Sydney Hih building.

Openings and Closings

The Boardroom is now open at 628 N. Water Street. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Boone and Crocket, from the creators of the East Side’s Hotel Foster, hopes to be open by May. The bar will be located at 2151 S. Kinnickinic Avenue. Both spaces are owned by Doug Williams, Mike Kempka, and John Revord.

c.1880 (pronounced “circa 1880) has opened in Walker’s Point. The new restaurant at 1100 S. 1st Street is led by Chef Thomas Hauck.

The Fast Foodie has some new bikes to compliment their food trailer.

Roots is closed temporarily as some spring renovations take place.

The former Sil’s Mini Donut Shop won’t be closed for long. It was unusual that the building’s owner declined to renew their lease, and now we know why. The owners of Chubby Cheesesteaks, located a stone’s throw away, will open The Drive-Thru in the space. Molly Snyder reports they will sell Alterra coffee, hotdogs, sloppy joes, and “the exact same” mini donuts. Sil’s had quite the long line on Sunday, their last day in business at the North Ave location.

Sven’s Downtown has quietly opened. The second location for the cafe is located at 624 N Water Street

Photo of the Week

George Torres was called on to explain his vote against the recommendations of the RTA, and almost immediately went on the defensive for his boss, County Executive Scott Walker.  Torres was called because he is Scott Walker’s representative on the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority.

Torres appeared to have every excuse for why he voted no, most of which appeared to be solved by the inclusion of a local management committee (included in the recommendations that were passed 6-1 by the RTA).  He expressed concerns that the state would dictate what happened with the RTA, that the RTA would be the sole recipient of revenue from the sales tax, and that subcontracting was worded to occur with current transit operators, not potential future operators.  Torres also aired concerns that the appropriation of funds was too focused on the KRM.

Thomas Kujawa asked Torres what the County Executive wanted as a funding source, to which Torres primary response was the diversion of gas tax money.  This follows a typical Scott Walker model of avoiding a tax increase to fund anything, and simply stealing money from another pot.

A refreshing critique came in the meeting when Supervisor Larson took issue with the comments he was hearing from Mr. Torres and the fact that Scott Walker had paid for ads against the successful 1% sales tax referendum.  He also took issue with Torres saying that only 3 out of the 18 communities in Milwaukee County had passed it, noting that Torres failed to mention that those that didn’t failed by the slimmest of margins.

Kujawa at one point exclaimed the “RTA isn’t brain surgery, are we going to solve the problem or not?”  Throughout the meeting he clearly displayed displeasure with the responses Mr. Torres was giving.

It’s worth noting that a handful of supervisors not on the task force were in attendance at the meeting, including Supervisors Weishan, Lipscomb, and Borkowski.

Supervisor Jursik ran through a list of individuals that will be invited to the next task force meeting.  They include the following:

• Chairman Holloway
• Chairman Mayo
• Julia Taylor
• Kerry Thomas
• A member of the Cudahy Chamber of Commerce
• Alderman Witkowski
• Ken Yunker
• Samual Jenson (Transit Riders union)
• Matt Nelson (Transit Riders union)
• Richard Riley (ATU)
• Supervisor Broderick
• Pete Bietzel/Tim Sheehy
• Rob Henken
• Sharon Robinson
• Bill Sell
• Mayors McCue, Zepeke, Ricahrds, Bolender

Towards the end of the meeting Supervisor Jursik explained that the goal of the task force would be to develop a consensus statement to take back to the Transportation Committee and ultimately the County Board.  It will be interesting to see what the task force comes up with.  I would expect it to be pro-RTA with some potentially legitimate concerns included because of the involvement of both Supervisor Larson and Supervisor Jursik, who both showed a genuine interest in progress at the last Transportation Commitee meeting.

Supervisor Jursik expressed her support for the KRM line and the RTA by stating “the south shore route is extremely important to my community.”  She also reiterated the importance of returning with a positive response asking if the committee would “reconsider the rather harsh tone that was taken towards the RTA.”

Speaking in opposition Supervisor Clark at times tried to say she wasn’t against the RTA or the KRM but at other time said “I definitely don’t support the KRM in its current configuration” and added later that “I still don’t support us paying into the RTA.”  She also claimed that the proposed KRM line “doesn’t help the citizens of  Milwaukee very much,” because the KRM line didn’t go beyond the Intermodal Station.  Finally she had issues regarding the governance structure of the RTA, comparing it to SEWRPC.

Once again Supervisor Larson appeared to be transit and regionalism’s strongest champion on the committee.  He pointed out that if the county board doesn’t act now that Milwaukee County could lose out on million of dollars of federal funding in the upcoming stimulus package.  He also attempted to point out the overarching issue facing mass transit in the region when he said that “the idea of working together is somewhat foreign in this region.”  Possibly the most telling moment was when he explained that “Milwaukie is getting rail, unfortunately it is Milwaukie, Oregon,” he added that “we’re paying for rail, we’re just not getting any of it.”  Supervisor Larson wrapped up his strong support for regionalism and mass transit message saying “I’m for an RTA.”

Supervisor Weishan took issue with the media’s characterization of the committee’s recent action as an anti-regionalist and as stopping efforts to improve mass transit in Milwaukee.  He made is beliefs clear stating that “our vote did not stop anything.”  He also at times talked down the recent referendum’s approval, in regards to it be an indicator that the citizen’s of Milwaukee County support expanding mass transit saying “lets not read to much on the 1% sales tax.”  He argued that the citizens of Milwaukee County wouldn’t accept an RTA because it is made up of an unelected board and would have taxing authority.  Despite effectively voting in opposition to a proposed regional transit solution, all be it with some flaws, he attempted to explain that “this doesn’t mean we’re against regionalism.”

Supervisor Mayo complained that “we want to be part of the solution, not told what to do” and added various comments to the same effect indicating he felt the County Board deserved more power and control.  He made mention of his working on regional transit solutions going back to 1994 but failed to note those efforts have resulted in no progress in bringing rail service to Southeast Wisconsin.

In the end the committee’s vote to reconsider their previous measure regarding the RTA failed on a vote 2 to 5 with Supervisor’s Larson and Jursik supporting the measure.

Supervisor Toni Clark, Vice Chair of the Transportation Committee, made it clear during her opening statements that she wasn’t even open to considering an idea of a transit authority. She referred to the past RTA proposals and recommendations as “terrible”. Supervisor Clark questioned how the RTA would be able to pay back bonds, questioning if the “5% sales tax [sic]” would be used. Supervisor Clark’s questioning continued with wondering how the management of the funds would occur with such a disproportionate share coming from Milwaukee County. Julia Taylor responded by indicating that the funds stay in the county and a locally appointed group decides what to spend them on. This theme of how the money works was repeated throughout the meeting, It was repeated over and over again by Taylor that Racine and Kenosha had the same concerns, and that a “firewall” had been put in place to ensure that the funds stay within the county. Supervisor Clark ended her questioning by saying “it doesn’t make sense.”

Next up was supervisor John Weishan, who represents a western area of Milwaukee County.  Weishan I anticipated would be critical, as I had heard his opposition to local funding for a commuter rail line at Milwaukee Transit Rider’s Union meeting.  He had indicated that he believed the state should be paying for any type of inter-county service.  Not surprisingly, his questioning of the RTA beat around the bush of the position I previously learned he held.  At one point even saying he wasn’t sure “why this isn’t a state project.”

Weishan also had objections to the makeup of the RTA board and was critical (and potentially jealous) of the ability of western Racine County to be excluded from the RTA.  He went as far as to propose that western Milwaukee County be left out of the current RTA.  What the RTA representatives failed to hammer home is that western Racine County isn’t currently served by any public mass transit system, unlike western Milwaukee County.  Racine County west of I-94 isn’t getting a free ride, it’s not getting a ride.  Furthermore, and a point that Ken Yunker made, there isn’t the density west of the interstate to support a mass transit system (as of the 2000 it is not classified as an urbanized area, while east of I-94 is).

If the idea behind having an RTA is to create a dedicated funding source that is only for transit and can enable regional efforts to actually move people to where they need to go, then leaving western Milwaukee County out seems like lunacy.  Under Weishan’s idea of leaving western Milwaukee County out, MCTS would still exist to serve the western half of the county, while a system would exist in eastern Milwaukee County that would actually connect with the rest of the region.

Supervisor Patricia Jursik was up after Weishan.  Her immediate concern was that the RTA could change the federal funding formula for Milwaukee County.  Ken Yunker assured her that “federal funds must stay in the county to which they are designated.”  He also went on to mention how the region gets an extra $8 million annually for having a transit authority.

Supervisor Jursik continued her questioning with her indicating that she thought the RTA was biting off too much.  To which Julia Taylor responded that there was a need for the commuter rail and bus systems to be together so that they can work together to move people.  She also reminded the committee that Milwaukee County passed a resolution stating that it wouldn’t support a commuter rail system without a funding source for buses.

It was at this point that Supervisor Jursik took aim at SEWRPC referring to them as “road and highway friendly” and questioned their lack of support for transit.  Ken Yunker responded that “what’s missing with transit is the money to implement transit”.  He indicated that the RTA had voted on and approved a plan to provide the money to implement transit.  Jursik hit on a point that perhaps is often left out of the SEWRPC debate and that is that SEWRPC can only play the roll they are asked to.  In the case of the RTA, SEWRPC has helped find a way to make transit work for the region.  I think if Milwaukee (especially the Common Council which has been critical of SEWRPC) could find a way to better leverage SEWPRC to do more work like they are doing on the RTA they would be much more pleased with the result.

One of those things SEWRPC has proven to plenty skilled at is identifying trouble areas in the MCTS budget.  Supervisor Jursik didn’t mention how much MCTS has come to rely on those previously mentioned federal funds (given for use on capital expenses), and how both Scott Walker AND the Milwaukee County Board have misappropriated those funds year after year for operating expenses.  This has created a situation where there isn’t funding available to pay for new bus purchases (which have been put off) and to sustain the routes we have (which have been paid for to-date with the money for new buses).

It was at this point that County Board Chariman Lee Hollaway’s (who hadn’t been in the room long at all) phone went off interrupting the meeting.  Committee Chairman Mayo reminded the room to turn their phones off.

At this point it was time for Freshman Supervisor Chris Larson to begin his questioning of the RTA.  He began by asking if the RTA’s proposed .5% maximum sales tax was in competition with the County Board’s 1% sales tax plan for transit, parks, and EMS service.  Julia Taylor and Carl Mueller responded that it was not.

Chris Larson claimed that he was “inclined to be for the RTA.”  He was the only Supervisor on the committee who seemed interested in actually hammering out the differences between the RTA and the County and reaching a solution.  This came as a pleasant surprise because Larson not only overrode Walker’s veto to put the Advisory County 1% Sales Tax Referendum on the ballot on November 4th, but was the public face of the Vote Yes campaign.

At this point Chariman Lee Holloway, who had just moved his chair uncomfortably close to the RTA representatives, interrupted the meeting to address his fellow supervisors.  He told them that Julia Taylor, Carl Mueller, and Ken Yunker (whom he continually referred as “the people to my right”) had zero experience running a transit system, and that as a committee the supervisors had plenty.  He told the supervisors that “we can be the RTA itself” and that the RTA was merely an administrative cost.  Holloway exited the meeting shortly thereafter.

Supervisor’s Sanfelippo and Borkowski spoke after Holloway, but neither had much of interest to say.   San Phillipo merely indicated that he wasn’t against the KRM commuter rail line.  Borkowski, typically a Republican voice on the board, accused the RTA of piggybacking on the success of the county sales tax referendum (which he did not support).

It was at this point that, Chairman Mayo took the chance to personally rip Julia Taylor.  He accused Taylor of not involving the County Board in the RTA (ironic because Taylor had met with Mayo about the issue as well as other members).  He also told her he hoped she represents Milwaukee better in the future, as if finding a local funding source for a collapsing transit system and promoting a regional solution wasn’t supporting Milwaukee County.

Supervisor Clark would then state that the “RTA would hurt Milwaukee” following a factually incorrect rhetorical question from Mayo, “didn’t we just pass a .1% percent sales tax?”  Awkward infighting would emerge later in the meeting between the two regarding Clark’s support of a City of Milwaukee vote on SEWRPC and Mayo opposing it rather oddly in front of the entire audience.

Weishan made a motion to reject the recommendations of the Regional Transit Authority.  After considerable debate, including Jursik attempting to hold the measure, all of the committee members with the exception of Larson voted to reject the recommendations of the RTA.  Larson argued that a vote no would be seen as more inaction by the Milwaukee County Board.  It was clear that at least Mayo, Clark, and Weishan knew the motion was coming (from which Weishan read verbatim from a printed copy), but that Supervisor Larson and potentially others were kept in the dark.

By the end of the meeting it seemed clear that every supervisor on the committee with the exception of Chris Larson was interested only in the power of having complete control of the transit system with no regard to how fast it’s driving towards the edge of the cliff.  Only Supervisor Chris Larson demonstrated the interest in taking what is a strong bargaining position for the Milwaukee region and especially Milwaukee County and turning it into a legitimate transit solution.

We have previously endorsed the RTA as a good proposal for fixing the region’s transit woes.  Outside of the reasons detailed in that column, there are a couple other strong factors.  The sales tax generated in a county goes first to cover the cost of the KRM line to connect the three counties (.15%) and the remaining portion stays in the county to be managed by a local management board (of elected officials).  Second, the RTA is firmly grounded in reality and has political support from multiple levels of government as well as regional support.  A county itself can not pass a sales tax, it needs state approval, and the RTA has laid a plan to do just that.  Milwaukee County passing a sales tax could fix our local bus system, but it still doesn’t address regional connectivity issues, the RTA presents a great start to connecting the entire region.

The committee members raised legitimate concerns over representation, but failed to agree that a solution has been put in place.  The solution, which we believe is satisfactory, is two-fold.  First, for any RTA action a super-majority is required, so while there may not be representation by population, the suburbs do not possess any controlling power over Milwaukee because Milwaukee County through the Governor’s appointee (who has to be from the city), the County Executive, and the Mayor’s appointee have enough power to block any anti-city moves.  Second, once the tax is enacted it will be controlled by a local committee.  Money will be spent to support regional connectivity in the form of the KRM, but the rest is completely under local control.

Furthermore it’s not clear what the current management of the County Board is giving residents.  Yes, an advisory sales tax referendum has been passed (and kudos to the board for having the courage to override Walker’s veto and put it on the ballot), but to-date they have allowed the system to crumble and become an embarrassment to the region.  There was a claim by Supervisor Mayo that in 2003 Milwaukee had the best system in the country, but unfortunately it’s not 2003 anymore and the blame Scott Walker game is just that, a game.  They have allowed Walker to balance the budget by reducing the system to shambles and raising fares, and have failed to make it a priority until now.  The RTA has been at work since before the 1% measure was put on the ballot trying to find a sustainable funding source and Holloway’s labeling of the RTA as “carpet baggers” was about as accurate as the Chicago Tribune calling the 1948 election for Dewey instead of Truman.

It was extremely dissappointing to see that the County Board is drunk with power following the passing of the advisory referendum.  They are not in a position to get a 1% sales tax enacted to support MCTS, and from the meeting it was clear they don’t have a state lobbying plan in place to get the funding before the system completely implodes.  It was, however, refreshing to see Supervisor Chris Larson support the RTA and have a legitimate interest in a compromise that will work for both his constituents and the region.  It would be wise for the rest of the board to follow Larson and push for a compromise that leverages the extremely powerful lobbying position of regional support through the RTA and local support through the referendum for a legitimate transit funding solution for the Milwaukee region.