Capital Watch Blog

As anyone leaving the City of Milwaukee via the Jackson Street on-ramp can tell you, the Department of Transportation’s congestion relief work on I-794 westbound has been completed and is making a huge difference. After listening to complaints about the traffic pattern on this busy stretch between downtown and Miller Park, the DOT responded by adding a fourth lane and cleaning up several of the most troublesome merge points on that critical part of the highway. The result has been dramatic, with a significant reduction in bottlenecks and a much smoother overall traffic flow heading west.  DOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb and his team are to be complimented for taking commuter complaints seriously and acting quickly, creatively and cost-effectively to alleviate that traffic problem.

While many pundits tried to classify a vote last week by the state’s Joint Committee on Finance as a death sentence for the proposed City of Milwaukee streetcar, the reality may be far different. The Finance Committee merely clarified that any utility infrastructure relocations required by the project be funded by the City and prohibited those costs from being passed onto utility providers and their ratepayers. The City has already been working diligently with impacted utilities to reduce costs associated with the streetcar project for months. Assuming those costs can be reasonably lowered – be it through route adjustments or alternative technologies - there is no need for Mayor Barrett and the Common Council to throw in the towel on this transit alternative yet. In fact, by providing a clearer picture of who pays for what on the streetcar project, the Finance Committee’s action may ultimately provide a clearer roadmap for how the project can best move forward.

Palermo's, one of Milwaukee's great corporate citizens and homegrown success stories, has been under siege for the past year by activists harassing the company with unfounded claims of unfair labor practices. This week the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) vindicated Palermo’s, confirming that the company engaged in no wrongdoing in its interactions with its workers. We are pleased, and not one bit surprised, that the NLRB ruled in Palermo's favor. Hopefully this ruling will put an end once and for all to the protracted harassment campaign against this outstanding company. We hope it will also spur apologies to the company from state and local public officials who pandered to and encouraged the groups organizing this disgusting campaign of intimidation and harassment that was unwarranted, unfair and sent a shrill negative message about Milwaukee's attitude toward its local job creators. 

There are a number of tough issues currently being debated in Madison as part of the state budget. One of these is residency rules - whether local governments should be able to say where their employees live. Currently, state law allows these rules. Gov. Walker has proposed that residency requirements be removed and individuals be allowed to live where they please.  

MMAC has not taken an official position on this budget provision, but it is an issue that has received and will continue to receive a lot of discussion locally. To give you perspectives on both sides of this issue, we are pleased to share with you arguments in opposition to the Governor’s proposal made by Milwaukee Mayor Barrett, and arguments made in favor of the change by Milwaukee’s police and firefighters.

Giving parents choices in where they send their children to school has been a reality in Milwaukee for more than two decades. Such long-standing familiarity with the innovative reforms offered by the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program can sometimes make us underappreciate the unique privilege this option is. 

With the state legislature considering expanding Choice to additional cities statewide, a Marquette University poll shows that the majority of state residents now want what Milwaukee has; a chance for all children to have access to quality schools of their choice. A total of 51% supported expanding the Choice program statewide or to cities with high numbers of failing schools, while 42% favored limiting Choice to the current program or eliminating it altogether.

The goal of making job creation Job One in Madison saw two major steps in the right direction recently.  First, Gov. Walker signed the Wisconsin Mining Jobs Act, creating a blueprint for the creation of environmentally responsible mineral mining in Wisconsin. This bill holds great promise not only for jobs in and around the mines themselves, but also in the mining equipment manufacturing businesses and supply chain jobs so prevalent here in the metro Milwaukee region.  

On the heels of the mining bill, Gov. Walker also signed workforce legislation stemming out of past MMAC chairman Tim Sullivan’s comprehensive report on improving Wisconsin’s workforce. The “Fast Forward” act will provide workforce training grants and will also fund creation of an advanced labor market information system that will help link available workers to available jobs in Wisconsin. Our thanks to Gov. Walker and the legislature for working together to get off to a fast start on legislation to keep Wisconsin ‘open for business.’

It’s no secret that relationships between leaders of the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County and the state have sometimes been a bit chilly. That’s why it was particularly heartening to see Gov. Walker, County Executive Abele and Mayor Barrett all standing shoulder to shoulder to move forward a bold plan to revitalize Milwaukee’s Lakefront.  (view article)

With the state pitching in millions for reconfiguration of I-794 ramps, the city handling the redesign of local roads, and the county leading the way toward the redevelopment of county land currently occupied by the Downtown Transit Center, this joint project is a great example of political leadership focusing on the broad areas that bring them all together rather than on narrow issues that drive them apart.

After more than two years of debate and delay, a bill that would help make environmentally responsible iron ore mining permissible in Wisconsin cleared several major legislative hurdles this week, gaining approval from the legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance and the full state Senate.

This bill has the potential to be the single most significant piece of job creation legislation passed this year, and would open the way for mining operations that would create thousands of new jobs in the northern Wisconsin iron range and in the state’s heavy manufacturing supply chain right here in Milwaukee. It is our hope that it will move quickly through the state Assembly and be signed into law by Gov. Walker.