Milwaukee's future? (Madison, Kenosha, Racine: real estate, 2010, house)

[quijote]

Here's a link to an article regarding a report by the Public Policy Institute:

Report Suggests Milwaukee Nearing Ruin - Money News Story - WISN Milwaukee

I hope the worst-case scenario doesn't come true!

[Milwaukee City]

As much as I rag on madison for not giving enough money to Milwaukee for numerous things I think when it comes down to it we'll get more state funding or support or hell who knows maybe even toll roads. I'm a very optimistic person and I just don't see Milwaukee going to hell in the H basket. However this city needs to start thinking outside the box of ways to raise money with ticking off the residents...maybe a city run casino? heck if potto can make 335 million a year maybe the city can. I know chicago floated this idea a while back and it died.

[Milwaukee, WI]

Annex the suburbs, grow the tax base.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by quijote

Here's a link to an article regarding a report by the Public Policy Institute:

Report Suggests Milwaukee Nearing Ruin - Money News Story - WISN Milwaukee

I hope the worst-case scenario doesn't come true!

I'm with Milwaukee City. Toll roads need to happen for the area. Whether the city will see a direct gain, I have no way of knowing that and don't claim the expertise to analyze potential gains, on behalf of the city.

The problem itself is simple. Too little tax revenue and too many expenses. It's an ages-old problem, which has been both experienced and solved many different times.

[Nuclear_Art]

WISN is trying to promote the report as being more doom and gloom than it really is. "Report Suggests Milwaukee Nearing Ruin" - please. Milwaukee is no where nearer to ruin than the US as a whole at this point in time. Granted there is a serious recession as anyone who doesn't have their head buried in the sand knows. Will that mean the end of the US? Will that mean the end of Milwaukee? No.

The worst case is that the City has to increase it's debt burden and cut some services. It is slowly increasing. ARRA funding has helped to cover some costs as it will for 2010. Some fees are increasing. The 2009 wheel tax has added a lot of funds to cover street construction and maintenance. The city has saved lots of money in delayed cost of living increases for employees for the past several years as well as staff cuts.

Also consider that most stats are from 2008 when costs were increasing at an alarming rate. Gas prices have since subsided as well as other costs. Health care costs have stabilized and the market has actually improved which puts less of a critical view on pensions. Most likely next year will continue to improve the economy and the City will be in much better fiscal shape than the present.

[Allan Trafton]

This article could be written for half of the U.S. The financial problems saving states and cities is hugh. Milwaukee is much better off than many others, such as California, Phoenix and other warm sunbelt places. I'm sure we will find our way through this. I don't believe ruin will occur.

[Milwaukee City]

I think this article is just news hype and is not really accurate. Here are my suggestions to what I would do to help Milwaukee(Milwaukee Metro).

1. Toll roads
2. Annex: West Milwaukee, Cudahy, St.Francis, South Milwaukee, Greenfield, Oak Creek, Franklin, Hales Corners, West Allis, Brown Deer and Glendale.
3. RTA- Why not have one transit system for 6 counties instead of 6 different transit companies.
4. Get rid of combined reporting
5. Have Wisconsin become a "right to work" state
6. Have Milwaukee County annex Washington, Ozaukee, Racine, Waukesha County and Kenosha and have it become one big Milwaukee County IE: Maricopa County in AZ.
7. Expand freeways to 8 lanes and in some places expand it to 10 lanes.
8. Have a business friendly tax climate
9. Move the Capitol to Milwaukee...lol.
10. Get a real Governor in office, one who goes after business to come to our state not one who pushes businesses out the door.
11. Since Health Care is now Milwaukee's biggest industry I would make a point to emphasize or focus or development and research of our health care sector. Basically become a center of health care in the US.
12. UWM into a complete research university and have it seprate from the UW system and just become The University of Milwaukee. This idea is still being floated out there.

I know my ideas are radical but I don't see any ideas coming from any of our civic leadership.

Choosemilwaukee.com - Milwaukee 7 - Wisconsin

Milwaukee, WI City Guide - Neighborhoods, Attractions, Real Estate and Events : HGTV FrontDoor Real Estate

Health Care

[KC3700]

This is pretty bad news, but it's the kind of thing we should expect when we don't hold our politicians accountable.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

1. Toll roads

YES!

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

2. Annex: West Milwaukee, Cudahy, St.Francis, South Milwaukee, Greenfield, Oak Creek, Franklin, Hales Corners, West Allis, Brown Deer and Glendale.

I would actually annex all Milwaukee County suburbs into the city. It would be a pretty good idea to annex Greendale, Wauwatosa, Shorewood and Whitefolks Bay too.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

3. RTA- Why not have one transit system for 6 counties instead of 6 different transit companies.

This. Maximizing travel, seeamless connections and service while minimizing overhead.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

4. Get rid of combined reporting

You are talking about the business bookkeeping regulations? I've heard they are burdensome but I haven't heard any specifics.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

5. Have Wisconsin become a "right to work" state

Nah. This is just southern-style union-busting.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

6. Have Milwaukee County annex Washington, Ozaukee, Racine, Waukesha County and Kenosha and have it become one big Milwaukee County IE: Maricopa County in AZ.

I like this idea, but isn't our county government systemically doomed since the pension debacle? Wouldn't we be better off doing away with county government altogether, kind of like the way Baltimore is run now?

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

7. Expand freeways to 8 lanes and in some places expand it to 10 lanes.

Nah. That would mess up city neighborhoods even more, just to save some dude in the suburbs 2 minutes on his way to work. Our freeways are already big enough, with the exception of some small bottlenecks. And expansion projects have been influenced by racism as well. Remember what happened with the recent I-94 expansion from the Mitchell Interchange to the WI - IL state line.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

8. Have a business friendly tax climate

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

9. Move the Capitol to Milwaukee...lol.

I'd love that. I don't think Madison is all that great of a place for a state capitol, to tell you the truth.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

10. Get a real Governor in office, one who goes after business to come to our state not one who pushes businesses out the door.

A lot of the people I hang with are Democrats, or vote Democrat and we hate Doyle too. His tenure has just been one big screwup after another. He's as crooked as the day is long.
11. Since Health Care is now Milwaukee's biggest industry I would make a point to emphasize or focus or development and research of our health care sector. Basically become a center of health care in the US.[/quote]Pretty good idea. Didn't know that health care was now our biggest industry, BTW.
12. UWM into a complete research university and have it seprate from the UW system and just become The University of Milwaukee. This idea is still being floated out there.[/quote]This would be a good idea, but I haven't heard it anywhere else. There was some debate about renaming UWM a few months back, but not of it detaching from the UW system.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

I know my ideas are radical but I don't see any ideas coming from any of our civic leadership.

Can't say I agree with all of them, but I do commend you on at least having ideas, which is more than I can say for most of our elected officials.

My ideas:

1. FIX MPS!! We need to get on these bad ass lazy parents who expect the government to raise their kids. Certainly some of the blame should go to the system, but a lot of it lies with parents who don't want to get with the program.
2. PAID SICK DAYS! It just makes sense.
3. Annex all Milwaukee County suburbs into the City of Milwaukee. This would result in a better, more stable tax base (at least for the time being), as well as increase our aid from the feds, since our population will be bigger.
4. Focus on core services. City government has been acting crazy for too long now. They want to cut the fire department, but then they want to put public art up. They cut the library hours but then put up streetscaping on residential streets. The city needs to stop wasting money on pet projects all while they cut core services. It should be the other way around.

[Dea13]

Milw County needs to learn economics 101. If I ran my my budget the way the officials do I'd have lost my house and be in need of a bailout!

Taxes/fees aren't always the answer. We have enough taxes/fees the way it is. Throwing money at a problem doesn't make the problem go away.

Tolls would be good.

Business friendly climate is a must! We're losing too many businesses/jobs to other states.

Also, the county would have a lot more money if they monitored all their social services programs and started closing some of their loopholes that allow undeserving people to get money for doing nothing.

Wisconsin as a whole needs to work on creating an updated image to sell for tourism but Milw really needs to market itself better. Milw really has a lot to offer but not many people seem to know about it.

[KC3700]

Originally Posted by Dea13

Milw County needs to learn economics 101. If I ran my my budget the way the officials do I'd have lost my house and be in need of a bailout!

If you managed your personal finances the way that our government does theirs you would probably be put in jail.