A bill which would fulfill Milwaukee County voters' approval, in November 2008, for a half cent sales tax to support the Milwaukee County Transit System, was unveiled Tuesday January 19 by Wisconsin Governor James Doyle, supported by a panel of Milwaukee and Racine business leaders and union members. Doyle, who vetoed the measure legislators had included in the state budget last summer, authorizing Milwaukee County to adopt the dedicated tax, was firmly reminded by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 988 member Robert Dowden that the surprise move had upset many working families in the county. According to Rep. Tamara Grigsby's office, Grigsby has been negotiating with the governor's staff every week since his June 2009 veto to get a bill introduced to save transit in Milwaukee.
Tim Sullivan, CEO of Bucyrus International, and chairman of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, hosted a press conference with the governor at Bucyrus's Heritage center in South Milwaukee to introduce the new legislation. He opened with a statement that many local employers are concerned their workers have no convenient way to get to work on mass transit. Reporting that Bucyrus has hired 700 new employees in the past year, and expects to hire another 500, Sullivan said that getting workers to the south-east corner of Milwaukee County is a serious obstacle, even though it is close to an under-used railroad right-of-way. More than a dozen of Dowden's brothers and sisters from ATU Local 998 filled the front rows as the plan was outlined.
Doyle freely admitted that his focus is on a fully integrated mass transit system for southeastern Wisconsin, but accepted that different local needs in Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha counties, the realities of assembling a majority in the state assembly and senate to pass legislation, and the requirements to qualify for federal funding, required him to be flexible. The new legislation for a regional transit authority will allow Milwaukee County to adopt the sales tax voters approved in the earlier advisory referendum, require that new funding in other counties be approved by voters, and lay the groundwork for high speed rail connecting the three southeastern counties.
Rep. Grigsby's office noted that the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) will not release federal funds for the rail line unless Milwaukee County's existing bus system is sustained, with at least the existing level of service, and stabilized or reduced fares. Sullivan reported that the nationally accepted best practice in major urban transit systems throughout the United States is to provide funding through a sales tax, not from property tax revenues. A major point for Milwaukee County voters in approving the sales tax was the substantial property tax relief from ending use of property tax revenues to keep the buses rolling.
Edward Zore, CEO and president of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, one of Milwaukee's larger employers for 152 years, expressed frustration at the deterioration of the Milwaukee bus system, with fares rising as services are cut, making if difficult for his 700 employees to use the transit system. Bob Mariano, chairman and CEO of Roundy's supermarkets, agreed that transit builds the economy, with the agreement of Fisk Johnson for S.C. Johnson Co., Jeff von Koningsveld, president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 430 in Racine, and others.
A question was raised about the fate of the full program Milwaukee County voters approved: a full one cent sales tax for transit, parks and recreation, and emergency medical technicians, taking all of those priorities off dependence on the property tax. Doyle has insisted that transit needs be authorized in a distinct bill dealing only with transit, but local support may depend upon finding means to satisfy the broad coalition that joined to support the referendum in the first place. Responding to a question whether Association of Commerce and business boosters of transit were communicating their concerns to Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, Sullivan affirmed that they had been, and that this communication was ongoing. Walker has promised to veto any new funding source for the county bus system, even as he talks about reducing property taxes.
Comments