Many of you know Helen Robertson, my ex-wife and retired MATC English instructor. Helen suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson's disease. Her mobility is impaired and her independence compromised.
These diseases have robbed her of the things that give life meaning. When our youngest daughter graduated from college, Helen was simply too ill to attend her graduation ceremony. She was also unable to attend Parents Day when Ohio State University honored our oldest daughter. Helen will never be able to walk her children down the aisle on their wedding day or take her grandchildren to the park. It forced her to retire prematurely from MATC and abandon her passion for writing and teaching. Her loss was also our students' and community's loss. . Helen’s illness has even robbed her of the joy of reading.
Helen's life has been destroyed by this disease. In one of her more despondent moments, she recently asked: "Why did this happen to me?" and said:" Sometimes, I think I would be better off dead."
Embryonic stem cell research, scientists believe, may provide a cure for illnesses like MS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Juvenile Diabetes and spinal cord injuries.
It might be too late for this research to help Helen. Her diseases may have progressed too far too fast. But it is nothing less than immoral to oppose or limit this important research that provides so much hope to so many who have suffered so much.
The opposition to embryonic stem cell research has historic parallels. Galileo Galilei, the great Italian scientist, was called to Rome in 1633, and tried for the crime of heresy for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun. The aged Galileo, in his 70's, was imprisoned in a church dungeon and threatened with torture if he did not recant. Fearing torture, and the fate of Giordano Bruno, whom the church burned at the stake a generation earlier for the same crime, Galileo recanted. He was confined to his home under house arrest, neither allowed to leave or to receive visitors, for the rest of his life.
The persecution of Galileo, however, did not end with his death. His heirs were refused permission to bury the great scientist in his family tomb at Santa Croce.
It wasn't until 1832 that Galileo's work was removed from the list of banned books that Catholics were forbidden to read. 200 years after the trial... and well after Sir Isaac Newton established the truth of the theory!
In 1992, Pope John Paul II formally apologized for the persecution of Galileo.
Those like Scott Walker who oppose embryonic stem cell research are no more right or moral than those who attempted to silence Galileo centuries ago. They are extremists pure and simple. Their Twenty-First Century inquisition against researching potential cures for debilitating diseases is immoral and must be stopped..
Tom Barrett has consistently supported all forms of stem cell research. The University of Wisconsin Madison has been a leader in this area of research which demonstrates tremendous economic as well as medical potential. Nancy Reagan, whose husband, President Reagan, suffered from Alzheimer's, is a strong, proponent of embryonic stem cell research.
When you vote on November 2nd, please remember that Tom Barrett has consistently supported embryonic stem cell research which his opponent would ban. And think about what has happened to Helen. If that doesn't convince you, think about an old Italian scientist named Galileo and watch the sun set. Then do the right thing.
Showing posts with label County Executive Scott Walker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label County Executive Scott Walker. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Walker's budget is a job killer
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s proposal to create a Department of Business Development is an empty, political gesture. It won’t help the area’s unemployed or promote economic growth. But it will spend almost half a million dollars creating a new government bureaucracy.
Taxpayers need to ask do we really need another economic development bureaucracy?
Metropolitan Milwaukee already has several public and private agencies devoted to business development and job creation including the M7, the highly publicized public private partnership devoted to regional economic development, Milwaukee’s 200 person Department of City Development, and similar shops in West Allis and Wauwatosa. Most other communities like Cudahy, Greenfield and Franklin have economic development directors, teams or commissions devoted to business development.
And this list does not include the many state agencies, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Workforce Development and Forward Wisconsin, for example, devoted to the same effort. . Only three years ago the Great Milwaukee Committee criticized “the astonishing” duplication of services between the county and its municipalities. This proposal only exacerbates the problem.
The fanfare surrounding Walker’s proposal, including a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial and an opinion piece by County Supervisor Joe Rice, is reminiscent of the hoopla that accompanied the Greater Milwaukee Committee’s Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC).
ICIC proponents, just like Walker and Rice today, alleged that labor market policies and non-profit organizations had distorted the labor market and impeded business development. They argued we should abandon these well-meaning, but misguided efforts, and let market forces drive revitalization, ignoring that it was unfettered market forces that had caused Milwaukee’s deindustrialization and nationally high rates of unemployment and poverty. In the end, the only real job that ICIC created was for the Harvard consultant, Michael E. Porter, who was extremely well compensated for designing the project.
Rice asserts that the County's Park East Redevelopment Compact (PERC), which he and Walker opposed, is responsible for the lack of development in the corridor. He conveniently ignores that no one is building because we are mired in the worst recession since the Great Depression, the nation's credit markets virtually collapsed more than a year ago and the downtown condo market is saturated, burdened with extremely high vacancy rates.
What Rice and Walker mischaracterize as obstacles are carefully crafted standards that require local hiring, wage standards and state of the art, energy efficient (cost saving) construction. Local governments have a responsibility to the taxpayers to establish such standards particularly for developers who are receiving millions in tax benefits and public subsidies. In the private sector it is called a return on investment.
Lest we forget, Milwaukee County had a Department of Economic Development that Walker eliminated in a cost cutting move a year ago.
What has changed in the last twelve months to justify resurrecting a half million dollar bureaucracy? The only difference between the department Walker eliminated the one he envisions is that the new employees will be appointed by Walker without the County Board’s consent. The lack of checks and balances virtually guarantees the appointment of cronies who could use the new agency to undermine the Park East Corridor's development standards.
While Walker talks about job development, his actual budget is a job killer. It will eliminate another 400 middle class jobs in Milwaukee County (7% of the County’s employees) and slash the wages and benefits of those who continue to serve the County as airport firefighters, information management specialists, and park maintenance workers.
Rather than create another bureaucracy devoted to costly pursuit of jobs, Walker should devote himself to preserving real and existing middle class jobs. These jobs pay real Milwaukee County residents modest, but family supporting wages that they spend in the local economy stimulating additional hiring and business development. Cutting these middle class workers’ wages by between by $6800 and $8400 annually will force many into poverty, demoralize the County’s workforce, undermine productivity, and reduce aggregate demand in a local economy that is mired in a deep and prolonged recession. If Walker is really committed to having market forces drive local economic development he should not pursue an agenda that undermines the consumer market (aggregate demand) for goods and services.
Walker’s proposal is the most cynical type of political grandstanding. While eliminating hundreds of real jobs, the only jobs Walker’s proposal will create are for the cronies he will almost certainly hire to staff his new agency.
The County Board should reject this proposal for the political grandstanding gesture than it is.
Taxpayers need to ask do we really need another economic development bureaucracy?
Metropolitan Milwaukee already has several public and private agencies devoted to business development and job creation including the M7, the highly publicized public private partnership devoted to regional economic development, Milwaukee’s 200 person Department of City Development, and similar shops in West Allis and Wauwatosa. Most other communities like Cudahy, Greenfield and Franklin have economic development directors, teams or commissions devoted to business development.
And this list does not include the many state agencies, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Workforce Development and Forward Wisconsin, for example, devoted to the same effort. . Only three years ago the Great Milwaukee Committee criticized “the astonishing” duplication of services between the county and its municipalities. This proposal only exacerbates the problem.
The fanfare surrounding Walker’s proposal, including a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial and an opinion piece by County Supervisor Joe Rice, is reminiscent of the hoopla that accompanied the Greater Milwaukee Committee’s Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC).
ICIC proponents, just like Walker and Rice today, alleged that labor market policies and non-profit organizations had distorted the labor market and impeded business development. They argued we should abandon these well-meaning, but misguided efforts, and let market forces drive revitalization, ignoring that it was unfettered market forces that had caused Milwaukee’s deindustrialization and nationally high rates of unemployment and poverty. In the end, the only real job that ICIC created was for the Harvard consultant, Michael E. Porter, who was extremely well compensated for designing the project.
Rice asserts that the County's Park East Redevelopment Compact (PERC), which he and Walker opposed, is responsible for the lack of development in the corridor. He conveniently ignores that no one is building because we are mired in the worst recession since the Great Depression, the nation's credit markets virtually collapsed more than a year ago and the downtown condo market is saturated, burdened with extremely high vacancy rates.
What Rice and Walker mischaracterize as obstacles are carefully crafted standards that require local hiring, wage standards and state of the art, energy efficient (cost saving) construction. Local governments have a responsibility to the taxpayers to establish such standards particularly for developers who are receiving millions in tax benefits and public subsidies. In the private sector it is called a return on investment.
Lest we forget, Milwaukee County had a Department of Economic Development that Walker eliminated in a cost cutting move a year ago.
What has changed in the last twelve months to justify resurrecting a half million dollar bureaucracy? The only difference between the department Walker eliminated the one he envisions is that the new employees will be appointed by Walker without the County Board’s consent. The lack of checks and balances virtually guarantees the appointment of cronies who could use the new agency to undermine the Park East Corridor's development standards.
While Walker talks about job development, his actual budget is a job killer. It will eliminate another 400 middle class jobs in Milwaukee County (7% of the County’s employees) and slash the wages and benefits of those who continue to serve the County as airport firefighters, information management specialists, and park maintenance workers.
Rather than create another bureaucracy devoted to costly pursuit of jobs, Walker should devote himself to preserving real and existing middle class jobs. These jobs pay real Milwaukee County residents modest, but family supporting wages that they spend in the local economy stimulating additional hiring and business development. Cutting these middle class workers’ wages by between by $6800 and $8400 annually will force many into poverty, demoralize the County’s workforce, undermine productivity, and reduce aggregate demand in a local economy that is mired in a deep and prolonged recession. If Walker is really committed to having market forces drive local economic development he should not pursue an agenda that undermines the consumer market (aggregate demand) for goods and services.
Walker’s proposal is the most cynical type of political grandstanding. While eliminating hundreds of real jobs, the only jobs Walker’s proposal will create are for the cronies he will almost certainly hire to staff his new agency.
The County Board should reject this proposal for the political grandstanding gesture than it is.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Walker sacrifices Milwaukee on the altar of a failed ideology
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's decision to reject federal economic stimulus dollars reflects a zealous commitment to the very market extremist ideology and Republican orthodoxy that has helped create the current economic crisis.
As several commentators ranging from Gretchen Schuld, Bill Christofferson, and Rob Henken to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board have noted Walker's position sticks it to Milwaukee County which has significant infrastructure investment needs including: $10 to $15 million for the Milwaukee Public Museum; $5.5 to $8.5 million for the Milwaukee County Zoo (plus another $130 million for capital improvements); $276.6 million for the Milwaukee County Parks; and $56 million for 150 new buses and $15 million annually to operate the collapsing county transit system.
And what about the community's growing number of unemployed workers. Milwaukee has lost 6,000 jobs this year. Black male unemployment is the second highest in the nation. The city's official unemployment rate stands at 7.7%. The real rate including those who have dropped out of the labor market and those working involuntarily part-time is almost 13%. We have the 7th highest poverty rate in the nation. Yet, Walker intends to turn down proposed federal investments in the community that will help repair the failing infrastructure and create jobs.
The investments that Walker opposes are effective job creators, much more effective than the tax cuts than Walker says he would consider supporting.
The investments that Walker opposes are effective job creators, much more effective than the tax cuts than Walker says he would consider supporting.
I have attached a chart based on data complied by Mark Zandi, a former economic advisor to Senator John McCain, that show that tax cuts are an ineffective form of stimulus compared to alternatives such as extending unemployment benefits, increasing food stamp allocations or investing in the infrastructure.
We've been down the Walker tax cut road before and it leads to nowhere.
A year ago, as layoffs increased and output declined, it was clear that monetary policy, the manipulation of the money supply to promote economic growth with price and employment stability, was not enough to end the recession. Unfortunately, President Bush and congressional Republicans refused to consider any form of economic stimulus except tax cuts. They even refused to support an extension of unemployment benefits for workers who had exhausted their 26 weeks of unemployment compensation despite the rapid increase in the ranks of the long-term unemployed. They stubbornly refused to support any increases in federal spending because it did not fit their narrow ideology.
A year ago, as layoffs increased and output declined, it was clear that monetary policy, the manipulation of the money supply to promote economic growth with price and employment stability, was not enough to end the recession. Unfortunately, President Bush and congressional Republicans refused to consider any form of economic stimulus except tax cuts. They even refused to support an extension of unemployment benefits for workers who had exhausted their 26 weeks of unemployment compensation despite the rapid increase in the ranks of the long-term unemployed. They stubbornly refused to support any increases in federal spending because it did not fit their narrow ideology.
So the first stimulus package was limited to $152 billion worth of tax cuts. It failed to jump start the economy because instead of spending their tax cuts, people saved 80% of it. Today consumer and business owner confidence is even lower. When consumers and business owners are concerned about the future they do not consume or invest. This is why cutting taxes as the
Zandi chart indicates are among the least effective form of stimulus.
Economists have labeled this the paradox of thrift and it was first identified by John Maynard Keynes, the noted English economist. Established economic theory assumes that the pursuit of self interest will be good for the entire economy. But when the economy is doing poorly, people save for a rainy day. While this may be personally rational, it is irrational for the economy as a whole which needs increased aggregate spending to grow.
Economists have labeled this the paradox of thrift and it was first identified by John Maynard Keynes, the noted English economist. Established economic theory assumes that the pursuit of self interest will be good for the entire economy. But when the economy is doing poorly, people save for a rainy day. While this may be personally rational, it is irrational for the economy as a whole which needs increased aggregate spending to grow.
The economy has lost 2.6 million jobs in the last year and more than a million in the last two months. Milwaukeans are hurting and the County is falling apart.
County Executive Walker's stubborn refusal to recognize these dire circumstances and the need for immediate action has nothing to do with principles. It is the type of reckless zealotry that sacrifices the lives and well being of millions on the altar of a failed ideology.
County Executive Walker's stubborn refusal to recognize these dire circumstances and the need for immediate action has nothing to do with principles. It is the type of reckless zealotry that sacrifices the lives and well being of millions on the altar of a failed ideology.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Airport privatization is no magic bullet
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has mismanaged the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) by raising fares and cutting service!
Last year ridership plunged 9% to a 33 year low even as national transit ridership soared to a 50 year high in response to high gas prices and growing traffic congestion.
Walker doesn’t grasp rudimentary economics. You can attract riders/customers with low prices. Or you attract them by offering high level (quality) services. But no enterprise, public or private, can raise prices and slash service and operate successfully.
Yet, this has been Walker's failed strategy for the Milwaukee County Transit System.
From 2001- 2007, Walker increased adult cash fares by 30% from $1.35 to $1.75 and weekly pass fares by 52% from $10.50 to $16. He eliminated seventeen bus routes; reduced service on sixteen routes; ended year round downtown trolley service; and cut night time service.
This year he raised the adult fare again-to $2.00, one of the highest in the nation. And he cut four additional routes! Walker proposed cutting many more routes, but the County Board restored them.
Independent studies have warned that additional cuts of 35%, which would wipe out all Freeway Flyers and most night, weekend and suburban service, will be needed by 2010 without new state or local funding.
Walker's "starve the beast" strategy, designed to undermine the system by denying it operating revenue, has worked.
Now the County Executive wants us to trust him when he claims that he can save the MCTS by privatizing Mitchell Field. According to Walker, money really does grow on trees. We've just been too dumb to pick the low hanging fruit.
Before we buy Walker's promises of easy money, we ought to examine the experience of privatized airport operations. Despite the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's recent editorial suggesting there is no experience to learn from, a google search reveals otherwise.
In 1997, Newnan airport in Coweta County, Georgia was privatized. Privatization advocates, like Walker today, promised it would attract to new business to the rapidly-developing county and generate between $25 and $50 million in new revenue within five years. Not quite Walker's optimistic $15 million a year, but pretty hefty numbers for a much smaller airport
So what happened?
Airport Technologies won the bid to manage the airport. But the money never materialized and the County terminated the contract.
Coweta County Administrator Theron Gay summarized the experience: "We felt like we could do the same things, but in a more cost-effective way. We decided it would work better to have the financials handled through the county, rather than pay a contractor to do it."
John Hickman, who initially supported the privatization effort, explained why privatization failed:"Privatization would just take away from the people what the people have funded with their taxpayer money. It just adds another hand in the till... Once "...the county took it back over and things improved tremendously."
Canada's airport privatization experiment also failed.
Don Young, the former transport minister and architect of Canadian airport and air navigation services privatization, told the Financial Times in 2004 in his first public statement on the government policy in six years : "It's pitiful what's gone on. I acknowledge that from my perspective that was a mistake."
Travellers are "being held up for ransom" by airports that have jacked up fees to pay for extravagant and unnecessary expansion projects.
"All too often the public has been convinced that through this magic bullet of development at an airport there's going to be huge economic benefit accrue to the community, and frankly what's happened is the traveller has been gouged by the way it is being handled...The problem was I believed the crap I was hearing from the private sector and chambers of commerce."
Latin America had similar problems. The Director of the International Air Transportation Association, Giovanni Bisignani, argues that the privatization of airports in Latin America has been a "failure," generating big profits for the terminal operators without spurring needed investment in infrastructure. "In many places (in Latin America), the fact of running an airport ... constitutes a license to print money," he said, contending that the way operators' concessions were set up has forced carriers "to pay at least $2.5 billion to the airports and service providers."
Privatization is not the magic bullet that Walker and his investment firm advisers allege.
Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic points out in her op ed piece that Milwaukee County drank the privatization Kool Aid when it agreed to privatize the Museum. The promises of increased revenue were never realized and the County had to bail the Museum out. Privatizing child welfare has yielded equally unsatisfactory results and increased costs. There is no evidence to suggest that leasing the airport to a private firm for speculative promises will yield any better results.
Milwaukee's County Executive should remember that "There is no such thing as a free lunch."
Our community needs mass transit now more than ever. Rather than chasing the fools gold of privatization, we ought to figure out the most equitable way to pay for it.
Last year ridership plunged 9% to a 33 year low even as national transit ridership soared to a 50 year high in response to high gas prices and growing traffic congestion.
Walker doesn’t grasp rudimentary economics. You can attract riders/customers with low prices. Or you attract them by offering high level (quality) services. But no enterprise, public or private, can raise prices and slash service and operate successfully.
Yet, this has been Walker's failed strategy for the Milwaukee County Transit System.
From 2001- 2007, Walker increased adult cash fares by 30% from $1.35 to $1.75 and weekly pass fares by 52% from $10.50 to $16. He eliminated seventeen bus routes; reduced service on sixteen routes; ended year round downtown trolley service; and cut night time service.
This year he raised the adult fare again-to $2.00, one of the highest in the nation. And he cut four additional routes! Walker proposed cutting many more routes, but the County Board restored them.
Independent studies have warned that additional cuts of 35%, which would wipe out all Freeway Flyers and most night, weekend and suburban service, will be needed by 2010 without new state or local funding.
Walker's "starve the beast" strategy, designed to undermine the system by denying it operating revenue, has worked.
Now the County Executive wants us to trust him when he claims that he can save the MCTS by privatizing Mitchell Field. According to Walker, money really does grow on trees. We've just been too dumb to pick the low hanging fruit.
Before we buy Walker's promises of easy money, we ought to examine the experience of privatized airport operations. Despite the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's recent editorial suggesting there is no experience to learn from, a google search reveals otherwise.
In 1997, Newnan airport in Coweta County, Georgia was privatized. Privatization advocates, like Walker today, promised it would attract to new business to the rapidly-developing county and generate between $25 and $50 million in new revenue within five years. Not quite Walker's optimistic $15 million a year, but pretty hefty numbers for a much smaller airport
So what happened?
Airport Technologies won the bid to manage the airport. But the money never materialized and the County terminated the contract.
Coweta County Administrator Theron Gay summarized the experience: "We felt like we could do the same things, but in a more cost-effective way. We decided it would work better to have the financials handled through the county, rather than pay a contractor to do it."
John Hickman, who initially supported the privatization effort, explained why privatization failed:"Privatization would just take away from the people what the people have funded with their taxpayer money. It just adds another hand in the till... Once "...the county took it back over and things improved tremendously."
Canada's airport privatization experiment also failed.
Don Young, the former transport minister and architect of Canadian airport and air navigation services privatization, told the Financial Times in 2004 in his first public statement on the government policy in six years : "It's pitiful what's gone on. I acknowledge that from my perspective that was a mistake."
Travellers are "being held up for ransom" by airports that have jacked up fees to pay for extravagant and unnecessary expansion projects.
"All too often the public has been convinced that through this magic bullet of development at an airport there's going to be huge economic benefit accrue to the community, and frankly what's happened is the traveller has been gouged by the way it is being handled...The problem was I believed the crap I was hearing from the private sector and chambers of commerce."
Latin America had similar problems. The Director of the International Air Transportation Association, Giovanni Bisignani, argues that the privatization of airports in Latin America has been a "failure," generating big profits for the terminal operators without spurring needed investment in infrastructure. "In many places (in Latin America), the fact of running an airport ... constitutes a license to print money," he said, contending that the way operators' concessions were set up has forced carriers "to pay at least $2.5 billion to the airports and service providers."
Privatization is not the magic bullet that Walker and his investment firm advisers allege.
Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic points out in her op ed piece that Milwaukee County drank the privatization Kool Aid when it agreed to privatize the Museum. The promises of increased revenue were never realized and the County had to bail the Museum out. Privatizing child welfare has yielded equally unsatisfactory results and increased costs. There is no evidence to suggest that leasing the airport to a private firm for speculative promises will yield any better results.
Milwaukee's County Executive should remember that "There is no such thing as a free lunch."
Our community needs mass transit now more than ever. Rather than chasing the fools gold of privatization, we ought to figure out the most equitable way to pay for it.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Walker mismanages transit system, undermines economic growth
Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker, says government needs to be run like a business.
But there’s not a business anywhere that would succeed if it was mismanaged the way Mr. Walker has mismanaged the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS)!
Walker, who has no private sector experience, has raised prices, while cutting service- a recipe for failure!
Last year ridership plunged 9% to a 33 year low even as national transit ridership soared to a 50 year high in response to high gas prices and growing traffic congestion.
Walker doesn’t grasp rudimentary economics. You can attract riders/customers with low prices. Or you attract them by offering high level (quality) services. But no enterprise, public or private, can raise prices and slash service and operate successfully.
Yet, this has been Walker's strategy for the Milwaukee County Transit System.
From 2001- 2007, Walker increased adult cash fares by 30% from $1.35 to $1.75 and weekly pass fares by 52% from $10.50 to $16. He eliminated seventeen bus routes; reduced service on sixteen routes; ended year round downtown trolley service; and cut night time service.
This year he raised the adult fare again-to $2.00. It is now one of the highest in the nation. And he cut four additional routes! Walker proposed cutting many more routes, but the County Board restored them.
And Walker’s not done. He plans to slash service 35% more by 2010.
Walker’s brags about holding Milwaukee County’s spending to the rate of inflation. But his 2001-2007 adult fare increases were 18% more than the rate of inflation while weekly pass prices soared almost 33% more.
With gas prices expected to approach $4 a gallon, many Milwaukee residents and suburban commuters are looking for cheaper, alternative transportation. Walker’s plan for the transit system coupled with his obstinate opposition to developing a catalytic light rail system has left Milwaukee with no viable transportation alternatives. It has also shifted costs to the Milwaukee Public School District, forcing the district to raise property taxes and cut school servces to pay for Walker's shortsighted student fare increases.
The United State Bowling Congress is leaving Milwaukee. Miller’s corporate headquarters may follow. While suburban businesses face labor shortages, unemployment remains stubbornly high in the County.
Does the County Executive really believe Milwaukee can attract and retain jobs and corporate headquarters without a viable public transit system?
Does Mr. Walker really think we can connect the unemployed with employers experiencing labor shortages without affordable and efficient mass transit?
When you put a fox in charge of the chicken coup, the feathers fly.
But there’s not a business anywhere that would succeed if it was mismanaged the way Mr. Walker has mismanaged the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS)!
Walker, who has no private sector experience, has raised prices, while cutting service- a recipe for failure!
Last year ridership plunged 9% to a 33 year low even as national transit ridership soared to a 50 year high in response to high gas prices and growing traffic congestion.
Walker doesn’t grasp rudimentary economics. You can attract riders/customers with low prices. Or you attract them by offering high level (quality) services. But no enterprise, public or private, can raise prices and slash service and operate successfully.
Yet, this has been Walker's strategy for the Milwaukee County Transit System.
From 2001- 2007, Walker increased adult cash fares by 30% from $1.35 to $1.75 and weekly pass fares by 52% from $10.50 to $16. He eliminated seventeen bus routes; reduced service on sixteen routes; ended year round downtown trolley service; and cut night time service.
This year he raised the adult fare again-to $2.00. It is now one of the highest in the nation. And he cut four additional routes! Walker proposed cutting many more routes, but the County Board restored them.
And Walker’s not done. He plans to slash service 35% more by 2010.
Walker’s brags about holding Milwaukee County’s spending to the rate of inflation. But his 2001-2007 adult fare increases were 18% more than the rate of inflation while weekly pass prices soared almost 33% more.
With gas prices expected to approach $4 a gallon, many Milwaukee residents and suburban commuters are looking for cheaper, alternative transportation. Walker’s plan for the transit system coupled with his obstinate opposition to developing a catalytic light rail system has left Milwaukee with no viable transportation alternatives. It has also shifted costs to the Milwaukee Public School District, forcing the district to raise property taxes and cut school servces to pay for Walker's shortsighted student fare increases.
The United State Bowling Congress is leaving Milwaukee. Miller’s corporate headquarters may follow. While suburban businesses face labor shortages, unemployment remains stubbornly high in the County.
Does the County Executive really believe Milwaukee can attract and retain jobs and corporate headquarters without a viable public transit system?
Does Mr. Walker really think we can connect the unemployed with employers experiencing labor shortages without affordable and efficient mass transit?
When you put a fox in charge of the chicken coup, the feathers fly.
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