Executive Decision

Development issues define Milwaukee County race

By Sean Ryan

The demolition and clearing of Milwaukee's Park East freeway spur is nearly complete, and the county's portion of the prime real estate is playing into the county executive election. Photo by Sean Ryan

Candidates for Milwaukee County executive are facing tough questions about economic development even though county government is mostly in the business of social services.

The business community in Milwaukee isn't asking the candidates what they'll do about parks and buses so much as what they'll do about unemployment and attracting new companies.

David Riemer and Scott Walker are pledging to lower taxes while maintaining county-operated social programs, a message that Milwaukee's business community likes.

However, in this election, the pledge is part of a bigger promise to build the county's work force and draw new businesses to the region.

In a Jan. 20 debate between Riemer, Walker and Joe Klein, who lost in the Feb. 17 primary, taxes and services became the means and economic development the end. Services should be maintained because businesses want them for their employees. Taxes should be cut because they scare companies away.

"The county, obviously, in its core function is sort of an agent of the state to carry out social service functions," said Nate Elias, director of government affairs for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. "When you are talking from a business standpoint, you are going to want somebody who has a vision for what the county can do beyond its original function."

The federal government is setting aside $91.5 million for the Milwaukee Connector, which would run electric buses through the city's downtown. Mass transit figures to be one of many economic development issues in the Milwaukee County executive race. Photo courtesy of HNTB Corp.

The candidates' big plans to build a prosperous future will play bigger in this election than their specific plans for the zoo or bus system, said Julia Taylor, president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee. She said Milwaukee is experiencing a transition time between the death of its manufacturing economy and the birth of whatever comes next.

The turn-of-the-century loss of jobs has left Milwaukee County with first-class public programs but not enough taxpayers to support them.

So the county executive, like the next Milwaukee mayor, will have to find a way to cut back county spending while finding a new way to build the tax base and reinvigorate business. The next county executive will come into office when the region is in flux, and county government will have a greater-than-usual stake in driving the region's economic engine.

"What vision do we have long term for this community in terms of what we want to be for our people, what we want to be for our workers and what kind of employers do we want to have here?" Taylor said.

Whoever sits behind the executive's desk after the April 6 election will have a number of development opportunities that are uncommon in an office that mostly oversees public services. The Park East redevelopment, mass transit options and intergovernmental cooperation are now issues sitting squarely on the county executive's desk.

Milwaukee County executive candidates (from left) Joe Klein, David Riemer and Scott Walker debate at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee on Jan. 20. Klein lost in the Feb. 17 primary. Photo courtesy of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee

Foremost among them is the Park East corridor redevelopment. The county is set to become the largest landowner of the property when it assumes ownership of 16 undeveloped acres from the federal government. The city of Milwaukee is anticipating at least $250 million in new development in the Park East.

"The potential for development and the tenor the future development is going to take is enormous, and the county is going to have a significant role on how that's going to happen because it owns the land," Elias said.

While the city will zone the Park East and set the building-design standards, the county will decide who develops some of the corridor's best property.

Walker, offering the most specific plan for the corridor, said he would put money from the Park East land sales into the Community and Economic Development Fund, a subsidy program for job creation. The plan was endorsed by Elias from the MMAC and Mike Ruzicka, Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors president.

"Right now, the county isn't doing enough of that," Ruzicka said about job creation. "I'm not aware of the county doing anything other than county
supervisors providing lip service."

Mass transit has become a campaign talking point because the county executive has new authority added to the position's long-standing responsibilities. In addition to operating the bus system, the county executive now must make smart decisions with huge amounts of federal transit dollars.

The county executive, along with Milwaukee's mayor and Wisconsin's governor, will decide what to do with $91.5 million the federal government has allocated for public transportation improvements.

The coffer is earmarked for the Milwaukee Connector, a 14.5-mile electric bus system to run through the city of Milwaukee. But that might change as discussions bring up the possibility of shifting the $91.5 million into a passenger rail line to run between Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.

Both proposed projects are in the planning stages, and there is no guarantee that either will come to fruition before the next county executive is elected.

he shared regional vision needed to make the right mass transit decisions is just a piece of the overall regional cooperation tabbed by both candidates and the business community as a future necessity. It plays into the desire to lower taxes and to improve the economy.

Regional cooperation allows governments to save money by combining departments and eliminating duplication of services. By cooperating on the Milwaukee Connector or by sharing buses with Waukesha County, it also allows governments to achieve more than they could going solo.

"Anything that crosses over these arbitrary lines that we draw across a map is ripe for cooperation," Elias said. "Waukesha and Milwaukee are clearly linked economically and socially, and there's a great opportunity for some regional cooperation on mass transit."

But for Ruzicka, government cooperation is more a distant dream than a workable solution to today's problems.

"I don't see that happening here in generations," he said.

Taylor said the area's governments could collaborate as long as they pick simple programs first and build their way up to things such as mass transit. It's another area where governments have a chance to improve the economy. And the county executive will be a leading player.

"The key thing for the county executive is that we have a common vision between the city and the county about what do we want Milwaukee to be looking forward," Taylor said. "We have to figure out what we want to be in the future."