Clarity And Action To Preserve Great Lakes Water

With the state legislative drafting committee on pending changes to the Great Lakes Compact unwilling to meet since December - - details here - - and thus unable to firmly make Wisconsin the leader it needs to be on Great Lakes protections, two simple things need to happen.

First - - again, discussed here - - Gov. Jim Doyle should put together a new group of public and private members who will expeditiously draft a bill as advocates for the Great Lakes.

Second - - environmental organizations and opinion-makers can assist by pressing a simple message promoting the improved, amended Great Lakes Compact for Wisconsin:

Keep Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes. Pass the Great Lakes Compact, Now.

Why?

Because the improved Great Lakes Compact sets up conservation standards and tough rules to better manage the water we have; to prevent water being shipped or piped away from the Great Lakes; and to maintain our state's water-based economy and lifestyle.

Those standards and rules will also apply to seven other Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces because those areas, like Wisconsin, also depend heavily on the Great Lakes for recreation, tourism, and manufacturing employment.

That's why all these states and provinces adopted the Great Lakes Compact in 1985.

They recognized that, as stewards of this resources unique to the planet, we had a shared responsibility, that we were all in this together.

This cooperative spirit is needed again, in Wisconsin and regionally, to ensure that the Compact continues to protect, preserve and improve the irreplaceable waters that make up the Great Lakes basin.

For Wisconsin's economy, for the region's success, and for the waters themselves, the message from our leader has to be:

Keep Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes. Pass the Great Lakes Compact, Now.

Water Park, Hotel Complex Under Fire In New Berlin

City Hall in New Berlin is moving forward with approvals for a hotel and water park complex, but a lawsuit is challenging the project.

And a New Berlin blogger is not happy about the project or the process that the city has followed to approve it.

It's important to remember that at the grassroots, sometimes the labels "conservative" and "liberal" lose some of their meaning.

New Berlin is seeking a diversion of water from Lake Michigan to the very portion of the city in which the hotel and water park are to be built, raising questions about the ultimate usage of Great Lakes water.

Many conservationists have lined up against the diversion application.

Apparently, some conservatives are against the hotel and water park, too - - perhaps there is some overlap in this case between conservatives and conservationists?

Early Clue This Season To Tonight's Sopranos' Conclusion

Fellow Sopranophiles:

To help figure out the ending tonight, when the sound went dead, remember :

In the first episode this season, Bobby tells Tony out on the boat in a moment of wise-guy speculating:

"You probably don't even hear it when it happens."

The sound also went dead in a later episode when a man is assassinated in a restaurant, witnessed by Sil.

Gotta figure that was true for Tony, too, and maybe - - more speculating - - for Tony's family, too.

Or not, but I've convinced myself.

OK. Enough. Back to politics and the environment tomorrow.

Tommy As Serious National Leader Still Too Big A Leap

Forget for a moment his insensitive remarks about Judaism. Or about gay rights.

Tommy is out there yet, sounding like a credible figure, even criticizing Pres. Bush's Iraq war.

Can he produce any evidence that he raised objections when he was in the Bush cabinet. Did he speak up, or was he a good, silent soldier?


It's easier to be against the war now than it was at the beginning.

Imagine the impact nationally if there had been a cabinet resignation over the policy, especially by another former Governor

Democrats Failing To Lead Nationally

First the Democrats in Congress failed to put together a reasonable plan to end the Iraq war.

Now it is apparent that they are dropping the ball on environmental protections, too, as The New York Times Sunday editorial spells out the particular weaknesses in the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives.

Democrats are going to have to regroup and get focused for the '08 elections, or voters will see insufficient reasons to expand the Democrats' already-slim majorities or give them the White House.

State Water Committee Has Not Met Since December: Chairman Asks For More Time

In a memo and status report dated Tuesday, June 12, 2007, State Sen. Neal Kedzie, (R-Elkhorn), the chair of the legislature's study committee on the Great Lakes Compact, has asked legislative leaders to extend his committee's incomplete work to include at least four more meetings.

That request should be turned down.

The committee was supposed to write a bill so Wisconsin could adopt and implement the Compact with several new amendments - - a drafting process that took negotiators from the US and Canada nearly five years to draft.

The problem is that the committee has not met to hammer out the Wisconsin bill since December - - Kedzie's memo says because of scheduling difficulties.

So keeping the committee alive on an uncertain schedule throughout the year will simply extend Wisconsin's tardiness in adopting the Compact's vital new water conservation standards and diversion procedures that make up the proposed amendments.

Formed in 2006, Kedzie's Committee began reviewing Compact materials in August, 2006 and first met in September. It had hoped to present the legislature with a bill by the end of 2006.

Acknowledging that the matter is a complex one, and that there were disagreements among the members - - both legislators and citizens - - the committee broke into several sub-committees.

But the sub-committees could not agree on much key language, including how diversions from the Great Lakes to communities outside the Great Lakes basin (Waukesha and New Berlin are the most likely current candidates in Wisconsin) should be handled in concert with the other Great Lakes states.

This is at the heart of the Compact's proposed amendments, along with conservation requirements, too.

Powerful business and political interests in Waukesha County are primarily responsible for the impasse.

And that's no surprise: The committee was established at a time when Republicans ran both houses of the legislature, and is top-heavy with Waukesha County representation.

That imbalance - - an awkward reality since the Democrats won the State Senate in November, 2006, and are thus under-represented on the committee - - has given the GOP and other anti-Compact voices too much sway on the committee and authorship of water policy statewide.

The committee's tilt to the GOP in its heartland county emboldened those in Waukesha County that want easy access to Lake Michigan diversions think out loud about making substantive changes in the Compact, or even sending US and Canadian negotiators back to the table - - 'solutions' that could blow the Compact into pieces and set off a regional, chaotic rush to grab Great Lakes water without rules or standards.

The stalled committee in Madison has been a fact for months - - with other states making more progress. Minnesota has adopted the measure and the Province of Ontario also adopted a bill that endorses the Compact in an advisory capacity only.

Kedzie posted an earlier memo on the Committee website dated February 6th - - more than four months ago - - enumerating nearly 20 issues the committee had yet to address, or on which the members and subcomittees could not reach a consensus.

The points of disagreement are across-the-board, and go to the heart of whether Wisconsin will be a willing partner in a mutual, cooperative eight-state Compact with the health of the Great Lakes as the primary goal.

The Compact, as it exists today, was created in 1985 with the strong leadership of Wisconsin and then-Gov. Tony Earl.

Stewardship of water as a public trust is a core Wisconsin value, predating statehood, that was incorporated into the state constitution directly from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

There are many hard-working, well-meaning people on the committee; its difficulty as a committee in agreeing on language, and even on acceptable meeting dates, indicates that larger political and economic forces which put their special interests above those of well-managed, shared water resources are not in a cooperative, Compact frame-of-mind.

The amended Compact (the states must adopt similar bills that do not diverge from the agreement signed in December, 2005, in a Milwaukee ceremony by all eight states and two provincial chief executives) is the best chance that the states and provinces have to manage the Great Lakes with conservation and water quality - - the public interest - - as primary goals.

Twenty percent of the world's fresh surface water supply depends on this two-country, eight-state, two-province, shared stewardship responsibility.

It's a goal and effort much broader than the narrow agenda of the state builder's association and other allied political and business interests in Waukesha County, Wisconsin - - the home base of the Republican Party in the state.

Those forces keep pushing annexations, farmland conversion and sprawl development - - subdivisions, water parks, industrial parks, malls - - that bring with it a demand for water they think Lake Michigan should provide .

And who cannot grasp that if Waukesha County gets easier access to Lake Michigan, so do counterpart counties in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, and the stressed Great Lakes, where some levels are approaching historic lows, are not infinite.

Kedzie's documents indicate that he'll either produce a bill by the end of 2007, or notify the legislature that the impasse cannot be resolved.

That's too long to wait, because it pushes legislative action into 2008.

Legislative leaders of goodwill in both parties, and the Doyle administration, would be best advised to thank Kedzie and his committee for its preliminary, but unfinished work.

And then to move quickly into another collaboration to get legislation drafted and adopted just as soon as work on the 2007-'09 state budget is completed.

Wisconsin organizations pressing for uniform diversion standards and greater conservation efforts across the Great Lakes region also need to articulate a simpler, focused message on behalf of the state, region and 20% of the world's fresh surface waters:

Adopt the Compact, now.

Additional thoughts in a later blog entry, here.

"The Sopranos" Fades Out

I'll miss The Sopranos as much as the next fan, and I think the Bush administration is the worst ever, but a critic at Salon.com overreaches when he tries to link perceived fact and fiction in David Chase's landmark series.

Chase's work stands on its own. It doesn't need a political prop.

As Tony said at the end of a very recent, seminal episode, "I get it!"

Fuzzy Math, Fuzzier Philosophy Plagues GOP Latino Outreach

Bill Christofferson, blogging as Xoff, examines some recent punditry by Perfecto Rivera, a GOP figure in Milwaukee and Wisconsin Republican circles.


Rivera said that Mark Green would have beaten Jim Doyle in the 2006 gubernatorial election if only a small number of additional Latinos had voted Republican.


Christofferson points out the statistical problems with Rivera's analysis.


And then explains that with its Draconian approach to immigration reform, the GOP's ability to win elections with Latino support won't improve if a handful of additional voters become Republicans.

Newt Is Coming To Southeast Wisconsin

The conservative Waukesha blogger James Widgerson tells us that former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich is coming to the Country Springs Hotel next Friday afternoon.

I've never met Widgerson, but I read his blog because he can be funny when he wants to be, and because he takes comments.

And he's gone on Eric Von's AM-1290 talk radio show to defend his views.

Apparently, Newt is warning Republicans that they face more losses at the polls unless they nominate an exciting candidate - - presumably Gingrich.

You want to see the GOP drop another 25-50 seats? And give up the White House, too? Go ahead and put Mr. Contract With/On America on the ticket.

Please.

Pair him up with Tom Tancredo or Duncan Hunter if Michael Savage isn't available.

And if you head out to NewtFest, check out the hotel's water park. It's a big user of water supplied by the Waukesha Water Utility - - the one with all those supply problems.

New Berlin wants to build a water frolic destination, too.

Is this why Lake Michigan water should be diverted? Why the other Great Lakes states and Wisconsin's DNR should tie themselves up in nasty state politics and regulatory knots?

You think all this is a digression? Hardly.

Let's make sure Newt is asked about the Great Lakes Compact.

He likes to present himself as a science guy. Let's see what he has to say about the health of the Great Lakes, invasive species, water pollution, falling lake levels and return flow if water is diverted out of the Great Lakes basin.

Michigan Shows Great Lakes Leadership, Again: Wisconsin Does Not

The Detroit Free Press urges Michigan to show leadership by passing the Great Lakes Compact as has Minnesota and the Province of Ontario.

At least Michigan has a bill to work with.

Wisconsin's study committee set up to draft a similar bill for our state hasn't met since December.

And this is the second time in a few weeks that Michigan has shown the way: in April, it sought to organize action against ocean-going ships bringing invasive species into the Great Lakes.

Gov. Doyle is chairman of the Great Lakes Council of Governors. He'll be more effective as the leader of this organization by taking more firmer control of water policy in Wisconsin.

If the state's legislative study committee cannot or will not meet, with the stalemate principally traceable to obstructionism from Waukesha County business leaders and partisan Republicans, then Doyle should take what the committee has managed to do and fold it into a new, more focused policy-making group.

Wisconsin needs to adopt the Compact. Now.

Rush To Build Huge UW-M Complex In Wauwatosa

Is there a city/County in America that would put what is essentially a new campus in an area - - the County Grounds - - that is not served by light rail?

And announce a location without any public input?

While there is available property in the Menomonee Valley that is closer to major businesses, the airport and dozens of commercial, retail, residential and entertainment destinations?

If you let Scott Walker call the shots, this is the kind of public policy non-planning you get.

After the County Grounds plan collapses of its own fiscal and planning shortfalls, UW-M should bring this idea down to the grassroots for input and the city should get its land packaging expertise on the front burner.

State Senator Reveals Capitol Secret

State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin) discloses something shocking about state government:

Putting a state budget together is...really, really hard.

Stewardship Funding Advancing: Excellent News

Gov. Jim Doyle's strategy to place long-term financing into the state budget for an expansion of the popular Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund that acquires public lands passed the Joint Committee on Finance today.

Details below from the Journal Sentinel's newswatch blog.

Most interesting tidbit therein: State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), cast a crucial supporting vote with the Democrats on the committee.

You think she isn't hearing the challenging footsteps of State. Rep. Sheldon Wasserman (D-Milwaukee)?

Story text:

FRIDAY, June 8, 2007, 12:17 p.m.By Patrick Marley and Stacy Forster
Expansion of stewardship program advances

Madison - The Legislature's budget committee today let stand an expansion of a popular state land purchase program that will cost taxpayers an estimated $1.6 billion over 10 years.Gov. Jim Doyle has called for an expansion of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund program because values for forest and recreation land are rising fast and because timber companies are putting large tracts of land on the market.

The program, in place since 1990, is set to expire in 2010 unless reauthorized.

Republicans on the committee said lawmakers should wait before reauthorizing the program because of questions about the ability to pay for it.

Their move to hold off on reauthorization was defeated 9-7, with Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) joining Democrats."Let's take a time out here, take a look back and see where we're at," said Rep. Dan Meyer (R-Eagle River).

He said the state has to balance buying land with other duties, such as fighting invasive species, the emerald ash borer and a new fish virus that has cropped up.

He also said the state can't properly manage the 1.4 million acres it already owns."Why don't we take care of the natural resources we have, rather than purchasing more and more land?" he asked.

But Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) said legislators should expand the program in honor of former U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day.

The stewardship program has helped protect over 477,000 acres in the last 17 years.The plan would increase the size of the program by 75%, from $60 million a year to $105 million a year, starting in 2011.

With principal and interest, the program would cost $1.6 billion over 10 years.

Boosting The Milwaukee Central Park

I think it's a solid idea, and used my monthly shot in the Capital Times to advance it.

Kudos to Ald. Mike D'Amato, the Milwaukee County Conservation Coalition, and others I am sure I'm missing, for making this a priority for the city and the region.

Is There A More Moderate, More Mellow Belling?

The usually-conservative AM-radio talker Mark Belling lined up yesterday with Al Sharpton.

I nearly drove off the highway when I heard Belling say that Sharpton was right in condemning the double-standards surrounding Paris Hilton's early release from the Los Angeles County jail.

And Belling had earlier praised Joanne Weintraub's long Tuesday feature in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about "The Sopranos."

He read most of the story and then engaged callers in a reflective discussion of why the show has been so popular.

Talk radio can reach a broader audience when it shelves partisan or hard-edged politics in favor of entertainment, family, sports or other common-ground matters.

I'm not saying there is a left/right analysis of The Sopranos. People watch it for great writing and character development to which they can relate, regardless of the contradictions between everyday lives and those of fictional mobsters.

What I found interesting was Belling's fair treatment of an erudite piece in a publication he often mocks as "The Sentinel Journal," and rips for what he perceives as left-leaning editorials and columns.

Maybe we're hearing the emergence of mellower Mark who is beginning to see the light?

Warming In Waukesha Caused By Cold Women

Or at least that's what some Waukesha County officials there think.

A story in The Freeman contained these administrative and linguistic details from a recent County Finance Committee meeting:

"Committee members said they believed the [heating cost] problem stems from female county employees who are the predominant users of the electric heaters because of thin clothing they wear during the colder months.

“There used to be so many uncontrollable factors out there with this because women had to wear dresses and skirts to work, but that time is now gone,” committee member Jean Tortomasi said.

“They can wear pants, put on a sweater or whatever nowadays. I just don’t know why [Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas] hasn’t already taken this on.”

Your move, Mr. County Executive.

You're going to have to better manage those uncontrollable factors out there and order female County workers to wear warmer whatevers to work.

We'll check your website come January for photos.

Sprawl...I Mean, Development...Runs Up Public Costs

Remember when the Waukesha City Council rejected a developer's request that 300+ acres it owned at the edge of the city near the Vernon Marsh be annexed?

Sure there were concerns about the impact that a couple of hundred new residences would have on the Marsh, and its water supply - - and those fears are back as the City has moved to condemn some of the same land for new well sites - - but the big annexation fell through also because Council members knew that pushing city services to an expanding perimeter would jack up local taxes.

Which is a sure way to lose your office really fast in the heart of TABOR country.

Rising costs for expanding public services has always been the less-well-publicized downside of growth - - a lesson that Laurel Walker, the Waukesha County columnist for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says is becoming more repetitive in the wake of the county's explosive growth.

Whether it's new roads, bigger highway interchanges, or the need for more bureaucrats, the impact on taxpayers is nicely catalogued by Walker, here.

Glenn Grothman's One-Man, One-Note, Anti-Affirmative Action Committee Mercifully Shuts Down

The right thinks state government is too big.

The left thinks some conservatives trash affirmative action as a partisan ploy to stir up the GOP's right-wing base.

So both sides will hail the planned ending of State Sen. Glenn Grothman's (R-West Bend) study committee from which he launched racially-insensitive proposals to end affirmative action.

One Wisconsin Now Seeks Executive Director: Application Information Below

One Wisconsin Now is seeking an executive director. In pdf format, here is the relevant information.

As I have mentioned previously on this blog, I am on OWN's board.

Railophobia Spreads Throughout Milwaukee County Government

Fear of rail transit in Milwaukee has now spread to the office of the chairman of the county board, as Supervisor Lee Holloway has proposed spending all $91.5 million of frozen federal transportation dollars on buses.

And, worse, to build a commuter bus station, even though the new AMTRAK station in downtown Milwaukee is designed as a multi-modal transportation hub.

So the warped transportation planning for the region continues, sort of a Six Degrees of Separation that started with the late George Watts, a curmudgeonly downtown Milwaukee tea and gift shop owner who opposed light rail because it might move "strangers" to the suburbs.

From Watts, railophobia spread to conservtive AM talk radio host Mark Belling to County Executive Scott Walker, and now, regrettably, to Holloway, whose work is best when it counter-balances Walker.

That's because Walker's motivation in the transportation debate is to reflexively oppose anything progressive put up by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett - - whose proposals included a downtown trolley loop along with bus system additions.

We'll probably see Republican State Rep. Jeff Stone get back into the railophobic circle.

He's the mild-mannered Milwaukee County Executive-in-waiting from Greendale, and a force behind regional transportation schemes that exclude light rail or trolleys.

Holloway's plan, tossed into the mix, has the support of some County Board members, but an element of that backing is procedural and diplomatic, inside baseball.

Supervisors give Holloway leeway (that was not a pun) because he is their chairman; that doesn't mean that they will push his plan very far.

A transportation plan for the region that does not include urban rail will hurt the city and harm the region.

If the plan coordinates buses, commuter trains, and city trolleys or light rail, then the city and the region have a better chance of competing with other similar regions that offer a modern transportation mix that businesses, new residents, universities and tourist venues have come to expect.

UW-Milwaukee, if it is to become a major university, needs a light rail connection. Same thing for other institutions and destinations underserved by modern transit: Mitchell International Airport...Miller Park, the County Zoo...the research park...the Third Ward...the Menomonee Valley, etc.

So put Holloway's plan on a siding, and keep pressing county and regional officials to think modern and follow the city's lead - - whether trolleys pushed by Barrett, or the guided tram known as "The Connector," promoted by leading members of the Common Council - - because city officials know best what the city needs to complement and energize the region.

(Disclosure: my son Sam works for Ald. Michael D'Amato, a leading Council supporter of Milwaukee rail transit, and The Connector.)

When Farms Become Subdivisions, This Is What Is Lost

An elegant few paragraphs and quotes about farming in the Waukesha County community of Wales, from the Kettle Moraine Index, tells the story, here.

And remember: these are the people who feed us, along with a big share of the world, too.

Maybe Some Good News For Tommy in Iowa

News that two of the top GOP presidential candidates - - Rudy Giuliani and John McCain - - have dropped out of the semi-meaningless Iowa "straw poll" in August might actually help our Badger boy Tommy get a little semi-meaningful publicity there - - if he's still in the race.

That's because with two better-known names bailing out, Tommy moves up in the party's straw poll standings based merely on a smaller field.

Call it Success By Default.

Though the straw poll doesn't necessarily predict eventual caucus winners and actual awarding of delegates in Iowa, Tommy can grab a few minutes of air time on Straw Poll Day, August 11th, if he gets, say, 20% of the party faithful's votes and finishes third or a close fourth.

If he were to get 30-35%, which is unlikely, he could claim victory even if Mitt Romney got all the rest.

If Tommy finishes something like 5th in an eight-person field, or if other candidates drop out and diminish the event even further, then he really should just come home.

MMSD Collecting Medications For Proper Disposal on June 9th

Too many folks flush pharmaceuticals down the drain, and these medications end up in the water we drink.

That's because water treatment systems cannot eliminate 100% of these drugs. It's a growing problem, and who wants traces of painkillers, veterinary meds, birth control hormones, anti-depressants or other prescription drugs in our eight glasses of water a day?

So the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is collecting medications for proper disposal, as a public service, this Saturday, June 9th, at Miller Park, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Details here.

Waukesha Leader Had Suggested Tolls for I-94 Expansion: Try It Out On The Unfunded Pabst Farms Mall Off-Ramp

Then-State Sen. Margaret Farrow, (R-Elm Grove), suggested in 1995 levying tolls to pay for rebuilding I-94.

There were few takers, but that was then and this is now, and with the regional freeway expansion plan short $20 million needed to put a new, high-traffic interchange at the Pabst Farms' mall off I-94 in Western Waukesha County, new thinking is needed so the public doesn't have to find the dough.

So what better time could there be than right now for Farrow to step up and resurrect the idea as a timely, problem-solving approach?

Coincidentally, Darryl Enriquez's blog from Waukesha for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells us that Farrow, now working in economic development in Waukesha County, thinks the proposed commuter rail service linking Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee and perhaps Waukesha is too expensive to build.

Not that things get cheaper in the future - - the need for the Pabst Farms mall interchange is a perfect example - - so this could be the right moment for Farrow to re-introduce her thinking on tolls to finance targeted highway construction.

Tolling roads would have more credibility if it was promoted in Waukesha County, home to the push for TABOR and other taxation-and-spending controls.

Farrow has the standing to make the case, and what better place to begin the concept as a demonstration than at the interchange-to-be to handle more traffic to what has been described as a high-end, one-million-square ft. mall complex?

Final thought: tolling the interchange - - either with electronic scanning, or through parking lot fees - - with shoppers paying the freight (mall employers could rebate costs to employees, or even pay for much of it upfront) would solve the funding shortfall.

And keep this highly-dedicated interchange off the state taxpayers' backs - - certainly a reasonable and politically-sensitive approach - - especially since local officials in the area have already said they don't want to be sent the bill.

(UPDATE: Waukesha area officials are in mega-meeting mode, pressing the case that state funding is reasonable because the mall will assist regional economic development.

This means a full-court press for altered state highway building schedules, rearranged financing priorities, and increase local taxes, too.

When business expansion demands subsidies, and it involves highway spending, public officials fall all over themselves to find the money - - the public's money.

But notice that when other transportation projects are suggested - - including urban rail that also creates jobs - - the same officials pull out different language and behaviors:

Too expensive. Not enough study. No city/county/regional/planetary consensus.

These policy-makers can't be troubled with the trifles of rail planning, urban growth, cleaner air and genuine regional competition with more forward-looking areas of the Midwest.

Hey: there's a new mall on the books and people need it so they don't have to drive all the way into Milwaukee to get to Mayfair. Clear these officials' calendars: they have an important interstate highway interchange meeting to attend.

Walking The Walk: Obama's Campaign Plants Trees

One progressive national political group wanted to know what the presidential candidates planned to do about global warming and environment.

The Obama campaign responded by planting trees in Iowa - - 3,000 of them, by 500 volunteers, on Earth Day.

That's walking the walk.

The YouTube audio is not the greatest, but you get the message, and it's savvy on all levels.

China Opposes Capping Greenhouse Emissions: Sound Familiar?

Those selfish Chinese capitalists, putting growth and production over climate protection and clean air!

Who do they think they are?

Journal Sentinel Blames Walker for Region's Rail Failure: Now What?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's lead editorial lays the blame for Milwaukee's no-rail transit system at the doorstep of County Executive Scott Walker, and it's a fair conclusion.

The newspaper puts it in blodface:

"What Milwaukee needs is a local consensus on rapid transit. But until the county executive sees the value of rail or streetcars, both compromise and progress will be elusive."

This blog has said much the same thing.

Unfortunately, the newspaper is appealing to reason, while Walker disregards the city for his talk radio base and some anti-city suburbanites, so he's unlikely to change on this issue.

The result is a stalemate and an uncompetitive city and region.

Federal dollars set aside for Milwaukee transit improvements are dwindling through inaction and inflation, and crucial planning time is lost as gas prices continue their irreversible climb.

There is a solution.

The newspaper editorially endorsed Walker for re-election in 2004.

If it really wants rail added to Milwaukee's transportation mix, The Journal Sentinel can throw its editorial weight behind a different candidate in 2008.

(Side note: Madison and Dane County are having some of the same problems, too.)

Water War Or Breakthrough Opportunity?

It is a move with implications that extend far beyond a local border skirmish:

The Town of Waukesha is firming up a strategy that could block its larger neighbor - - the City of Waukesha - - from taking water that may effect the Town's residential wells and one of the region's signature nature preserves, the Vernon Marsh Wildlife Area.

The City has preliminarily approved condemning and taking 43 acres of privately-held land in the Town that is near the marsh so the City can sink new, heavy-pumping wells.

That is a ploy the neighboring Town is resisting, fearing harm to both Town water supplies and the marsh.

So the the Town has begun receiving advice from UW-M Prof. Douglas Cherkauer, a scientist who is among the state's leading experts in underground water.

The City already has its own private consultants and water utility staff to plan its strategy, and the entire matter is likely to end up in court from a number of angles.

The City's wants a new water supply due to two factors: poor quality in some of its existing wells that state and federal officials say must be improved, and rapid growth that brings in more city water customers every year.

Blocking the wells at the edge of the marsh could force the City to seek a diversion from Lake Michigan - - a strategy with a separate set of legal and procedural roadblocks.

And the City may end up in court if the owner of the targeted land fights over the price.

Making a wrong move could send one or more of these matters into court and cost millions in fees, for years - - with even long-standing federal water management law or a US-Canada agreement pushed into litigation should the City feel it is out of options and has to force its way to a new water supply.

(Waukesha has apparently ruled out, due to costs, the installation of filtration equipment on existing wells to remove troublesome, naturally-occuring radium.)

An archive of many of the political and legal roadblocks relevant to the City's water supply issues, is here.

But here is the good news: Cherkauer is also a member of the regional planning commission's advisory committee on water supply issues, so he is immersed, so to speak, in the latest information and planning options influencing policy-making in southeastern Wisconsin and across the Great Lakes.

Furthermore, Cherkauer has used his scientific background to have suggested, on a number of occasions, that the City could resolve its water needs with neither a Lake Michigan pipeline or well water under the acreage near the Vernon Marsh, because those approaches simply transfer a supply problem from one area to another.

He suggests that the City study removing water upstream from the Fox River and then returning it, after treatment, back into the Fox River.

In that way, the Fox River is kept flowing through the marsh towards the Mississippi River, the route that Waukesha wastewater currently takes.

The City of Waukesha is in the Mississippi River watershed, so its needs and solutions remain there, without being transferred to the Great Lakes watershed, and also with protections for the Vernon Marsh.

Avoided are the costly financial and legal issues associated with diverting water from Lake Michigan, then finding a feasible way to return it into a tributary flowing towards the lake without damaging the tributary and its banks, especially during storms.

Using the Fox River in a sustainable way, combined with Waukesha's 2006 conservative initiatives, just could defuse the Town/City water war before it starts and offer a regional and national model.

Bringing in Cherkauer at this very moment is akin to calling for a team's best relief pitcher - - but in the 8th inning and not in the 9th with the bases loaded, and the game completely on the line.

Taxing Big Oil A Political Plus: Goal Could Be Better

Gov. Jim Doyle deserves praise for putting a tax on big oil into his 2007-'09 proposed state budget.

It's important to press the case that the major oil companies are making large profits when retail prices are at record levels.

Let the oil companies explain their profit margins, their transfer of numbers across ledgers to subsidiaries and out-of-state operations.

Making them explain how they are making super-profits when motorists are feeling the pinch is political win for Doyle and an education for consumers.

Furthermore, Doyle's plan has split the business community, which works to the Democrats' advantage because in nine case out of ten, big business is united against Doyle or Democrats' priorities.

On the one hand the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, with rightwing bloggers and talk show hosts in lock-step, have blasted Doyle's plan, showing that anti-tax ideology, not consumerism, rules much of the Right.

On the other hand, the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, applauds the new tax on big oil because without a fresh source of revenue, Wisconsin's hyperactive road-building binge will come up billions short.

The demands of the unfunded southeastern Wisconsin freeway expansion project alone will drain most of the state's highway-building budgets for decades - - a situation made worse if rising gas prices dampen demand and send per-gallon gas tax receipts into the tank.

There are many unknowns in Doyle's plan. The constitutionality of assessing the tax is open to question. So is whether the tax can be kept off the consumer's back, or collected easily.

But to make sure that the new revenue stream isn't just more gravy for road-builders, legislators from cities with transit needs should argue that most of the tax on big oil is funneled into fuel-saving, cleaner mass transit.

And into health-care programs that deal with asthma and other illnesses prevalent in central cities near major highways, where years of fuel emissions have added to added social and medical costs.