I didn’t get to hear much of the debate over selling water to New Berlin, but the absolutely best quote that I did hear came from Ald. Jim Bohl, who argued that using parliamentary procedure to delay the inevitable victory by the pro-sale faction would just be poor sportsmanship.
“A further delay tactic,” he said solemnly, “is a nah-nah, boo-boo game.”
The great orators have a new man among them.
Here’s how I wish it would go today at the Common Council, but it won’t.
Ald. Michael Murphy’s alternative to the proposed $20 wheel tax is adopted. Murphy has proposed a $10 wheel tax with lower special assessments for street repairs. Murphy’s proposal means property tax-exempt non-profits still kick in for street repairs based on the size of their individual properties; under the $20 tax proposal, non-profits with lots of property, but few vehicles, get off really cheap. In addition, the state just raised its own vehicle registration fees by $20. Make it expensive enough, and more people simply won’t register their vehicles.
Murphy’s proposal doesn’t stand a chance in the world, though. The $20 tax seems not only meant to fund street repairs, but also to serve as a symbolic Common Council declaration of independence and leadership. Some aldermen are clearly unenamored with Mayor Barrett’s low-key style.
Also during my wish-it-were-so council debate, the aldercritters find a way not to tax motorcycles, mopeds and scooters. It’s seems awfully silly to me to levy an additional $20 tax on vehicles that actually are lighter and cause less damage to streets than cars or trucks (yes, I have a scooter.)
The council then moves ahead and rejects Murphy’s proposal to sell water to the “middle third” of New Berlin. This deal is akin to a starving man selling his pure gold watch for a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk. The City of Milwaukee is desperate for the $1.5 million New Berlin is dangling. It is making this decision based on inadequate information and fear, a really dangerous combination.
$1.5 million and an annual talkfest is not worth it.
New Berlin wants to buy more Milwaukee water and send it further west into the suburb. In exchange, New Berlin will pay for the water, kick in an extra $1.5 million and agree to meet with Milwaukee representatives once a year to talk about “opportunities to improve the availability of skilled workers in both communities and to improve the access of workers in each community to job opportunities,” according to a proposed agreement between the two communities.
Jim Rowen does a nice job deconstructing the $1.5 million payment. An agreement to talk, though, is an agreement to do nothing. New Berlin needs to commit to helping fund transit between the two cities; it needs to commit to building affordable housing within its borders.
Those commitments should be made, memorialized and maybe even partially implemented before Milwaukee sends more water and sprawl over the county line. The Common Council should not go along with the deal as it stands.
New Berlin would pay Milwaukee $1.5 million for the right to buy Lake Michigan water and a much larger portion of New Berlin would get Milwaukee water than does now, under agreements to be considered by the Milwaukee Common Council.
About one-third of the suburb now receives Milwaukee water, and the proposed deal would add the middle third of New Berlin to the Water Works’ customer base. Click here and go to page 10 to see a map of the expanded service area.
“This area is outside the Great Lakes Basin but is within the MMSD service area; water is returned to Lake Michigan,” according to a Water Works feasibility study of the proposal.
The deal will provide economic benefits to Milwaukee water customers of an estimated $1.60 to $4.50 per residential account per year, the study said.
“Future water rate increases would proportionately increase the amount of the benefit,” the study said.
The maximum amount flowing to the suburb would increase from 4.8 million gallons per day to 6.3 million gallons per day. The proposed agreement also sets hefty charges of $10,000 to $30,000 per hour for excessive demand by New Berlin.
“This is intended to be an incentive to New Berlin to use various storage and well pumping combinations as well as emphasize their conservation efforts,” the Water Works study said.
The $1.5 million New Berlin payment to Milwaukee would go to the city’s general fund and would be in addition to regular water rates that go to the water utility, according to a resolution introduced by Aldermen Michael Murphy and Jim Bohl.
Under a proposed agreement between the two communities — a sort of side agreement to the actual water sales proposal — representatives from Milwaukee and New Berlin will meet once a year to talk about “opportunities to improve the availability of skilled workers in both communities and to improve the access of workers in each community to job opportunities.”
The two communities also promise not to “promote, encourage, offer economic incentives to, or otherwise solicit businesses to relocate from the City of Milwaukee to the City of New Berlin, or the City of New Berlin to the City of Milwaukee.”
Both the water sales agreement and the $1.5 million payment are scheduled to be considered by the Common Council’s Public Works Committee on July 29.
A Common Council committee this week recommended that Wells and State streets between N. 11th Street and N. 27th Street be repainted to accommodate one traffic lane and one parking lane in each direction.
The off-center lane marking configuration “has created a safety hazard for motorists and pedestrians, especially in winter driving conditions,” according to the resolution endorsed by the Public Works Committee.
State Street from N. Prospect Avenue to N. North Van Buren Street also will be repainted to accommodate one lane of traffic and parking in each direction. Existing lane markings there “also have created confusion and safety hazards during winter driving conditions,” according to the resolution by Ald. Robert Bauman.