The city should consider telling the State Legislature Milwaukee no longer wants to be included in the SEWRPC region, Ald. Michael Murphy said this week.

“Why don’t we direct our intergovernmental to say ‘We want to pull out. You’re not serving our needs,’ ” Murphy said during a budget hearing Monday.

Murphy’s ire was sparked by a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporting that the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission continues to delay a long-promised housing study. From the story:

Evenson said he hopes within a month to assemble an advisory committee and examine whether the housing study fits in with all the other projects facing the commission next year.

City Intergovernmental Relations Director Paul Vornholt said the city has failed to get SEWRPC to act.

SEWRPC’s response “has been, at most, lip service, obviously inaction, but they never outright reject you, they never say ‘no,’ he said. “They say it’s in the works, it’s a budget decision, it’s a priority.”

It’s been 28 years since a regional housing study was conducted, Murphy said. “We’ve made one request of them — one — and they’ve ignored us. Or they placated us and they push us off.”

A resolution calling for the county to pull out of SEWRPC, introduced earlier this year, should be brought forward for consideration, Murphy said.

“I don’t know what else to do,” he said.

“I completely share your frustration,” Vornholt said.