Spirit of Independence Needed For Milwaukee At SEWRPC

July 5th- - a day after Independence Day, should also be Day One of a campaign by Milwaukee officials and activists to really get busy on removing Milwaukee from the budgetary and policy-making taxation-without-representation relationship the city has with the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

Milwaukee has more than 600,000 residents, and contributes about 18% of the commission's annual budget through property tax transfers, but has no seats on the commission's 21-member board.

And has more people than each of the six-non Milwaukee Counties that each have three Commission board seats.

Without adequate representation and a big say in Commission hiring, management and planning, SEWRPC continues on its merry way without a clear urban agenda, but with highway approvals and water transfer proposals that suck resources out of Milwaukee to the suburbs, exurbs and sprawl areas of the region.

Time to have the legislature abide by a resolution passed last year by the City of Milwaukee Common Council, and either change SEWRPC dramatically, or allow Milwaukee to leave and establish its own planning body - - complete with its share of federal planning and project funds now going into SEWRPC's coffers.