Milwaukee: The New Green Zone

High-speed trains to be made in the former Tower plant on the city's West side.

Wind turbines to be made in the Menomonee Valley.

A greener economy is creating good jobs in Milwaukee, and these new manufacturing initiatives should create spin-off businesses and hiring in sales, finance, PR, legal and other consulting positions.

Milwaukee doesn't have to whip up a new identity: take what's happening now, from the Valley to the 30th St. Industrial Corridor, and run with it.

And let's not let the far-right drown the discussion with ideologically-misinformed objections about tax credits or government financing.

We have public financing (investments? subsidies?) all over the economy already: full taxpayer financing for highways, with gobs of new stimulus dollars raining down from Congress; international trade agreements with carrots and sticks (remember how Harley-Davidson benefited from protectionist tariffs slapped on competing Japanese kids years ago?); and defense spending that keeps Oshkosh Truck alive in that city.

The state tax code - - through manufacturing, equipment and computer exemptions - - is a boon to industry across Wisconsin.

As are Industrial Revenue Bonds and Tax Incremental Financing, both providing public dollars in one form or another to spur business expansion.

And mortgage and property tax deductions keep the real estate market alive; the first-time home buyer program probably kept that entire sector from collapsing in 2009.

Any conservatives or business leaders complaining about depreciation and the other goodies they have come to expect - - dare we call them entitlements?

So if public spending and tax credits can jump-start a modest and hopeful industrial renaissance here - - great.

And if the right wants to condemn these initiatives, then let's be done with all of the afore-mentioned tax, subsidy, spending and related benefits. Just to be consistent.