Where Math And Logic Make For Planning 101 (Hint: Not SE Wisconsin)

Take a minute and root around the easily-interactive and newsy website for the multi-county, regional Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, (CMAP), and note among the goodies there that the sizable City of Chicago membership on its board compared to the out-counties' representation.

That explains in part why CMAP does such community-centered, urban-focused and broad-based planning, unlike the counterpart Metropolitan Planning Organization here, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

At SEWRPC, the more suburban and rural of its seven county structure run the show at the Pewaukee office park headquarters, and where the City of Milwaukee has zero members on the 21-person board.

Though the City of Milwaukee has a population of 600,000+ that is substantially larger than any of the six non-Milwaukee SEWRPC counties (Walworth, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha and Waukesha) and whose unrepresented city taxpayers pay, through their Milwaukee County property tax bills, more than $400,000, or about 16%, of the annual $2.3 million SEWRPC operating budget - - a larger sum than any of the other counties' contributions except Waukesha's.

See the 2011 SEWRPC Budget.

Fair and balanced?

Hardly.

Taxation without representation?

Now you're getting warmer.