Without having talked to Carpenter - - and neither did Mercure - - let me say this:
* Even if Mercure's story is accurate (and so far, no one has knocked it down), and even if the training plan was conceived with only the best of intentions by all parties - - there's no way it could have helped move the bill forward, because as a last-minute carve-out revealed late in the game to Carpenter's caucus, it would have only reinforced the toxic and correct perception that, from the beginning, the mining bill was crafted - - like the controversial redistricting scheme, too - - with too much hidden effort.
Hindsight is 20-20, but imagine what perspectives and considerations for many parties might have been in the bill if the process to draft it had been genuinely open and inclusive, not secretive and self-interested.
Remember that the bill was written by the Assembly behind closed doors, but with the company at the table, the proceeded with botched hearings and continuing exclusion of the Bad River band whose lands and waters border the mining area.
* And if one legislator could win a last-minute advantage for his or her city and district to get the bill over the hump, surely other legislators, from Racine County to Iron and Ashland Counties might wonder: "Where's our special benefit? We have unemployed young people who need technical training for jobs, too?"
* And what was the plan to get kids from Milwaukee hundreds of miles north for work and residency?
I suggested Tuesday after the bill failed that in the wake of vote, comprehensive, ground-level economic development planning statewide could help take the sting out of the debacle:
Some free advice to the other side:That would be a better Act II in the mining and legislating drama than more acrimony and finger-pointing.
* Take people and the land more seriously.
* Don't jam the public.
* Stop writing legislation - - whether for mining giveaways or self-serving redistricting maps - - behind closed doors.
* Work with local residents on serious, comprehensive economic development plans, from the north woods to low-income neighborhoods in Milwaukee and Racine.
if that plan really was offered, it makes my blood boil. That's how disingenuous these guys are. And all it does is reflect how little they actually care about Milwaukee and inner city Milwaukee youth and the problems of living in one of the poorest cities in America. they'll use the lives of inner city youth, unemployed as a bargaining chip.
ReplyDeleteMy dream is that Wisconsin will one day wake up to Milwaukee's poverty and address it head on. The reality is that racism plays a huge role in the resistance from other parts of the start toward actually helping Milwaukee.
It's been one of the biggest blights on our state for some time now.
The fact that there was no mining bill that the left would ever had supported is the telling fact. A mining bill could have mean't private sector job growth that Walker promoted and the left can't tolerate that.
ReplyDeleteRon R
ReplyDeleteThere would have been plenty of private sector job growth if we'd spent the $800 million we had to build a high speed rail from Milw to Madison. The public money and the rail would have created thousands of jobs at little cost to Wisconsin. Compare that with the hundreds of jobs created by tearing open our landscape. Which was better?
Carpenter has a history of stabbing Democrats in the back with deals like this. This does not surprise me one bit.
ReplyDeleteYes Anon, we could has taken 800 million in borrowed money to start building the mediocre speed rail from Milw. to the PRM. It would have cost probably 4 to 5 times the 800 mill seed money the federal gov borrowed to give us. All to gain us a train few would ride and some more public employee jobs.
ReplyDelete