About Water Development Tax-Sharing: Waukesha Flushed That Idea Years Ago

In its convoluted on-again/off-again/maybe on-again discussions with the City of Waukesha over obtaining diverted Lake Michigan water, the neighboring Town of Waukesha wants the city to share some development revenues the City could obtain through diversion-related annexations.

Among the conditions: negotiation of a development agreement governing all town land; negotiation of a revenue sharing agreement that would guarantee the town a portion of property tax payments for each parcel annexed to the city;

Right.

And the City will give everyone in the Town a pony for the grandkids and a lifetime pass to the casino of your choice, too.

You may not remember that a water policy lawyer working for the City once floated out this idea as a way to make diversions more palatable and the City was so horrified that it disowned the recommendation and refused to pay the consultant's firm (a settlement was eventually reached for less than half the amount billed) for the time she put into drafting the recommendation.

The history is here.

I'd found the discussion in records I'd obtained in 2006, including the City of Waukesha's formerly-secret bid to Gov. Jim Doyle for approval of a Lake Michigan diversion, though the Doyle administration sat on the request because it lacked the legal, scientific and political underpinning to review - - let alone approve - - such a request.