Thursday, December 20, 2018

WI GOP attacks Evers' nominees with routine, anti-city bias

It only took a few hours for an ill-informed, sore-losing Republican like State Rep. Scott Krug
Image of Scott Krug
to attack Tony Evers' cabinet nominees from Milwaukee with some good old-fashioned divide-and-conquer big-city-bashing: 
"DNR and Tourism secretaries from Milwaukee? That’s not very encouraging so far,” Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, said in a tweet.
For the record: 

* Milwaukee, with its lakefront, cultural options, outdoor music festivals, museums, sports teams, concert halls and other amenities is the biggest tourist draw in the state, according to data published by Scott Walker's Department of Tourism - - and is getting even stronger: 
VISIT Milwaukee today released final data from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism indicating strong growth in the tourism market for 2017. The data continues to show that Milwaukee is the state’s largest tourism market, accounting for 20 percent of total tourism economic impact to the state.
In Milwaukee County:
  • Direct visitor spending in 2017 totaled $2 billion, up 3.1 percent over 2016
  • Total business sales related to tourism were estimated at $3.5 billion, an increase of 3.2 percent over 2016 
  • Tourism supported 32,150 full-time jobs, up 1 percent over 2016
  • Total labor income from tourism was $1.1 billion, an increase of 1.5 percent over 2016
  • State and local tax revenue generated by tourism was $237 million, up 2.5 percent over 2016
In the Greater Milwaukee (4 county) area:
  • Direct visitor spending in 2017 totaled $3 billion
  • Total business sales related to tourism were estimated at $5.4 billion
  • Tourism supported 51,200 full-time jobs
  • Total labor income from tourism was $1.7 billion
  • State and local tax revenue generated by tourism was $360 million 
*  And when it comes to the natural environment that touches the DNR's broad purview, Milwaukee has miles of Lake Michigan frontage with beaches, three rivers, fishing industries, a state park accessible from the Summerfest grounds and extensive nationally-recognized local parks.

Also, Milwaukee is home to the largest number of people statewide whose transit use keeps the air cleaner, and whose concentration in multi-unit and vertical housing increases energy efficiency, prevents untold tons of fertilizers from being spread on suburban lawns and into watersheds, and also saves untold billions of gallons of water - - a finite resource - - from lawn sprinkling and evaporation. 

And Milwaukee's industrial base requires constant interaction with the DNR on clean air and water issues.

Milwaukee is the perfect locale from which to select cabinet secretaries, including the two named by Krug and also to the Department of Administration, as Evers did with the selection of Discovery World CEO and former City of Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority leader Joel Brennan.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Scott Krug's constituents have appealed to him time and again to do something about the water they drink and time and again he votes against their best interests. I don't see how his being a representative in a rural district has helped anyone so why would an appointment from a rural district be preferable over appointments from Milwaukee?