He’s an unapologetic democrat and he’s not eliminating core city services in order to balance the budget and he’s not putting future generations of city residents on the hook to pay for todays services.

What’s wrong with this guy? By todays standards of borrowing from future generations to fund present needs, Barrett just doesn’t get it. After all, Scott Walker has successfully built his career on fiscally raping the taxpayer. Why isn’t Barrett jumping on the borrow and spend bandwagon?

That answer is simple — courage.

Barrett was recently criticized for a modest raise in city taxes but more than many other politicians, Barrett understands that politics is not just a game — it is about solving problems and improving peoples lives. With gas prices (which affect the city fleet) on the increase and natural gas heating costs projected to increase up to 70% this year (which the city relies on to pay to heat some of its buildings), Barrett had little choice besides raising taxes unless he intended to decimate city services.

But there’s a reason people live in the City of Milwaukee. They love the sense of community. They love the sidewalks, the alleys, the close knit feeling that neighborhoods built with rich architecture including bungalos and duplexes bring to communities and in Barrett, that love shows.

Recently Barrett suffered a setback with the PabstCity development proposal. Here at Watchdog Milwaukee, our contributing writers were originally split on the issue but Barrett’s post-vote passion came through and now we all agree — the financial committment from outside investors simply made sense. We know that Barrett has learned a tough lesson and will make sure his concerns will be publicized well in advance of any showdown with the Common Council.

Milwaukee is lucky to have a leader like Tom Barrett.