February
2006
Milwaukesha? Time to Combine Wisconsin Counties
State Representative Sheldon Wasserman has proposed a bill to reduce the amount of Counties in Wisconsin. That makes sense.
County lines were drawn so Supervisors would be within one days ride by horseback. Those lines no longer make sense. Instead, county lines have served to separate citizens and rather than all working together to achieve the same goals with limited resources, officials compete for scant dollars.
Imagine for a moment if Waukesha, Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha all had one Department of Public Works Department, one Emergency Management Department and Parks Department. The massive economies of scale that could be realized would be impressive.
Barriers that prohibit intergovernmental squabbling would be eliminated.
Take for instance the border between Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. Many consider it the Mason-Dixon line of southeastern Wisconsin. The conservative Waukesha County competes with and criticizes Milwaukee County and when the more moderate Milwaukee County residents look to the west, they see white flighters who fear diversity.
But take the demographic reality of Waukesha into consideration and you’ll find many people who grew up in Milwaukee or whose parents are from Milwaukee. Their roots, like those in Milwaukee County, are tied to Milwaukee.
Combining would reduce administrative costs and would break down both communication barriers as well as some of the little fiefdoms that have developed in County government across the state.
Wasserman deserves kudos for this innovative approach.
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Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Watchdogging Wisconsin
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Milwaukee and Waukesha were actually one county in the beginning. John Gurda has written about the fact that Waukesha agreed to drop its opposition to Milwaukee getting a city charter in 1846 if they were allowed to break off and form their own county.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_20050403/ai_n13503983
That’s a great article. This section probably best highlights the continuation of the attitude that many Waukesha residents continue to maintain:
Milwaukee County was more than three times its present size in 1846, and residents of the western townships resented paying taxes for improvements in Milwaukee proper.
They sensed an opening when the three lakeshore rivals agreed to merge. The western districts let it be known that they would back Milwaukee’s bid for cityhood in the territorial legislature if the Milwaukee delegation would support their own bid for independence. The result was Waukesha County.
William Barstow, a Waukesha partisan (and future governor) offered a memorable statement of regional non-cooperation at the height of the debate: “We’re tired of paying tribute and playing second fiddle to that mudhole on the lake.”
Well hell then, why are you not advocating the merger of Wisconsin, ill and mich? Surely the economies of scale blah blah blah.
There are huge differences between states which are empowered and counties which are by statute, treated like state departments.
I find it interesting that the lunatic fringe on the right is critical of my idea to merge counties to save costs. If anything, I think the idea of simply merging counties is a little too tame. Eliminate them all together and then we’re talking some real savings and an inability for State Legislators to blame local government.
If anything, I think the idea of simply merging counties is a little too tame. Eliminate them all together and then we’re talking some real savings and an inability for State Legislators to blame local government.
Yep, just what we need, to make it more difficult for you and I to exert control over our local governance by moving those decisions to Madison.
That’s not what I am suggesting. Local decisions could be handled at the municipal level as they are in Germany.
In Germany they do not have County government. Things like parks and sanitation would be handled by municipalities but larger issues like incarceration and courts would be state issues.
Right now the counties fight with the state because of unfunded state mandates. County government is the perfect political scapegoat and they allow state politicians to not take responsibility for their tax raising issues. Mandates like the court system continue to consume larger portions of local budgets as local pols struggle with levy limits and state pols pass tougher laws that require more money from the locals.
Eliminating county government eliminates the scapegoating.