Friday, November 14, 2014

Robin Vos is leading Walker's anti-city attack on Milwaukee

The Assembly Speaker from the rural Racine County Village of Rochester has no use for cities - - though they are the principal generators of state commerce, wealth, jobs, culture and education (another Vos target, with a sneering side of anti-intellectualism) - - and is no friend to Milwaukee, having: 

*  Led the move in the Walker-era Legislature on behalf of the road-builder lobby to wipe out regional transit authorities in the state, which is why you cannot take a commuter train from Kenosha-to-Racine-to Milwaukee, or a bus between many municipalities statewide.

*  Defined transit as a social service as he and Walker began to write the next two-year budget, thus threatening to strip bus systems out of state transportation funding and forcing them to compete with prison operations, state building maintenance and other basic government services for operating dollars.

Though a lack of transit in Wisconsin is one of the reasons that car-averse young college grads are leaving the state.

*  Played partisan politics with an invented narrative to discourage The Milwaukee Bucks and the team's new investor-owners from staying in Milwaukee, though not too long ago claimed to be interested in bringing business investment to Milwaukee: 
Asked what the city could do to enable more private investment in the city, Vos said that was the "million-dollar question."
"If I had the answer, I promise I would tell you. The difficulty is trying to find something that will work in the long run," he said.
*  Tut-tutted Milwaukee about frugality and spending priorities after sticking the city with police and fire benefit and salary costs protected by the political protections for those unions favored by Walker's Act 10.

Though if you are a Republican, Vos is your guy - - and will even use his taxpayer-paid official website to let you know.

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