Spare us the Milwaukee-suburban lovefest

And now a word against regional cooperation:

Well, I'm not really against regional cooperation. "That would be wrong," as Richard Nixon would say, knowing about the hidden microphone.

But can we at least knock off the celebrating about how nice Milwaukee (read new Mayor Tom Barrett) is being to the burbs?

Reporters and do-gooders are piling onto the feelgood bandwagon, gushing over how well Barrett is making nice with Waukesha County Exec Dan Finley and other burbheads.

And now the MMAC has joined in with a proposal to raise millions to market the region, and even got Barrett to pledge the first $100,000. (Note that it is the Metropolitan Milwaukee Assn. of Commerce, not the Milwaukee Metropolitan Assn. of Commerce. Can't tell the difference? Then you'll love the new lovefest.)

Here's the deal, as I understand it:

The whole Milwaukee area, suburban counties and all, will work together to try to bring jobs and business to the region, without fighting over whether they are in the city limits or somewhere else. They might even pool their resources and be willing to brand themselves as -- gasp! -- "Milwaukee" when they are doing business.

That might sound like a concession, but if you've ever been traveling and run into someone who first says they're from Milwaukee, you'll frequently find, if you probe a little, that they are actually from Menominee Falls or Mequon or even Racine. But they think of themselves as being from Milwaukee and identify themselves as such, at least when away from home.

The burbs have always been included as part of Milwaukee in all of those terrible stories you read about "Milwaukee" being the most segregated place in the nation. Guess what? It's the metro area they're talking about. It's hard for your suburb to be integrated when it's almost all-white. (Mayor Maier used to say the open housing marches should be held in the suburbs. While that denied the problem in his own backyard, he made a good point.)

A bigger deal, if it happens, would be that the suburban areas would somehow let Milwaukee share in the tax benefits of new industry. No one has spelled out exactly how that would work, but it's an intriguing idea.

It's not enough to say that Milwaukee residents would get some of the new jobs created. The real long term benefit is in the increased base for property taxes, which is why there have often been tugs-of-war on where a business would locate, and even raids to get a business to move from one municipality to another.

Milwaukee's city boundaries have been frozen in place for about 50 years, by what Mayor Henry Maier used to call an "iron ring" of suburbs. There is no room for the city to grow through annexation. That, more than economics, job loss, white flight or anything else, has prevented the city from growing its population and tax base.

So now, in the new era of Kumbaya, Milwaukee wants the suburbs to grow and wants more companies to locate there and create more jobs.

Well, there are a few minor details to be ironed out.

Like whether and how Milwaukee would really share in the tax growth.

And that little matter of Waukesha wanting water from Lake Michigan. It's been described as a "water-for-wealth" arrangement. Waukesha gets the water, and Milwaukee gets more wealth.

It is not quite that simple. Waukesha, so far, has offered no plan to return the water to Lake Michigan. Since Waukesha is over the rim of the Lake Michigan basin, that water would naturally flow to the Mississippi River unless some other plan is in place. Absent that -- and even with it -- the odds are long against getting the required approval from all of the Great Lakes governors to siphon the water off to Waukesha.

Yes, they are over-developed and thirsty for more water so they can expand even more.

But they remind me of people who buy houses next to the airport and then complain about the airplane noise. Waukesha's public officials and developers knew that water was in short supply, but went ahead and developed anyway. It didn't just dry up last year.

Since Milwaukee seems to have some leverage, maybe Barrett could ask for a few more things -- like more moderate-income housing to bring more diversity to the suburbs, or maybe some regional cooperation on transportation, since his friend Dan Finley single-handedly killed any hope for a rail system in the area and has been hard-headed on freeway expansion. Let's be creative while opportunity is knocking.

There's a lot to be said for civility in government and politics. But there's also a lot to be said for knowing when to hang tough and how to play a strong hand.

WHAT OTHERS SAY:

Journal Sentinel editorial

Milwaukee Insight by Dennis Shook

JS story on Finley's tax idea