Slicing Wisconsin

Too bad that three words - turnout, mileage and ratio - must be missing from Scott Walker’s vocabulary. It would have spared the people of Wisconsin lots of turmoil. Let’s define these words in Wisconsin-speak.

Turnout - Wisconsin voters turn out in far larger numbers during presidential elections than in “off-year” elections. Walker was elected governor with 52 percent of the vote last November, 2010, when fewer of his constituents were paying attention. Now all of America is paying attention.

Mileage - Scott’s office in Wisconsin’s capital city, Madison, is in easy traveling distance of Wisconsin’s two largest cities, 77 miles west of Milwaukee and, well, Madison. Most convenient for throngs of angry citizens - especially union members - to descend on Madison and protest Walker’s union-bashing legislation.

Ratio - Half of Wisconsin’s 5.6 million residents live in 13 counties - out of 72 - located in the southeast corner of the state. Ten percent of Wisconsin residents live in Milwaukee, 90 miles north of Chicago. The north to south length of Wisconsin is listed as 360 miles. Couldn’t the southeast counties get along without the rest of Wisconsin?

Walker triggered a vigorous rebellion when he proposed slashing collective bargaining rights and benefits of public employees a few months after he was elected - by a respectable but slight margin in a low-turnout election.

“This is our moment,” Walker has proclaimed.

The new Republican governor must have thought he had a mandate to do whatever he felt like doing, Tens of thousands of Wisconsin residents - an estimated 70,000 on Saturday, Feb. 19 - told him they had a different idea as they flooded the streets of Madison and jammed the Capitol building.

Most were unionized public employees, including teachers who called in sick to schools in Milwaukee and elsewhere, and trekked to Madison. That would be a more daunting challenge for unionized teachers in Miami or Los Angeles, each of which is roughly 400 miles or more from their respective state capitals.

The Republican-controlled state Senate planned to vote on the measure, but were stalled when the Senate’s 14 Democrats moved to Chicago and environs until Walker is willing to compromise.

Walker dug his political hole deeper by refusing to change his mind and threatening massive layoffs.

Do the people of Milwaukee, Madison and their surrounding counties really need this? Why tolerate these conservative governors and legislators who try to dictate how they should live?

The Milwaukee-Madison axis takes up a relatively small, concentrated area that can probably operate on its own. Its geographic arrangement compares with metropolitan areas in New York, Florida, California and Pennsylvania.

Large cities are usually beset by the most alarming problems in their respective states while their populations combined with their suburbs far outnumber the populations of other parts of their states. However, these cities do not utilize as many state services as smaller towns and must follow state edicts on means to confront their problems.

When Philadelphia enacted gun-control laws to quell crime, Pennsylvania’s legislature countered with legislation to cancel out the city’s rules.

At the same time, metropolitan areas usually supply state government coffers with a disproportionate amount of tax revenues.

Of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, a single county generates 10 percent of statewide revenues from the 6 percent sales tax, according to a recent study. If you cannot figure out which county, here’s a hint: Independence Hall is located there.

The same study informs us that Philadelphia in combination with its four suburban counties comprises 31 percent of the state’s population yet accounts for 37 percent of all tax revenues statewide.

In New York state, median property taxes in the five suburban counties surrounding New York City in 2009 were double or more the median state average of $3,755, from $7295 to $9,044 in Nassau, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties, according to a report issued by the Tax Foundation, The New York Times reports.

Los Angeles County is home to 20 percent of California’s 36.9 million residents, including not only the city of Los Angeles but Malibu, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. Is it possible that Bakersfield or Salinas contributes as much tax revenues to the state treasury?

Yet every year, Philadelphia, New York and other big cities beg their state legislatures for money that the state would not have if not for these same cities. If these cities were on their own, they would have much more money to spend on their needs as they see fit.
They could receive federal funds directly from the federal government instead of through the state, operate their own driver-testing centers and run the welfare and unemployment offices themselves. In Philadelphia, the city already operates its own child-welfare department while Pennsylvania is directly responsible for child-welfare offices in most other counties.

Few of these cities, if any, would have to contend with a state legislature with Republican majorities in either house. NYC residents have long been frustrated because of an anti-urban state Senate controlled by the GOP.

NYC’s Senate delegation is overwhelmingly Democrat, roughly two dozen vs. two Republicans. Three out of the four senators from Westchester and Rockland counties to the north are Democrats, though all nine Long Island senators are Republicans who, of course, ally themselves with upstate Republicans.

Likewise, Democrats dominate the legislative delegations of Philadelphia and Los Angeles County as well as other urban areas.

The most beneficial arrangement would involve a merger of some form between the city and suburbs, as these communities are so intertwined. Probably some services could be administered on a metropolitan level while other services could be provided by the individual communities.

Predictably, political differences could easily obstruct combining a city with its suburbs. Usually, the city is controlled by Democrats while most of the suburbs are run by Republicans.

Whatever is possible, if Milwaukee County - which encompasses the city of Milwaukee - should ever break away from Wisconsin, Walker would govern a state where he does not live. He would need to relocate from his home in…Milwaukee County.