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That includes areas like La Crosse, with about 100,000 people in the metro area, and a central city of 50,000. Wisconsin has many smaller metro areas, in addition to the larger cities of Milwaukee and Madison.
Revenue sharing and cooperation make a lot of sense. Cities long have advocated outright annexation of suburban areas in order to provide services to them. But suburban towns often don't want to be annexed, and state law does not allow annexation to happen against their will.
What's the answer? The services need to be provided, and there needs to be an equitable way to share tax revenue that results from new growth.
The Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, which represents La Crosse and 36 other Wisconsin cities, is talking about ways to use Wisconsin's shared revenue program — the major vehicle of state aid to local governments — as a way to push for more regional collaboration within metro areas.
A story in Sunday's edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel referred to it as a "plan." But it's really more in the "idea" stage than it is a formal plan.
That's because no one knows at this point where the state could get additional money to add a regional growth component to Wisconsin's $949 million shared revenue system. Cities don't want to simply change the existing shared revenue to a regional system because that would hurt the very places that need help the most — struggling central cities with high poverty and low property values.
There are some examples of other communities that have had success with regional approaches to issues. The Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota is the best local example. There is a Metropolitan Council that handles regional services such as sewers and mass transit. According to Rich Eggleston of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, the Twin Cities revenue sharing programs initially shifted tax revenue from wealthier and rapidly expanding suburbs into the central cities.
Now, Eggleston said, the central cities are so economically vibrant that some revenue generated from Minneapolis and St. Paul and the wealthier outer suburbs is being shifted to help the more struggling inner ring of suburbs.
Some type of revenue sharing could work in Wisconsin. The Alliance is recommending that the state try to get an additional $70 million in new revenue to use as a regional incentive program in addition to the existing shared revenue program.
Where do we get the $70 million in new revenue to run such a program? That's the question.
As soon as someone comes up with an answer to that question, the Alliance's "idea" could graduate to "plan." Meanwhile, state and local officials need to think very hard to find ways that our existing resources — including shared revenue — can encourage more regional cooperation.
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