Milwaukee Biz Blog

Editor’s note: This blog is the text of the speech about the economic health of the southeastern Wisconsin region by Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, at the MMAC’s recent all-member meeting held at the Bradley Center.

Before tackling our agenda, we need to be honest with where we stand - no hallucinating.
Ten years ago, MMAC compiled its first report comparing Milwaukee to 20 other metros, using objective indicators to measure the region’s progress, both over time and against this peer group. 

To know where we are going, we must know where we stand. Today we are releasing our 2009 Benchmarking report. Here is a brief snapshot of five key indicators that tell the story.
Perhaps the purest measure of economic strength is our per capita Gross Metropolitan Product, which stands at $53,000 dollars and ranks us seventh among our 20 peers. How do we continue to grow?
Median Household Income measures the base unit of economic health - the household. At $54,000, we are at the midpoint in our peer group.  How do we raise the region’s income level?
Net Population Migration is a vote-with-your-feet measure of a region’s appeal. Since 2000, we had a net loss of 50,000 people. Other regions in the Midwest like Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and Columbus, have gained population. It can be done.  How do we attract and retain talent?
Prior to the recession, our Job Growth was only half the rate of our peers. By the end of this year, we are likely to fall even further behind.  How do we generate more high-value, high wage jobs?
The final measure, Educational Attainment, may be the biggest determinant of future prosperity.  In the last eight years, the region had a 4-percent increase in the number of adults with a bachelor’s degree, growing from 27 to 31 percent. This places us at the median of our peers. A sustainable quality of life is based on educated and skilled citizens.  How can we help more students to be college-ready?
Our agenda will provide answers to these questions.  Overall, there is a small margin between gaining ground and losing ground with these metrics. 

To ensure our agenda is on track, we asked for your input through a series of interviews and surveys.
Eighty-five percent of the 300 participants were CEOs or business owners. Here, in your own words, are some of the representative responses:

• “High taxes, corporate and personal, are part of the disconnect between elected officials and business owners.” (20-year high.)
• “Our greatest long-term threat is the cycle of poor education and parenting of our youth.  he City’s public school system is a travesty.” (Harsh, maybe, but very representative.)
• “Our challenge is drawing young people into manufacturing. The stigma of a dirty facility and grimy jobs does not match up with our plant floor or the opportunity to earn good money.” (No. 1 state in manufacturing jobs/No. 2 region.)
• “Our top issue is regional growth – we must think regionally in all we do.”
  (There’s more to pull us together than to keep us apart.)
• “When the issues become bigger than we are, when we feel we can’t influence them, then we move elsewhere.” (With your help we CAN influence the issues.)

While our region has much to offer, this feedback reflects cracks in the foundation. You spoke, we listened, and we are taking action through our Blueprint for Economic Prosperity.

Our first Blueprint goal is a tax and regulatory climate that positions Wisconsin for growth.
We heard from hundreds of business leaders speaking out against the referendum mandating paid sick leave on all employers doing business in the city. This was a galvanizing issue for the membership and led to MMAC’s lawsuit to overturn this ordinance. Our success in the first round of court leaves us cautiously optimistic as we face an appeal.
I want to publicly thank Mayor Barrett and Common Council President Hines for supporting our position, keeping Milwaukee “Open for Business.”
Tax increases levied in this economic environment topped member concerns. Eighty-three percent of our survey respondents believe that our tax burden has a negative impact on economic development and evidently Forbes agrees, ranking us 48th best for business climate.  In your own words, it’s like having your house on fire and the fire department responding with a gas tanker.
If we continue to raise taxes, without calculating the impact on job creation, Wisconsin will continue to take two steps back for every step forward.
Case in point: In a difficult state budget year, we made headway with a number of targeted tax exemptions that will encourage investment, business starts, and job creation.  Our thanks to the governor and state legislature for their work on these credits. 

At the same time, the state budget increased taxes on job growth by $745 million dollars through capital gains, combined reporting and personal income tax hikes. And these taxes provide just over 1% of the state’s $56 billion biennial budget. Couldn’t we have reduced spending a bit more?
MMAC’s Tax Committee will review the state and local fiscal structures and propose specific changes that foster growth while continuing to provide needed government programs.
Education and Workforce.  Our goal is a workforce powered by innovative, knowledgeable and skilled individuals who are productive, lifelong learners.
Nowhere is change needed more than in the K12 education system in the City of Milwaukee.  Milwaukee Public Schools graduation rate is 41 percent. We have a greater percentage of high school dropouts than people with college degrees.
That is why MMAC remains focused on improving educational outcomes.
We will continue to support a robust system of schools where parents can exercise choice. MMAC has been a leader in this effort since the early 90s. Today, more than 26,000 students are enrolled in choice and charter schools in the city. These options have created more high-performing schools and resulted in fewer dropouts.
Last session we worked with Milwaukee state representatives to defeat legislation that would have lowered the cap on the number of students who can attend a choice school.

Our priority next session is to build a bi-partisan coalition to restore, and ultimately increase the funding for choice and charter schools to a level comparable to MPS. This was a priority with 84 percent of our members.
Education reform has never been a one-part strategy for MMAC.  We have long supported MPS and we will continue to do so.  We’ve been active in school board elections; helped raise $17 million through a Gates grant to develop smaller high schools; and contributed $15 million for MPS graduates to attend college. More recently, MMAC’s Council of Small Business Executives raised $70,000 for reading enrichment programs.
But in order to make significant, system-wide change, MPS needs a new governance structure. COSBE has taken a leadership role in pushing for this change. 
We support efforts of the governor and mayor to draw a clear line of accountability with MPS.  Specifically, having the Mayor choose the Superintendent, and take responsibility for collective bargaining, the budget and tax levy.  Mayor, it may be lonely at the top, but thanks for stepping up and we stand behind you. (Call legislators)
If we do not act now, we will not see significant improvement in graduation rates, and we will see MPS face bankruptcy as its benefit costs reach one half its current $1 billion dollar budget.
We also support the governor’s efforts to put Wisconsin in line for federal education funding - available only if we get our education act together by:
• Removing the barrier to evaluate teacher performance based on students’ results
• Intervening to close failing schools
• And providing common standards and assessments for student performance.

Unfortunately, late last week, the Assembly passed by one vote a reform package that does not make these changes.
We realize there are extensive challenges in our community.  We wish we had more two-parent families and less poverty, but that should not prevent us from improving our system of education. As former MPS superintendent Howard Fuller has said, we need to educate the kids we have, not the kids we wish we had. 

Moving on to infrastructure. Our goal is a reliable and sustainable infrastructure that supports a growing regional economy.
The capacity of our people is a competitive advantage; the capacity of our infrastructure is a necessity.
We have, by and large, met this basic expectation.  We remain a commute-friendly region, with the completion of the Marquette Interchange and the reconstruction and expansion of Interstate 94 south to Illinois underway.
But we have some identifiable challenges, starting with transportation.
With 350,000 vehicles a day, accelerating reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange, the state’s busiest, needs to be a priority.
In addition, we must keep the state transportation fund for transportation. We cannot reach into the cookie jar to balance state spending. We were successful last session in keeping a lid on this jar.
We need a regional approach to transit - funding it, operating it and connecting it through a Regional Transportation Authority. We need to get out of the spiral of cutting bus routes and raising fares, straining the connection between people and jobs. 
Removing transit from the property tax and providing a dedicated sales tax will put us in line with almost every other metro area in the country.

We need to remove the moratorium on building nuclear plants in Wisconsin as the current plants reach the end of their useful life.  We can’t afford to lose this component of our power grid, even as we seek to diversify our energy sources with new alternatives.
At the federal level, Cap and Trade legislation would put Wisconsin at a competitive disadvantage. As a large coal user, Wisconsin would be forced to bear costs that its competitors would not. Our message to the state’s federal delegation is that a vote for Cap and Trade is a vote against jobs.

As we look to the future, our fresh water location holds much promise. Our high capacity and low costs for water and wastewater treatment can be a real game changer for economic development. You will hear more about this later.

Our infrastructure is relatively healthy, and where it’s not, the solutions are fairly obvious. Not so for health care.
Our goal in health care is a consumer-based system that provides high-quality and cost-effective health care.
The Milwaukee region has a great reputation for high-quality health care that attracts outside dollars into the region, like Children’s Hospital. We also have a major industrial player here that produces and exports health care technologies in GE Healthcare.  Great to have Mark Vachon, President & CEO of GE Healthcare Americas.
But as studies over the years have shown, health care generally costs more here.  That gap has closed significantly, down from 55 percent above the Midwest average in 2002 to 9 percent above the average today. We would like to close that gap altogether.
When 20 percent of the population accounts for 75 percent of health care spending that can be impacted by lifestyle choices, wellness and prevention is the place to start.
How can we make a difference? Through what we can control.
Partnering with the Mayor of Milwaukee and the Greater Milwaukee Committee, we launched an effort to engage employers in a “Well City” campaign.  This is part of a national program to promote wellness and recognize organizations for their commitment to the health and well-being of their employees.  The point is not just to receive an award, but to bring employers together to share best practices on what really works for wellness.
For more information on what your company can do to create a well workplace, check out the healthcare section of our website for programs and member services. 
And I am pleased to announce today that our health care insurance partner, WPS, is offering a two-year rate guarantee starting January 1st to any MMAC member with 2-50 employees. 
On the offense, MMAC worked to defeat “Healthy Wisconsin” - a state-run health care mandate with a billion dollar price tag.  In the coming year we will continue efforts to exempt health savings accounts from state taxes and reform medical malpractice to reduce the costs of defensive medicine.
The moving target of federal health care legislation makes it difficult to predict future costs. To hold our elected officials accountable, MMAC issues a Legislative Scorecard to track votes on these key policy issues.  Go to our website, get informed, and help us deliver the message.

While public policy is a major focus of our Blueprint, a number of initiatives are directed at strengthening connections between our members.
In its ninth year, FUEL Milwaukee is helping employers retain and attract talent by connecting thousands of young professionals. This network provides opportunities to learn, have fun and volunteer. I’d like to recognize their leadership and respective team members for all their hard work - Mechelle King, Leslie Dixon and Diane Eckstrand.
FUEL will continue its work with its 55  employer partners united around strategies to:
• Grow the number of great places to work
• Improve perceptions of the Milwaukee Region and
• Increase community engagement
Last year, FUEL adopted 8 non-profit organizations, which benefited from the volunteer work of more than 400 young professionals. The more connected you are, the more likely you are to remain in the region.

Broadening our economic impact includes increasing the participation of minority-owned businesses in our economy. We know from our benchmarking work that the region lags in this important area.
Through The Business Council, a network of ethnically-diverse businesses, we have developed a Supplier Diversity module, aimed at connecting diverse firms to corporate and public sector work.
To date, the 22 participating ethnically-diverse firms have earned almost $136 million in new contracts.  Thank you to The Business Council and our corporate partners. Our goal is to add six corporations to the module and increase their spending with participants by 10 percent.

And, lastly, in an effort to extend our reach internationally, MMAC was successful in obtaining federal approval to create an Immigrant Investor Zone for southeast Wisconsin.  This has quickly put us on the global map for foreigners interested in investing in the region. 
In exchange for a minimum investment of $500,000 and the creation of 10 jobs, they qualify for a permanent U.S. visa.
This tool extends our reach to attract capital to the region and has already resulted in $15 million dollars in new investment.  We expect this number to double next year. Many thanks to our China Business Council chairs, Bob Kraft and Ulice Payne, for teeing up this idea.  All of these efforts are starting to pay off for the region.

Tim Sheehy is president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

All of those naysayers who believe Wisconsin is a terrible place to do business need to take a deep breath and do some serious recalibrating.
To be sure, like every other state, Wisconsin has its share of challenges - its high taxes and the dropout rate at Milwaukee Public Schools always quickly come to mind. And no doubt, Wisconsin has taken it on the chin with the closures of automotive plants in Janesville and Kenosha.
The losses have made the Milwaukee 7 a convenient target for people who make a habit out of trashing Wisconsin's business climate.
However, the negative drumbeat news cycle needs to take a break sometimes, and Tuesday was one of those days.
BizTimes had known for weeks that Milwaukee is one of two cities to be finalists in a Spanish company's search to build its new North American headquarters. We were told by city officials that we should not report that fact, however, because doing so could jeopardize Milwaukee's chances of landing the project.
Well, Wisconsin Secretary of Commerce Richard Leinenkugel blew those concerns out of the water Tuesday when he reported by phone from Bilbao, Spain, at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) all-member meeting that he had just concluded a "12-hour cage match" presentation to a Spanish company.
Leinenkugel is courting the Spanish firm with a southeastern Wisconsin delegation that includes officials from the Milwaukee 7, We Energies and Richard "Rocky" Marcoux, commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of City Development.
Milwaukee is "at the finish line" of landing the company's North American headquarters that would bring hundreds of jobs to southeastern Wisconsin and could also generate more work for vendors in the region, sources said.
"It's between us and one other city," said one source close to the negotiations.
Officials representing the Spanish company have been studying the business climate in southeastern Wisconsin for weeks, BizTimes has learned. The company sent representatives to the MMAC's Future 50 program in September, and they toured several southeastern Wisconsin factories, including the GenMet metal fabrication plant in Mequon. The plant tours were designed to give the Spanish company some insight about the array of potential partners and vendors in the region, sources said.
Sources said they expect the Spanish company to make a decision on the site for the North American headquarters by the end of the year.
Sources declined to identify the Spanish company that is being courted by Milwaukee.
We've got a pretty good hunch, however. Think alternative energy. Spain has become the world's second-largest producer of solar and wind energy in the world (behind Germany).
Spanish companies such as Gamesa, a manufacturer and installer of wind turbines, Iberdrola, a power group, and Acciona Energia, a wind park developer, are becoming global players in the fast-emerging alternative energy markets.

Republic Airways jobs
The news that Milwaukee is a finalist for the Spanish company's jobs came on the heels of Republic Airways Holdings Inc.'s announcement earlier Tuesday that it will save 800 jobs in Oak Creek and move 800 new jobs to the region by the end of next year.
Republic, the new parent company of Midwest Airlines, plans to move the jobs to Oak Creek and Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport.
Republic chief executive officer Bryan Bedford confirmed the creation of a Milwaukee hub during the MMAC's meeting at the Bradley Center.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced the use of the state's Enterprise Zone tax credits to help convince Republic to bring the jobs to the state.
Indianapolis-based Republic Airways will consolidate operations in Milwaukee from other cities such as Las Cruces, N.M., and Denver, Colo.
Republic acquired Denver-based Frontier Airlines on Oct. 1.
Bedford praised Milwaukee's pro-business climate as a reason for deciding to bring the jobs here, rather than Indianapolis or Denver.
"We spent a lot of time in the last three months trying to figure out where we can be our best and most competitive," Bedford said.
Bedford also announced Republic will add new routes from Milwaukee to San Francisco and Raleigh, N.C. The company is considering adding service to six more routes.
"Midwest Airlines today is about 45 percent to 50 percent of what it was at its peak. Our goal is to get back to its peak as soon as possible," Bedford said.

Mercury Marine jobs
Step back for a moment and recall that Wisconsin also recently beat out Oklahoma to keep Mercury Marine's production plant in Fond du Lac. Wisconsin provided about $70 million in public assistance, along with about $50 million in a loan backed by a Fond du Lac County sales tax and $3 million from the city of Fond du Lac. With the combined package of incentives, Mercury Marine plans to move up to 2,700 jobs to the Fox Valley.

Biotech jobs
In addition to the wins with Mercury Marine and Republic Airways, eight biotechnology companies have recently moved from other states to Wisconsin.
Biotechnology in Wisconsin is an $8.7 billion industry with 400 companies and 34,000 employees. Biotechnology is the fastest-growing segment of the Wisconsin economy, with an annualized growth rate of nearly 7 percent.
The state is benefiting from the formation of the Wisconsin Angel Network and the Wisconsin Venture Fund to help facilitate deal flow, investor exchanges and network creation.
In February, Doyle expanded the investor tax credit law as part of an early economic recovery bill. Enhancements included: raising the cap on tax credits for angel investments from $1 million to $4 million; tripling the annual pool of credits available for angel credits, from $5.5 million to $18.25 million per year, and venture credits, $6 million to $18.75 million; and allowing angel investors to claim the entire 25 percent credit on their investment in the first taxable year.
The eight biotech companies moving to Wisconsin are: RJA Dispersions LLC; VitalMedix; Rapid Diagnostek; Aldevron; Flex Biomedical Inc.; Inviragen Inc.; Exact Sciences Corp.; and NanoMedex.
They're moving here from Minnesota, North Dakota, Massachusetts and Florida.
Those relocations recently prompted the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis to write a series (and a related blog item headlined, "Wisconsin kicks our butt") about how Minnesota is losing out to a better business climate in Wisconsin.

Jobs from the Flatlands
Meanwhile, Uline Inc. of Waukegan, Ill., will move across the Wisconsin border to its new headquarters in Pleasant Prairie in 2010, bringing 1,000 jobs to a state that is supposedly a terrible place to do business. Uline is investing about $100 million in this God-awful place.
Uline received more than $6 million in incentives and aid from the State of Wisconsin to come here. In addition to Uline, several other Chicago area-based firms recently have opted to build facilities in Kenosha County instead of northern Illinois, including Vernon Hills-based Rust-Oleum Corp. and Lake Forest Village-based Hospira Inc.
And guess what? Business advocates in northern Illinois are now screaming because Wisconsin is luring away so many of their businesses. At a meeting of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce in Independence Grove, Lake County Partners president Dave Young blamed Illinois' "unfriendly business climate" for the flight of businesses TO Wisconsin.
"We have a governor (in Illinois) who goes out of his way to antagonize the business community," Young said at the luncheon, according to the Lake County News-Sun. "Unfortunately, right next door in Kenosha County, Gov. Jim Doyle is very adept at business recruitment and actually enjoys it."
Oh, and there will be more good news. Look for the efforts of the Water Council and Badger Meter Inc. CEO Rich Meeusen to pay off with more freshwater technology jobs in the next couple of years.
On Wisconsin!

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

The status of women - here in Wisconsin and around the world - comes under scrutiny in October as we marked the observance of World Poverty Day on Oct. 17. Poverty remains one of the most challenging problems in Wisconsin and across the globe, and women and girls are disproportionately impacted. 

Being deeply affected by poverty, women also hold great potential to eliminate it. When women are afforded equality of opportunity, the potential for economic growth is striking. Women remain the missing piece in solving the poverty puzzle. 

Throughout childhood, U.S. poverty rates are the same among boys and girls, but once they enter the childbearing years, 20.6 percent of women live in poverty, compared with 14 percent of men. Elderly women are 70-percent more likely to be poor than elderly men.

In Wisconsin, more than 589,000 people (247,031 of whom are women) and 28 percent of single mothers live in poverty. The numbers get a lot worse in Milwaukee County, where 38.8 percent of families led by single mothers live in poverty.

For women and their families, poverty means more than having little or no income. It means missing opportunities because they lack power and voice. It means missing out because they are undercounted, undervalued, underserved and underrepresented.

As long as social, cultural and economic barriers exclude women from full participation in public life, the solutions to the poverty puzzle remain elusive.

Investing in women and girls is the answer. According to an article in New York Times Magazine, "There is a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism … The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem; they are the solution."

The Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee understands that investing in women-led organizations and creating long-term solutions to problems in our communities is an important step to eliminating poverty. The Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee prioritizes investments in programs that build economic opportunity for women and girls and combats poverty. Since 1986, the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee has invested more than $15 million in nonprofits working on the frontlines to improve the economic status of women and create a brighter future for girls. Engaging women in organizing and advocacy efforts toward economic self sufficiency, promoting employment through housing mobility, leadership development, and reducing teen pregnancy are among the programs we have supported through the years.

On World Poverty Day, the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee calls on local, national and world leaders to empower the women that power the global economy - we can’t afford not to. There is no such thing as a "gender-neutral budget." The impact of every fiscal policy, be it taxation or resource allocation, must be assessed in terms of its impact on the lives of both women and men.

Furthermore, our leaders must eliminate the gender gap in wages, improve childcare options and flexibility for working mothers and facilitate women’s access to fair credit and finance.

Elaine Maly is executive director of the Women'’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee Inc., the largest permanent resource in Wisconsin dedicated exclusively to funding and advocacy for the emerging needs of women and girls.

Chicago's failed bid to be the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics was a terrible loss for:
(A) Chicago
(B) Milwaukee
(C) The Midwest
(D) President Barack Obama
(E) America
(F) All of the above

The correct answer is (F). Make no mistake and accept no spin, the Obama administration suffered a substantial wound on this one. As I wrote last week, the president was making a serious political miscalculation by going to Copenhagen, Denmark, to accompany his wife and make a personal pitch to the International Olympic Committee on behalf of Chicago's bid to host the 2016 games - unless his administration had a strong premonition that his appearance would seal the deal.

By going to Denmark, Obama put his signature on the whole thing, win or lose.

As he prepared to fly to Denmark, Obama's critics pounced on him, saying he was taking his focus off of more serious things such as the economy, health care reform, the Middle East and Afghanistan. The critics implied that Chicago's Olympic pitch was not worthy of the president's time.

They were wrong. It was. And that's what makes the snub even more painful for … America.

Some of the shrillest critics rejoiced in Obama's failure. One giddy local talk show host even put a headline on his blog that read, "Barack, Michelle, and Oprah, Oh My!" For some, it has become more important that Obama fail than for their country to succeed.

And make no mistake, the Olympic fiasco is a failure for America, Obama and, to some degree, Milwaukee.

Don't think so? As the clock ticked down on the IOC's decision, I put out a call seeking comments from Milwaukee's business and civic leaders, some of whom lean politically to the left and others no doubt lean to the right. Every one of them was preparing to celebrate Chicago's selection to host the 2016 games.

They had no doubt whatsoever that the new development and infrastructure improvements of an Olympics in Chicago would spill over into southeastern Wisconsin. I asked them to share with us their thoughts if Chicago won the games and their thoughts if Chicago lost the games.

Of course, we posted their comments about Chicago's defeat on our web site.

Now, I'd like to share with you some of the comments they prepared for the moment had Chicago been successful in its bid. Taken in sum, they dramatically illustrate what could have been:

"Milwaukee will shine in the glow of the international spotlight placed on Chicago, and we will work to use that light to our economic development advantage. If it speeds up rail connections, all the better. Be the first time I rooted for a Chicago sports win!"
Tim Sheehy, president, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce

"For too long, we've been unable to come to a decision on whether to expand our transit options, invest in our facilities, parks and public infrastructure. Well, in 2016, the world is coming to dinner and it is time for us to start to set our table. We can certainly host events and training facilities, athletes and visitors all in wonderful venues across our region. And we can also show the world that we can 'just do it' in Milwaukee and regain our place as a city on the move."
Julia Taylor, president, Greater Milwaukee Committee

"The games will be the most significant impact on our local economy in recent history as investments in Chicago will undoubtedly spill over on to infrastructure and amenities north of the state line."
Jim Villa, president and CEO, Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin

"The world's eyes are now squarely focused on Chicago and the larger region. There is no question that we now have a great opportunity at our doorstep to tell our story to the world."
Dean Amhaus, president, Spirit of Milwaukee

"Hopefully by 2016, we'll have a rebuilt I-94 corridor and additional rail options between Milwaukee and Chicago. Together with Mitchell International Airport serving as another gateway, we should be positioned to capture some of the Olympic excitement in the form of additional economic impact for the region."
David Fantle, vice president, Visit Milwaukee

"The Olympics will put metro Milwaukee and our Midwest region in the global limelight as a major destination and an economic contender. That visibility will translate into jobs and economic growth ... if we are prepared to capitalize on it."
Kerry Thomas, executive director of Transit Now

"We couldn't be more pleased by Chicago's win today. We've been supportive of Chicago's bid from the outset and now we look forward to working with the organizers, Mayor Daley and their entire team to see what supporting role Milwaukee can play in the games."
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett

"Mitchell International Airport has already been called Chicago's third airport so we fully expect to bring thousands of Olympic visitors through the Milwaukee gateway And with Wauwatosa native Pat Ryan heading the Olympic effort for Chicago, Milwaukee has a great friend in the games who will look for opportunities for our community to get involved."
Milwaukee County Supervisor Scott Walker

"This Olympic decision is great news for Milwaukee County. I am pleased that President Barack Obama led our nation's final push to secure these games for Chicago. The total economic impact from the games is expected to be $22.5 billion. If we can capture just one percent of that impact, that's still a $225 million boost to the economy in Milwaukee County. Ten percent is $2.25 billion. The positive effect this will have on our economy and sales tax collections should not be underestimated.
Milwaukee County Executive Lee Holloway

"Commuter rail will allow our city to demonstrate to the world the assets and opportunities in Racine. Our chances of bringing Olympics tourists and Olympics spill off into Racine diminishes tenfold if we do not have commuter rail."
Racine Mayor John Dickert

"This economic impact will probably be bigger than a Super Bowl that the Packers play in. It's a unique situation. The Metra comes right into Kenosha, and (Olympic athletes') families may look to have their residences here and take the train right into the Olympic areas."
Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser

Ouch. The Midwest has never hosted the Olympics. And that's a shame.

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

We need real reform in the financial markets. This reform should include how we regulate and how we audit and enforce these regulations.

Reform will not prevent another crisis that we have just witnessed or the S&L/Mutual Savings Bank crisis some three plus decades ago or frauds such as Madoff's. But reform can catch these problems before they get out of hand, which will reduce the impact on our economy.

• First, we must restore confidence to the secondary mortgage market. Liquidity in mortgages provided by the secondary market is essential to our economy. Banks and S&Ls should not be holding mortgages for long periods of time and should have a market to which they can sell.
  Require escrow for real estate taxes and homeowners insurance for all homes where the home buyer does not have a 20-percent down payment.
• Require that the buyer have a 20-percentcash down payment or that another entity, such as a mortgage insurer, the VA, FHA or Farmers Home Loan Agency, is covering the 20-percent difference between appraisal and mortgage.
• Forbid financial institutions from lending borrowers their 20-percent down payments.
• Ensure that income and assets listed are verified.
• Ensure that appraisals are realistic
• License all appraisers and mortgage brokers nationally, or at the very least, create a standardized system for appraisers and mortgage brokers, including the personnel of any firm issuing paper to be sold on the secondary market.
• Strictly regulate mortgage insurance companies. There have been too many incidents where these firms have had conflicts of interest (using subsidiaries as collateral) or have made risky business decisions that affect their contingent liability funds.
• Require that all use the standardized underwriting and forms issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
  Make full disclosure and other paperwork simple to understand. Reduce this paperwork to one or two pages that are understandable.
• Where possible, require that homeowners with less than a 20-percent down payment receive counseling so that they have a budget and so the mortgages they receive are fair, that charges required of them are reasonable and that the property they are buying is worth what they are paying.
• Restrict such practices as "interest only mortgages," balloon mortgages or variable mortgages with teaser rates.

In regards to regulation of the financial industry, it is important to separate the audit and enforcement functions from the influence of politics and business as much as is possible. Politics influences enforcement.

A recent example was the firing of Gary Aguirre, an Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) attorney lauded for his excellent work. He was fired because he wanted to interview John Mack for allegedly giving inside information to Pequot, a hedge fund. (I could have used examples from both Democratic and Republican administrations).

The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq, the Federal Reserve Bank and the SEC did little to go after abuses on Wall Street. For years, Eliot Spitzer was a lonely crusader against Wall Street abuses.

"Self-regulation" by the industries themselves has been not been successful. The Federal Reserve failed to stop abuses in the banking industry through its audits. Their "objective" is to protect banking, but too often this means avoiding confrontation by the few banks that control most of the country's assets.

My suggestion is to create an independent agency that has many features of an inspector general or the General Accounting Office. Fund their budget for seven years at a time. Give a single 10 or 12-year year term to its leadership. Forbid its civil servants from becoming lobbyists or working in the industries they have regulated for five years.

This will not be perfect, but it will go a long way in isolating political influence on the agency.

Furthermore, I suggest that we separate regulation and oversight by an industry's function. Credit, life, health and property-casualty insurance companies manage risk; banks, S&Ls and mutual savings banks lend money. Mutual funds and annuities deal in collective investments. Money managers, hedge funds, financial advisors and stock brokers manage money or offer advice.

Multiple and contradictory regulations need to be reduced, but there should continue to be competition in enforcement. National tests, continuing education and licensing should be national. Licensing by states based on the national model should continue.

Bob Chernow is a futurist who predicted the S&L/mutual savings bank crisis, the future of mortgage backed bonds and the recent sub-prime crisis. He works in the financial industry. His opinions are his own.

An attorney is trained to understand that witness statements do not equal the facts. Similarly, Department of Transportation (DOT) estimates do not equal facts. They are opinions and, if politically motivated, are biased.

Let's look at the facts: In a 2008 letter to Sen. Jeff Plale, the DOT estimated that the cost of replacing the Hoan would be $220 million. Now, after one year of deflation, the DOT has inflated the Hoan repair costs to $240 million, as reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday. To put this into perspective, the entire Marquette Interchange project cost over $800 million. So, the DOT is estimating that the cost to repair an existing bridge is more than one-fourth the cost to build the Marquette, which included the construction of 20 new bridges, some as tall as the Hoan. The DOT also believes, according to Monday's article, that the cost to simply re-paint the Hoan will cost $40 million.

The DOT also gives "facts" from both sides of its mouth. In December of 2002, DOT officials concluded that the Hoan could not accommodate a bike lane because the 6 lane bridge with shoulders was nearing capacity and could not be reduced to four lanes. Now, in 2009, the DOT is proposing a four-lane boulevard with no shoulders and a roundabout to accommodate the 46,000+ daily traffic count. Imagine 120,000 trucks each year trying to navigate a roundabout. Trucks will likely take both lanes to navigate turns, if it's even possible at all.

More facts: the original Marquette Interchange was planned at $1.4 billion and included the replacement of ramps and the 794 connector to the Hoan. After robbing money from the transportation funds to balance deficit budgets, the current administration required DOT to reduce the scope of the Marquette Interchange to approximately $800 million instead of the $1.4 billion by cutting out this connector work. It's no wonder they got done early and under budget as DOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi touted; they did less.

Finally, going outside of the normal transportation planning process, the DOT arrogantly hired HNTB to plan alternatives to the Hoan and its connectors without consulting with the communities this would impact. Is it because the DOT no longer had the needed money to re-deck not only the bridge but also the work that had been cut out of the Marquette Interchange?

Fact: The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC), the federally designated planning agency for this region, has completed and published its official report for transportation planning through the year 2035, which retains the Hoan Bridge and the 794 freeway as part of an important transportation corridor. This report followed the normal channels with DOT experts taking factual information gained from traffic counts, holding open meetings and getting all the information to form these recommendations.

So, for those who don't want to be irresponsible by not getting the "facts" when planning for the Hoan Bridge, let's include all of the facts. The DOT has done an end-run around the normal planning process and appears to be providing inflated estimates that advance an agenda. MMAC (Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce) sent a letter to the Governor asking to study this new agenda. My office did check the facts regarding ownership of the land below the Hoan. It was not surprising to find that most of this land is owned by the City of Milwaukee on both the north and south portions of the bridge. The city also owns much of the land used by the Port of Milwaukee that relies heavily on the Hoan for ingress and egress.

My office will continue to feed oxygen to this fire by asking questions about the reason for the HNTB study. It is notable that the DOT is not solving their deficit surrounding the Zoo Interchange or the I-94 corridor. Perhaps DOT thought that the south shore communities would be the least likely to object. If so, I am hopeful that the Coalition to Save the Hoan will show the DOT they were wrong.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Patricia Jursik represents the county's Eighth District.

As the next chairman of the Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corp. (FCEDC) board of directors, it is my job to look to 2010 and assess, with staff, what the near future will hold for our communities, our businesses and our residents. The outcome of the vote by Mercury Marine's union on Sunday will most assuredly affect our future.

This is a difficult situation for everyone involved, especially the employees who will be casting their vote. I truly empathize with them for they must feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. It is not only their job at stake, but the jobs of approximately 4,000 of their neighbors in Fond du Lac County who work for companies who are suppliers to Mercury Marine or work for organizations who will be greatly affected by the potential loss of the company. The responsibility of each voting employee is incredible.

It is important that everyone understand the impact of Mercury Marine on Fond du Lac County. All told, an estimated $353 million in annual income in our county is on the line, and it is an impact that extends far beyond the boundaries of Fond du Lac County. In the seven-county region (Fond du Lac County and its adjoining counties), the direct and indirect impact is expected to result in the loss of almost 8,000 jobs and $450 million loss in annual earnings. Bump the scope to the state level, and loss climbs to over 11,000 jobs and $600 million in annual earnings.

As incoming chair of FCEDC, I have to look at how it would affect our business climate. Approximately 1,000 companies in Wisconsin provide products or services to Mercury Marine, 250 of which are in Fond du Lac County. Among the hardest hit industries will be local governments, restaurants, health care and a wide-range of manufacturing businesses.

Our stakeholders are also the citizens of Fond du Lac County.  So how does this decision affect us as individuals?  Mercury Marine is a significant water and sewer customer of the City of Fond du Lac. If no new customers took their place, the water and sewer rates would possibly have to increase by up to 5.5 percent, which equates to approximately $44 a year for the typical residential customer. In addition, Mercury pays over $620,000 in total property taxes, $219,000 of which is to the City of Fond du Lac. If the buildings were vacated, the value would decrease significantly leaving the other property taxpayers in the city, county, school district, and technical college district to pick up the difference.

The negative impact will be felt in all communities in Fond du Lac County. Nearly 400 of Mercury Marine's employees live in Fond du Lac County communities outside the Fond du Lac zip codes. The potential loss of population could impact some of the smaller communities quite severely. For example, Oakfield is home to many Mercury Marine employees and their families.  The loss of the company could directly affect over 12 percent of the 1,038 residents. This is not taking into account supply chain and those additional job losses previously mentioned.

The list goes on - property values, the impact on the area technical college system, the effects of higher unemployment rates, etc., but you get my point. The vote of the workers is a responsibility I wouldn't wish upon anyone, but it is a challenge they face none-the-less. I would like to personally thank each and every one of the employees for making an educated decision based on facts, integrity and conviction.

Russell Kamphuis is president and chief executive officer of the Bank of Oakfield and currently serves as vice chairman for the Fond du Lac County Economic Development Corp.

We've been told on talk radio for years that Wisconsin is a terrible place to do business. You know the drill. Wisconsin is a tax hell hole. Wisconsin does nothing to encourage entrepreneurship or development of new businesses.

We often accept these notions as fact, shrug our shoulders, grumble a little bit and try to get about our jobs as best we can. And we wonder why we stay here.

Every now and then, however, we get a wakeup call from across state lines that lets us know that hey, maybe we aren't so bad off after all. In the latest case of sunshine, the call comes from across the national border.

The headline on a news story in a recent edition of the New Brunswick Business Journal proclaims, "Culture of investment thrives in Wisconsin."

What's this? How can that be? What in the world are these Canadians talking about?

The subhead on the news story gets even more jiggy: "Capital markets New Brunswick Securities Commission turns to U.S. state as a prime example of fostering investment growth."

What's this? How can that be?

The lead of the story entices further: "New Brunswick has found a model for promoting entrepreneurship in a U.S. state whose economy has traditionally relied on farming, mining and forestry. Wisconsin's love affair with startups and investors - which has transcended the business community and made its way to the state legislature - has had the New Brunswick Securities Commission and other interested parties playing copycat."

You don't say.

The story says Rick Hancox, executive director of the New Brunswick Securities Commission, recently returned from a trip to Wisconsin, his second in three years, to learn how Wisconsin's economy "has benefited from new investor and entrepreneur networks, research and development commercialization programs, aggressive tax reform and a governor's business plan competition."

Wisconsin? Really?

The story says, "Hancox got turned onto Wisconsin years ago when commission employees had begun scouring the globe for examples of jurisdictions fostering investment growth. After months of eyeing examples out of the United Kingdom and Australia, staff was continually pointed by experts to Wisconsin - a place where declining traditional sectors could not continue to be relied upon heavily to backstop the economy."

The story notes how State Sen. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) drafted Act 255 to provide generous tax credits to investors pumping money into high-tech companies in pre-commercialization mode.

"Meanwhile the business community was lining up to take part and arms-length agencies were being formed to push Gov. Jim Doyle's 'Grow Wisconsin' initiative beyond government," the story sates.
Do tell. To read the entire story, visit http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/714051.

The New Brunswick story comes on the heels of the news that VitalMedix, a Minneapolis biotech startup company, is moving to Wisconsin within 90 days. VitalMedix lead investor Charlie Goff said Wisconsin's investment tax credits "had everything to do with" the move. The company is negotiating leases in Hudson and New Richmond.

VitalMedix is developing a drug that has the potential to allow humans to endure severe blood loss and deter organ damage during resuscitation. The drug could be tested on humans as early as next year.

According to The Associated Press account of the story, "Despite a huge budget deficit, Wisconsin this year doubled the cap on the amount of credits to $8 million, raised the cap on eligible angel investments to $4 million and tripled the total credits available each year to $37 million."
Who knew?

Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.

On April 28, 2009, Milwaukee was named a United Nations Global Compact City, one of only 14 in the world, one of two in North America. Local media provided some coverage of this honor, and the announcement event, held at Discovery World, was well attended by senior representatives from business, government, academia, and community organizations.|

While this is a significant distinction for the region, it is not an award to be hung on the wall at City Hall. Rather, it is a commitment - a responsibility taken on by a group of people and organizations, including the scientists at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Great Lakes Water Institute, companies involved with the Milwaukee 7 Water Council, local and state government, and various community organizations such as the Spirit of Milwaukee, the Greater Milwaukee Committee and the World Trade Center Wisconsin.

So what is the UN Global Compact and how does it relate to Milwaukee? This United Nations initiative strives to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The Global Compact is a framework for businesses, based on fundamental ethics and stating ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.

The UN Global Compact Cities Programme offers city leaders an alternative governance approach that seeks to find solutions to seemingly intractable urban issues by identifying, harnessing, focusing, and applying existing local capacity. By becoming a member of the United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme, it is the expectation of the Milwaukee region to begin to share our knowledge, expertise, and innovations related to water technology with the rest of the world. We want to help make a difference in global water quality.

It is quite a responsibility to solve a variety of problems associated with the maintenance and improvement of water quality, covering all facets of the water cycle and related issues, such as health issues, urban environment issues, improved food production environments, and technology development, and policy formation. But it is a responsibility this region has the unique ability to address.

Being an official member city of the United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme (UNGCCP) provides us with the global resources of the United Nations. To date we have identified 50 UN agencies and affiliated organizations around the globe that are dealing with water issues. As a member city, we will certainly be working with a number of these, linking our scientists and R&D engineers with other experts around the globe.

So what does this mean? Yes, it is an important issue, and yes, it is nice that Milwaukee has received this designation, but what does this mean for your company?

How many times have you been traveling overseas when someone asks where you are from and you answer, "Chicago" or "north of Chicago?" Milwaukee is more widely known than most local residents are aware, but obviously nowhere near as well known as the major metropolises of the United States. Even if people have heard of Milwaukee, they do not necessarily know where it is located geographically.

Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and chief executive of Manpower Inc., a Fortune 200 international employment services firm headquartered in Milwaukee, considers this to be a combination of old and new. "These industry advances set Milwaukee as a contemporary city that is not locked into the traditional Midwest ideals. Although Milwaukee has the values and work ethic of traditional Midwest, these traits are not mutually exclusive. We are both firmly rooted and rapidly growing into the future," Joerres said.

This designation, combined with the work associated with it and the Milwaukee 7 Water Council, will help to increase the brand awareness of Milwaukee as a forward-thinking city, as well as to educate the world as to our physical location, tying us in the minds of the global community to one of the largest sources of freshwater and the most advanced freshwater technology worldwide.

One of the key benefits of working with the United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme is the exposure of our local scientists and engineers to other scientists and engineers who are currently working with additional UN offices or affiliated organizations on water related projects. The opportunity to work with the best, helping to solve one of the world's greatest challenges and being affiliated with or able to leverage the nation's first ever School of Freshwater Science, all while sharing results globally, presents a unique situation for researchers. This leads to a cycle of growth – where the talent goes, so do industry and money, which attract more talent, and the sequence is repeated.

Just as important as talent attraction is talent retention. We have a solid pool of scientists and engineers working in both academia and the private sectors in Milwaukee. Efforts to keep this pool of talent here are certainly facilitated by the confluence of events, capped by the UNGCCP. Moreover, we have an unprecedented set of opportunities to present our young engineers and scientists, from internships to job opportunities in a rapidly growing field.

Richard Meeusen, chairman/president/CEO of Badger Meter and co-chair of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council, has said, "Our vision is that, someday, when a young entrepreneur has an idea for a water technology company, all his relatives, friends and neighbors will say, 'Go to Milwaukee.'"

If this is where the best are, where the most opportunities are, this is where the students will stay after graduation and where they will choose to go to graduate school.

Not only will students stay here for the educational opportunities, but the advances in freshwater technology will generate new capital and create new jobs in the Milwaukee region. Following the cycle of talent and industry, companies will invest in the research and development of new water technology, bringing cash and private equity to help the industry grow.

The Water Council has already begun to make connections with the investment community. From angel investors to private equity, venture capital, and global exchanges, we are beginning to hit the radar screens of the investment community. Investment groups from Chicago, San Diego, New York, Zurich, and Hong Kong are just a few of the interested parties. The UNGCCP is a global megaphone announcing to the world that we here in the Milwaukee region have the resources, talent, capabilities, and expertise to help solve global water problems. Investors are always on the lookout for opportunity. We have that opportunity here. This is beginning to bring the investors. Investors in water lead to other investors, and the community grows. The money grows, which attracts the talent and entrepreneurs, and so forth. Again, the cycle repeats itself.

New opportunities will rise as a result of this industry. The water industry is made up of many types of traditional businesses and disciplines - engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, and so on. The breakthroughs many of the technology companies will develop may have multiple applications, both in the water industry and beyond.

Some have said that water is the next oil. It is not. It is far more valuable. We lived without oil for millennia, and should we need to, we can do it again. Water, however, is an absolute necessity for the sustainability of life. When NASA explores other planets, the first step in the search for life is determining whether water is present. Water cannot be created. Water cannot be destroyed. But it can be polluted, ruined for human consumption. There is a finite amount of water on this planet; it must be explored for, conserved and sustained. The initiatives of the Milwaukee region in the water industry are diving right in and doing just that.

This designation as part of the United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme helps to make Milwaukee a destination. "Milwaukee now has the opportunity to be recognized on a global scale. Its image will appear in places and on lists that it never appeared before," Joerres says.

We are the "it" spot for the moment. This is more than a project, more than an honor. "This is not just a one-time award. This is a commitment to how we conduct ourselves and living a certain way," added Joerres. This is a sign that Milwaukee is changing, growing, that we are well on our way to reaching our goal of becoming the Silicon Valley of water technology.

Christian Bartley is the chief executive officer of the World Trade Center Wisconsin.

In a weak economy, there is a tendency for many businesses of all sizes to "cocoon," to turn in on themselves and cut or reduce any or all external activities.
Some cocooning may be beneficial, especially if management takes some of the "down time" to reflect on ways to improve business by analyzing issues and policies affecting stakeholders, including employees, identifying vulnerabilities that may threaten growth, and recommending ways to enhance the organization's brand and reputation.
After this reflection and analysis is concluded, it is time to reset ways to work with clients to implement communications strategies and tactics to improve business practices by highlighting opportunities, addressing problems, and suggesting ways to improve future effectiveness.
Now is the time to audit all communications and improve their effectiveness. Here are some questions to ask:
How am I benefiting from my peer networking?
How can we improve and perhaps shorten our sales presentations?
How are we tracking and utilizing our business referrals?
How can we improve the effectiveness of our media advertising?
How can we better benefit from our civic involvements?
How can we improve our corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts in the communities we serve?

If we go forward with the premise that PR is "Performance Recognized," what are we doing to take better advantage of our public relations efforts to get recognition for this performance?
And last, but not least, what are we doing about getting better engaged in social media? How are Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, Skype, You Tube, Delicious, etc., playing into your communications strategies?
These are all cost-effective and innovative ways of broadening your communications scope, while, at the same time, getting you out of your business cocoon.
We hope you are now convinced that "cocooning" is not a good business posture in this, or any economy.

Alan Gaudynski is a veteran public relations consultant in Pewaukee.