Buried on page 3 of today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel business section are Wisconsin's job creation numbers for the the 12-month period ending in September 2014: "State job creation still sluggish; Data shows 1.2% growth rate over 12 months." But what's this I see on the front page? It says, "Milwaukee among top core cities in job gains [1.4%]; Analysis finds increases in centers, declines in surrounding areas." Hmmm. That's interesting. Wisconsin is run by Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Milwaukee is run by Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett, Walker's rival in the 2010 and 2012 elections. I think this requires a little closer look, don't you?
Let's start with Wisconsin's job numbers, since Walker is running all over the country touting his great successes in Wisconsin. First, the release of the job numbers is a story in and of itself. The numbers come from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which collected the data for all 50 states and will release the full report in several weeks. Why is Wisconsin data being released early? To quote John Schmid, who wrote the article:
However, under a practice that began under the administration of Gov. Scott Walker, the state releases the quarterly census data for Wisconsin several weeks ahead of the national report. That means the Wisconsin data appears in isolation, making it impossible to compare Wisconsin's latest performance with other states or with the national pace of job creation.
So, not only is Wisconsin's job growth more sluggish than much of the country, but Walker is trying very hard to hide that from Wisconsinites, and now the rest of the country. He likes to cite Wisconsin's unemployment rate, which doesn't take into account that the overwhelming majority of the jobs that have been created are low-paying, according to the
UW-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development. And the same report found that Wisconsin continues to lose middle and high income jobs under Walker.
Meanwhile, let's see what Tom Barrett has been up to in Milwaukee. According to Rick Romell, who wrote the article:
Milwaukee is in the vanguard of a resurgence of job growth in the heart of the country's major metropolitan areas...Employment gains coming our of the recession in the center of Milwaukee and the nation's other largest cities as a group stand in contrast to losses in the surrounding metropolitan areas, according to the report from City Observatory.
The study, conducted by economist Joe Cortright, covered the years 2007-2011. Among other things, it found:
In Milwaukee, the city-center employment gain averaged 1.4% per year - nearly three times the figure for the 41 cities as a whole. The rest of the four-county metropolitan area, meanwhile, lost 1.3% of its jobs annually...Milwaukee ranked ninth among the 41 cities in the employment growth percentage...
Granted, the period covered takes place during only part of Walker's administration. But who was Milwaukee's mayor during this entire time? Tom Barrett.
Anyone who has been paying attention knows that Milwaukee is thriving. In response to the report, Barrett cited the $2.6 billion that has already been invested in downtown Milwaukee. Another $2.1 billion worth of projects are in the works. Young adults are moving back to the downtown area, and restaurants and entertainment venues are flourishing.
In addition, Tom Barrett has helped turn Milwaukee into a model for urban renewable energy, while Walker and his ALEC cronies have been trying to decimate the growing solar industry in Wisconsin. Milwaukee Shines.
I cringe - and nearly cry - when I think that Milwaukee's jobs numbers could have been even better. Barrett and former Governor Jim Doyle received a stimulus grant for $810 million to build high-speed rail service connecting Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. And when Walker was elected governor, he scrapped the whole project and sent the money back! Talgo, the company that received the contract to build the trains, set up headquarters in one of Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods, where hundreds of jobs would have been created. When Walker scrapped the project and returned the nearly $1 billion (argh!), Talgo pulled out of Milwaukee, taking those hundreds of jobs with it (The Business Journal).
Now, Walker wants to float a $1.3 billion bond to widen and rebuild the freeway in Milwaukee County where part of the high-speed rail would have run. Who will drive on this freeway during rush hour congestion? Well, the rich, white commuters from from the western suburbs of Milwaukee, who hate mass transit. Whose neighborhoods will be destroyed and disrupted? Well, the working class and low income Milwaukee County residents, who probably aren't on this part of the freeway during rush hour congestion.
So, in summary, it looks like Tom Barrett has been very effective in helping to revitalize and create jobs in Milwaukee, in spite of Scott Walker. Congratulations, Tom! And it looks like Scott Walker has not been very effective in creating jobs, no matter how much he proclaims himself to be a success!
In my heart, I knew that Tom Barrett would have made a much better governor than Walker, and I voted for him twice. Now, there is growing evidence that I and many others were right. Barrett is a positive person who gets things accomplished. Walker is a divisive personality who pits people against one another and, consequently and not surprisingly, gets little accomplished, other than creating sluggish job growth and low wages. And this, my friends, is the sad truth in Wisconsin.