One Way Cooperation

Mayor Barrett sure seems mighty concerned about how people in other cities and counties spend their tax money.  First there was this story:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is urging Waukesha County officials to not cut the Route 9 bus in the Menomonee Falls and Butler area because it is an important part in combating rising poverty.

[...]

A modern integrated transit system that connects workers to their jobs is an important part of the effort to combat poverty and the social issues that accompany it,” Barrett said in the letter. “Route No. 9 epitomizes the regional integration needed: It connects neighborhoods on Milwaukee’s northwest side to places like Menomonee Falls, Butler and Brookfield; and it operated through contracts that bring together the Waukesha County Transit System, Waukesha County and Waukesha Metro Transit.”

Then this.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett this afternoon sent a letter to officials in Germantown, Cedarburg, Mequon and the Ozaukee County Board of Supervisors urging them to drop any possible discussions of seceding from the Milwaukee Area Technical College District in favor of a lower-taxing district.

[...]

“I write today to urge leaders in Germantown and Cedarburg to drop consideration of withdrawing from the Milwaukee Area Technical College District, and to maintain a commitment to regional cooperation under the MATC umbrella,” Barrett wrote in his letter. “This cooperation is absolutely essential to the growth, development and prosperity of all of Southeastern Wisconsin, and to secede from the MATC district would represent a step backwards.”

Hmmmm…. I sense a theme.  Barrett wants the taxpayers of Waukesha County to subsidize the transportation of Milwaukee residents and he wants the taxpayers of Germantown, Mequon, Cedarburg, and Ozaukee County to subsidize a tech school in Milwaukee that they barely use.  The theme is that Barrett wants to keep the money flowing from the suburbs into Milwaukee. 

For example, let’s examine this quote from Barrett about the tech schools: 

“This cooperation is absolutely essential to the growth, development and prosperity of all of Southeastern Wisconsin, and to secede from the MATC district would represent a step backwards.”

Both Cedarburg and Germantown are thinking about leaving MATC and going to… Moraine Park Technical College.  MPTC has a campus in West Bend and serves the northern part of SE Wisconsin.  So why, in Barret’s mind, does supporting MPTC instead of MATC represent a “step backwards?”  Isn’t the point that the kids get a good education to benefit the community?  Not for Barrett.  His only concern is that communities like Germantown and Cedarburg continue to pump money into a system that primarily benefits Milwaukee even though they have no control over that system.

For Milwaukee liberals like Barrett, “regional cooperation” just means that everyone in the region should send money to Milwaukee and shut the hell up.