Murphy's Law

The death last week of former Milwaukee alderman Mary Anne McNulty was in some ways the passing of an era.

She was, for starters, part of a group of 60s-style activists who thrust their way into mainstream politics. The Chicago native moved here in 1969 and worked at an anti-poverty agency, the Inner City Development Project, before deciding to take on near South Side Alderman Robert Sulkowski. Along with Ald. Robert Jendusa, Sulkowski objected to open housing and even public housing in their districts, something which might have helped poor people in the area but was feared because it might attract black residents. Sulkowski had served for two decades on the Common Council, a bulwark against nearly any kind of change, and was considered unbeatable.

McNulty, then 24, ran a grassroots campaign that connected to the many unemployed whites and the growing population of Latinos in the once solidly Polish neighborhood. Sulkowski accused McNulty of being “a carpetbagger from Chicago,” recalls Jack Gleason, who ran McNulty’s campaign. A shocked Sulkowski nearly lost the 1972 primary, but won more handily in the general election. Sulkowski then died unexpectedly early in his term and McNulty ran again, winning the primary in the 1973 special election but losing the general election to Clifford Draeger. McNulty finally won office in a special election in 1983 after Draeger resigned, and she served until 1992.

McNulty represented a radical change for the district. She ended the old separation between South Side and North Side, white and black, finding common cause in anti-poverty measures that helped both areas. She was also the first Milwaukee alderman to identify with, celebrate and truly represent the Latino population of Milwaukee.

Back when he was editor of Milwaukee Magazine, Charlie Sykes wrote a thoughtful piece (March 1985) on “The Next Wave” of Milwaukee political leaders, and identified McNulty as one of the leading activists-turned-politicians, along with Alderman Tom Donegan and County Supervisor Paul Mathews. McNulty and Donegan, Sykes noted, played a key role in building a coalition of independent Common Council members who successfully opposed then-Mayor Henry Maier on some issues, including his attempted appointment of old crony Jim Brennan as tax commissioner.

What is striking about the Sykes story is that almost every one of the 20 or so new leaders he celebrated, from Dennis Conta to Susan Engeleiter to Mordecai Lee, are long gone from political office. "The Next Wave" of the 1980s is barely a ripple today.

McNulty herself battled depression after she left office, but never lost her sense of humor. She could be loud, outrageously funny, with a sense of pragmatism that undercut the airy fairy-ness of some liberals. She never forgot that politics was about individual humans, not abstract causes. Her upbringing had been anything but well-to-do; she lived for decades in a low-income neighborhood, at Third and Lapham, and she remained always an unintimidated voice for the voiceless.

Not Taxes But Fees

Once upon a time, city of Milwaukee residents just paid a property tax. But since at least the 1990s, city officials have been adding fees, and now they have an all-out love affair with them. Last week, a Common Council committee proposed increases in the garbage fee, stormwater fee and sewer fee.

There are two justifications for the rising fees. One is an ever-declining amount of state shared revenue to municipalities. (Henry Maier would be beating up state legislators about this if he were still around.) The mounting fiscal problems of the city were analyzed by the Public Policy Forum in an August study entitled “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” which concluded that the city is “on the precipice of serious fiscal and programmatic disorder.

“A standard benchmark of fiscal health for municipalities is having diverse revenue sources, including many under their direct control and tied to inflation,” the study noted. “Milwaukee has fewer such revenue sources than similar cities while its largest revenue source – state aid – has not

Fees provide another revenue source. They also have a larger base of payees. The city has tons of nonprofits, including huge hospitals and other large entities that are not-for-profit in name only, yet legally exempt from property taxes. They are, however, required to pay fees, which in essence spreads the city’s tax base, forcing nonprofits to at least pay something for city services.

The downside of fees is that they can become stealth taxes: Most citizens don’t follow a rise in fees as closely as they watch taxes. Fees can also be more regressive than a property tax.

One example is the night parking fee, which is essentially a tax on poor people and some apartment dwellers. Most middle-class homeowners have a garage and aren’t parking on the street. But in densely crowded, older, generally poorer neighborhoods, there are lots of people without access to a garage who get socked a night parking fee. It’s quite unfair. Recognizing this, former Mayor John Norquist declared that he would support the abolition of the fee in the late 1990s, but the Common Council wasn’t excited about losing this revenue.

It’s bad enough the fee exists. But last week the Common Council increased the night parking fee for the first time since 1950, increasing it from $44 to $55 a year. Mayor Tom Barrett still has to review the budget, and could chose to veto this item.

He should. The increase will simply make it harder for poor people to pay for permits, which is already a problem. Many city residents end up getting lots of parking tickets because of this. State statistics show more people get their license suspended because they owe money for parking fines and other tickets. This in turn makes it harder for poor people to drive to work and remain employed. If the goal is to make sure as many city residents as possible are employed, it’s counterproductive to increase the night parking fee. If anything, the fee should be abolished.

The Buzz

-Talk about a lack of transparency. Last week, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Schmid did an interview with Badger Meter CEO Richard Meeusen. Both have something in common: They were blasted by UW-Milwaukee researcher Marc Levine, who did a report questioning the idea that Milwaukee can become the “Silicon Valley of Water.”

As I noted in a recent column, Levine’s report castigated the JS for its fawning, nonanalytical coverage of Milwaukee’s potential as a water hub, and his footnotes cited 16 such stories by Schmid. Levine also slapped at Meeusen for promoting the water industry idea even as his company moved jobs out of Milwaukee.

In his interview with Meeusen, Schmid mentioned “a recent study from a faculty member” at UWM without mentioning Levine’s name, and Meeusen proceeded to describe this faculty member as a history teacher who doesn’t really understand economics and has a vested interest in having more money spent on the history department.

All told, it was a bizarre game of He Who Must Not Be Named by two guys who didn’t like the study but didn’t want to give readers a chance to look the study up – so they simply didn’t mention Levine’s name. In short, rather than serving their readers, the newspaper decided it was more important to protect itself and its reporter.

-Former Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan was known as Mr. Nice Guy but has suddenly become hard-edged in New York, writing a blog attacking New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and others who criticize the Catholic Church. Times ombudsman Clark Hoyt felt compelled to examine the matter.

-And can John Menard, of all people, save auto racing in Milwaukee? The Sports Nut reports.

Note: an earlier version of this story erroneously reported that the Common Council rejected the increase in the night parking fee.