The city of Milwaukee has a real opportunity to turn its
business climate around and begin attracting new businesses to the region.

Unfortunately this opportunity lies in the hands of the
governor, state legislators and Milwaukee County government officials, who
believe the key to reinvigorating the city lies merely in its marketing, not in
actually improving its business climate as a whole.

Milwaukee has a bright future if it can capitalize on the
opportunity it has to get back on track. For the first time since the 1970s,
the city?s population is growing, but it has a lot of work to do to.

Lowering the city and state tax burden is the key to
successful redevelopment of not only the city of Milwaukee, but the state of
Wisconsin. In 2007, the state and local tax burden together was 12.3 percent,
giving Wisconsin the seventh-highest tax rate in all 50 states.

Milwaukee?s property taxes rank among the highest in the
nation, and according to a study conducted in 2000, a family of four from
Milwaukee faced the third-highest taxes in the nation. From a non-business
standpoint, the thought of paying exorbitant taxes and sending your children to
Milwaukee Public Schools is not all that appealing.

It is no wonder new businesses are reluctant to make their
home in Milwaukee. The tax burden here simply makes both the city and the state
an undesirable place to do business.

A decreased tax burden will make Milwaukee competitive once
again. It may seem unrealistic to talk of tax cuts as the state runs a deficit,
but if the tax burden remains as high as it is, the state will not be bringing
in any tax money anyway, as fewer businesses ? and eventually people ? will be
left to tax.

Milwaukee officials seem more focused on selling the city
with marketing attempts than by enacting any real improvements in the business
climate. While development groups like the ?Milwaukee Seven? are
well-intentioned, they merely market aspects of the city almost every other
major urban area in the country has, i.e. airports, railroads, etc.

Tax rates are Milwaukee?s biggest hurdle, but the city needs
to learn to stop creating obstacles for private investors to redevelop areas of
the city. On March 9, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an article about
the proposed development of 84 acres of the vacant Tower Automotive facility.
This is the biggest industrial site in the city, yet it sits abandoned even
though private investors purchased the property last year with hopes of
installing ?four new businesses? as well as ?two industrial businesses? and a
possible scrap recycling center.

According to the article, a lawyer representing the
investors claims the city bureaucracy ?turned on us? a few months after the
purchase and barred them from utilizing the facility. City representatives counter
that the investors were ?headed in a different direction than was initially
indicated.?

This is another example of how Milwaukee drives away
potential development. Instead of doing everything they can to facilitate
private investors and redevelopment of unused industrial land ? which the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calls ?one of the city?s biggest economic
opportunities? ? the city finds ways to make it as tough as possible for the
investors.

In an Aug. 30, 2007 blog post on Milwaukee?s Small Business
Times website, Christopher Carter, a local CEO, compares Milwaukee?s business
development community to that of Texas. He said, ?The folks in [Texas?] offices
of Business Development and others went above and beyond anything I have ever
encountered in the state of Wisconsin.?

?

In comparison, he said he had to deal ?with the hassles of
no callbacks, standing in lines with an uneducated person who felt I was
bothering her and asking too many questions before she was to go on her
cigarette break? in Milwaukee.

With Milwaukee?s uncompetitive high tax rates, it cannot
afford to lose businesses due to additional city bureaucracy that creates
unnecessary obstacles. At the very least, Milwaukee needs to be much more
aggressive in courting investors and business owners. It should not be, as
Milwaukee-based Bucyrus International Inc. CEO Tim Sullivan said in a Journal
Sentinel article, ?like bouncing off the wall trying to get someone to talk
to.?

Joe Trovato ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in journalism.