Madison – In response to the Joint Finance Committee’s May 9, 2013 vote to prohibit residency requirements for local government employees, State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) penned the following obituary for the benefit of local and national media:
Obituary: City of Milwaukee, born January 31, 1846 - died May 9, 2013 Madison Wisconsin.Milwaukee was incorporated two years before Wisconsin became a state in 1848.It was the 28th most populous city in America with a population just shy of 600,000 people.Milwaukee reached its zenith in 1960 with 741,000 citizens, and like Detroit it was a major US manufacturing center.Milwaukee's unfortunate demise followed that of Detroit. It was exacerbated by the state repeal of the requirement that local public employees live in the same city that was taxed to pay their salaries.For over 75 years, Milwaukee public workers living in Milwaukee helped provide the city with a robust middle class.This middle class stabilized property values and contributed an economic vitality to a city that had been hard hit by the loss of manufacturing industry jobs in the late twentieth century.The repeal of local residency requirements by Governor Scott Walker and some Republican legislators was widely understood to be an unabashed political pay-off for the Milwaukee Police and Fire Unions for their loyal political support of Governor Walker and legislative Republicans.Services will be held by Governor Scott Walker at the bill signing of the Republican state budget in Madison. In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to the Milwaukee Police and Fire Union presidents to help pay moving expenses for their migration out of Milwaukee.
A saddened Senator Carpenter lamented that it was very difficult to watch an unnecessary death caused by the actions of people who simply do not care about Milwaukee and its residents.He requested that the last one out of Milwaukee to please turn off the lights.
