Clean Safe Drinking Water

Clean Safe Drinking Water apparently is something in need of deregulation.

The Assembly has passed AB 23, which would, unless mandated by federal law, end a DNR requirement that municipal water systems be continuously disinfected.

Passed by an Assembly with short memories.  The Assembly rejected 21 Democratic amendments including those requiring disclosure.

...

More details in this JSOnline article, which also shares the sorta relevant fact that the clean water standards that this bill rejects aren't actually in place yet.

The Department of Natural Resources advanced regulations in 2009 that would have required municipalities to disinfect water by Dec. 1, 2013....A study by the Marshfield Clinic Foundation tested water in 14 communities between 2005 and 2007 and found that 34 of the 36 wells tested positive for viruses. None of the communities chlorinated their public water systems.

Also:  remember my post yesterday about the proposal by the Joint Finance Committee to reduce the state subsidy for sewer projects?  I said that it "might" lead to better zoning policies.  But in light of the following sentence from today's JSOnline article, perhaps not such a good idea to shift the cost to local municipalities.

Most of the communities in the study were in northern Wisconsin. Borchardt traced the likely sources of the viruses to leaking sanitary sewers. People who got sick tended to contract gastrointestinal illnesses.

Sewers & Housing Policies

Via The Political Environment, I see that the state is proposing to reduce the state subsidy of sewer projects in the clean water fund.  This brings up two issues I'd like to point to. 

Very often what a government unit calls cost-reducing or budget-cutting is really a matter of cost-shifting to a different party.  In this case, state "budget cuts" shifts the cost to local municipalities.

Wisconsin municipalities building sewers or expanding sewage treatment plants in the next two years would pay up to $59 million more in interest costs to repay loans through the state's clean water fund, under a proposal approved last week by the Legislature's budget committee.

This just might actually lead to better zoning and policies if communities try to limit the cost of new sewer pipes to new subdivisions.  Nearly a year ago, I commented on a study on actual costs of development which found that very often there are hidden costs (such as sewers and other services) to new subdivisions that municipalities may not realize exist.  With higher costs, municipalities might be taking a closer look at issues such as density and sprawl.

America's Foreclosure King accused of Fraud

When I read the Huffington Post article on Deutsche Bank, I remembered where I heard the name before.  Deutsche Bank is being accused of fraud by the U.S. government, of repeatedly lying to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) about the quality of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages.  HUD guarantees the FHA loans, but they have to meet certain conditions.  Which Deutsche Bank apparently lied about.  The U.S. is suing Deutsche Bank for at least $1 billion.  Yep, that's at least one billion dollars.

This is why self-regulation rarely work.

As part of the FHA program MortgageIT participated in, lenders are required to annually certify that they check basic records like borrowers' incomes, credit history and employment record. The lenders also are required to review loans that quickly default to guard against sloppy lending practices, and act in the government's best interests because taxpayers are bearing the risks for potentially poor loans

Deutsche did none of those things, according to the lawsuit.

As a result, "A third of those mortgages, or about 12,500, have since defaulted, leaving the government on the hook."

This leads to the context that I remembered Deutsche Bank from:

More than 40 members of Common Ground Wisconsin traveled to the Chicago Consulate May 18 with their request to open a dialog with the Germany-based bank. So far, Common Ground has been turned away by bank officials. Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank are meeting with Common Ground leaders to find solutions to Milwaukee’s foreclosure crisis.

Deutsche Bank is one of three banks Common Ground has been negotiating with that hold mortgages or are the trustees for more than 25 percent of foreclosed houses in Milwaukee. Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank are also meeting with Common Ground leaders to find solutions to Milwaukee’s foreclosure crisis.

For an idea of the impact that Deutsche Bank had on Milwaukee, and how it plays at home in Germany, go to this article translated from German.

Deutsche Bank’s tracks lead through the entire American real estate market. In Chicago, the bank foreclosed upon close to 600 large apartment buildings in 2009, more than any other bank in the city. In Cleveland, almost 5,000 houses foreclosed upon by Deutsche Bank were reported to authorities between 2002 and 2006. In many US cities, the complaints are beginning to pile up from homeowners who lost their properties as a result of a foreclosure action filed by Deutsche Bank. The German bank is berated on the Internet as “America’s Foreclosure King.”
----
A Victorian house on State Street, painted green with red trim, is now partially burned down. Because it can no longer be sold, Deutsche Bank has “donated” it to the City of Milwaukee, one of the Common Ground activists reports. As a result, the city incurs the costs of demolition, which amount to “at least $25,000.”

To their credit, Common Ground was able to persuade Deutsche Bank to meet with them and to promise to cooperate with efforts in the community, thought it took extraordinary efforts.  Fortunately, Wells Fargo and US Bank are much more involved in the community, and were much more willing to work with community leaders on the foreclosure crisis.

Transportation policies & Mayors

Two articles that provided for a jarring contrast.

The first, an article about how Governor Walker and the state is pushing for an upgrade in Hwy 41 from Milwaukee to Appleton, having it designated as a new interstate, similar to I-43 and I-94.

Getting the road up to minimal interstate standards in the coming years would cost $15 million to $20 million. That would involve widening shoulders and installing cable guardrails along some medians.

The second is a report about the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and a survey showing that many mayors feel that federal transportation dollars are not allocated in an equitable manner.

As the federal government sets priorities for long-term spending and deficit reduction, future transportation infrastructure investments should prioritize spending on pressing metropolitan transportation infrastructure needs as opposed to low-priority expansion projects such as the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. The long-term productivity of transportation infrastructure spending is greater when it is invested where economic growth will occur, and over the next 20 years, 94 percent of United States economic growth will occur in metropolitan areas

A mayor was particularly blunt about the issues affecting transportation dollars.  Mayor Reed of Atlanta had some strong words:
 

Mayor Reed said the disconnect between state and local governments is essentially a tension between the needs of rural and urban areas. “There is a dominance of the rural parts of the state that I think creates a bit of imbalance from the economic reality,” he said. He called it “old-school politics."
 
“I spent 11 years in the Georgia general assembly,” he said.”Anytime I needed to get an important bill I knew I would be in the car for a couple of hours going to see some chairman of a committee who was in Tallapoosa or Houston County or some other part of the state because there was a dominance there.”
 
“Now I like rural folks as much as anybody,” he went on, “but the fact of the matter is when you look at how our dollars are deployed at the state level they’re deployed in a fashion that is inconsistent with where jobs are and where the economy is created.” That was fine when the U.S. was the world’s incomparable economic superpower, but we need to be more thoughtful with our spending these days, he said.

In related news, the Regional Transit Authorities created in 2009 are in the process of being eliminated by the budget committee. 

The committee also voted to eliminate the state funding for bicycle and pedestrian paths.  And how does most mayors feel about those kind of decisions?

Three-fifths of mayors also said the lack of funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects was a problem.“These aren’t gimmicks anymore,” said Reed. “They’re part of a having a high quality of life in the cities where we live.”