LISTEN: David Crowley, Corri Hess, Eric Nehm join Dan Shafer for WTMJ Nights
LISTEN: David Crowley, Corri Hess, Eric Nehm join Dan Shafer for WTMJ Nights
The Milwaukee County Executive joined the show live in studio to talk about his "State of the County" address and local funding negotiations. Plus: The Wisconsin Supreme Court race and the Bucks.
The Recombobulation Area is a six-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.
It was a big week on the airwaves for us here at The Recombobulation Area. I’ve been a guest on Fox 6, Civic Media and Heartland Signal talking about the results from the Spring Election Primary and the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court.
And on Thursday night, I had the opportunity to guest host WTMJ Nights on 620 WTMJ.
I was lucky to be joined by some terrific guests on the show, including Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel political reporter Corri Hess, and Milwaukee Bucks beat reporter Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
You can listen to the full show online for free here.
If you’re an Apple Podcasts listener, you can find it here.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley joined the show to talk about his first normal, in-person “State of the County” address that he delivered earlier this week. You can watch that full speech here.
As part of our conversation, we talked about the County’s looming fiscal cliff. In his speech, Crowley said this:
“By 2027, we are projected to have no local dollars to fund local services.”
That’s an alarming statement. But it’s not the first time he’s delivered such a message. It’s just that now, local funding negotiations are heating up with leaders at the state level, both in the governor’s office and in the state legislature, and this is a critical time for the County to find a long-term revenue solution to address that fiscal cliff, now just four short years away.
So, I asked him about the prospects of a deal being struck this year. Here’s what he said.
Dan Shafer: On the local funding issue, do you think it’s going to get done this year? Do you think there will be a deal with the state of Wisconsin, with Republican leadership like folks like Robin Vos, do you think there is going to be a local revenue deal struck this year?
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley: I really do. We’ve been having this conversation and no one has said no yet. And the fact that everyone is on the same page when you think about outside entities as well as the state legislature and the governor’s office, we know that we need to have some type of reform to make sure we’re funding local municipalities. So, I am optimistic that we’re going to get something done this year. And it’s a long time coming.
But whether or not we get it, we have to continue to plug along, we have to continue to educate the community about why this is extremely important. The fact that we’re about to have one of the biggest conferences coming to Milwaukee when you think about the Republican National (Convention), we want to be able to capture those dollars, we want that money to be able to stay here and leverage that economic opportunity to invest in the folks who live here.
This is an issue we’ve been covering almost since we launched The Recombobbulation Area. In fact, the second-ever column I wrote at this publication was about the local funding issues facing Milwaukee County. It is very encouraging to see these negotiations advance under Crowley’s leadership.
Along with that conversation, Corri Hess of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel joined the show during the first hour to talk about her coverage of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the high turnout from the primary, the massive amount of fundraising headed into this race, and the big issues that will come into play in the now less than 40 days to go before the April 4 general election.
And then to finish out the show, we were joined by Eric Nehm of The Athletic to talk about a discombobulating All-Star Break for the Bucks, the team recombobulating in time for the stretch run, what the team needs to do in the final 24 games of the regular season, and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s chances of winning his third MVP award.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
Subscribe to The Recombobulation newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.
Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
#BucksInSix