There’s a story at the Janesville Gazette‘s website that offers a chance to consider yet again Whitewater’s Innovation Center. It’s a welcome opportunity. For the Gazette‘s story, see UW-Whitewater is a serious player in economic development.
First, an observation about the Innovation Center and Tech Park:
This is an eleven million dollar publicly-funded project, using federal tax dollars and bonds (in this case, public debt). The anchor tenant for the project isn’t a tech concern, or even a private concern: it’s CESA 2, the Cooperative Educational Service Agency.
CESA 2 is publicly-funded, and here’s what it does, from its own description:
For over 100 years, school districts in Wisconsin counties were serviced by county superintendents. As school district reorganization developed and school districts became larger, the role of the county superintendent changed substantially. The 1963 Legislature and various school organizations studied the pattern of Wisconsin school organization and concluded that the county superintendency should be replaced with Cooperative Educational Service Agencies.
The function of the Cooperative Educational Service Agencies is clearly defined in Section 116.01 of the State Statutes.
The organization of school districts in Wisconsin is such that the legislature recognizes the need for a service unit between the school district and the State Superintendent. The Cooperative Educational Service Agencies may provide leadership and coordination of services for school districts, including such programs as curriculum development assistance; school district management development; coordination of vocational education; and exceptional education, research, special student classes, human growth and development, data collection processing and dissemination, and in-service programs.
This anchor tenant is neither a tech concern, a business incubator, nor even a private business of any kind. I’m sure they do good work; it’s just not the right kind of work for a tech park.
These millions will help to transfer a taxpayer-funded entity now using conventional accommodations in Milton, Wisconsin to fancy digs in Whitewater, Wisconsin. (I know they’re fancy digs, because pictures of it, and descriptions of it, trumpet how amazing the building is, with — wait for it — a large lobby and reception area.)
Along the way, from the announcement of this project, I’ve posted on it.
Two more points are worth noting about the project.
First, the City of Whitewater has moved Heaven and earth to make this project happen, and in times when a focus might have been on local problems, there’s been a “let’s put on a show” push for all of this. The efforts, expenditures, and imprimatur of the City of Whitewater are conveying a dubious benefit the university. Yet, however misplaced, they are the City of Whitewater’s efforts.
It’s both ridiculous and funny to see for all his work, Whitewater City Manager Kevin Brunner doesn’t even show up in the story. It’s all UW-Whitewater and Chancellor Telfer now.
I’ve thought that Brunner might be pushing all this as a line item on his resume, but now I’m not sure if that would even be possible — perhaps he needs to ask Telfer for permission to mention the project.
One can be sure that this project is a huge effort for a small town with serious problems — problems that this wasteful “Innovation Center” will not solve.
(The speculation about what the Innovation Center will actually produce is simply nebulous, with ideas that it might help produce video games, or have something to do with Google, or be a business incubator. As for an incubator of private businesses, one could simply ask those in the building to look at the publicly-funded anchor tenant, and then do the opposite. As for video games — something once ludicrously suggested at a public meeting — one would hope that for all the money involved, we get something on the order of another Halo. Sadly, it’s looking more and more like the best we could hope is Raving Rabbids, if that.)
Second, it’s telling that UW-Whitewater seems to treat this as one project. The recent $5.9 million federal taxpayer grant is lumped with the Innovation Center’s funding, the Innovation Center being the recipient of a separate taxpayer grant and separate bond (debt) issue. These are not one project, but two. Yet, they’re lumped together as one.
One supposes that it’s all meant to show how they’re complementary to each other, the millions for the Innovation Center and the millions for the job-training program. And yet, the tighter the link to a university program, the more questions it raises about the City of Whitewater’s entry, obligations, and ongoing involvement in the Innovation Center project.
That’s a topic for another day.