I posted summaries of some replies that I made to reader mail, making a virtue of necessity (lack of a regular Internet connection). I listed some topics, and then a summary of my general replies.
The Internet’s back up in the House of Dissenting Opinion, but there are a few more topics that I’d like to catch up on.
Do I dislike advertising?
No! Advertise away! The question comes from a comment I made that I would never take advertising on this website. That’s not because I don’t like merchants who advertise; it’s really because I like them very much.
We live in a small town, where a few people are very sure that criticism is wickedness itself. Those people are wrong, surely, and ugly and malodorous, probably.
That’s a joke, but one sees my point: we’re just not the place where comments like that wouldn’t make some people, and merchants, jittery. That makes sense to me.
What makes even more sense is that I don’t want to have to concern myself with anything other than what I write. There are enough people who worry about public opinion – to the exclusion of good sense or meaning – around here. (Public opinion seldom means the whole public in Whitewater; it usually means a small collection of The Same People Every Time.)
I have neither thermometer nor weather vane beside my desk.
There’s great power in being a small website publisher, beholden to no one, just on his own.
What do I think of Governor Doyle/the Doyle Administration, etc?
I have only met our governor once, years ago. He delivered a simple, workmanlike speech. I cannot, truly, remember a single word of it, but it wasn’t the forum for anything rousing, in any event. Friendly, cordial, all very conventional.
The questions I’m summarizing are really about the economic performance of the Doyle Administration, though, not his speeches or manner. One sees that Wisconsin is in difficult fiscal straits, and will be for a few years yet, most likely.
Now I know that it would be easy to say this is all Doyle’s fault, but our state has been over-taxed for a long time, even before Doyle’s first term.
To paraphrase Billy Joel, Doyle didn’t start the fire.
I see that Jim Doyle’s not done yet; he’s on his way to the climate summit. One might wonder what Wisconsin has to gain from being there, unless one considers a more prominent attendee.
President Obama will be there, and now that Doyle’s not running for governor again, Jim Doyle has a political constituency of only one.
Biggest or Most Important Economic Events in Whitewater?
Admittedly, I’m collecting different messages into a single question. Generally, it’s a question line about what’s been the most important economic development – or the hardest – of recent years. All the messages like this come with an opinion, a statement about what’s been good or bad.
I’d say a few come to mind: the Bypass around Whitewater as a detriment, the current recession, the closing of the nearby GM plant and related closings in nearby Janesville, all other problems.
Underlying problems specific to Whitewater one finds an overly regulated and restrictive city, and one that spends far more than any small town should on marquee projects that produce more headlines than anything else. We find ourselves at a competitive disadvantage as a result.
As gains, I’d say any work over these last few years of merchants, through Downtown Whitewater or the local Chamber, to band together. Moving the Aquatic Center closer to solvency, while only affecting one enterprise, has been impressive, and is worthy of notice.
Really, though, I cannot think of a single economic success that did not depend principally on private investment and effort. Tax dollars and bonds have not made Whitewater stronger or more competitive.
There is no circumstance under which I would describe tax incremental financing, and tax incremental districts within the city, as a net positive. There’s so much more to write about TIDs in Whitewater, and I’ll not venture more now.