Anti Privatization
In October of 2008 city of Milwaukee comptroller W. Martin “Wally” Morics looked at the city of Milwaukee’s financial problems and came up with a plan to fix them. Mr. Morics proposed the long term lease of the cities water works and the investment of proceeds of that sale as a way of patching holes in the budget for the near and distant future.
This short sighted proposal is a terrible idea for the people of Milwaukee and the surrounding communities that receive high quality drinking water from the Milwaukee Water Works. Never in the United States has a city the size of Milwaukee successfully leased it potable water system to the satisfaction of the customers. Many similar leases have been terminated only a few years into the agreement at great expense to the tax pay, whose money was wasted both in privatizing and taking back the water utilities.
Mr. Morics is proposing a lease of 75 to 99 years, a term unheard of in any previous lease agreement. The standard leases seen in other large communities have been for up to 20 years. A lease the length of the proposal in Milwaukee wouldn’t be reviewed until nearly the end of the century.
Finally, Mr. Morics has based his estimates of the sales profitability on some pretty shaky assumptions. With an estimated asking price of $500 million Mr. Morics intends to generate $30 million per year from the investment of the proceeds. There are few investment portfolios that will earn the kind of interest on lease proceeds to patch the holes in the cities budget. Milwaukee also stands to lose its shared of Wisconsin shared revenue dollars, an amount of money nearly equal to the $30 million a year the lease of the Milwaukee Water Works is intended to generate.
The end result of Mr. Morics’ plan would be the lose of Milwaukee’s only natural resource to private control, an investment portfolio subject to market forces, and a loss of state funding for the city, an all around losing scenario.
Keep Public Our Water
Keep Public Our Water is a community group dedicated to preventing privatization of Milwaukee’s Water.
File Cabinet
Every file, news paper clipping or email regarding Milwaukee Water Works privatization that could be located.
Fact Sheets
Some fact sheets on Milwaukee Water Works privatization and talking points.
Educational Links
Privatization isn’t an issue effecting only Milwaukee. A collection of links to other groups who oppose privatization.
