Franklin’s Public Hunting Grounds and what You Have Been Told—or Not

 

In separate stories published on November 22 and 23 we asked readers if they could identify the Wisconsin DNR Public Hunting grounds pictured in the story.  To-date we have not received the correct answer from among these choices: Tichigan, Vernon, Franklin or Oconomowoc.

Give up?  Well, the correct answer is Franklin.  We doubt that many Franklin and Milwaukee County citizens realize that there is a state-owned public hunting grounds within Franklin’s city limits on 116^th street, and wonder how many members of the Franklin Common Council are aware of this fact?  Depending upon how you feel about this we suggest calling your alderman or Mayor Tom Taylor with any questions or concerns you may have over this unique situation. 

We have a couple of concerns of our own on this subject.  First, the close proximity of Alderman Skowronski’s home to this state-owned land.  Secondly, we recalled the following statement by Mayor Tom Taylor in a September 26, 2010, JSOnline story favoring the now-controversial $41 million Ryan Creek Interceptor Project in what Taylor referred to in the article as the overdue period of growth for the city's southwest quarter, predicting with confidence that the sewer project:

“[Would open] much of the land to a building boom [and] would add more than $1.2 billion to the city's property tax base by 2025,” and that the added businesses would take some of the local tax burden off the shoulders of homeowners.”  Taylor added, “there’s little room for new businesses elsewhere: Only a few acres are left for sale in the city's business park at S. 51st St. and Ryan Road.  If a company came in and said they wanted a significant size property, we'd have to say no."

Taking the mayor at his word concerning the business (warehouse) park at S. 51st St. and Ryan Road, the mayor needs to explain to Franklin citizens how the state of Wisconsin became the owners of the 100 acres of land now designated public hunting grounds, being that, in his words ”there's little room for new businesses elsewhere.”  If the mayor is really serious about 'tak[ing] some of the local tax burden off the shoulders of homeowners.”  As Alderman Solomon likes to say, “It ain’t gonna happen.”  The state does not pay taxes to the City on the 100 or so acres it owns.

Speaking of development, we find it very “interesting” that the state-owned hunting grounds—baring its sale to a private party—prevents development of that property which just so happens to be just hundreds of yards from  Alderman Ken Skowronski’s home.  Yet, the City is preparing to take land (potentially by eminent domain) from Franklin citizens in order to build the Ryan Creek Interceptor for future sale to MMSD; which will tax property owners within its taxing boundaries, quite the oposite of Taylor's statement "...that "it will take some of the local tax burden off the shoulders of homeowners."

It must also be noted that Franklin developer Jim O’Malley, whose development company, O'malley Development, LLC owns land involved in the RCI project area.  In addition, campaign finace records filed with the Franklin City Clerk's office revealed O’Malley was a contributor to Mayor Taylor’s and Alderman Steve Taylor’s last campaigns.  In fact, O’Malley was a volunteer for the alderman’s reelection run.

RELATED MEDIA

• MMSD Public Hearing Regarding New District Boundary for the City of Franklin
• Ryan Creek Sewer Project Stinks to High Heaven

Will the Real Fiscal Conservative Please Stand Up!

City of Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor, a self-proclaimed Republican is at odds with Democrat County Supervisor Chris Abele, over of all things—spending cuts!  Three Million dollars to be exact.   County Executive Abele's budget cuts $3 million from the paramedic subsidy to municipalities.

According to Franklin Fire Chief James Martins’ 2009 Annual Report:

... since the new Emergency Medical Services contract with Milwaukee County in 2006, [the City of Franklin has] increased revenue for ambulance services to the City of Franklin dramatically.

Does this explain why our BIG TAX and SPENDING mayor wants Milwaukee County to put up a $6 million paramedic subsidy?

Haven’t We Seen This Movie Before?

Mayor Taylor has enlisted the help of his good ol’ boys network; the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council of Milwaukee County (ICC), a group of Mayors and Village Presidents that represent the 19 municipalities within Milwaukee County and is chaired by Taylor.  The ICC has faced criticism from a number of County Supervisors, especially District 16 Supervisor John F. Weishan, Jr., who said in a March 4, 2010 press release in response  to ICC comments on a County government study,

“The ICC comments divert attention from the true issues facing Milwaukee County: increasing health care costs, stagnant state funding and the failures of County Executive Walker to fulfill his duties as the County’s administrator.”

Of all politicians on the ICC, Mayor Taylor should know that even the $3 million subsidy historically has been challenged.  We remind “His Honor” that a portion of the County’s tax revenue comes from Franklin tax payers.  Isn’t the mayor essentially asking County Executive Abele to raise taxes on ICC-member cities including Franklin tax payers to come up with the addition $3 million?

Taylor and Abele approach the cuts from rather different views.

Taylor believes "We need to be proactive, which is much better than reacting to the budget after it is presented. The difficulty is that there are contracts in place between municipalities who are providing services to other municipalities.”  A rather odd statement, when one considers Taylor’s own lack of proactive success when it comes to economic growth in his own city and his well-known bullying, reactive style of governance.

On the other hand Abele is looking at the big picture and views the paramedic subsidy cut as part of a plan to fill a projected shortfall of $55million.  "I'm committed to introducing a budget without a deficit or levy increase, I'm looking for ways to save Milwaukee County taxpayers money, including by reviewing discretionary spending and encouraging consolidation."

So will the real fiscal conservative please stand up—not so fast Mr. Mayor!

Contributing material to this story: No quick rescue for paramedics funding (FranklinNOW)

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City Assessor's Office to Investigate Property Undervalued by nearly $7 Million

Franklin taxpayers are regularly told by the mayor and some aldermen that business contributes to the tax base and drives down residential taxes, overall.  But in reality is this truly the case and is this a fair and honest claim?

While reviewing recent property sales in Franklin we came across Brenwood Park senior housing Apartments at 9535 W. Loomis Road, which was assessed in 2010 at $2.757 million, along with an adjacent two-and-one-half acre parcel valued at $553,600.  When the property owner was notified of the increased valuation, they objected.  Consequently the City lowered its valuation to $2.588 million and $261,500 on the adjacent two-and-one-half acre parcel. In March, the same piece of property, minus the two-and-one-half acre parcel was sold for $9.6 million. This was confirmed by the Milwaukee County Register of Deeds office. What does this mean to Franklin taxpayers?

Based on the $2.588 million assessment the owners were paying roughly $64,000 in property taxes.  If and when the City of Franklin changes the value, based on the current sale price, this property will generate $237,000 in property tax. THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL brought this to the attention of Mark Link, Tyler/CLT, City Assessor. Tyler/CLT is an outside company hired by Franklin. We asked Mr. Link how a property in less than a year could be so drastically undervalued. We supplied him with our documentation and were assured that he would look into the matter and let us know; because iquite frankly, he had no explanation.

Very shortly, THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL will begin a new, Franklin real estate feature with data links to properties sold in Franklin. We hope this will help residents with determining fair market values, in addition to keeping our readers informed of emerging trends.

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