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e-Newsletter | 02/09/2012

Every night, I hear the discussion of our economy and the need for more jobs. It makes me wonder, "What is MMSD's impact on the local economy?” One answer to this question lies right outside my window where I see the Rockwell Automation clock tower and remember all the business that MMSD has provided to Rockwell by purchasing deep tunnel pump motors and instrumentation equipment worth well into the seven digits. That doesn't include the green roof that MMSD helped to build on Rockwell Automation's roof to manage stormwater runoff. It is the largest private green roof in the State of Wisconsin. Local investment, local jobs.

Another sign of our impact on the regional economy will be visible this summer when we launch a new river skimmer. This $415,000 boat will clean up garbage from our rivers and Lake Michigan and was built by Wisconsin workers at North Prairie's Aquarius Systems Division of D&D Products, Inc.

Of course, we pay for all this with public tax dollars, but, are these dollars well spent? A 2009 study from the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) compared Milwaukee to MMAC's "16 Comparison Cities”. The result, the Milwaukee region has the third lowest water and sewer rates. So, our rates stack up very well with other comparable cities, but what exactly is our impact on the local economy?

Looking at all of 2011, approximately 3,000 people from the private sector worked on MMSD-related projects, designing and building new infrastructure, maintaining water reclamation facilities and sewers, and providing professional services. To complete these efforts, engineers, planners, contractors, accountants, lawyers, and all types of trade workers, electricians, steam fitters, operating engineers, and welders, worked on MMSD projects.

Those 3,000 people put in more than 343,700 hours last year on MMSD work, the equivalent of 165 full time jobs. That number does not include the 220 full time employees that work for Veolia Water Milwaukee, the District's private contractor hired to run our plants and sewers.

So, I feel comfortable knowing that MMSD does provide a significant beneficial impact on the local economy by employing people in both the public and private sectors. All these people own houses, pay taxes, buy gas, buy food, and buy clothes. They all support local restaurants, stores, car dealers, and museums, go to Summerfest, and are active in our churches and schools. Local investment, local jobs: we need more of it.

Kevin Shafer

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MMSD's new skimmer
 

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Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
260 W. Seeboth Street | Milwaukee, WI 53204
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