"Temper Tantrum Tom"

Like GBfan put below, I was taken a bit back by the emotion that was coming from Milwaukee Mayor Tom (Alfred E.) Barrett after the vote on the Pabst City project.

His statement after it went down is quite telling.

I want to thank Alderman Bob Bauman for his leadership on this project. Bob and Aldermen Davis, Hamilton, Wade, Witkowski and Witkowiak showed true courage and vision today.

It is mind boggling that the Common Council just rejected a $280 million private investment in our city. The status quo won. Defenders of the status-quo have said everything is fine - we don't need $280 million in private investment. We don't need to employ central city residents. What they have said loud and clear today is, we don't care about central city blight and decay and we certainly don't care about putting Milwaukeeans to work.

There are 1,000 families out there who won't have family members getting jobs because of the action taken today by the Common Council. I want the Aldermen who voted against the PabstCity project to look the 1,000 families in the eye and explain why they won't have those jobs.

I want those who opposed this project to go to Hillside and other near west-side neighborhoods and tell those residents that you'll have to find work elsewhere.

The opponents took great pleasure in spreading their misinformation campaign. They said City services would be gutted. They said $41 million tax dollars would be lost. None of this is true. TIF financing is not a tool that puts services and tax dollars at risk. It is a tool that grows the tax base, grows the economy and puts our residents to work.

The special interests who won today don't employ residents of our central city. They don't offer hope. They want us to believe that a return to 1960 is just around the corner. They are wrong.

I want the defenders of the status quo to share with all of us their plans to develop the 21 acres of decay and blight that they claim can attract even more investment than the current $280 million.
Let's have them put their money on the table. I'll work with them.

I will not slow down. In fact, I am more convinced today than ever that the fight to grow Milwaukee has to be accelerated. I have said since day one that I will do everything I can to grow this economy, put Milwaukeeans to work and expand our tax base.

We are facing levy limits. We have a central city unemployment rate that is sky high. Unlike the defenders of the status-quo, I will not walk away from those issues. We will move forward.

Never seen Barrett that miffed about; well anything. I heard him primed and ready for a fight on Mark Belling's show with the fill-in host Kevin Fischer (sp?) on the ride home from work yesterday. (Mark is guest-hosting the Rush Limbaugh Show part of this week.)

Barrett is fooling himself if he thinks the attacks on TIF Districts did in this project. What did it in was the countless questions that supporters of Pabst City kept brushing under the rug when asked about them.

• Is the lease on the House of Blues a done deal?
• Why is Marcus Cinema, a Milwaukee-based company, dropping the number of screens the theater will have from 16 to 10 (for correlation Sheboygan's Marcus-owned theater has 14)?
• Why so many office spaces when downtown Milwaukee's flooded with enough empty ones?

And many, many more. Too many for my liking, and I'm one of those 'opponents' that when he drives past downtown Milwaukee to go to a Bucks or Admirals game wants something there.

No, Mr. Mayor, the publics lack of knowledge of TIFs didn't do you in. You're inability to answer the critics with sold answers did.