Marquette University Law School and the Forum have partnered to develop an interactive website that will allow citizens to review the needs of the region's cultural and entertainment assets and grapple for themselves with the type of financing package that should be assembled (if any) to meet those needs.
"We have had a great deal of community-wide discussion during the past year about the challenges facing the Milwaukee County-owned cultural institutions and parks, as well as the financial struggles of private cultural organizations like the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the need for a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks," says Forum President Rob Henken. "The new website is designed to further that discussion by allowing citizens to contemplate the range and scope of our cultural and entertainment needs and what it might take in terms of new public funding options to address them."
Users of the website first will be presented with information about potential investments in cultural and entertainment assets and organizations. The information will be based on the Forum's Pulling Back the Curtain report and options developed by the MMAC's Cultural and Entertainment Capital Needs Task Force. Options will include investments in basic infrastructure repairs at the County-owned cultural institutions and parks, capital improvements at those facilities, discretionary grant programs for privately-owned cultural organizations, a new multi-purpose arena, and an expanded convention center. Reflecting the discussion that occurred during MMAC task force deliberations, users also will have the opportunity to consider the inclusion of transit improvements and repairs at school athletic facilities in a cultural and entertainment financing package.
After formulating their package, users then will have the opportunity to consider several public funding options to pay it, including sales, cigarette, beer and alcohol, hotel/motel, and rental car taxes. For each revenue option, various taxing amounts will be presented and users also will have the chance to consider Milwaukee County or multi-county options.
After the user has completed his or her financing package, he or she will have the option to "publish" the package and share it with others through a weblink that can be distributed via email, social media, texting, etc.
The website is an extension of Marquette University Law School's public policy initiative. "Fostering a conversation about the future of our city's cultural and entertainment assets is an example of the spirit of community engagement that lies at the heart of our mission at Marquette and the Law School," said Matthew Parlow, the Law School's associate dean for academic affairs. "The new website represents a vehicle for such discussions, one that harnesses the unique capabilities of interactive media to enhance the dialogue that has always driven our democracy."
The Forum and Marquette University Law School hope to launch the website in the first quarter of 2015.
"We see this as an opportunity not only to enhance public input into the future of our cultural and entertainment assets, but also to educate citizens about the intricacies of local government finance and the trade-offs involved in determining how to pay for valued public services," says Henken. "Our intent is not to push for enhanced public funding, but rather to promote an even broader and better-informed public conversation about the types of quality-of-life amenities we wish to have in our community and what it might take to pay for them."
