Across Milwaukee, residents can see evidence of federal money from laws passed under the Biden administration if they know where to look.
It is evident in a growing number of solar panels near the airport. Dilapidated houses are renovated and sold to first-time buyers. The removal of lead paint and pipes. The demolition of an abandoned shopping center. A crime lab and an emergency management center. A clinic and food bank for people with HIV. Funding to help dozens of nonprofits provide services such as violence prevention efforts and after-school programs.
But of the more than $1 billion for Milwaukee County in the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — legislation that President Biden counts among his greatest achievements — much is harder to see, such as funding to prevent drastic events and cuts in public safety during the pandemic. Some of the money still needs to be spent, about $3.5 million to rebuild the penguin exhibit at the local zoo and $5.1 million to repair the roof of the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.
That presents both an opportunity and a challenge for Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign as he seeks to show Americans how federal investments have improved their lives. This is difficult because the laws delegated many spending decisions to state and local officials, thereby obscuring the source of the money.
“The connection between the resources themselves and everything that’s happening on the ground and visible to people is very opaque,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “You have to find a way to convey the idea that there is concrete progress in people’s communities that is improving the quality of life – and that there is more to come.”
Milwaukee has special significance as a Democratic stronghold in a battleground state and as host of the Republican National Convention this summer. Polls show Mr. Biden in a virtual dead heat in the state with the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald J. Trump. In an April poll of Wisconsin voters by Marquette University Law School, 58 percent said Mr. Trump had a “strong track record,” compared with 44 percent for Mr. Biden.
“You see the Democrats and the Biden administration constantly throwing money away because they think it will help, but it just makes things worse,” said Hilario Deleon, chairman of the Milwaukee County Republican Party, noting that the costs of food and energy have continued to rise. Mr. Trump spoke in suburban Milwaukee on Wednesday, on his day off from a criminal trial in Manhattan, to drive home the message.
Although no Republicans voted for the American Rescue Plan Act or the Inflation Reduction Act, they were often present at events where the results were presented.
That’s why Democratic officials at both the federal and local levels are stepping up efforts to clarify the origins of the money. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen visited Milwaukee in January and Mr. Biden followed in March to highlight recipients of new federal funds, including a $36.6 million rehabilitation of a major highway and investments in workforce training. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm also visited the country in March to highlight incentives that have encouraged local manufacturing of clean energy equipment.
The effort continued in April with appearances by Tom Perez, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who heads the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. The city organized a street corner event in an area with typically low voter turnout to showcase the results of $12 million to preserve and expand Milwaukee’s tree canopy.
Mr. Perez also held a news conference celebrating the renovation of a community center, a new mental health center and homes built by Habitat for Humanity. The projects were supported by the American Rescue Plan Act, which funneled $394 million to the city and $184 million to the county in loosely capped funds, not including federal funds distributed by the state.
“We’re trying to show that the American Rescue Plan has changed your community in many ways,” Mr. Perez said in an interview afterward. “It allowed you not to be evicted. It allowed you to buy a house. It allowed you to get clean water.”
The legislation came at an important time for Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who took office in 2020 with a precarious financial situation. The cash infusion prevented painful layoffs and gave local officials time to lobby the state to allow them to impose a sales tax to fill budget gaps. It also funded long-delayed maintenance and investments in affordable housing, like the bungalows under construction behind the lectern at Mr. Perez’s news conference.
“Did I mention that I have to thank the Biden administration?” Mr. Crowley said with a laugh at the event.
Similar stories are playing out across the country as trillions of dollars from the three laws flow in, acting as a kind of slow-release drug for local economies. However, some places have been more successful in raising funds than others, as smaller cities and rural areas have often been unable to apply and administer competitive grants.
Milwaukee has the people to do this, and leaders credit their success to collaboration across Wisconsin’s levels of government. Furthermore, many large projects follow a pattern: plans were made and were just waiting for enough capital to get started.
For example, the largest single investment in the metro area – $275 million from the infrastructure bill – helped enlist local government agencies in the effort to clean up the Milwaukee Estuary to the point where it was removed from the federal list of areas of concern Take care” lakes on the Great River were deleted. It will fund a facility to store contaminated sediment dredged from the riverbeds, ultimately creating 43 new acres of lakefront land.
Many projects on Milwaukee’s wish list also aligned with the Biden administration’s priorities, such as racial equity, walking and biking, and renewable energy. That bolstered the city’s bids, such as winning a $14.3 million grant to rebuild Villard Avenue, once the main commercial corridor for Old North Milwaukee, a historically black neighborhood.
The city had also approved a “climate and equity plan” in 2023 that identified ten decarbonization strategies that created jobs and reduced costs for residents. The federal programs have breathed life into the agenda, enabling the construction of solar energy systems and the purchase of vehicles to electrify the city’s fleet.
Using other federal funds, the city has retrofitted miles of streets — quickly adding bike lanes and lengthening curbs — to combat reckless driving that has led to a rise in traffic fatalities across the county in recent years.
On these projects, there is rarely any signage about who pays.
“Whenever we communicate about these projects, we try to remind people because no one understands what the federal government is doing,” said Kevin Muhs, the city engineer. “Thanks to federal funding, we’re able to do some of these things after years of saying, ‘There’s no money.'”
In Milwaukee, many of the state-funded projects are managed by union workers. Construction unions are supporting Mr. Biden’s re-election in a direct way that will likely translate the legislation into campaign power.
Getting local governments to commit resources is one thing, but getting residents to take advantage of the programs can be more challenging.
Kevin Kane is co-founder of Green Homeowners United, a Milwaukee company that connects people with older, drafty homes to subsidies for installing insulation, heat pumps and solar panels. While the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for such retrofits have been available for a year and can be used through 2032, only tax-paying residents can benefit. A rebate program that provides up to $8,000 for lower-income households won’t make the funds available until the fall.
Mr. Kane said he tried to alert customers to the source of the aid, but he told Biden administration staff that the delay was unhelpful. “If they really wanted it passed before the election, I don’t know why people wouldn’t make more of a fuss about it,” Kane said.
It will take even more work to recruit people like Amber Wyland, one of the few residents who watched Mr. Perez’s event over the treetops as her three young children played beneath her feet.
“Good luck on the South Side,” Ms. Wyland, 34, said when she learned of the investments in the low-income neighborhood not far from Milwaukee’s increasingly upscale downtown. She would like to see more speed bumps installed on a nearby arterial road — something the city has done extensively with federal money — but said she doesn’t plan to vote on it.
Biden administration officials do not appear concerned. That’s what re-election campaigns are for, after all – telling voters what the candidate did and why it improved their lives.
“This movie is still playing,” said Gene Sperling, the White House coordinator for implementation of the American Rescue Plan. “The most important thing is to get the policy right, and there is still time to tell that story better.”
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2024-05-01 19:19:46
www.nytimes.com
