Kettl to co-host summit on local government finance

Gov. Jim Doyle named political scientist Don Kettl, a professor in the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, to co-host a summit on local government finance that the governor is convening in Milwaukee on Wednesday, Dec. 10.

The governor wants the session, which will also involve local leaders and key members of Doyle’s cabinet, to focus on new ways to hold the line on property taxes and identify ways local governments can become more efficient.

Kettl will be joined by Tim Sheehy, president of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce, in hosting the summit at UW-Milwaukee.

Both men have led governor-appointed panels examining local government finance and efficiency during the last three years. Kettl chaired the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on State-Local Partnerships for the 21st Century in 1999-2000 and Sheehy headed a 2002 task force examining state-local issues.

The governor said Kettl and Sheehy “are well-respected individuals who have a wealth of experience and policy knowledge on the relationship between state and local governments.”