The La Crosse Tribune du lieu suivant : La Crosse, Wisconsin • 22

C-6 Publisher Jim Santori, jsantorilacrossetribune.com Editor Rusty Cunningham, rcunninghamlacrossetribune.com Opinion Editor Richard Mial, rmiallacrossetribune.com iimoE Opinion: 791-8232 Sunday, May 28, 2000 La Crosse Tribune Tribune agenda for the Coulee Region OUR VIEW for honest, efficient and forward- thinking leadership. Sen. Brian Rude: a real class act Encourage regional cooperation, both public and private. Spotlight the Coulee Region as a diverse economic hub, especially for retail, health care, education and Celebrate the arts and heritage of the region. Promote family values, positive achievements and the value of tourism Hold elected officials accountable diversity.

OLA CROSSE Tripune Editorial board Publisher: James P. Santori Editor: Russell R. Cunningham Jr. Opinion page editor: Richard Mial Editorial advisory board Local news editor: Chris Hardie News editor: Tracy Buffington Community board member: Mort Morehouse State Sen. Brian Rude has served constituents in Western Wisconsin since 1983.

As a legislator, he has worked hard to bring people together. His emphasis has been solving problems not making political points. Rude was elected to the Assembly in November 1982 and served there until April 1984, when he won a special election to the Senate. He went on to serve 11 years in the Republican Senate leadership. Rude left his mark on many important efforts, including playing key roles in landing the La Crosse Health Science Center, the Prairie du Chien juvenile corrections facility and creating the Kickapoo Reserve near La Farge.

The list of legislative achievements is a long one. But most significant about the legislative achievements is the fact that they happened through bipartisan teamwork on the part of our legislative delegation in Madison. And Rude was often the key player in that partnership. Rude's departure from public life has more to do with a personal lifestyle decision than it does with policy. But there were some things that made it easier for Rude to leave office.

"The Legislature of today is not working as well as it should," Rude said in his farewell address. "Gridlock is common, bipartisan work on separate bills is infrequent. Polls, politics, focus groups and fundrais- ing increasingly rule the day instead of good public policy. The vast majority of legislators Republicans and Democrats are good people doing difficult work at low salaries. But the process is broken and I do not see an easy resolution of the issues involved." Rude's departure leaves a big hole in the local legislative delega-.

tion and it will make for an interesting election season this fall. But there is plenty of time to talk politics and policy later. For now, we offer Brian Rude our thanks for his bipartisan approach to the job, our congratulations for his legislative achievements and our best wishes in his future endeavors. RICHARD MIAL State should encourage regional cooperation Mial Opinion page editor While there is cooperation among governments at the staff level in local government, there are plenty of high-level squabbles. Instead of spending our time trying to redevelop La Crosse's neighborhoods, or figure out ways to attract and keep more high-level jobs in La Crosse, all too often local elected officials are fighting with each other.

La Crosse against Onalaska. La Crosse against Campbell. Would it help if there were more state incentives for local governments to cooperate with one another? Would it help if there were more penalties against local governments that didn't collaborate? We could have arrived at an agreement with the town of Campbell to sell city of La Crosse water at a 25 percent surcharge, jointly develop some property along Interstate 90 in the town (and share tax revenue) and annex many of the Nakomis Avenue homes. Now, the city is in the odd position of having refused to sell water to the town and then protesting the fact that the town wants to create its own water system. Do we think that, by making town residents really thirsty, they will annex to the city? Let's start looking for alternatives to fighting.

Cities, villages and towns can enter into service contracts and boundary agreements to settle municipal issues. La Crosse County and the city of La Crosse many years ago decided to end the duplication of having a city and county health department. The County Health Department offers those services now. Green Bay and Brown County also did the same thing years ago. But Brown County also took over the operations of the city's human resources department.

Now, applicants for jobs in either city or county government are interviewed by the county. In the Green Bay area, there is a metropolitan sewerage commission, which operates sewer services across the entire area. La Crosse operates sewer services for itself and on contract for the city of Onalaska, town of Campbell and parts of the town of Shelby. Nine suburban communities in Brown County are working together on a joint water project. At a town meeting held by blue ribbon commission members Tuesday evening in Green Bay, several town and village officials told how important such shared services are for their communities and how they save taxpayer money.

The town of Hobart purchases water from the village of Ash-waubenon and also works with the village on land-use planning and on a storm sewer management program. The village owns a well inside the town's boundaries, and they are working together on a joint fire station. Communities don't have to fight with each other. They can save taxpayer money by working together. "Look at the entire area as your home, rather than the municipal boundary," said Hobart town chair man Len Teresinski.

"Without shared services, we couldn't afford to do many of the things we need to do." While he added that local officials need to stand up for their community, he said that when problems arise, they don't look at the boundary but try to solve the problem instead. We need more of that attitude in the Coulee Region and throughout the state. Is there anything the state can do to encourage more of that thinking? Ed Huck is executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, which represents Wisconsin's largest cities, including La Crosse. While he wasn't at Tuesday's meeting to speak, I asked him about ways local governments could work together. One might be tax base sharing.

Huck said Minnesota uses tax base sharing in the Twin Cities area to help even out the differences between newly developing areas and inner cities. If you think about it, much of the growth in suburban areas takes place because the city is already there. If there were a way that communities could share the tax base, or share the revenue from new development, there would be less reason to fight over annexation. In 1911, Wisconsin started the first shared revenue program as a way to even out differences between different communities' tax bases and to assure that everyone was entitled to a certain base level of services regardless of wealth. Over the past several years, that idea of equalization has gotten lost.

Shared revenue has been frozen or reduced and that has cost local taxpayers money. In Green Bay, according to Mayor Paul Jadin, the city has increased its spending by an average of about 2.5 percent a year. But its taxes have gone up more than that because shared revenue has actually gone down. La Crosse has had the same experiences. One of the things Gov.

Thompson wants the commission to do is investigate whether there is a way to replace the shared revenue concept with something better or even eliminate it and offer local governments their own taxing authority instead. That last idea has local governments worried. Not all communities are in a position to profit from local sales taxes, for instance. But if the commission looks at ways of changing shared revenue, then there might be some opportunities to make positive changes. And I can't think of a change that would be more positive than to encourage local officials to think in regional or area terms and cooperate rather than fight.

Opinion page editor Richard Mial can be reached at 791-8232, or by e-mail at rmiallacrossetribune.com. Ever wonder what sort of reputation the La Crosse area has around the state? I got a taste of one aspect of that reputation and it wasn't much fun. I went to Green Bay Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Wisconsin Blue Ribbon Commission on State-Local Partnerships for the 21st Century. It is a group of 32 people from around the state who have been appointed by Gov. Tommy Thompson to study all facets of the relationship between state and local governments.

When I was introduced to one of the commissioners, and after he found out where I was from, he proceeded to tell me that he had been here several years ago trying to mediate a dispute between local officials. Never mind which officials, or which dispute. The point is, all too often when the La Crosse area is mentioned, the first thing that comes to some people's minds is the fact that we spend a lot of time fighting with one another. COMMUNITY COLUMNIST Give back to the community in small ways, too Charlie Moore La Crosse fabric of our community. The roles that we play as community developers take on many different variations.

It is the role that we play as friends and neighbors in times of distress and happiness that builds the cohesion that not only 'provides vitality to our neighbors but also to the community at large. It is the role that we play as parents in giving the necessary and deserving quality time to our kids when they say "Mom, Dad, I want to talk to you" or "Can we go outside and play dodge ball?" Community development is sharing our opinions and thoughts about issues and concerns that affect us as individuals and constituents. It also is giving directions to a lost visitor traveling through our cities. A short time ago, I was sitting with a good friend in conversation about community development. As we chatted she shared with me a story that I thought to be one of the most magnificent examples of development.

Her story told her work with an underprivileged group of peopla In that setting there was a young woman with whom she had very little contact. She stated that as she went about her work in the setting, she would always smile at the woman. As time passed on the young lady vanished from the surroundings. My friend continued this work for a period of time. One day a young woman approached her to say thank you.

Being somewhat confused, my friend asked what had she done to receive such an honor? The young lady stated that she was once down and out and that my friend always had a smile for her as she went about her charitable duties. The young lady stated that her smile made her feel as if she generous philanthropists have provided endowments for certain organizations, again in the name of community development or as some might say "giving back" to the community. I think in both of these situations that it is marvelous that fortunate individuals are willing to share of themselves to assist in making our communities healthy, giving environments. however, do not see these to be the best examples of community development. In my opinion, the best example of community development doesn't take place with the actors on the grand stage of life it takes place with the little people that work behind the scene.

Those little people that I reference are the people like you and the parents, school teachers, ministers, construction workers and many other valued threads in the was special and from that smile she gained the energy and drive to make the most of her life. A simple smile changed a life! When it comes to community development, it needn't be grandeur; it simply needs to be. We all have a role in the development of our community. Some of us may be in a position to give large sums of money. All of us are in a position to give.

We are the community. Charlie Moore is a native of Belzoni, and a graduate of Jackson (Miss.) State University. He currently works at Gundersen Lutheran and is working on a doctoral degree from Saint Mary's University in Winona. He is one of 16 Tribune community columnists, whose writing appears every Sunday on the Opinion page. Being given this opportunity to share my thoughts with readers of this paper, I want to take the time to invite you into the part of my life that holds special meaning.

It is the part of me that is connected to the notion of community development. Quite often through the media we hear the stories of how successful high profile athletes give of their time and money in the name of community development. Or sometimes emerging from the screen of the television we see hqw.