The goal: A strong regional economy – 7 counties launch joint effort to brand, sell ‘Milwaukee’

If the seven-county economic bloc that includes Milwaukee were an independent country, its $63 billion economy would approach that of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf.

Yet Milwaukee, its suburbs and outlying areas never coalesced into a competitive regional economy. Rather than exploit the economies of scale necessary to thrive in a global economy, they behaved like politically and economically splintered principalities, contesting everything from local taxes to water rights.

On Monday, civic leaders from across the metropolitan region will unveil a plan to begin breaking down decades of corrosive provincialism.

For the first time, they aim to unite the seven counties of southeastern Wisconsin behind a sweeping economic strategy that’s meant to market the region’s strengths to the world, recruit new businesses and repair the competitive shortcomings of a slow-growth metropolitan-area economy.

"The lack of a regional effort up to this point has been an impediment," said Gale Klappa, chairman, president and chief executive of Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Energy Corp. and one of the architects of the strategy.

By JOHN SCHMID
[email protected]

Full Story: http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/sep05/354923.asp