The Blue-Ribbon Commission on State-Local Partnerships for the 21st Century was created in April 2000 by Governor Tommy Thompson. The Commission's charge was to study the roles of state and local governments and how they could best provide the most efficient and cost-effective service to Wisconsin residents in the 21st century. Thompson explicitly referred to the Commission as “a modern-day constitutional convention” that would “rethink the roles of different levels of government in the changing economy of the new century. The commission needs to challenge the status quo and recommend more efficient government to better serve the people. For example, we need to better determine what unit of government is responsible for providing what services and who is responsible for paying for those services.” Thompson noted that the Commission was to consider creative and bold proposals, not merely debate how to fine-tune existing programs, and that the full extent of state-local relations was to be discussed.
The Commission was made up of 31 members, representing state, local, and education officials; state lawmakers; and Wisconsin residents. It was chaired by Professor Don Kettl of the La Follette Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Issues affecting the relationship of state government with cities, villages, towns, counties, schools and other local governments, under study by the Commission included funding levels for aid programs, including shared revenue and school aids; state and local taxes, aid formulas, and mandates; local option revenue sources; and accountability issues.
Ultimately, the Commission explicitly called for Wisconsin state and local government to hew to four basic principles in the course of their administration-
- Economic growth.
- Citizens at the center.
- Performance-driven government.
- Maximum local flexibility in pursuing statewide goals.
These principles, according to the Commission, would be carried out through a three-part strategy--
- “Badger Basics” - the identification of a set of basic services - education, municipal, transportation, justice services, and human services - that the Commission believed that Wisconsin residents should receive.
- Economic development.
- “Renew Wisconsin” - a top-to-bottom performance review of the state-local system, driven by citizens in order to increase civic engagement.
The explicit recommendations of the Commission can be found in the Final Report, produced and released in early January 2001.
