Is the $85,000 Marquette Interchange Ad Campaign Racist?

Daniel Bice writes:

State Department of Transportation officials are very pleased with their work on the Marquette Interchange.

And they should be. The $810 million project was completed under budget and ahead of schedule — just as it’s supposed to be done.

State officials spread this news far and wide, talking to media outlets around town about how well they did.

But that wasn’t enough.

They also hired a local PR firm to put together radio and television ads crowing about the state’s fine work.

...The five-week ad campaign will air nearly 300 times on the four Milwaukee TV stations, and the radio spot will run more than 350 times.

Total tax dollars spent on the televised note of self-congratulations: $85,000.

Bice notes that the $85,000, while just a "drop in the bucket" of the project's cost," is not a "mere pittance."

It's quite an expensive "state-funded ad about how well the state used its funds."

Imagine the thinking that goes into hiring a PR firm and spending $85,000 to let people know about the great accomplishment of the Marquette Interchange being completed under budget. Not too responsible.

Bice suggests that instead of state officials applying that money to an ad campain touting the Department of Transportation's achievement, "[y]ou could hire a transportation manager for a year with that sum."

Or fill a lot of Milwaukee potholes.

“I’d say (we could hire) five crews for four weeks,” estimated Jeff Dellemann, the city’s street and bridge services manager.

Potholes...hmmm.

Instead of using that money to hire more crews to repair potholes, it was squandered on frivilous, self-congratulatory promotion.

Is this what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board would consider to be a case of "institutional racism"?

The Journal Sentinel should investigate if the use of $85,000 in state funds for the ad campaign added to the racial disparity of pothole repair in the city. The expense is certainly cause for concern.

Perhaps it should be examined whether this MU Interchange ad campaign is, in the end, racist.

In any event, $85,000 wasted is $85,000 wasted, but it could be worse.

Had the project gone over budget, I suspect more than $85,000 of state funds would have been used for ads explaining the cost overrun.