ON THE LEVEL: Bukiewicz, mayor and union electrician, talks Assembly candidacy

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Dan Bukiewicz has lived in Oak Creek for the past 35 years after building a home there in 1989.

Since then he’s risen through the ranks from city alderman to becoming mayor in 2017 of the nearly 40,000-person city in southeastern Wisconsin. Bukiewicz, an electrician by trade, also became the president of the Milwaukee Building & Construction Trades Council in 2014. He also chairs the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council.

“I was always a volunteer person,” he said, referring to his beginning in Oak Creek. “You know, local churches, somebody who needed a hand. It was servant leadership, and I paid attention to what was going on in the city. It was key. I cared about education in the city and where the city was going.”

Now, he’s running as a Democrat for the 21st Assembly District, which covers the southeastern corner of Milwaukee County.

“My style is very much partnerships,” he said. “Everything I do, whether it’s when I was in the field, working as a working guy, doing customer service, or whether I was at the building trades, working on developments or workforce development, or at City of Oak Creek, I never started [at] no.”

The Daily Reporter: How did your life experience kind of drive you towards running for this assembly district seat?

Bukiewicz: Well, it’s been a culmination of experiences, starting out being a working guy. Like a lot of folks, I came up, decided I wanted a career in the trades, and I got a registered apprenticeship, through the unions, through IBEW 94. I’m an electrician by trade, and I worked my way up. I was an apprentice, and I became a journey person. From there, I was a foreman, project manager, department manager and I was fortunate.

And through my apprenticeship I got a family supporting career, so I realized how important it is, especially today with affordability being just key for everybody, to have jobs that can support these families, meet your obligations to pay property taxes and and all the things you want to do with friends and family.

But I came up through this whole process, and I was recognized by my local union, and they were like, ‘Hey, you’d be a good candidate to represent people.’

Oak Creek was just chugging along. It wasn’t doing much. We needed some more development.

So, some people in the neighborhood encouraged me and said, ‘You’d be a good Alderman. You should run. You’re good with customer service, you’re good with people.’

And I came back, I talked to my wife, and it’s kind of a funny story. Because I ran it by her, and I was starting to come up with reasons maybe I should and maybe I shouldn’t. And she kind of said, Look, if you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk, and you’ve got to give it a shot when you have the opportunity. So I did, and I was elected, and found out that I really enjoyed it.

I feel, with 18 years of local experience, that I can really help the district and southern Milwaukee, and the City of Milwaukee the southern part and the Oak Creek area by adding that voice out there by reaching across aisles and working with people.

Wisconsin’s in a pivotal place, and we need leaders that are willing to step up and figure out how to get things done. You may not get everything you want, but if you work together, everybody can get what they need.

TDR: What would be your first Assembly Bill proposal?

Bukiewicz: To start looking at how we can get things affordable around property taxes.

It’s an unsustainable model that we’re going through right now to support schools, protect services, parks, roads, infrastructure, you name it. We really have to look at some form of property tax relief.

So I think we’ve got to look at a shared model where you’re awarded for your successes as a community on getting things done, and not so much punished by a levy limit, or shared revenue.

We need to look at where we can all grow together as, not just a district like the 21st, but southeastern Wisconsin, and the state of Wisconsin. When a lot of things were set up, Wisconsin was a very different place, and we’re at a different place in a different time, and I think we need to start thinking a little differently.

TDR: Where is there room for improvement on construction and/or labor regulations?

Bukiewicz: First of all, data centers are a hot topic right now.

Things are moving quicker than they can but, we should ensure that if you’re going to go down that path of projects, of large projects, that local businesses get the lion’s share of the work. They’re the ones that are paying income tax in Wisconsin. Give the edge to local contractors and in-state contractors versus out of state contractors.

You’re seeing more and more people come up from outside the state, and they’re taking that money out of here.

The other thing is, come up with, as best you can, clear regulations on what’s going on, whether it’s data centers, power consumption, powerplants, expansions, water reclamation. And make sure you’re getting what you should from the feds regarding that stuff, particularly when it comes to environmental stuff.

TDR: Do you see any room to work with Republicans in the majority to get any particular things done?

Bukiewicz: Yeah, and to tell you the truth, I really don’t want to look at people as Democratic or Republican. I know they are, but what I would like to instill is, how do we get to a better place?

We just can’t be going on party lines all the way around. We have to start coming to some consensus to make some headways on what we’re going to do and how we’re going to keep Wisconsin competitive.

The goal is to work together. Years ago, it seemed to work when I was growing up. I don’t know where it kind of went off track a little bit. But I do think there’s probably people on both sides of the aisle that think the way I do, and those would be the people I’d seek out first.

TDR: What kind of impact do you think the Trump administration has on Wisconsin right now?

Bukiewicz: Yeah, just from an affordability standpoint, I think it’s been negative. We haven’t seen, just the daily staples of food haven’t come down. That was kind of an election promise. And the whole thing, we’ve seen infrastructure projects be cut back, road projects defunded. We’ve seen cutbacks on energy projects and things like that.

So these are all things where the citizens of Wisconsin go and make a living doing, and we need those things.

If I’m correct, our bridges are only graded out somewhere in a C level. They weren’t on the end of the scale. And everything commercially has a life expectancy, unfortunately, and here, at least in the state of Wisconsin, probably in most of the United States, we’re at that tipping point with infrastructure.

Whether it’s airports, roads, bridges, harbors, we need these things. That moves commerce. And that keeps people employed and that’s what makes things affordable.

And I hear it at the ICC. Local municipalities have been holding things together for a long time, being very creative with what they do and how they keep services going. But we’re getting to that point where you’re looking at municipalities looking at wheel taxes, just trying to get some air in the tires.

We can’t do that, particularly with our schools. We need to educate the next generation and make sure they’re there for us as we grow old.

TDR: So you just talked a lot about how local municipalities are in dire need of money. Is there a way for municipalities to generate more revenue without further burdening affordability on regular people?

Bukiewicz: Probably. Depending on how the state would set up their surpluses. I mean, you’re sitting on quite a large surplus now. If it was earmarked in a particular direction or particular area, possibly.

It’s maybe redefining the tax code, the taxes on what cities pay into the state and what services the state provides as well. There’s a lot to deal with at the local level.

I know it was set up here on property taxes. It’s not going there. I don’t know if it becomes a consumption thing, where some bigger retailers, or some bigger businesses pay a greater share as the city hosts them.

I guess anything could be on the table, if it’s workable to both sides.