No, I don’t have a direct line to the psychic hotline, but anyone who has read either the last several County Executive budget addresses or the State of the County addresses knows that Exec Scott Walker has been blaming former Exec Tom Ament and the County Board for the pension scandal. Now the county is suing the actuarial firm (Mercer) for $100 million to recover damages for faulty and negligent advice provided by the actuarial firm.

A few weeks ago I offered up an explaination of what really happened during the pension fiasco which in reality was more of a scandal. I explained how Mercer duped elected county officials and how HR Director Gary Dobbert either knowingly or because he was clueless, confidently advocated for a pension plan that had a hidden time bomb in it. One thing is certain, Mercer made a large amount of money for their services to provide an actuarial assessment to the county and then provided a candyland style no-tax scenario that no elected official in their right mind would have said no to.

Yet there were a few Supervisors who said no to the plan. Supervisor Lynne DeBruin who was a member of the pension study committee and a member of the Personel committee said she thought the plan would screw our County employees and she didn’t think it was generous enough. The irony is that she never even faced a recall like 7 others, 6 of which were not on Personnel. Supervisor Robert Krug who was on the same committees that DeBruin gave no other reason for his no vote other than to say that it just didn’t smell right. Apparently his instincts served him well as he did not face a recall. Supervisor Joe Davis and Supervisor Rich Nyklewicz offered no reason on the board floor for their “no” votes but in a shameless display of demogoguery, Davis scapegoated the board when he decided to jump ship over to the Milwaukee Common Council to win a seat as an Alderman which accompanied a pay raise of about $15,000.

Ironies abound in this saga. County Executive Scott Walker successfully used the Republican strategy of another Wisconsin Republican, Senator Joe McCarthy, to blame Democratic County Executive Tom Ament for the plan. After Ament was forced out, Walker saw that several Democrats on the County Board, myself included, would make it very difficult for him to bully though his Grover Norquist style slash and burn techniques that have served many power-driven Republicans well politically, although their constituents have later suffered. So Walker began a quiet strategy where he denied involvement in recall campaigns but his allies worked on them. After 7 Democratic Supervisors were removed from office to be replaced with 6 Walker yes-men (yes, all were men and all were Walker disciples), the recall fervor died down to just a caustic simmer. Walker blamed the board for the pension plan and every time he made another slash and burn cut he pointed the finger at the board. Despite energy prices nearly doubling, despite increasing labor costs, despite inflation, Walker nearly froze taxes. Costs went up, revenues didn’t. All this has led to a near-meltdown fiscal scenario in Milwaukee County where Walker has thus far been able to avoid governing in lieu of politicking. Since Walker has borrowed heavily to finance his no-tax pledge and since he has dramatically underfunded many parts of this years budget (including $27 Million underfunded in the pension plan), the problems inherent in the budget will be difficult to hide. Worse yet, the 2007 and 2008 budgets, if balanced, will require a massive influx of cash and that likely means a big tax increase if Walker is to avoid the major financial crisis which he has created.
But here’s the big rub — now that the county is suing Mercer for the $100 Million it lost due to Mercer negligence, Walker’s own words are being used to bolster the defense.

If Walker wants to cut the legs out from Mercer’s argument that even Walker has been laying blame at the feet of the board and Ament, Walker must come out publicly and admit he was wrong. If he does that it will bolster the county’s case against Mercer but will not serve to promote Walker’s future political ambitions. In fact, it will expose Walker as either being clueless or being a liar.

The big question now for Walker is, can he spin this to seem like he was just misinformed, while still getting the money from the lawsuit to bail him out of the looming financial crisis he has contributed to?
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For another take on this issue, visit In Effect: Scott Walker Scores…Against His Own Team

You may also find it interesting that visitors who try to pull up Walker’s 2005 budget address on the County website will get the message, We are sorry, but you are not authorized to see this file. Wonder why?