September
2005
Walker Budget cuts Reckless & Irresponsible: We warned you
For the last several years, county adminstrators have had to be feeling like they’ve been visited by the unwelcome caller in a prison cell. County Exec Scott Walker has shown no mercy nor given any clue that he has a soul.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be exploring some of the more troubling parts of the County budget. As County residents prepare to grab their ankles, Walker will be bullying through a brutal and unrelenting budget. Unfortunately, there is no protection for County residents because Supervisors would have to “tax to the max” to fill some of the holes in the budget.
With the majority of the suburbs affirming (by re-electing Walker) the majority sent a message that sloganeering trumps true public policy. “Cut the fat” and “eliminate waste” are no mere bodily functions. When Walker says these things people believe it without the burden of looking at the health of the county.
Having just read the glossing over of the highlights in this mornings Journal-Sentinel, I’m aghast at just how punitive the budget is. I’ve seen shortchanged budgets before but this one is simply overwhelming. Some of these policies lack so much common sense that even anyone not versed in the workings of government has to see the problems.
Here’s some “high”lights:
Raising bus fares that the poor rely on to get to work.
The problem: Poor people are poor because they don’t have money. This poor tax is punitive. It will be interesting to see if businesses who rely on low-wage workers will react.
Cutting Court Staff 25%
The problem: Court staff has been cut year after year for nearly a decade. Eliminating Court commissioners who help move cases through will result in costly overcrowding in the jail.
Underfunding the Pension Plan by $27,000,000
The problem: Walker wants to borrow money that will have to be repaid over the next 30 years to do this.
Wow. That’s quite a gaffe to stick in our childrens sides.
Grab your ankles folks. This is going to be a bumpy ride.
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Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Walker Watch
Why does the Sheriff assign deputys to the sheriffs drug unit, when those positions could be rolled into the drug unit the DA runs? Or the State DOJ unit the operates in Milwaukee.
Let’s cut to the chase. We all know that Walker is doing whatever he can to drive the “I balanced the budget without raising taxes” train to the governnor’s mansion. The scary part is, if it works, he gets to do the same thing to the whole state! It’s bad enough he has destroyed Milwaukee County’s infrastructure and is now dipping in to the employees’ pension fund–what’s going to happen if he’s in Madison? He’d better be stopped and stopped NOW.
Hopefully his name recognition will be as poor outside Milwaukee as Tom Barrett’s unfortunately was.
GPS: The Sheriff assigns deputies to his drug unit because funds which are captured by his drug unit can be used for other projects pretty much as he sees fit. Under former Sheriff Lev Baldwin, the Sheriff’s dept was very efficient at nabbing the bad guys with the drugs. For instance, you may have seen the DARE car at parades — that was a capture. If memory serves, I think Baldwin also got the helecopter with a combination of federal grant money and drug money.
Carrie: Don’t underestimate Walker’s ability to blame others for his own misdeeds. The cracks in his budget will start to show in about 2008. Sadly, the Journal-Sentinel doesn’t care to expose them and let’s face it, they’ve got a larger readership than Watchdog Milwaukee. What scared me the most before was what he was doing with the sales tax but the public should be screaming “recall” for what he’s done to the pension system. Now mind you, I don’t believe in recalls for anything but malfeasance in office but I do believe that in politics, those that profit politically by the sword should perish by the sword.
Is having all these drug units in Milwaukee County cost effective to the tax payer? It’s neat that with the siezure money/property, the Sheriff gets all sorts of “nice to haves.” But isnt the bottom line getting drugs off the street not generating revenue. Consolidating units provides the Sheriff and other agencies the opportunity to deploy bodies elsewhere.
GPS, In theory your idea is sound. The problem is that politics is full of egos and beaurocracies.
I assume you are referring to the helecopter and the DARE car as “nice to haves”?