Saturday, June 26, 2010

Removing Walker's Control Benefits Entire State

A year and a half ago, the State of Wisconsin was forced to take over Milwaukee County's Income Maintenance Program due to Scott Walker's inability and/or refusal to manage the program competently.

Since then, the State has made incredible progress in rectifying the short comings of the programs. Among the reasons that helped the State achieve this accomplishment was the fact that they required the County to keep the program fully staffed, as opposed to Walker only filling a tiny fraction of the positions despite the fact that they had been fully funded by the Board.

The entire State benefits from these improvements as well. Due to the increase in accuracy in Milwaukee County, the overall accuracy rating in the State improved as well. This in turn as led the State to receiving commendation from the feds as well as a nice bit of extra cash:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Vilsack announced that Wisconsin will receive nearly $3 million in bonus payments for having one of the highest FoodShare accuracy rates in the nation and making the most dramatic improvement of any state.

A USDA review found that 98.9% of the benefits issued in Wisconsin were for correct amount and that 95.4% of the individuals deemed eligible by the state were indeed eligible.
Proof positive that Milwaukee County, and the entire state, would be better off without Walker in control.

14 comments:

  1. ???

    How does getting more taxpayer money prove you are better without Walker? This money is ADDITIONAL spending, takes a lib to think spending more tax dollars is a good thing.

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  2. ...for having one of the highest FoodShare accuracy rates in the nation and making the most dramatic improvement of any state.

    Kind of says it all, doesn't it?

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  3. No that says nothing about your drawn conclusion. Comparing a state program to a county telephone bank? You might as well compare the emptied state highway fund to a local elementary school budget and then conclude the principle can't manage his/her budget...clueless.

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  4. Apparently you don't know what you are talking about, or are a liar.

    The phone bank and related services is part of the foodshare program. The state was having problems meeting the federal government's requirements because Walker's numbers were dragging down the entire state's numbers. After a class action lawsuit was filed, the state took over and Shazam! things got better for the county and the state.

    Pretty clear cut for someone that follows the news and not the propaganda.

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  5. The phone bank was a PART of the issue. Disagreements over filling these positions (county board) are also a part of the same issue. Irregardless of the phone bank the larger part of the errors, as reported by the state are not phone bank related, yet you chose to side step this issue like delays in processing paperwork which has nothing to do with the phone bank.

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  6. There was no disagreement about filling the issues amongst the Board. In fact, they increased the funding to have 30 full-time positions. Walker willfully chose not to fill those positions and thus the problems started.

    There is no way around this but that it was yet another one of Walker's failures.

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  7. Again you are wrong. The board ONLY wanted county employees. If you recall there were plans to hire students and a proposal to contract the positions ...these were totally shot down by the board; that is the main reason they were not filled. Continue down your tale of one person causes all the problems.

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  8. Again with your misleading statements.

    They were not students, but UWM staff people. And he only wanted to hire 10 of them, even though that was obviously not enough. He also wanted to hire 25 private agency workers who could do nothing but answer the phone and take messages, since they are barred by law to actually have access to the computer programs needed to do the work.

    It took the full staffing that the Board authorized and then some, working overtime, to overcome Walker's failure.

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  9. Misleading? Perhaps I forgot that it was staff and not students at least I did not obfuscate and just accuse one party of the inability to fill positions. There is and has been a battle in that county over money, more employees, and tax payers. The very fact the board would not "bend" either was a direct actions to empty positions. Irrespective, the phone bank was only one problem of many for the state taking over. The phone bank had limited effect on the delays in processing paperwork.

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  10. The very fact the board would not "bend" either was a direct actions to empty positions.

    They authorized and funded 30 positions. They do not do the hiring, Walker does. You are getting desperate to try to share the blame, but administering the budget is solely the responsibility of the county executive.

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  11. Since when is desperate used to describe the truth?

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  12. It's not desperate to tell the truth. Describing it isn't telling the truth. Why don't you try honesty some time? You might like it.

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  13. Yes honesty...the opposite of most your postings.

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  14. I know you are, but what am I? You really are looking rather desperate now, you do realize that, don't you?

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