Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Outrage Continues...

The reaction from Walker's campaign speech, er, I mean State of the County address, continues to pour in.

First out of the box is Jacob Pickard, who notes that Walker's motives seem to be less than altruitstic:

I hope Milwaukeeans finally realized the mistake they made in re-electing Scott Walker. His utter mismanagement of Milwaukee County, it's disgraceful.

He is no Tommy Thompson, Thompson was at least pragmatic, and he tried to build consensus among the State.

Walker cares only for himself and his ambition to become governor, he only cares about his rightwing base. Scott Walker is an opportunist, and has used Milwaukee as his platform for 30 second ads in the campaign. "No Taxes, No Taxes"

Just imagine the Damage he could do as governor.

My good friend, Gretchen Schuldt, hopes Walker is kidding:

Tax cuts also don’t fix the county roads that are falling apart, or the huge deferred maintenance backlog that has only grown worse since Walker took the helm.

It’s a shame that when the country, county and their citizens are bleeding, Walker is out there pandering to his ever-narrower base instead of working for the broadest common good.

Another good chum, Ken Mobile, recently rejoined to the blogosphere and is already in mid-election season form.

Supervisor Jursik, who is far from being one of my favorite County Board Supervisors, does make a strong valid point, when she calls a spade a spade, and wants her shovel back:
“County Executive Scott Walker, may I please have my shovel back? Your February 16th press conference noted that “we” (the County) are doing the heavy lifting while “you” posed in front of 20 clean shovels criticizing Governor Jim Doyle. The 20 shovels represented 19 Supervisors and 1 County Executive. “You” touted a balanced budget and proclaimed that “you” have kept County budgets to a reasonable 2% increase over the years.

“I will need my shovel for some heavy lifting: The County now has over $300 million in deferred park maintenance and millions more in deferred road maintenance costs accumulated during your tenure. The County Board recognizes that our transit system is in a major crisis, and we have consistently overridden your vetoes of dedicated funding. In fact, “we” at the County Board had to override about 2/3 of your vetoes for this year’s budget. Compare this to Republican Governor Tommy Thompson’s zero overrides.

“Due in part to your recent public comments on the issue, I truly fear that Milwaukee County will not get a fair share of stimulus money. I will need this shovel to repair our crumbling County roads and buildings. I have begged you to fix College Avenue in my district, a project that has been on the capital repair budget for the terms of three prior 8th District Supervisors. It is now in jeopardy again as the new postal facility has been delayed. The Mayor of one of my district cities described this road as a “third-world road” because of its condition.

“The County budget has shown reasonable increases only because of the actions of the County Board of Supervisors, so I’m not really sure if your shovel has gotten any use. I wish that our news media would do more than cover groundbreaking ceremonies like the one at Bucyrus, which is a great company in my district. I know it is not as sexy to show footage of crumbling roads and park pavilions, but it is this reality that brings me to my plea: May I please have my shovel back, I’m going to need it badly as we work on the 2010 County budget!”
Meanwhile, Walker remains clueless and a laughing stock for the rest of the state.

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