Friday, April 23, 2010

Walker's Water-Loos?

It was an admittedly crappy day for progressives in the Milwaukee area.

The State Assembly couldn't seem to get their collective heads out of the sand and just do what the voters told them to do more than eighteen months ago, which was to simply give Milwaukee County to enact a dedicated sales tax for the transit and parks systems, with a corresponding reduction in property taxes.

Instead, we saw the Republicans do whatever they can do to sabotage the bills from happening and the Democrats too spineless to stand up and do what was right, and now the dedicated funding fight is over for now..

I noticed many Republicans are already crowing about their "success" in stopping these bills. I am sure that Walker will use this on his campaign bike ride next month and at the Republican convention.

But did Walker and the Republicans really win? Now Walker has no one to pull his bacon out of the fire and he will be forced to make some very difficult decisions as he tries to put together his 2011 budget. Will he raise taxes, which is against his entire mantra, or will he allow the county to spiral nose first into the ground, which will really show how incompetent and what a sham he really is?

The pros are saying that the transit system, without the dedicated funding, could be cut by as much as 35% by this time next year. That equates to tens of thousands of jobs being lost as workers will not be able to get to work. That won't sit well with Walker's laughable promise to create 250,000 jobs. At the rate he is going, he will have to create 250,000 jobs to just make up for the ones he has caused to go away.

On a local level, the progressives also having a bad day. The County Board woefully failed to take action, misguided as it was, to hold Walker and his administration for the woes that they have caused at the Behavioral Health Division. On the bright side, it appears that this was only a temporary setback and one that can be rectified in a month.

But the real interesting part of today's events is when the Board passed a resolution to oppose Waukesha's plan on using Milwaukee County waterways as the dumping field for their waste water:

The Milwaukee County Board voted Thursday to oppose Waukesha's plan to use county streams to send treated wastewater to Lake Michigan, with concerns raised over potential pollution and flooding damage.

The board's 13-3 vote came after supervisors said waiting to take a stand on the plan was unwise. Waukesha officials had asked Milwaukee County to hold off on a decision for a month so they could make a detailed presentation of a plan to purchase lake water from the City of Milwaukee and pipe back treated effluent to the lake via Underwood Creek.

This vote, which was passed on a veto-proof margin, puts Walker into a very difficult position.

The people in Milwaukee County, especially those in Wauwatosa, where Walker lives, don't want Waukesha's refuse water to come pouring through their streams. On the other hand, the people in Waukesha arrogantly feel that they are the chosen ones and have the right to dump their water any which way they want, without having to participate with any sort of reciprocal regional cooperation.

So who does Walker support? His friends and neighbors in Tosa and his supporters in the suburbs who elected him three times to be county executive or his well-moneyed campaign donors from Waukesha?

It didn't take Walker long to decide where is loyalties lay. As is the usual case with Walker, just follow the money. From the same article (emphasis mine):

County Executive Scott Walker said he would veto the board's move, calling it a "knee-jerk reaction that flies in the face of regional cooperation." Nonetheless, enough supervisors oppose the Waukesha water plan now to override a Walker veto.
So much for Walker, Tosa Ranger.

As I have been saying for a long, long time, Scott Walker doesn't care about Milwaukee County and only saw it as a stepping stone for his goal of becoming governor.

Now that Walker has thrown his neighbors and long-time supporters under the bus, he will be really feeling the pressure to win his perpetual race for governor. With the decisions he has been making lately, I doubt that it will be very long before Walker will be persona non grata in Milwaukee County, much less Wauwatosa.

Heck, he's most of the way there already.

20 comments:

  1. You're back to old tricks of confusing real math with make-belive math.

    Using your example (made up) of losing jobs due to transit issues; there are no job losses in this scenario, there maybe people changing jobs but no losses. A job loss is a cut by the employer with no replacement...

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  2. Sorry, your tired old game of semantics fails again in this.

    You see, my numbers are not made up. They come from the UW-Milwaukee Economic Development Center and from the transit report from the Public Policy Forum.

    I think you'll find that both of these institutions will hold more weight than the silly semantic games of a partisan, anonymous troll.

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  3. lol, did you even read the links you provided? Quote: "At a minimum, 40,507 jobs became inaccessible by public transit".

    As I said, this does not mean a job loss as you said, " That equates to tens of thousands of jobs being lost..."

    Your inability to understand these jobs will still be filled by someone so they are not lost jobs. You irrationally think if there is no public transit people will not be employed.

    Again, a job loss is a cut by the employer with no replacement. If your "pretend" scenario were true these jobs would still be available to someone.

    If you want to re-word your piece to the facts put forth in your linked article; this could impact those who have no choice but the transit system to get to their place of employment your position would at least be founded in fact and not unsupported speculation based on a political witch hunt over anything walker does.

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  4. Everyone who disagrees with Capper is a troll. Right. Got it.

    It's been a joy smearing you as you over blogs across the fruited plain.

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  5. The economic report points out the loss of access by transit means the poorest people in society will not have access to these jobs. Apparently suburban folks feel entitled to sucking up the world's natural resonances and send their piss down our waterways while not giving a damned about social justice and giving the downtrodden an opportunity to improve their lot through access to jobs. How bloody narcissistic can you get? All you do is gripe about "entitlement" while screwing the poor. You are not entitled to our water.

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  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  7. Yes Joe, as I pointed out loss of access not loss of jobs. To the rest of your subjective stance we will agree to disagree.

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  8. I think those that will be losing their jobs would not think much of your semantics. They're still out a job, ergo, it is a job loss.

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  9. Hey at least Rep Wood is happy. Democratic leadership at its finest.

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  10. No Capper your assumption again. Mass transit is one of the many available ways to commute in our modern society.

    The assumption by you and many on the left is people "need" to be taken care of, instead of believing people are resourceful enough to take care of themselves. The left in our society has this feeling that people are unable to do things on their own without help from mother government.

    A simple comparison is this. If your car breaks down do you quit your job or find another way to get to work?

    Most people who "might" have a bus no longer stop at a convenient distance to their place of employment will also find a way around this obstacle without sticking their hand out or complain they lost their job because of a bus.

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  11. I would hardly call the folks at PPF liberal. Nor would I call the majority of business leaders from the Milwaukee area as liberal.

    Just because you chose not to accept the reality that has been presented to you doesn't make it any less real.

    People will be losing their jobs because of the state's inaction on this, and Walker's ideology and vainglorious pursuit of the governor's mansion.

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  12. The people at PPF didn't say people would lose their job, as you did. You are the one that claimed people would lose their jobs.

    The PPF people said "may negatively impact Milwaukee’s economic competitiveness by impeding the ability of potential workers to get to jobs". Did you see the word "may" in that remark?

    It would ludicrous to suggest you research your claims before you make them...it would never fit your template.

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  13. Again with the semantics. A definite sign of when you are losing a debate.

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  14. Capper, semantics is declaring there will be jobs lost from a quoted source that says may negatively impact workers to get to jobs.

    The simple fact your hyperbole style of writing to vilify anything close to walker says much about you. You are a political opportunist not interest in facts.

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  15. Second verse, same as the first.

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  16. Yes when you have no facts to back your actions echoing verses is all you have left.

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  17. Sigh. The report was written before the state legislature decided not to give Milwaukee County the authority to save its transit and parks systems. There was a hope for the systems to be able to avoid this downfall caused by Walker's ineptitude. Short of a special session being called, we will be in a world of hurt.

    And you know right where the blame goes, Walker and his refusal to do the right thing.

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  18. Sigh, yawn. The report(s) never state there will be jobs lost as you claim.

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  19. Yes, you prove that everyday. After being shown the facts you blindly continue blundering on.

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