Thursday, November 20, 2014

The Boss Abele Temper Tantrum Alert System Has Been Activated

Two years ago, when the Milwaukee County Board overrode some of Boss Abele's budget vetoes - especially those that attacked county workers - Abele through an epic temper tantrum.  He decided to show them by buying off a couple of Teapublican state legislators and did a massive and unprecedented power grab.

When the unions stood up to Abele's plantation economics, he tried to bust the unions - twice.

When State Representative-elect and current Supervisor David Bowen led the move to bring a living wage to Milwaukee County, Abele threw another tantrum and tried to remove all local living wage laws throughout the state.

When Abele started moves to abandon the mentally ill, the County Board demanded that it be done in a safe and responsible manner.  Abele pouted, stamped his feet and went back to his paid off state legislators to have the County Board be stripped off any and all control over the mental health program except to rubber stamp his budget for the profiteers.

Given his past behaviors, Abele must be gearing up for an F-5 temper tantrum after the county board overrode all but two of his nearly 30 vetoes on Wednesday.

Before anyone goes ballistic that the County Board didn't support Abele cutting taxes by two whole dollars, look at the actions taken by the board and see that they were completely appropriate and the right thing to do.  In Wednesday's actions, the County Board:

  • Restored $300,000 to homeless shelters. (Keep in mind that this is only November and we have already had two nights with wind chills below zero. Abele's veto was so egregious that even his own personal supervisor, Deanna Alexander, voted against him on this.)
  • Restored $300,000 for indigent burials.
  • Restored $10 million to do repairs and maintenance to county parks.
  • Restored free bus rides for the elderly and disabled.
  • Restored several positions in the Sheriff's Office to increase public safety.
  • Restored six clerical positions at the House of Correction instead of paying overtime to corrections officers to do that work instead of guarding inmates.
  • Stopped the privatization of food services at the zoo.
  • Stopped privatization of security guards and transferred them to the Sheriff's Department.  (Remember how well that idea worked out for Scott Walker when he tried it.)
  • Stopped the $2,000 pay cuts to county workers and restored a flexible spending account program, which will hopefully slow down the high rate of turnover the county is experiencing.
No "entitlements."  No lavish luxuries.  Just good, old common sense - and necessary - moves to start repairing some of the damage done by Walker and his protege, Abele.

I commend and thank Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and the other county supervisors for standing up for Milwaukee County and its people and turning back Boss Abele's plantation economics.

No comments:

Post a Comment