Scott Walker: The Kathy Nickolaus Of Job Creators

Walker ciphering those new job numbers

Scott Walker is pulling all the stops on the extent he will lie to the voters in order to keep his job, at least until he is indicted.

The latest gimmick is that Walker is now claiming to have calculated the jobs numbers in a "more accurate" manner.  What Walker wants us to believe is that during the first year of his abbreviated term as governor, he didn't really lose 34,000 jobs, but had actually created 23,000.  And how convenient it is that he just so happened to do this three weeks before the recall election.

Whoo, boy! Where to start?

Did he pull a Kathy Nickolaus and find those jobs in an unsealed bag in the back of his closet?  Or did he really help create those jobs and forgot to hit the save button?

But seriously now, Walker's got some problematic issues regarding this claim.

First of all, even if one were to give Walker the benefit of the doubt on this, and ignore the fact that it doesn't allow a comparison to other states which have been shown to be doing much better than Wisconsin, it doesn't help him much:

Even using the more positive numbers from the quarterly census of businesses, the governor finished his first year just a fraction of the way toward meeting his target of 250,000 private-sector jobs in four years.

"It would certainly be nice if the particular year saw a 1% increase rather than a 1% decrease, but this remains a slow jobs recovery using anyone's numbers," said John Heywood, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

But one would have to overlook a lot of things to go as far as giving him the benefit of the doubt.

For example, Walker has a notoriously bad time whenever it comes to numbers and math. Not only that, he's tried to do a similar stunt before and got busted out on it.

In 2009, when Walker was Milwaukee County Executive and prepping for his run for governor, he wanted to show that he had some real fiscal acuity, he started the year claiming a huge deficit and ended it with a huge surplus. But this miraculous $24 million turnaround was easily proven to be a lie:

In 2009, Scott Walker declared a fiscal emergency, stating that Milwaukee County faced a $15 million deficit. In order to address this, he ordered all county workers to start on a reduced work week schedule. This meant that all workers would only be putting in 35 hours per week instead of the standard 40 hours.

The arbitrator also found that Walker failed to prove that there was even a fiscal emergency, when an analysis by the county's auditor, Jerome Heer, found that there was only a minimal deficit, if even that. This was later reinforced when Walker claimed a $24 million turnaround resulting in a supposed $9 million surplus.

It should be noted that the supposed surplus from that year is coincidentally just about the same amount that the county "saved" by Walker's illegal furloughs, so that surplus has been basically wiped out.

Another problem with Walker's claim, if you really, really want to believe him is how those jobs came about.  This is something we have discussed before and is clearly illustrated in this chart:

As you can clearly see, the job growth phase of 2011 came when Governor Jim Doyle's budget and policies were still in effect.  It was only when Walker's policies like Act 10 took effect that the job losses started happening.  And as you can see in the chart, once the effects of Walker's budget started kicking in, the job loss accelerated.

So when Walker is saying that there was a job growth in 2011, what he is really saying is that he didn't lose as many jobs as what the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers show.

Wouldn't make that a great slogan for Walker's campaign in these final weeks?

"Yeah, I suck at creating jobs! But just not as much as you think I suck!"

Walker's Surplus

I have repeatedly pointed out that many of the things Scott Walker is doing as governor can be traced back to the misdeeds he did as Milwaukee County Executive.  I tried to cover some of the big things the other day when I looked back at the past ten years as my fellow Milwaukeeans and I fought to keep him from doing even more damage that he's already done.

Today, I was reminded that I missed at least one.  And that was the way he lied about the budget to put the hit on workers.

One of the most glaring examples came in 2009.  Walker started the year by immediately declaring a fiscal emergency, claiming there was a $15 million hole in the budget he had crafted.  And there was one because he had purposely, and illegally, included about that much money in concessions from the union.  Never mind that Walker never sat down with the unions to ask for the concessions.  Instead, he would run to squawking head Charlie Sykes and to the right wing media, crying about his self-imposed deficit and blaming the unions for it.

By midyear, he claimed that the deficit, still at that $15 million mark, required him to take emergency action and he ordered all county workers to take a reduced work week for an indefinite length of time.  The unions showed that they are still absolutely necessary, despite the right wingers' claims that they aren't needed anymore, by filing a grievance with the arbitrator.

The arbitrator heard the case.  During the hearing, it turned out that not only was Walker's attempted indefinite reduced work week illegal, but that there was no deficit, or if there was one, it was so negligible that it did not call for the drastic actions Walker was proposing.

At the end of the year, even though no concessions were given, the county still ended up with a surplus, thanks to the resourcefulness of the County Board.

Now flash forward to today.

Walker, in a desperate gambit to keep his job, Walker suddenly figured out that the state is allegedly on course for a supposed $143 million surplus next year.

Yeah, I was skeptical, but it wasn't until I received this statement from Team Barrett that things clicked into place:

"While Walker and his right wing allies gives themselves high-fives, the people of Wisconsin should know these numbers are built on sand.  Almost half of this amount comes from delaying payments that will ultimately cost taxpayers more in interest.  And these figures ignore the significant shortfall in the state's health programs.  If there is any extra money, Walker needs to explain if he will return any of the $25 million he raided from victims of the home foreclosure crisis, or the $105 million he added to the cost of college through increased fees, or reverse the taxes he raised on seniors and low-income people."

Bingo!

When they were finally able to reach a settlement with five of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, the state was to receive $140 million of it.  Of that money, $31.6 million coming directly to state government, Walker decided he was going to keep $25 million, per this article from Forbes (emphasis mine):

Walker is directing the State of Wisconsin to keep a large chunk of the money from this week’s national settlement with five of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders —money intended to help compensate those who were victims of the illegal mortgage practices that caused so many to lose their homes and to aid in the rebuilding of stricken neighborhoods—so that the state’s budget gap can be closed and Gov. Walker can head into his recall election able to claim that he has balanced the state budget.

Not coincidentally, immediately after this, there has been a drastic drop in home values, some people losing as much as $20,000 to $30,000, turning their mortgages upside down.  Likewise, it's not surprising that foreclosures are spiking.  I'm sure that the realtors who have thrown their support for Walker are very pleased with the results.

Likewise, he's throwing 17,000 people under the ambulance as he shoves them off of Medicaid programs.  And that's about a quarter of the number of people he originally wanted to cut out of receiving services.  Just as this move was also unnecessary, it could have been a lot worse if he didn't have the federal government keeping his sociopathic tendencies from running even more amok.

Add to this the college kids that can't go to school anymore because it's become unaffordable; public sector workers, some of whom are now eligible for financial aid because of his misanthropic Act 10; and the poor, elderly and disabled as he unnecessarily raised their taxes.

None of these things needed to happen. They only did because of the Republican's avarice and their need to feed the avarice of the people that buy their seats for them.

But don't worry, folks. If Walker holds true to his county executive days as much as he has already, you won't be seeing any of that surplus, if there really is one.  That money has already been earmarked for his favorite campaign contributors.

The only surplus that Walker has that he is willing to share with the people of Wisconsin his hypocrisy and dishonesty.

Battle of the Budgets: Barrett Wins, But Barely

A couple of weeks ago, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, and gubernatorial candidate, crowed about coming up with an unconfirmed $9 million surplus in the 2009 budget for Milwaukee County.

Predictably, City of Milwaukee Mayor, and gubernatorial candidate, Tom Barrett announced that the city has a $23 million surplus from last year. Barrett also boasted of having no debt and a fully funded pension, as well as a drop in police overtime.

Now, when Walker made his proclamation, I was critical of his claim and and pointed out that the County actually has a debt in the area of $1 billion. I further pointed out that county has a slew of issues to contend with such as a parks system falling into decay, a courthouse falling apart, and a transit system that is about to be crippled.

The City of Milwaukee has its own issues. Many of the roads are in terrible shape and in desperate need of being resurfaced. The libraries are looking at cut backs in services.

Given all the work that has to be done, I don't see how either Barrett or Walker can really claim that they have a surplus.

That said, the edge in the Battle of the Budget would have to go to Barrett and the City of Milwaukee.

The city doesn't have the outstanding mountain of debt that Walker has bestowed upon the county by his refusal to fully fund the pension fund.

An example would be the two pension funds. Barrett has reported that the city's pension fund is fully funded. Walker took out a risky pension obligation bond scheme to cover more than $300 million, but even that only covered half of what is owned. A study from the Public Policy Forum showed that one of the leading contributions to this deficit is Walker's willful failure to fully meet pension obligations each year.

Furthermore, Barrett sat down with AFSCME and worked out a contract in which the city did get some concession for the unions, including four days of furloughs. Due to this, Barrett was able to present a balanced budget for 2010.

Walker, on the other hand, has refused to meet with the union for twenty months, choosing instead to try to dictate conditions through the media and through the budget, including mandating three different tiers of furloughs, going from eight days up to as high on 22 days. Instead of concessions, Walker has given the county a number of lawsuits that tax payer money is being spent on defending against and a budget with a built in $17 million deficit.

The City Hall just had a major face lift. The County Courthouse is literally falling down around are ears.

The comparisons could go on for a long time, but each one would show the city to be in a better position than the county.

To summarize, neither Tom Barrett nor Scott Walker should be going around boasting about having a surplus when their respective governments have a lot of work that needs to be done. However, it is undeniable that the City of Milwaukee, under Barrett's leadership, is in a much more fiscally secure place than the Walker-led County, which is in an untenable situation, literally bordering on bankruptcy.

The Business of Government

Aaron Rodriguez, a Walker zealot if there ever was one, wrote a piece claiming that Walker's claim of having a $9 million surplus from the 2009 Milwaukee County budget "was good business."

First of all, one would have to look past all the inaccurate and misleading statements in Rodriguez' post. Such as the question of whether the county has a surplus. I pointed out last week, at Milwaukee County First, that there really is no surplus. Not when there was so much unpaid debt and so many bills that had to be paid. I'm not the only one that caught on to this bit of misdirection. Jim McGuigan, former County Supervisor, also notes that Walker has a pile of bills stacked up, especially with the risky pension obligation bond deal.

Rodriguez also misleads the reader with statements like the one accrediting Walker for the $7 million surplus in 2007. An honest observer would have remembered and noted that the 2007 budget was the one that Walker had vetoed in its entirety, saying it would never work. That year's surplus is completely attributed to the County Board and their hard work in repairing his budget proposal.

An honest observer would also note that Walker is currently still facing a budget with a $17 million hole in it. Said hole was actually much higher, $15 million higher, until the County Board was able to patch some of it up. (As opposed to the balanced budget and funded pension fund that Mayor Tom Barrett gave to City of Milwaukee citizens.)

I will agree with Aaron on one point. Milwaukee County does have a very good bond rating, but where the credit for that can go is obviously an arguable point.

But the main question is Walker providing good government, good business, both or neither?

When one tries to run a government, one is almost guaranteed to have trouble.

The mission statement that is printed on the back of every county-issued business card reads:

"Milwaukee County Government will provide high-quality, responsive services that enhance self-sufficiency, personal safety, economic opportunity and quality of life for all its people."

Anyone that has been paying attention can see where the problem lies.

Due to Walker's ineffective leadership, the state had to take over the Income Maintenance Program, lest all the tax payers in the state have to pay off on a big-money class action lawsuit. The lawsuit stemmed from the majority of people not receiving timely, if any, services regarding food stamps, energy assistance and health care at a time when the nation was facing one of its most severe economic crises and unemployment was soaring into the double digits.

That's not what one would call high-quality or responsive services.

And given the recent events at the Behavioral Health Division, the House of Correction (before Walker abdicated his duties there to Sheriff Clarke), and other issues surrounding programs like the courthouse and the Sheriff's Office being severely underfunded and/or understaffed, I don't see how this meets the personal safety promise.

Economic opportunities are severely hampered in Milwaukee County as well. Since Walker became county executive, there has been a 20% cut in transit, leading to some 40,000 jobs being lost. If the state legislature doesn't pass the transit bill before going on recess, the county is facing another 35% cuts in transit services, costing tens of thousands of more jobs and hurting business owners because customers can't make it to their stores.

Things aren't any better for economic development, since Walker first staffed these positions with unqualified cronies from his campaign, then eliminated the department altogether.

Take all of the above issues, add the problems with the parks being so understaffed and underfunded to the point that there are hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred repairs and maintenance, golf courses being set up for failure, a courthouse crumbling down on our heads, literally, and you can see that our quality of life has drastically dropped under Walker's reign.

It would take some seriously myopic vision through heavily rose-tinted glasses to see anything but that Scott Walker has been an abject failure as county executive and really has no business being in government.

Walker Claims $8.9 Million Surplus

A few questions pop into mind:

• Where do I go to get my money back?
• Should Walker really be bragging when he has a lot more than $9 million in problems to answer for?
• Why are the Teapublicans celebrating this news when it only means that we were either overtaxed or under-served or both?
  

Milwaukee County Pink Blizzard Alert

I have a feeling that soon Milwaukee County will be under a pink slip blizzard warning from the job service bureau.

All the conditions are right for a blizzard of pink slips for Milwaukee County.

There is high pressure moving in. This pressure comes from the most recent poll, which shows that Scott Walker and Mark Neumann are in a virtual tie in their race to become the victorious, if bloodied and broke, Republican nominee to go down in flames to Tom Barrett. (Yes, I know the poll also says both Republicans lead Barrett, but Barrett hasn't even run one commercial compared to their seven combined contributions to TV spam. Even with that, xoff points out why this poll doesn't really matter.)

Adding to this is the fact that any day, they will be coming out with the first quarter numbers for Milwaukee County's budget. Given the events of last year, when Walker proved that he couldn't count to ten without his fingers and someone helping him in the rough spots (like going from five to six), the budget is sure to be even deeper in the red, both in real numbers and in Walker numbers.

Further adding to the unstable employment climate is that soon Walker will be gearing up for his blatantly unethical, corporate-sponsored campaign bike ride, conveniently moved up by more than a month to hook up with the Wisconsin Republican Convention. Walker will want to walk into the convention with a feather in his cap to show everyone that he still believes he doesn't have to earn the win, but that he is the Ordained One. That feather, in Walker's estimation, should be hundreds of pink slips given to county workers whose only fault is having a county executive that wants to be governor, and wants to treat the unions like they're the new Jim Doyle.

But it won't be only county workers that will be getting pink slips due to Walker's ineptitude and malfeasance. It will be tens of thousands of workers in the Milwaukee County area who will be losing their jobs when bus routes get slashed, keeping workers from their jobs and shoppers from the stores. Walker's political gaming will also have many ripple effects as services get severely cut, if not completely eliminated.

If you don't believe me, just as a county supervisor, who gets to see the numbers not being released, yet warn that it is going to get much worse.

Follow The Bouncing Furlough Day, Part Deux

It was announced today that Milwaukee County will be rescinding one of the mandatory furlough days. It was reported, off of a press release (I find it doubtful any of the supervisors were in today, and Walker already was tweeting from home), that this was due to previously unrecognized savings from health care costs.

The savings are in relation to the creation of the Employee Benefits Division, which was created due to a proposal by Board Chairman Lee Holloway.

Lack of oversight causing fiscal problems is not something new under Scott Walker's watch. In 2004, there was a justifiable uproar over the Department of Aging running consistently millions of dollars in the red. This was only resolved when Walker caved in and reinstated an accountant to the department, a position that he had previously eliminated.

And we are still waiting for Walker to do something about John Chianelli, whose ineptitude led to the deficit in the first place.

But the skeptical side of me wonders if there might be more to these furloughs than what is being reported. After all, Walker already admitted that the 200 lay offs he was about to do was nothing more than a publicity stunt. How can we trust that there is a real need now for these furloughs?

The Reviews Are In: Walker Failed

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have been keeping at the silly proposal from Walker to dismantle the county government, ignoring the fact that it would take major changes in state law which are very unlikely to happen.

Today, the went to a number of the county's municipal mayors to get their opinion of Walker's suggestion. I guess the paper was trying to give Walker's folly some credibility. Unfortunately for Walker, it had a much different result.

Let's first look at what some of the mayor's had to say in their quotes (all emphasis mine):

Oak Creek Mayor Dick Bolender said he is open to cities taking over maintenance of county roads, calling S. 13th St., a county road that runs through Oak Creek, "the worst road in the state of Wisconsin."

[...]

Greenfield Mayor Michael Neitzke said that if cities receive the funding now given to the county, they could do a better job at tasks such as maintaining county roads. He noted that 19 cents of every $1 in property taxes paid by Greenfield residents goes to the county.

"Quite frankly, I'm not sure there is a good return on our investment to taxpayers," Neitzke said. "It's apparent that something needs to be done that's dramatic, and the old business-as-usual model, it seems pretty clear it isn't going to work."

[...]

"If elected governor, would (Walker) support adding thousands of jobs to the state's payroll, because that is what would have to be done under his proposal," McCue said in an e-mail.

"Why blow up one form of government only to turn around and create another one, i.e. parks and transit? I do not support unelected boards like MATC and MMSD having the authority to levy taxes, and I fear that is what could happen under his proposal."

[....]

Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor, who worked for the county for 29 years in labor relations and human resources, didn't endorse Walker's plan but said changes must be made.

"The municipalities and the county and the state, we're going to have to do something to save the county parks and the county trunk roads; they're in dismal condition," said Taylor, who advocated for more cooperation and intergovernmental agreements.

The significant thing about the mayors' complaints is that these are things that Walker is directly responsible for. As I've stated before, it is the County Board that is responsible for determining and setting policy, and it is Walker's job to administer the policies set forth by the board.

Given that all of these mayors are complaining about the condition of the county roads that go through their municipality, it is evident that Walker has failed to ensure that the County's infrastructure is in good repair, even though that is one of his duties.

That's not exactly something you want as a bullet point on your resume, especially if you are running for governor. I can't imagine a campaign slogan of "I couldn't do my job as county executive, so you should make me the governor," is going to catch on any time soon.

I also still don't understand how anyone can think that breaking the county up will save money. While it is true that there are duplication of services, instead of having one regional provider, like Walker wants to do for transit and the parks, there would be 19 separate entities doing the same things. And for each task, there would be nineteen new departments to oversee and perform the duties. Given that the county assumed many of the roles it now performs because it is less expensive and more cohesive than nineteen different groups doing it, I can only see the need for higher taxes grow massively.

But that's not all of the problems Walker gave himself today.

***************************************

While running between meetings this morning, I caught Walker on Vicki McKenna's show. They started out touting Walker's plan to break up the county and disperse all these services into the smaller communities.

But then they started talking about school systems and what Walker would do if he could ever get to be governor. Walker said that his plan would be to offer incentives to communities to consolidate their school districts into larger ones, so that they could save money.

Of course, both of them kept prattling on, never once noticing the disconnect. On one hand, says break up larger units of governing bodies into smaller ones to save money. In the next breath, he is saying smaller governing bodies should be merged into larger ones to save money.

***********************************

The third problem that arose for Walker today was the fact that his administrative staff had to scramble to try to explain the ever-shrinking budget deficit.

Steven Kreklow, Walker's number cruncher, was forced to admit that according to his calculations, the projected deficit is now down to $3.8 million. Remember, just three months ago, he was telling us that it was $14.9 million.

After the article was originally posted, MJS reporter Steve Schultze went back and added some spin from another one of Walker's aides, Fran Mclaughlin, who made a lame attempt to make the deficit more serious than it really is.

But the most telling part of the story, as is the norm for MJS articles about Walker, comes at the very end (again, emphasis mine):

The more modest shortfall number issued Wednesday was helped primarily by lower-than-expected health care costs. A report from county Controller Scott Manske estimated a year-end surplus of $5 million in the county's fringe benefit budget. However, some county departments were projecting larger potential shortfalls than earlier this year.

With all the ways that Walker has lied about this year's projected deficit, it should make any rational person question his claims of a $90 million dollar deficit for next year.

I'm just thankful for the fact that the County Board was able to restore some level of sanity to the budget. If Walker had gotten his way last year, we would be much worse off than we are now.

Ruling Shows Walker's Lack Of Vision, Leadership, Understanding

The big news around Milwaukee County Monday morning was that the arbitrator ruled in favor of the union in its grievance against Scott Walker's illegal plan for a furlough.

The ruling in itself may or may not have deep significance, depending on what the arbitrator based his ruling on. If the decision was based only on the fact that Walker left the furlough open-ended, then all Walker would have to do is issue another edict with a specific ending date. If the issue was the length of the furlough, Walker could just issue another edict for the specified length (the common number being mentioned is four weeks).

However, if the ruling is based on the fact that a .03% projected deficit does not constitute a financial crisis worthy of such drastic measures, then it would show that Walker was trying to manipulate the situation by creating an artificial crisis to either promote his campaign, put pressure on the union during contract negotiations, or both. I would tend to guess both.

We will not know the significance of the ruling until the final written version is provided.

But Walker's reaction to the news is very telling. He called it "shocking and disappointing." He then said that he would wait to see the written ruling before deciding whether to pursue legal action regarding it or to just take what steps he could to ensure the furlough. He also threw out the possibility of layoffs.

All of these actions would end up costing the county more than any potential savings, either through litigation costs or through lost revenues.

He is basing his claims on the fact that Judge Flynn ruled in his favor last Friday. What he doesn't understand is that these were two entirely different cases based on two entirely different premises.

The union suing for an injunction was to prevent the furlough until such time as the arbitrator made his ruling. The union even admits that they did not expect to win the injunction. The key contest was the grievance, and whether Walker even had the right to do what he was trying to do. So far, it looks like he didn't.

The one thing that Walker doesn't mention as an option to the supposed deficit crisis is the one that would offer him the greatest chance of making substantial savings for the tax payers. That one thing is to sit down with the unions and finally do some serious, honest contract negotiations.

But Walker doesn't want to do that. He is afraid that he might have to give up something that would make him look soft on the unions. It would also prevent him from being able to do what he loves to do best, grandstanding. Walker wants to claim an even more severe deficit for next year and make even more draconian demands, like laying off hundreds of workers, severe pay cuts to those remaining, and removing their benefits, like their pensions.

In his press conference, Walker made some grand statements regarding his "moral obligation to the taxpayers" and his "legal obligation to have a balanced budget."

I say that if Walker was serious about those obligations, he would and should sit down and do some honest bargaining with the union. I've pointed out before how this would save taxpayers millions of dollars, and the longer he puts off negotiations, the more it costs tax payers in lost savings. (It would also give me one less thing to harp about.)

If he doesn't want to do that, then he needs to step aside and let someone who is willing to put Milwaukee County's best interests first do the job he is incapable of doing.

Questions Of The Day

If Walker gets his way, and there is a furlough, and then there is a surplus at the end of the year, do the workers get a refund of their lost wages which were wrongfully taken? Or does Walker get to keep the money and claim it as an in-kind contribution on his campaign financial statement?

Lying From Both Sides Of His Mouth

As I was catching up on my reading, I saw the final edition of the article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Unsurprisingly, it was chock full of errata and lies. The most telling was this passage:

Walker has said that he may be forced to resort to layoffs if the arbitrator in the current case limits the furloughs.

"If he rules we can only do it for four weeks, we'll do it for four weeks," Walker said. He expected the arbitrator to at least allow four-week furloughs because of a similar ruling in 2005.

The furloughs would save the county up to $6.8 million over a full year, according to county budget staff.

Walker said the shorter workweek is preferable to layoffs because he can reinstate hours as early as next month if the budget numbers improve.

Deputies, jailers and hospital workers would be exempt from the furloughs. County supervisors, with the exception of Joe Sanfelippo, have not agreed to take a pay cut that would be comparable to the income lost by other county workers.

I had to read that part over several times. In the first cited paragraph, Walker is claiming that four weeks of furlough isn't enough, and that he screwed up the budget so bad that he needs to do layoffs. Then, three paragraphs later, he said that furloughs are better because he could reinstate the hours in one month if the budget numbers improve.

Which one is it? Did he foul things up so bad that people need to lose their jobs? Or did he screw it up just enough that four weeks of furloughs will correct it? Of course, we already know the truth, and that is their is no real deficit to speak of, and definitely not one big enough to be called a crisis.

Likewise, the furloughs would not save the $6.8 million he is claiming. It would save a lot less than that due to the lost revenue that would come with the furloughs.

The article also fails to mention that along with deputies, correction officers and front line staff at the mental health clinic, Walker has also given exemption to the zoo workers, parks and freeway workers, due to the potential lost revenue. I also learned on Friday that he gave the nurses union an exemption from the furlough in exchange for them giving up two minor holidays in November. (Minor holidays are floating holidays which can be used on that day or saved for up to six months. In this case, the days are Veteran's Day and the day after Thanksgiving.) To top it off, the nurses get all or part of those days back, depending on what happens from the arbitration ruling.

How bad is this supposed deficit if he will accept 16 hours of holiday pay instead of 130 hours which he wants to impose on the rest of the workers?

On a side note, it is rather sad that this story was written by two different reporters, and neither one of them caught the errors or conflicting statements. Either the reporters are worse than anyone thought, or it is just more proof against the myth of there being a "liberal media."

They Know Not Of Which They Speak

Again, the editorial board at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows that they are either completely obtuse to the goings on in Milwaukee County or that they are so far in the tank for Scott Walker that they do not care.

In this morning's editorial, they admonish the County Board and Walker for not working together in a more productive way. That is the closest they come to a rational sentence in the entire piece.

They try defend Walker's poor behavior, which was based on a grossly overestimated budget deficit:

Walker has to judge matters by the numbers he is given - and the early year numbers were bad, which was to be expected. He may have jumped the gun, and the frustration of county supervisors is understandable.

But Walker acted based on the numbers he had in front of him at the time; that's prudent in this economic climate - maybe even overly cautious - but it's not dishonest or in bad faith, as some supervisors have argued. While the numbers look better now, there is still uncertainty. Walker's office does say that he will rescind the 35-hour workweek order if other savings reduce the shortfall further.

Anyone that has ever done a budget realizes that the beginning of the fiscal year is always bad. This is especially true for the County. Much of the County's revenue comes in during the warmer months, when the golf courses, the pools, the zoo, and park pavilion and picnic area rentals start flowing in.

What Walker was doing would be the equivalent of someone starting out the year adding up their mortgage, taxes, projected energy costs, projected food costs, etc. and then saying they are in a deficit because they did not get all of the year's paychecks by March 31st. Obviously that is a ludicrous way to run a home or a governmental body.

They also try to argue that furloughs still may be the best answer to the remaining deficit projection by Walker's people. But they are forgetting two key things.

The first thing is that one cannot count on Walker for accurate numbers. From the newspaper earlier this week, we see this (emphasis mine)

Another estimate of Milwaukee County's finances released Monday shows a projected county budget shortfall of $4.4 million for 2009.

The figure is $10.5 million lower than the $14.9 million deficit figure Walker relied on to justify imposing the 35-hour workweek and other cuts. The shorter workweek, which amounts to a 12.5% pay cut for the last half of the year, has been challenged by the county's largest union.

The unpaid furloughs would save the county $4.5 million this year but are not included in the new estimate. The new budget shortfall figure was included in a report by Steven Kreklow, the county's budget administrator.

The editorial board apparently does not find it at all interesting or suspicious that in just two months, the County somehow miraculously found $10.4 million. For Walker's numbers to be that far off already shows that his staff is either incompetent and/or liars. Either way, it is hard to find fault with the County Board for not trusting Walker's numbers.

Also missing from the editorial board's thinking process is the fact that the county is still in negotiations with the unions. Based on the stunts that Walker pulled last time, it would not be a big jump to presume that settling the contract would solve this years problems and go a long way towards next years as well. As I wrote last week:

Settle the contract negotiations

This alone could cover the majority of the deficit, if not entirely, for the 2009 budget.

When it came time to negotiate the 2006-8 contract, Walker stalled then as well. After he finally dropped out of the 2006 gubernatorial primary, Doyle sent Dave Reimer (Walker's 2004 opponent for the county executive race) to act as a mediator. Not only did the contract end up being almost identical to the union's original offer, Walker ended up giving everyone a $250 signing bonus.

The county's number crunchers estimated that the county lost several millions of dollars in lost savings by the delay in the contract settlement. the savings came from a higher share of health care payments by the workers, as well as a protracted pay raise schedule.

Based on what I know of his behaviors in this go around, he did not learn from that lesson.

And for those who just may have an irrational hatred of the union, and don't think a mutually advantageous contract is possible, I would simply refer you to the story of the State of Pennsylvania and AFSCME Council 13 and other unions, in which an entire state's budget was helped and there were no furloughs.

All it takes is both sides to sit down and do some honest, good faith bargaining. I know AFSCME is ready and willing. Is Walker?

I guess that makes too much sense. Nor does it do enough to allow Walker to keep up his pretense of being a person competent to be county executive, much less governor.

But what really got me riled were these lines:

What's not needed is more bickering between the executive and the board. Nor is the answer a power grab by the County Board, as proposed this week by Supervisor Michael Mayo Sr.

What's needed instead is a board and an administration that work together to solve serious problems.

Is the editorial board really that far gone? Their own newspaper has been reporting for the past two weeks incident after incident in which Walker has stepped over the line, abused the power of his office, and showed a general disregard to the best interest of the County or its citizens. They can't even bring themselves to mention that Walker has spent the last week riding around the state campaigning (using illegal corporate contributions to do so).

Nor do they offer a solution to what the County Board should do regarding the fact that Walker and his staff have repeatedly been demonstratively and unarguably flat out lying to the Board about everything from the supposed deficit to the stimulus dollars to the annual budget proposals.

There is no reason why the County Board, or the citizens of Milwaukee, should have to tolerate continuously being fed false information

The editorial board also seems to conveniently forget the fact that Walker has already attempted an illegal power grab of his own in which he tried to set policies such as taxing toddlers and robbing the elderly. And it will be soon decided whether he illegally tried to impose a furlough and/or layoffs on the workers.

These continuously false representations of the truth and their constant pandering to Walker makes me wonder one thing: Why do I keep subscribing to them?

How To Fix The County Budget

Scott Walker has been making a big deal about the supposed $15 million deficit that Milwaukee County is facing. Even though Walker's fear tactics turned out to be less than honest, he still used it to abuse his office in a egomaniacal power grab.

Rob Henken, former Milwaukee County official and now heading up the non-partisan Public Policy Forum points out that it is not unusual for the large budget deficits that occur at the beginning of the year decrease as more revenues come in. He added out that it is rather unusual for a very large deficit to decrease very rapidly.

SIDENOTE: Henken bemoans the fighting between the Walker and the County Board. He is correct in the assertion that this will only prolong the problem. However, what he fails to point out is the motivation of the players.

Walker's motivation is simple. He wants to be governor, and he has and will continue to play politics with the budget in a way that he believes will make him a more attractive candidate. Admittedly, he succeeds at this, if you believe that he could win a state wide election if one only needs the most extreme right wingers and no moderate Republican or independent voters.

The truth is that the actual deficit for this year's budget, if there is one, is that it is somewhere between $650,000 and $15 million. Walker is predicting a deficit of $90 million for next year. $75 million of it is due to the pension payment which keeps growing exponentially. The rapid growth is due in part to the crappy economy and in part to the fact that it was never properly funded for the past seven years.

So what do we do?

If you're Scott Walker, or someone that believes in the destroy the public good in favor of the private profit, you look at ways of hacking and slashing your way out of the mess. But just like the old fashioned medical treatment of bloodletting, this doesn't work, and will often harm and even kill the patient.

Likewise, just raising taxes is not a viable answer. Too many people cannot afford to keep paying out, especially when things like health care and energy, including gasoline, keeps gouging the people (see bloodletting again).

What is required is a balanced approach.

Cut the frivolous and/or duplicitous expenses

Walker wanted to cut things that people want and/or need, like the pools, social safety nets, the parks, etc. All he has managed to do is anger a lot of people. But he never cuts the things that could easily cut. Does Walker really need two county cars, and does he need a staff person to drive him around.

And speaking of which, does he really need all of those high priced coffee fetchers? No Snitch Nardelli, Tim "the campaign manager" Russell, Cindy Archer, Fran McLaughlin, a personal secretary, and who knows who else. That is a lot of staff that gets each paid a lot of money.

On a larger scale, there should be a closer look at the worker/manager ratios. There are some places that could easily cut back on some of the higher paid middle management and keep the revenue-generating front-line workers. (I've learned from my time in the private sector that when they keep piling on new administration staff and keep cutting the workers, things get top heavy and is setting itself up for failure.)

Push for the Sales Tax

Yeah, I know that Walker keeps complaining that there is no guarantee that it will be used for property tax relief. What he doesn't say is that the County could always write in that guarantee themselves. One also has to keep in mind that property tax relief doesn't always mean a precipitous drop in taxes. It could also mean keeping them from getting even worse than they already are.

Keeping the transit and parks systems alive and vibrant is not an issue of can we afford them, but can we afford not to have them?

And let's face it, without a decent, operable mass transit system, the County will surely fail. There are a lot of people that do rely on the buses to get to and from work, to the store, to see friends and family. Without it, our local economy will go through the floor.

Seeing how every other large urban area in the entire country is seeing a surge in ridership, why is Milwaukee the only one that has a drop. Obviously, it's because Walker's business plan of cutting routes and increasing fares is not working.

And without the parks and pools, there will be no relief for people to let out stress in a safe, appropriate manner. Not everyone lives in a luxurious manse with a pool and tennis court and a small, wooded corner. But they still need a chance to unwind.

Collaboration

One of the recurring themes that keep coming up is for the county and the municipalities come up with ways to stop duplicating each other's services. This can be something as routine and brainless such as the recent collaboration between Waukesha and Milwaukee County to extend a mutual bus line to the EMS program to the library deal.

While some people call for a complete merger of the county and all of the municipalities in the county, I don't think that is a practical suggestion. And even if it was possible, it couldn't be done in time to help with the current situation.

Other ideas could include sharing grass cutting equipment and responsibilities, as well as for snow plowing and other similar jobs. If municipalities are able to have understandings for emergencies like medical emergencies, fires or the need of police, why can't they do something for more mundane responsibilities.

Settle the contract negotiations

This alone could cover the majority of the deficit, if not entirely, for the 2009 budget.

When it came time to negotiate the 2006-8 contract, Walker stalled then as well. After he finally dropped out of the 2006 gubernatorial primary, Doyle sent Dave Reimer (Walker's 2004 opponent for the county executive race) to act as a mediator. Not only did the contract end up being almost identical to the union's original offer, Walker ended up giving everyone a $250 signing bonus.

The county's number crunchers estimated that the county lost several millions of dollars in lost savings by the delay in the contract settlement. the savings came from a higher share of health care payments by the workers, as well as a protracted pay raise schedule.

Based on what I know of his behaviors in this go around, he did not learn from that lesson.

And for those who just may have an irrational hatred of the union, and don't think a mutually advantageous contract is possible, I would simply refer you to the story of the State of Pennsylvania and AFSCME Council 13 and other unions, in which an entire state's budget was helped and there were no furloughs.

All it takes is both sides to sit down and do some honest, good faith bargaining. I know AFSCME is ready and willing. Is Walker?

***************************************

These suggestions should be able to easily cover any deficit for 2009 and put a large dent in any projected deficit for next year. But the biggest step the county could make to deal with that budget also starts this year:

Keep Walker out of the budget planning process.

The Walkersha Journal Sentinel

Scott Walker must have sent out a plea for help to his good buddies that are on the editorial board at the local paper.

It would make sense that he is starting to feel the heat from the County Board, which proved that he is flat out lying about the county budget in order to make a power grab. There is also a growing number of bloggers, from around the state, including yours truly of course, that are dumping on his poor management skills. And he always has the hanging sword of Mark Neumann's awaited candidacy hovering above him.

So, his buddies at the Walkersha Journal Sentinel have responded to the best of their ability. They put up an outrageous editorial in the morning paper, in which they apologize for Walker's attempted power grab without once giving consideration to the people, not just the workers, that will be harmed by Walker's attempts to destroy the county from within.

What is interesting about their editorial is this bit:

Walker was not legally required to share the information about the layoffs with the board. And his argument to us last week that the administration "needed certainty" and "had to have options" once the union said it would challenge the furlough makes sense.

No where do the Walker apologists indicate that they talked to any of the County Board Supervisors, to the union, or anyone else. Hardly an unbiased look at the situation, since most intellectually honest individuals realize the importance of hearing ALL sides of a story before coming down in favor of any sort of position.

They follow this up with a post on their blog in which they echo Walker's feeble talking point about the county grounds sale proceeds not coming in in time to help the 2009 budget. What they don't mention is that even if one were to concede the point of the $5 million, that would make the projected deficit at $5.65 million. That is only one third of one percent of the total budget, and still does not constitute a fiscal crisis.

Furthermore, it in no way justifies the illegal power grab by Walker. It is just an open attempt to take complete control and wipe out any type of resistance that could trip up his run for governor. Too bad for Walker that it won't work.

And of course, trailing the pack is little Preview McIlheran, doing what he does best: Echoing everyone else. But remember, Patrick works hard for his money. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)

All in all, it is another disappointment from the editorial staff, one in a list of many, including their failure to support the foster kids.

But then again, what can one expect from a group that would put up an editorial like the one for Wednesday paper, cheering the killing of the rightfully voted in sick paid leave, without a full disclosure on what their special interest in the matter is.

Walker: To Win A State, Sometimes You Have To Destroy A County

Scott Walker wants to be governor in the worst way. Unfortunately, the path he is choosing to give him the best chance for the job is the worst way.

Walker, since Day One, has made his one and only campaign plank about not raising taxes.

Due to that single-mindedness, it has led Milwaukee County into one disaster after another.

First, he wanted to close the pools early, during one of the hottest summers on record. This led to the predictable outcry from the public, and Walker backed off of the plan, and shifted the blame onto then Parks Director Sue Baldwin.

Then, there was the crisis involving the poor care the chronically mentally ill were receiving. This only turned around after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a series of stories about it and the public again raised their voices in protest.

The list goes on and on, from the poor supervision at the House of Correction, culminating in the death of a young man, to a decaying infrastructure which will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, to the failing transit system while other systems around the country are have a resurgence in ridership.

To make up for his lack of any real substance, Walker has tried to fill the hole in his leadership with a lot of showboating and bluster. There are too many incidents of this to list, but one key example that should be highlighted is in regard to the last bout of union contract negotiations. During his last run for governor, Walker tried to present himself has a real hard nose when it came to the unions. Unfortunately for him, history has shown him to be nothing more than a hypocrite and a liar.

Now that Walker is running again for governor, his bluster has ramped up exponentially. In fact, his showboating has transformed into a massive power grab by Walker, using a page from the Bush administration's playbook on how to be a bad leader.

Walker started out by creating a shadow budget that not even the County Board could fix. A prime example is how he claimed to be expecting about $7 million in revenue in land sales, even though he abolished the position that was responsible for peddling the land. Even when offered a fix to his surely doomed budget, in the form of the American Restoration and Reinvestment Fund (stimulus dollars), he tried to sabotage those dollars from coming here, until the County Board quickly intervened and slapped him back down.

Despite this, Walker still claimed that the County was in a fiscal crisis, and has used that excuse as the reason for his latest round of lunacy, and continues to overstep his authority. His apparent hope is too be able to present himself as a strong leader for the rest of the state, hoping that they notice that he is attacking his own county with a scorched earth approach in doing so.

But this could very well prove to be his undoing.

Walker has claimed that after only three months into the fiscal year, Milwaukee County is in a fiscal crisis, and that there is a projected deficit of nearly $15 million. Walker has used this alleged deficit for bashing both the unions and for bashing the citizenry, especially the elderly, the poor, the minorities and the children.

Walker has used this supposed crisis to help push along the ill-advised sale of the county grounds. He has used this supposed crisis to try to force the unions into an indefinite furlough and to accept hundreds of layoffs, to show how tough he can be as a leader. As a wise man once told me, a rule of thumb in politics is that you can always win more votes running against the union than you can get running with them.

It just so happens that the County is again in negotiations with the unions, and have been since last fall. However, Walker has not allowed the county's labor negotiators to sit down and work with the unions to hammer out an agreement. I cannot go into specifics at this time, as that the contract talks are still supposed to be going on, and given that I am a county employee and active in the union (but not on the negotiating committee), but I will say this much: Walker is lying through his teeth about what is happening between the County and the unions. When the contracts are signed, trust me, I will tell you the whole story.

Walker has also used this alleged crisis to usurp power that rightfully and legally belongs with the County Board. His power trip includes doing such draconian and immoral things such as stealing the money that senior citizens have paid for year round passes to Noyes and Pulaski Parks' indoor swimming pools, and then closing the pools. He also wants to create a new fee on the use of the splash pads, taxing toddlers, even though by law, he cannot do this.

I have learned tonight that Walker also wants the County's Treasurer's Office to impose much stricter and much steeper fines on people going through foreclosure on their homes. (Interesting on how that ties in to his threats of lay offs.)

But there are some problems with Walker's Machiavellian scheming.

One is that, well, Walker is a liar. There is no $15 million deficit.

Acting on some tips, from myself and others, that Walker's furloughs and layoffs would hurt the county's revenue stream, the County Board ordered the county's auditor, Jerome Heer, and the Board's fiscal and budget analyst, Stephen Cady, to look at Walker's claims of a deficit and his proposed plans to fix it. Their findings were astonishing, even to me.

I knew from talking to both County and union officials that there was no $15 million dollar deficit. But never did I imagine that it was so low as being only $650,000:

Milwaukee County's budget shortfall this year would be only a small fraction of the $15 million figure County Executive Scott Walker has used to justify cutting employee pay, curtailing services and threatening hundreds of layoffs, according to a report released Monday.

The county faces a $650,000 shortfall for 2009, according to the report by County Auditor Jerome Heer and Stephen Cady, the County Board's fiscal and budget analyst.

A four-week furlough of County workers, which the union is not contesting, despite Walker's false claims otherwise, would cover that and then some. But even the furlough isn't absolutely necessary since the County Board, after years of dealing with Walker's shenanigans, have learned to put in a multimillion dollar contingency fund, to cover the inevitable shortfalls that come with any Walker budget.

Needless to say, the unions and the County Board are rightfully angry about Walker's behaviors.

As mentioned above, the county and the unions are in the midst of contract negotiations. Walker's public grandstanding, while it may convince some that he for the "little guy" is really only bad faith bargaining. Not only that, but it has been roughly estimated that Walker has already cost the taxpayers around $2 million dollars in lost savings by not having a new contract in place. I certainly hope that union leaders, besides grieving the illegal indefinite furlough, are also pursuing legal recourse regarding his bad faith bargaining and even notifying WERC about this as well.

The County Board is also taking several steps regarding Walker's malicious abuse of power. Their various committees are having a series of special meetings to address Walker's dishonesty, his usurpation of power, and how to fix the fiscal deficit that Walker's deceit and/or incompetence has caused.

I have also learned that Supervisor John Weishan is leading an effort to have this matter be brought to court. Supervisor Weishan told me that it shouldn't matter who the County Executive is, they should not have the ability to abuse the power of their office in this fashion.

He is absolutely correct. It is immoral and unethical for any elected official to falsely declare a state of emergency, whether it is a fiscal crisis, as Walker is claiming, or to exploit a true crisis, like a national security issue, as George W. Bush did, in an effort to take control and ram through their own special agendas for personal and/or political gain.

I also encourage the members of the County Board to consider making a request of the Attorney General, or even better, the U.S. Attorney, for an investigation into possible misconduct in office charges.

Please contact Scott Walker by calling him at 414-278-4211 or emailing him at countyexec@milwcnty.com and tell him to stop playing politics with people's lives.

See also: Jason Haas' Walker's Scare Tactics and James Rowen's Scott Walker: Master of Disinformation.

What Was He Thinking?

As has been my focus for most of this week, Milwaukee County Executhug Scott Walker announced that he wanted to have a combination of an indefinite 5 hour furlough and 310 union workers laid off to help resolve his imaginary fiscal crisis.

But is his solution really a solution? The evidence would say not.

With the furlough, both the union and the County Board did some number crunching and found that Walker's claim of saving $8.9 million was greatly exaggerated, by about $6 million.

As I mentioned a while ago, the County receives the majority of their funding from the federal and state governments. By cutting workers and work hours, Walker would be losing in a lot of revenue. The ration is about 2:1, meaning that for every three dollars in cuts, the County loses two dollars in revenue.

But even that was being generous. It turns out that 80-90% of any money that was given to the County, but is not spent, goes back. For the federal money, the rate of return is 100%. To give an example of what this means is that for the highway maintenance crew being furloughed, instead of the $283,387 that Walker is claiming would be saved the actual number is closer to $58,000. So for 39 families to run the risk of running into serious financial difficulties, including losing their house, and for the public to be put at harm's way due to neglected maintenance of the freeways, the County would only save $58K. And that does not take into any consideration of fines, penalties and/or lawsuits that could occur due to Walker's neglect.

Furloughing and/or laying anyone off at the airport makes just even less sense. It wouldn't save the taxpayers one red cent, as that the funding for the airport maintenance and staff is fully funded by the airlines. Any money not spent is returned to them in full, and the County runs a risk of being sued for failure to meet their contractual obligations. And I am sure that it would not impress visiting CEOs that might have been considering moving their companies here or even just doing business here. Why would they want the problems of an airport that couldn't handle their needs, just because Walker wanted to make a political stance against the unions?

The proposed layoffs are equally stunning and incomprehensible. For example, Walker has listed 76 AFSCME workers in the Department of Health and Human Services for lay off. DHHS consists of the Behavioral Health Division (mental health folks), Economic Support Division (Income Maintenance - the ones that were just taken over by the State), Child Care Enforcement, Juvenile Probation and Parole, and Disability Services (Adult Services).

BHD already has their own set of numbers for whatever reasons, so they are not part of the 76. Economic Support and Child Care Enforcement were taken over by the State and, due to the language involved with the take over, are immune from lay offs. That leaves Adult Services (my area) and Juvenile Probation. I'm not even sure that there are 76 AFSCME workers between the two sites. Even if there were, it would effectively eliminate both sites.

In other words, these lay offs, as proposed, would postpone Family Care (in violation of the state contract), and leave 6,000 disabled adults without services. It would also let an unknown number of teens that are supposed to be on probation to run wild with no system at all to keep tabs on them. So much for public safety.

And the idiocy doesn't stop there.

Walker, despite not having the authority to do so, has put in new tax hikes in his "budget rescue plan."

One of these includes starting a new $1 fee at county wading pools. Besides this being a new tax, which he does not have the authority to create, it is ludicrous. As Supervisor John Weishan stated in an article in Thursday morning's paper (which mysteriously cannot be found on JSOnline), "Scott Walker wants to create a new tax for toddlers."

Another idea of Walker's, which none of the local media sources have reported, is that Walker wants to close the indoor pools at Noyes and Pulaski Park. Not only are these the only two public indoor swimming pools, but they are often used by senior citizens who use them for water aerobics as well as making it just part of their regular exercise regimen. Many of the people who use the pools have already bought the $135 year round pass, and now Walker's is proposing to end their access to the pools. This is committing fraud to these people. They are not getting the services he promised them and that they paid for.

Wouldn't those make great talking points for Walker as he rides around on his taxpayer funded campaign bike ride: Vote for Walker: He taxes toddlers and robs senior citizens!

With his thuggish management style, his inability to tell the truth about anything, his endangering the public safety, taxing little kids and mugging senior citizens, is it a surprise to anyone that Governor Jim Doyle is beating Walker by 12%, according to the latest poll? Or that Walker is also sizing up to lose to Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton by 9%?

Oh, That Darn Liberal Media

We all know how the right wing likes to tell us how liberal the media is. We know, because they try to tell this to us every hour of every day. Of course, they are wrong every time as well.

Yesterday, when the County Board finally learned that Walker was doing some bad faith bargaining, and was threatening union workers with over 300 layoffs, every single news outlet covered the story.

Today, the County Board tried to get their message out. County Board Supervisors Coggs, Lipscomb, West and Clark appeared on 1290 AM radio to point out the facts that Walker did this in an underhanded way, that there is no real fiscal emergency, and that Walker's proposed solution won't work.

The County Board also had a press conference about it today, and issued a press release as well. (Unfortunately, they don't even cover any of the big stuff, which I will at a later date.)

At the time of this writing, WISN Channel 12 had this story covering it:

Supervisors say the county executive's proposal would be devastating for many county programs and they people they serve.

"All of the people who have been reporting to the finance committee have been giving half truths, half-data," said Holloway, "not being straight-forward and not allowing us to make good policy decisions."

"It appears to me that we are being set up, similar to when we went through the pension fiasco," said Milwaukee County Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs. "When you have staff that is not giving you factual, clear and concise information, and withholding information ... that puts everyone in Milwaukee County in harm's way."

The story goes on about how Walker tries to defend himself, saying he had a legal right to do this. What he doesn't mention is that he doesn't really have a right to force the workers to stipulate to an illegal piece of extortion:

The head of the AFSCME local, which represents about 4,000 county workers, told WISN 12 News' Kent Wainscott late Wednesday that if the county executive has the authority to declare a 35-hour workweek that he should not need the union's approval.

Meanwhile, at the time of this writing, TMJ4, WITI Fox 6, and CBS58 failed to even mention it. The local daily paper also refused to carry a story that would make their favorite look bad.

But then again, the gentle reader already knows that they are able to find the truth hear that the local media refused to report. Which makes Eugene Kane's post trying to tell people that "blogging is dead" look like something Patrick McIlheran would have written.

Chicken Little Walker And The County Board

I did not get a chance to attend the County Board's Finance and Audit Committee which was held today. I do not know what the end results of the meeting were, but I do know that it went well into the evening (they wouldn't have been able to if Walker had already imposed his worthless building schedule).

But I have heard some reports from a handful of different sources, all independent of the others. All the reports are similar enough to be quite believable.

But there have been some interesting things learned today, which I will most definitely be reporting on at a later date.

But there are two main points I wanted to make this evening.

One, Walker has declared a state of emergency due to the "financial crisis" that County is allegedly facing. Walker is reporting the County could be looking at a $15 million dollar deficit, out of a $1.4 billion budget, and so now wants the union to give up 12.5% of its pay, from the members he isn't going to lay off, our legal rights, etc., etc., etc.

I would love to hear how Mr. Walker can justify calling a projected 1% deficit a fiscal crisis.

Especially when that supposed deficit is artificially constructed.

I also want to thank and congratulate the County Board for recognizing the peril that Mr. Walker has put the County, and their constituents in, due to Walker's reckless disregard for reality in his myopic and ideological pursuit of the governorship, and for trying to at least minimize the damage he is causing.

What A Tangled Web Walker Weaves

In the interest of full admission, let me start out by pointing out the fact that I am a Milwaukee County employee, and am active in my union.

JSOnline is reporting that Scott Walker has announced that he is shortening the hours that county buildings are going to be open.

Most Milwaukee County government offices will open half an hour later and close half an hour earlier, starting June 29, as county agencies adopt a 35-hour work week to comply with County Executive Scott Walker's orders to cut spending, Walker's office announced Monday.

New hours will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays at the Courthouse, the Safety Building and the Criminal Justice Facility downtown; the Marcia Coggs Center, 1220 W. Vliet St.; the City Campus office complex, 2711 W. Wells St.; the Department on Aging office in the Reuss Federal Plaza; and the Vel Phillips Juvenile Justice Center and the Parks Department headquarters in Wauwatosa. All of those facilities are now open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Access to the courts will be unaffected, according to Chief Judge Jeff Kremers. People will still be able to enter the Courthouse, Safety Building and Juvenile Justice Center for court-related matters as early as 8 a.m. and leave as late as 5 p.m. The Criminal Justice Facility and Juvenile Justice Center also will continue to be open for limited hours on weekends.

There are a lot of misstatements in their short article. First, all of those offices are open way past five p.m. The Coggs building is open until 7 p.m. Children's Court is never closed at five, as that they cannot close until all the cases are heard, especially the emergency detentions. And I bet the small business owners and landlords will just love the idea of having their cases delayed further due to the inability to cover as many cases in the shortened day.

And as for the Courthouse Complex' hours, that isn't what was said in Walker's original press release. Someone must have cued Walker in to how impossible that would be from the time of the release to the updated story from the local paper. But as pointed out before, it may still be unenforceable, due to emergency hearings and the such.

But shortening the availability of the county's offices to the general public is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Walker's political posturing.

As I mentioned last month, Scott Walker is planning on giving all county employees, with a few exceptions, a five hour a week furlough. As I pointed out in that post, this does raise a lot of unanswered questions. The union is currently challenging that since he wants to make the furlough open-ended and indefinite, which is in direct conflict with a 2003 arbitration ruling. The union is not arguing his right to order the furlough, or even its necessity, but are only asking for Walker to put some parameters on it.

To add to this, Walker again couldn't resist but to try to keep up with Doyle by announcing that he wants to also freeze our pay. The odd thing about that is that, to the best of my knowledge, the only pay freezes that he is empowered to enforce would be for cost of living raises. But since county workers currently don't have a contract, there were no cost of living raises, unless, by some no small miracle, a new contract was hammered out and ratified. And that does not look very likely at this point.

I learned today that, despite the fact that he is supposed to be negotiating contracts with them, Walker has issued the unions an ultimatum. He said that he wanted the unions to accept the indefinite furlough, and still accept some layoffs at the end of the year, and to agree to surrender our rights to legal recourse on any present or future actions regarding this whole mess. In return, the unions would get nothing.

To put the cherry on this crappy sundae, he gave the union until the end of the workday Tuesday to capitulate to his demands, or he would immediately begin issuing lay off notices for some 300 workers, but only if they were members of AFSCME District Council 48. The problem is that this would be a collateral agreement, which would require a vote of the entire union, and that could not be done by Tuesday evening, even if it was something worth voting on, which this is not.

From what I understand, the hardest hit area would be the parks and highway workers. It makes you wonder, given that the county just opened their grand, new water park, who will be cleaning it and who will be providing lifeguard services, as well as what condition the rest of Milwaukee County parks will be like.

The next hardest hit area will be the Department of Health and Human Services (the one that I work in - it is not clear yet whether I will be directly affected by the lay off). This is also the probable reason for Walker's manipulations. DHHS could lose up to 130 workers, most of whom will be in the Income Maintenance program, which the state had to take over due to Walker's incompetence. This is obviously a political stunt by Walker, who is trying to stick it to Governor Doyle, by nailing the state tax payers with the bill of running and staffing the county-based program.

If this indeed happens, I wonder how Walker thinks it will sell with those upstate. I can almost see it now - "Hi, I'm Scott Walker. I made you pay for my county's programs. Please vote for me."

I also wonder how the County Board, who have publicly stated that they want every chance to show that the county can handle this program, will feel about Walker sabotaging their efforts to turn things around.

But outside of that, this will only hurt the people who need these services, which include food stamps, medical insurance, energy assistance, and child care. This need is only growing as more and more people lose their jobs. And this need is expanding, especially in the suburbs.

It will also probably delay the implementation of Family Care, thereby leaving 3,000 disabled adults, some of who have been on waiting lists for more than a decade, to wait that much longer before receiving services.

Other people that will be losing out our the senior citizens who count on the senior centers, and the poor people in the near north and near south sides, as I am sure this will also affect the community centers.

Heck, I've been told that even some department heads were contacting union presidents asking them to do what was necessary, because they know that their departments will not be able to function with the layoffs that Walker is proposing. They are concerned about the consequences and ramifications of this system wide failure could mean.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not writing to snivel about the possibility of losing my job. I have faced that possibility every year, and this threat has only grown since Walker took office. But I do have some concerns about this whole thing.

Why is Walker using the citizens of Milwaukee County and tax payers statewide as political pawns for an alleged proposed deficit? If the budget is so dire, how does Walker justify not cutting the hours or at least the exorbitant pay increases he gave to people like his former campaign manager? And why hasn't he cancelled his tax payer funded campaign bike ride, scheduled for the end of this month? And how can he afford to just give away county land that is worth a lot of money? And seeing how most of the county services are reimbursed by state and/or federal funding, how can he justify actually cutting revenue, not to mention putting the county at risk for fines, penalties and class action lawsuits?

There are only two rational explanations for the dissonance in Walker's management style. Either he is completely incompetent and is not qualified to be county executive, much less governor, or he is completely dishonest, and doesn't care who he hurts to get a chance to run for governor.

Walker Strikes Back

Scott Walker announced today that he was going to impose a five hour per week furlough on all county workers, with the exemption of those which work in 24 hour care positions, law enforcement officers and correction officers.

Being a county worker myself, I knew this day was coming. We had heard as early as March that he wanted a large cut in staffing by midyear. I felt it was a sure thing when both Mayor Tom Barrett and Governor Jim Doyle announced plans for furloughs and layoffs. After all, Walker couldn't allow a couple of Democrats out-weasel him!

Now, I am not happy about it. In fact, I am down right scared. But given the current economy, other people getting furloughed, if not laid off completely, I can't really complain. At least I am still working.

But this whole thing does raise quite a number of interesting questions and observations that I would like to have answered:

-For example, as you can imagine, since I do hold a couple of positions in the union, my phone has been ringing off the hook and my emails have been non-stop. I have been in contact with various union and county officials and other sources of information. No one but Walker can seem to find the actual deficit. No cabinet department heads, as far as I have learned yet, have reported a deficit, or even a projected deficit. This would be required by county ordinance that they report it within so many days. Is this just a fabricated deficit so that Walker can look tough and responsible to the right wing fringe?

-If the budget is in such dire straits, why hasn't he canceled his tax-payer funded campaign motorcycle ride?

-If the budget is in such dire straits, why hasn't he rescinded the overly generous raises he gave his cronies in his inner circle? This would include Tim Russell, who was his campaign manager at least twice while he was running for county executive. Russell is currently Walker's assistant chief-of-staff, and was previously the economic development director. It was in that job that he was supposed to bring in $7 million dollars in land sales, but brought in $250,000.

-Speaking of economic development, according to the article, Supervisor Schmitt criticizes Walker:

Supervisor James "Luigi" Schmitt criticized Walker's administration for submitting unrealistically optimistic budgets that later force action by the County Board. For example, Walker's budget for this year counted on $6 million from sales of county land, money that no longer is expected to materialize. The board included the figure in its 2009 budget.

How did Walker propose to sell that much land when he abolished the position of economic development director? It's hard to sell anything if you don't have a salesperson.

-Speaking of the paper's article, how did Steve Schultze get the news, do interviews (including Abelson, who is out of town on vacation), and write his story, have it edited, and have it posted by 4:49 pm, when we only were notified, via email, 45 minutes earlier. Furthermore, this was an updated report, which means he had done a story even earlier. Related to this is how did Preview McIlheran have his talking points so fast. It does make it seem more and more like a rehearsed publicity stunt than an actual crisis. Will he claim our lost wages as campaign donations?

-Speaking of the deficit, why was Walker claiming the $14 million dollars even before 2009 even started? Again, it does seem contrived.

-Doyle forced state workers to take 16 days, or 128 hours, of furlough over two years. Walker is forcing county workers to take 130 hours in six months. Does that mean Walker is four times worse at budgeting than Doyle?

-The paper reports that this furlough is a 12.5% cut for workers. County ordinance requires anything over 10% to go through the Board. Yet no one on the Board were aware of this before the workers were. Will this even stand? Will the Board finally take action against Walker for breaking the law, yet again?

-Whatever happened to the money designated for 717 positions which Walker never filled?

-The paper reports that part of the supposed deficit is due to overtime at the mental health complex, which was caused by staff shortages due to Walker cutting staff hours. So to cure the problem he is going to do more of the same?

-One has to wonder how much of the budget problem could have been alleviated if Walker hadn't obfuscated, obstructed and confabulated the issues around the stimulus funding.

-The usual suspects will express glee at the news. I wonder how the general public will feel when they recognize that this also means a 12.5% cut in services, and all of the ramifications that go with it.

-Walker told the paper it hasn't been decided on how to enforce the furloughs, but we have already been told that part of it.

-The article reports that the furloughs ""remain in full force and effect" until he issues another edict, the county executives' order states." Yet the email we received states "my intent is to return to normal working hours as soon as the County has resolved its 2009 funding gap." Either way, it is illegal. He is required to give specific starting and ending dates, not indefinite time lines such as these.

I don't know if these furloughs will stick, or if they do, in what form. But there are some bright sides for me personally if Walker does get his way. It will give me more time to do the things that need to be done, like cutting my dad's lawn, doing the grocery shopping, and getting a early start on trips up north. It will also give me time to work on a few special projects.

For Walker though it will have a couple of down sides to it. I think he will suffer a bigger backlash than he realizes when people, especially the elderly and the poor, start to feel the pain of his cutbacks in services. Another drawback for Walker is that it will also give me time to work on a few special projects.