Milwaukee County's 2010 Budget Not So Bad After All

...as long as you believe in pixies.

Walker Is Standing On The Necks Of Workers, Tax Payers Alike

The down and dirty details of how Walker is playing Milwaukee County tax payers for saps as he uses them as stepping stones and unwilling campaign donors is at Milwaukee County First.

Now, even though I am a county employee, and a member of the union, I am not on the bargaining committee, so I don't speak for that part of it. That said, I have a feeling if Walker were to give out four- and five-figure raises to the unions, like he did for his cronies and his top officials, I bet the unions would be much more willing to agree to these concessions, if Walker ever gets around to actually proposing them.

A Tale of Two Candidates

It was the best of leadership, it was the worst of leadership. It was the county executive of our discontent:




"The first 48 hours after a storm are the most important."

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.

Walker Suffers From Job Envy

Aaron Rodriguez has one of his usual out of touch with reality posts singing the praises of Scott Walker. He ends his fawning drivel with this:

More interestingly, Walker took a swipe at his Democrat opponent Tom Barrett - aka "Tommy the Taxer". After the brief qualification that Tom is a nice guy, Walker noted that a first term for Barrett is no different than a third term for Doyle. And why not? Both have a history of raising taxes; both have a history of increased spending; and both have a history of being antagonistic or obstructive to businesses. So it's truly debatable in the minds of critics if Barrett would be a worse executive than Doyle. Wisconsin voters really need to take time and evaluate whether it's worth taking a risk on Barrett and possibly plunge from the 7th worst in the nation for doing business to the absolute worst.

This is a rather nice example of how desperate and hypocritical Walker and his supporters really are.

Just yesterday, Tom Barrett gave his State of the City address, and announced a new company coming in that will create 270 jobs. And this is on top of all of the other businesses that Barrett has brought into Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, Walker can't name one business he brought to the County. In fact, not only has Walker not brought jobs to Milwaukee, but he actively opposes the things that the business leaders want.

On top of that, Barrett has a balanced budget for the city, while Walker still has a $20 million hole that he built into his budget. This will lead to drastic cuts in county-provided services which will have an effect on all of us, directly or indirectly.

I will stick with the candidate that has a proven track record instead of one who has only a one-track mind, with a train that is derailed.

What's Missing In This Picture?

From Scott Walker's county-sponsored campaign site:



Why has he talked to the unions who he expects to give up all these concessions with nothing in return? After all, the unions have been at the bargaining table for almost a year and a half, but still nothing.

This smells like nothing more than one of his political grandstanding stunts. When will he ever grow up?

And would someone please read Dale Carnegie to him?

Snow Plowing Could Be Scaled Back Due To Budget Cuts

Just before we are about to face the first one-two punch from Old Man Winter, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that there could be massive cut backs in snow plowing and road maintenance next year:

The money will cover plowing for this winter, but could come up short after that, Takerian said. Unless extra cash is found, the county could be forced to lay off as many as 24 of 56 full-time and 28 seasonal workers who work on state highways in mid- or late 2010, he said.

"This is a domino that's going to fall next year," Takerian said.

Fewer workers would mean longer routes for each plow operator and increase the time it takes to clear state roads in Milwaukee County, Takerian said. State roads in the county include I-43, I-94 and many major thoroughfares such as W. Brown Deer Road, Loomis Road, Forest Home Ave., Appleton Ave. and parts of Green Bay Road and Capitol Drive.

This will come into play during the next year, since this is exactly the same type of approach Scott Walker has taken in his county budgets, cutting the County's costs only to make the municipalities raise theirs to cover the slack.

And you know Walker would do the same thing if he somehow managed to stay in the race long enough to win the governor's seat. After all, he voted to do the same thing time after time as a state legislator.

He's even proposed the same thing when he talks about dismantling county government.

It's kind of ironic how he doesn't like to be on the receiving end of his own management style.