A Look At The 2012 Milwaukee County Budget

We at Milwaukee County First took a look at Milwaukee Chris Abele's first budget.

I gotta say that if it's not as ugly as one of Walker's, it's close enough not to matter.

It's true that Walker left Abele with a stinking mess, which he only made worse as governor.

But in this case, it's a matter of Garbage In, Garbage Out.

Abele the Candidate vs. Abele the County Execuitve

On February 19th, then candidate for Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele wrote a letter to Scott Walker:

Dear Governor Walker:

Over the years, you and I have been able to work together on a range of issues and collaborate to move Milwaukee County forward. That’s why I’m writing to share my concern about the budget repair bill, and the deep divisions it is causing across Wisconsin.

Wisconsinites understand that all levels of government need to make tough choices to meet our very serious fiscal challenges. Working men and women know that wage and benefit concessions may be necessary as part of the broader solution to budget problems.

But the proposals in the budget repair bill go beyond tough choices and concessions. This legislation will end some 50 years of collective bargaining for Wisconsin workers and put at risk basic labor protections like the right to organize, and essential safeguards against unfair treatment and unsafe working conditions.

In addition, the legislative process surrounding this bill has been divisive rather than inclusive. Workers and their representative organizations have not been included in conversations or dialogue, and people don’t understand why they have been completely shut out of the discussion. This absence of any negotiations about a far-reaching, controversial bill is the cause of the passionate outpouring of opposition.

While the State of Wisconsin no doubt faces significant fiscal challenges, I believe we go further when we go together, and we can accomplish more when we sit down at the same table. Working men and women can play a productive role in finding solutions to the problems that face us all — if they are allowed to be part of the conversation. But eliminating basic labor rights and protections instead of sitting down at the negotiating table to reach common ground and shared goals stands against Wisconsin values that transcend political party or philosophy.

You have an opportunity to bring people together to make the tough choices needed to get Wisconsin’s fiscal house in order. The best resolution is one that includes the participation of all parties, and doesn’t leave one side embittered or excluded. I encourage you to change this bill and maintain the rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively.

Sincerely,

Chris Abele
Candidate for Milwaukee County Executive

Now, a scant seven months later, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele has this to say:

Meh, I didn't really mean that.

Abele also said he was running, along with everyone else, on a jobs platform.

He doesn't explain how taking $20 million out of the local economy or laying off hundreds of people are going to accomplish that, probably because it won't, as Scott Walker has amply demonstrated, much to everyone's dismay.

People voted against Jeff Stone because he was considered to be a Walker clone. Little did we know we were only getting Walker Lite.

Why is it so hard to find a honest, responsible adult to run for office?

Walker Supporter Suffers Cognitive Dissonance

Poor Aaron Rodriguez must be suffering from some buyer's remorse and doesn't know how to deal with it.

For the unfamiliar, Rodriguez is a conservative blogger who has drunk deeply of the Scott Walker Kool-Aid.  So much so that he had even done some posts that ended up on Walker's campaign website.

Rodriguez is also a member of a local first responder department.  Unfortunately, his conservatism has led him to stop supporting the union that supported him.  There has been no word that he has given up the benefits that the union had won for him, like a living wage, vacations and holidays, or a respectable health care and pension benefit package, which makes him a goldbricker and a user.

Now, Rodriguez is bemoaning the fact that Scott Walker's inept and maleficent tenure has Milwaukee County Executive has caused the county to have a $55 million budgetary deficit, which has only been exasperated by cuts in state aid, ordered by the same man that Rodriguez promoted for governor.  As an end result, the current county executive, Chris Abele, has put the county's contribution to the paramedic system on the chopping block.

Ironically, last year, when his hero, Walker, had proposed the same very thing, he dismissed my concerns as not really being a problem.

But now that Rodriguez could lose his job, it is suddenly a serious issue.  In his lashing out at everyone but the person to blame for the fiscal mess that could make this a necessity, he decides it's my fault:

In the campaign season of 2010, one liberal blogger led the charge to protect the paramedic program from the clutches of then County Executive Scott Walker. Although the County Executive didn't say for sure he would cut the program, it didn't stop activist blogger Chris Liebenthal from drawing up a petition bemoaning the cuts and claiming that areas in Milwaukee would go without paramedic services. Where is Liebenthal on the issue now? He has not posted single word on his blog about preserving the integrity of the program. We're not giving up hope though, there is still time for him to make his stand.

Really? Most rational people with the ability to use basic logic would recognize that if it was bad last year, it's bad this year as well. Perhaps Rodriguez also needs me to confirm that water is still wet and that the sun still rises in the east. I haven't written that in a while either, so that might mean my thoughts on that changed, right?

But it is unfortunate that Rodriguez, like other conservatives that have forsaken reality for Walker's false promises, cannot just admit that he was wrong on this as well.  But then again, like most conservatives, they only care about something when it finally has a direct impact on them.  It's sad that it takes so much longer for some folks to hit rock bottom and start making the necessary changes in their attitudes and lives that they need to make in order to make things better, not only for themselves, but for their communities as well.