The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part LXXIII (With A Twist)

Most of you probably have already heard the dismal news that the Walker budget is taking more victims, this time 446 Milwaukeeans losing their jobs as Frontier cuts way back on it's presence here:

Frontier Airlines Inc. notified the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development today that the company will eliminate 446 more jobs in Milwaukee this spring.

Frontier’s parent company, Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc., said the layoffs at General Mitchell International Airport will take effect between April 15 and April 30.

It should be noted that this is a follow up to another 120 jobs that were cut last November, which was the second wave in the 213 jobs they cut last year.

But this move wasn't started by Walker's budget. It was only culminated by the economic wasteland that Walker is making of Wisconsin.

The start of this sad news comes much earlier, but unsurprisingly, it still starts with Walker.

In 2009, when Scott Walker went on one of his infamous Harley Davidson bike rides to promote his campaign tourism in Milwaukee County, he added a new twist - a corporate sponsor.  That corporate sponsor was Air Tran Airlines.  It turned out that Walker had given Air Tran expanded space at Mitchell International Airport just a few weeks before Air Tran announced that they were going to sponsor Walker's bike ride.

The gentle reader probably just had a "Aha!" moment, recognizing that Walker has a long practice of pay-for-play in his dealings, whether as Milwaukee County Executive or as governor.

At the time, I expressed surprise that Walker had turned his back on the Milwaukee-based and very popular Midwest Airlines.  After all, he already gave them $14 million in taxpayer dollars.  Maybe he left Midwest to hang because they wouldn't be part of something illegal and unethical like corporate sponsorship of a campaign stunt.

Whatever the reason, while Walker was out glad-handing people from around the state and in neighboring states, getting that valuable name recognition that would help his gubernatorial campaign, the news broke that Midwest was bought out by Republic Airways Holding, Inc., which also owned Frontier as well.

Then suddenly the hometown airline was gone.

The jobs lost now are a direct effect that Frontier is pulling out of Milwaukee, leaving only a few flights where it once had many, many times that.

And the ramifications of this move cannot be emphasized enough.  First, that will be hundreds of more people on unemployment compensation, which will further slow the economy.  It will also make the job market that much more crowded so people will end up out of work for longer.

The reduced flights will increase demand on the remaining flights and airlines.  This will drive the price up and make Milwaukee and Wisconsin less attractive to businesses looking to relocate, not to mention make it more difficult for existing businesses to stay competitive.

And the cycle will continue its downward spiral, just because Walker was willing to use any means he could to become governor.  Now that he has aspirations for the White House, does anyone think he won't leave Wisconsin a smoldering trash heap if he thought it would help his chances?

Gubernatorial Candidates Respond To Airline Merger

This morning, it was announced that Southwest Airlines will take over Air Tran in a merger.

Both of our would be governors responded to the news.

Tom Barrett immediately reached out to Southwest Airlines and urged them to make Milwaukee one of their hubs.

Scott Walker immediately reached out to Southwest Airlines and asked them to continue to sponsor his campaign. He then had Tim Russell run around and hand out Southwest Airlines T-shirts.

Misleading Headlines

Last week, the Business Journal published a report which had a headline of:

DOT fines Delta, AirTran for false advertising

Naturally, I presumed that the AirTran part had to do with their funding of Scott Walker's campaign bike ride, but I wasn't sure what Delta had to do with it.

It turned out that the story was about something totally different, meaning no media outlet has picked up on the big story yet.

Air Walker

Apparently, Scott Walker's connection with Air Tran goes much deeper than giving them more gate room at Mitchell Field in exchange for illegal support of a campaign bike ride.

They both like to screw their employees over for the sake of the Almighty Dollar.

The Walker Effect

So, Air Tran illegally sponsors Walker campaign bike ride after he grants them increased airport space.

Now Air Tran has seen a drop in business.

I call it the Walker Effect.

While Walker Campaigns, Milwaukee County Burns

Last night, I wrote (again) about Scott Walker's campaign bike ride disguised as "a trip to promote Milwaukee County." The focus of the post was on how Walker is taking illegal campaign contributions to fund his campaign tour.

However, at the end of the post, I raised a question that turned out to be rather pertinent today:

Why did Walker ask Air Tran for the money anyway? If he was going to not do the right thing and use his own campaign money, but seek out illegal corporate donations, couldn't he at least have picked a company based in Milwaukee County? That is what he is supposed to be promoting anyway, right? I bet the folks at Midwest Airlines, which is based right here in Milwaukee, are just loving having the County Executive riding around campaigning with a big, old Air Tran flag on his bike. Walker disses Wisconsin and Milwaukee many times over with this stunt.

This afternoon, while Walker was riding around with Air Tran flags and stickers and decals everywhere, it was reported that Midwest Airlines is no more:

Midwest Airlines Inc.'s name will remain, some of its jets will still have wide seats, and the carrier promises more nonstop routes from Milwaukee under the ownership of Republic Airways Holdings Inc. of Indianapolis

Announced Tuesday, Republic's purchase of Midwest from TPG Capital, a Texas investment firm, would end 25 years of local control for the largest airline to fly out of Mitchell International Airport. The scope of the changes is underscored by the decision of longtime Midwest Chief Executive Officer Timothy Hoeksema to retire once the sale becomes final in four to six weeks.

So while, Walker is out promoting himself, under the guise of promoting Milwaukee County, another stalwart Milwaukee company and good corporate sponsor of many things, like the Midwest Center, flies off never to be seen again.

But the damage isn't done there. Not only will there be some job losses and further blows to the local economy, but Milwaukee County itself could be harmed financially, due to Walker.

Three years ago, Walker manipulated to have a $14 million dollar loan given to Midwest Airlines, with no safeguards attached:

The County Executive thinks we have all forgotten his aggressive support of loan guarantees for Midwest Airlines in 2006. Milwaukee County is now on the hook for some $14 million if Midwest were to default on bonds guaranteed by Milwaukee County. Walker did not support amendments that would have tied those loan guarantees to keeping jobs in Milwaukee. The results for taxpayers have been less than beneficial as executives of Midwest have cashed out with their golden parachutes and over a thousand jobs have vanished.

I did not see in the article any mention of a promise by Republican to pay off this loan, but I did see a number of executives will be retiring more than comfortably.

While Milwaukee County continues to suffer under Walker's malfeasance and neglect, Walker is doing quite well fro himself. Cory Liebmann notes that Walker already has gotten not just one, but two different articles in local newspapers mentioning his run for governor. I'm sure Walker is just surprised and taken aback that the local median would do something like this (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

In fact, Walker's illegal campaigning has gotten so egregious that Jason Stephany, Executive Director of DPW felt compelled to send a letter to the CEO and President of Air Tran Holdings to advise him of the the ethical problem Air Tran is in by sponsoring Walker's campaign in this fashion.

With promoters like Walker, Milwaukee County doesn't need any enemies.

But I do have a grand idea.

How about Walker steps down from his County Executive position so that he can focus on campaigning and getting ready to fight for his political life when Mark Neumann finally enters the race. And here, we can elect a County Executive that is willing to put Milwaukee County first.

Walker Flies Into Another Ethics Problem*

I have been periodically harping about Scott Walker's taxpayer funded campaign bike ride that is due later this month. I questioned how deep Walker's hypocrisy ran to criticize two county supervisors for a non-campaign related trip and claim the county is in a fiscal crisis, only to turn around and spend tax dollars on this trip.

Well, it turns out that there is naught to fear, gentle reader. Scott Walker has removed any ethics concerns about using tax payer dollars for this ride.

Instead, he has flown face first into a greater ethics problem.

Last week, Xoff made mention that Walker now has two sponsors for his bike ride: Air Tran and ChooseMilwaukee.com are going to pick up the tab. Xoff cites a blogpost in the local paper's website on June 11th as the initial source of information.

In his post, Xoff also raises some interesting points and questions such as who gets the naming rights; that Walker's secretary is handling the coordination, but is only using her personal email and phone number; that ChooseMilwaukee.com is a branch of the MMAC; and whether Air Tran and ChooseMilwaukee.com will also be picking up the salaries of Walker and the staffers that will be going along for the ride.

Then he hits closer to home than he realizes with this:

AirTran, incidentally, has just a small business relationship with Milwaukee County, which owns Mitchell Field, where AirTran operates. See any possible ethical conflict there?

Actually it is more than that.

Air Tran was recently attempting to get expanded space at Mitchell Airport. This matter was in front of the Milwaukee County Board's Transit Committee on March 4, 2009. It was approved unanimously (pdf, item #8, top of page 5).

The proposal then was approved by the entire board on March 21st.

Sometime between March 21st and May 21st, when Air Tran announced their expansion at Mitchell International Airport, it had crossed Walker's desk and he signed off on it.

Now, just weeks after Air Tran's announcement of their benefit from their business with the county, it is also announced that they are picking up the tab for Walker's campaign ride.

That little stunt flies in the face of the Milwaukee County Code of Ethics. In fact, from the Milwaukee Code of General Ordinances, section 9.05(2)(a) strictly forbids an elected official to gain from or accept any financial gain or anything else of substantial value for personal benefit or for the benefit of any family member or organization they may belong to. That would include Walker and his governor's campaign.

*And yes, I really, really wanted to title this post "Weasels On A Plane."