Walker Puts Lipstick On A Pig

Scott Walker has never been a very good leader for Milwaukee County. He also has not been afraid to show his disdain for the people that he was elected to represent by insulting them.

Take for example, this snippet from Bruce Murphy, who was writing about Walker's "Doom and Gloom Tour" in the months leading up to Walker's last failed attempt to be governor:

But Walker’s power point presentation, officially called “The Reality Tour,” doesn’t offer any real solutions. After hammering home how dreadful things are, suggesting that the county is nearly broke while noting it can’t go legally bankrupt, he asks us unlucky duckies to support, well, what? Walker doesn’t say. When asked it he had costed out some possible solutions, Walker said no.

There are times when Walker seems not like the county executive but the anti-county executive. This is the man who called Milwaukee and the six other counties of southeastern Wisconsin a pig. Walker said the effort to promote its economy was unlikely to succeed, declaring, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”

Tommy Thompson used the bully pulpit to tell us how great Wisconsin was. Mayor Tom Barrett calls cheerleading for Milwaukee a key part of his job. Scott Walker’s style is to blacken the reputation of the county he runs.

Yes, it’s disgusting to see the kind of pensions some county employees have gained. But they appear to be legally protected (not that Walker’s administration ever put much effort into researching its legal options on this issue). So at what point do you quit bellyaching and start making improvements?

That is not what any rational person would call effective or positive leadership.

Tom Barrett and Mark Neumann, being polished politicians, have and will continue to use this against him in the weeks and months to come.

Barrett, of course, used Walker's negativity against him since Barrett was the one that worked with M7 to bring hundreds of jobs to Milwaukee. Walker didn't lift a finger to work with M7. He was too busy campaigning and laying off workers.

But a little thing like reality is not going to slow Scott Walker down. No sirree. He will just use one of his favorite routines: Intellectual Dishonesty:



This also is another demonstration why some politicians shouldn't tweet.

Problems Promoting Milwaukee County?

In the relative recent past, there have been two stories in the news about the groups that are supposed to be promoting Milwaukee County and helping our economy. Both of them raises some serious questions.

One story deals with the Milwaukee 7, which is co-chaired by Michael Grebe. Grebe stated that Milwaukee 7 is seeing some success, but then uses his pedestal to take swipes at Governor Doyle:

One obstacle to recruiting and retaining businesses in the region is the tax and regulatory climate in Wisconsin, which Grebe said “got worse” in this year’s state legislative session led by Democrats and Gov. Jim Doyle. He predicted the M-7 will become more outspoken on public policy issues.

“We probably need to get more involved in some of those issues,” he said. "We do not intend to lobby, but I think we can draw attention to issues and, more importantly, draw attention to solutions. A tricky part of that is identifying a consensus within the region.”

The other story appeared in the last few days and is about Visit Milwaukee, who is bemoaning a smaller budget than in years past:

This year, Visit Milwaukee began with a $6.7 million budget that was trimmed to $5.5 million. Although the group will get a little more in 2010, a new report prepared by Visit Milwaukee concludes: "At the same time our competition for business has increased, our funding has decreased. This has affected our staffing and marketing dollars."

[...]

Brent Foerster, Visit Milwaukee's vice president of sales and marketing, said Friday that the area is 50,000 definite room nights ahead in 2010, compared with this year.

But there is plenty of work to be done.

"We need revenue," he said. "Because of a lack of revenue resource, we are not effective in promoting Milwaukee."

There are many reasons on different levels to be concerned about these two stories.

Michael Grebe, besides being the Co-Chair of the Milwaukee 7 is also on the board of Visit Milwaukee. He is also Scott Walker's campaign chair.

Both of these groups also receive Milwaukee County tax dollars in their efforts to promote Milwaukee. So when Grebe bashes the taxes in this state as being too high (even though Wisconsin's tax rankings continues to slide lower down the scale), he is touting Walker's campaign rhetoric at tax payer's expense.

Both of these groups are headed up by the same people, more or less. Why are they not working together to help defray costs and bolster their productivity? Since they are both getting tax payer's dollars that might also help alleviate the tax levels that are supposed to be too high already.

And are we even getting our money's worth from them? Visit Milwaukee is complaining about not having enough money, but on a budget that would even equal Visit Milwaukee's petty cash, Milwaukee County First offered up an idea, the County Pass, that would help promote tourism and without nearly the cost that these groups are accruing.

If MCF can do these things on a less than a shoestring budget, either of these groups should be doing one heckuva lot more than they appear to be doing with all of the money they are getting. And they should be able to do it without campaigning for Walker.