Milwaukee Must Vote Yes To Restore Democracy And Accountability

Milwaukee County voters will see four local referendum questions on the ballot in November.

Three of them are fairly self-explanatory and no brainers.

One is the Move to Amend question, which is whether the US government should take money out of politics.  It's not failed anywhere it's been held and I don't expect that Milwaukee County will be an exception.

The second one is whether the state should accept federal funding to expand BadgerCare.  Considering that Walker's decision not to do so has cost the state tens of millions of dollars and put tens of thousands of people out in the cold without any affordable health care coverage, a yes vote is all but mandated.

The third question is whether the state should raise the minimum wage should be raised to $10.10 per hour. Again, Walker's refusal to do so is dragging the state's economy down and putting people in real danger.  There is no reasonable defense for voting no on this common sense question.

The fourth question is whether state statutes should be amended so that Milwaukee County could switch to a county administrator instead of a county executive form of governance.  After speaking about it twice, I have found that many people don't understand what the question is nor do they know the history behind it.

The local paper has purposely avoided to provide any information on the question except for a small editorial blurb claiming that it is "payback" of some sort.  The only other time I've heard of democracy being a payback is when the colonists told King George to shove it and declared independence.

Here's some factual background to help the gentle reader make an informed decision.

Before 1960, there was no such thing as a county executive in Wisconsin.  The county boards performed both the legislative and executive functions of county government.

In 1960, the state legislature decided that they would create the position of county executive, but it only applied to counties with a population of 500,000 or more.  At that time, as it is now, the only county that met that parameter was Milwaukee County.

In 1969, the state legislature passed the law that other counties could have a county executive, if they so desired.  However, Milwaukee County was still mandated to have one, whether we wanted it or not.

In the 1985-87 budget, the state wrote in the position of county administrator.  Again, this was up to the county's choosing, except for Milwaukee, which was still stuck with a county executive.

Then in 2013, the state legislature passed legislation at the request of their paying customer, Chris Abele, to redefine the position of county executive. Despite the assertions by Abele and his apologists that this was to "restore" the definition of county executive, it concentrated power in Abele's hands in an unprecedented way.  

Abele and his apologists also tried to claim that this was to make Milwaukee like any other county in the state, which again was a flat out lie.  The changes that Abele bought only applied to counties with a population of 750,000 or more.  The only county meeting that parameter is Milwaukee County.

In short, Milwaukee County went from no county executive to a mandated county executive to a tyrannical plutocracy in just 50 years.

As the following chart shows, there are few distinctions between a county executive and a county administrator:

click on image to embiggen

The biggest differences include:

• The county executive is elected and the county administrator is appointed by the county board.
• The county executive only has to be 18 years old, a county resident and US citizen.  The county administrator has to be qualified through training, education and experience.
• The county executive has veto powers, the administrator does not.
• The county executive can only be removed by recall or by the governor.  The county administrator can be removed by the board.

Outside of these four differences, the positions are almost identical.  

It is important to remember - and this cannot be emphasized enough - the referendum does not ask that Milwaukee County switch from a county executive to a county administrator.  Rather, it asks that Milwaukee County be allowed the same option that each and every of the other 71 one counties have, which is to self-determine what type of county government we would have.

So, if the county executive and county administrator are so close, why even consider switching?

That can be explained in three words: Democracy, Accountability, Efficiency.

As I have explained before, the last three county executives have been real pips. We have had Tom Ament and his pension scandal.  We have had Scott Walker who used the executive's office as his campaign headquarters for his run for governor.  We currently have Chris Abele who is using the office to further enrich himself and his plutocratic pals at the taxpayer expense.

Not one of these three were representing the people of Milwaukee County.  They were only in it for their own personal gain.  With a county administrator, we would be able to restore a representative form of government, with county supervisors who would represent the people of their districts and keep each other in check.  

Furthermore, with a county administrator, there would be accountability.  If Ament, Walker or Abele had been county administrators and did what they had done as county executives, the board could have acted swiftly to remove them and save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

With Walker, and even more so with Abele, there has been a lot of contention between the county executive's office - while they were advancing their own self-serving agendas - and the county board, who were there to do the county's business.  A lot of time and a lot of money has been wasted with this fighting when both could have been spent taking care of the county's business.

The experiment of a county executive has been given more than enough time to show that it isn't the best form of government we could have.  We deserve and need a better way - a way that will restore democracy and accountability and integrity to our government.

Maybe then, the people's work will finally get done.

Reminder For Milwaukee Voters: Referendum Forum This Wednesday!

As previously posted:

The good folks at Citizens Coalition are hosting a discussion of the five referendum questions that are going to be on the November 4th ballot. 

Here is their notice about the line up:

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE NOVEMBER 4TH BALLOT REFERENDUMS?

Question 1
Milwaukee County Referendum concerns “that a Move to Amend the Constitution establishing human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not free speech.”
“Legalizing Democracy” Video
Mary Laan, Move to Amend SE WIS Coordinator

Question 2
Milwaukee County Advisory Referendum concerns that all available federal funds be given to badger care
Robert Kraig, Citizen Action of Wisconsin

Question 3
 Milwaukee County Referendum concerns a State Minimum Wage of $10.10 Per Hour
 Jennifer Epps, Attorney and executive director of Wisconsin Jobs Now

 Question 4
Milwaukee County Referendum concerns a County Administrative Coordinator either elected or appointed
Chris Liebenthal, free lance writer, social worker and community activist

Question 5
Wisconsin State-Wide Advisory Referendum concerns a constitutional Amendment allowing all Transportation Revenues be put into an Exclusive Transportation Fund
 Tom Stawicki, Legislative Director for ATU Local 998

Wednesday
OCTOBER 15, 2014

GREENFIELD LIBRARY
53RD AND WEST LAYTON AVENUE
6:00 p.m.

I hope to see you there, because an informed voter is a good voter!

Vast Majority Of Wisconsinites Support Minimum Wage Increase

In November, many Wisconsinites will have the opportunity to send a message to Madison , telling them to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.  We are lagging behind many areas of the country who have already raised their minimum wage to that level and even higher.  And yes, they are doing much better than we are.

While the vast majority support this move, there are some that still don't.

From the Milwaukee Business Journal:

Seventy-three percent of registered voters in Wisconsin support an increase in the minimum wage according to a new poll, but support slipped by three percentage points from June.

The main reason for the decline is that fewer Republican voters supported a minimum wage increase in September than in June, according to The Wisconsin Economic Scorecard quarterly poll released Monday. The poll of Wisconsin residents is conducted by the UW-Milwaukee Center for Urban Initiatives and Research in cooperation with WisBusiness.com and Milwaukee public radio station WUWM-FM (89.7).

Wisconsin is one of 29 states where the minimum wage is set at or below the lowest level allowed by federal law, which is $7.25 per hour.

I am surprised that even half the Teapublicans are against hiking the minimum wage.

They either must be absolute misanthropes or they are very low information voters who spend too much time watching Faux News and listening to squawk radio and really think that it will make their Quarter Pounder with cheese cost $10.

To get the full information about how the minimum wage will benefit you, me and all of us, there is a panel to discuss this and other important referendum questions on October 15.

Details are here.

Milwaukee Voters! Know Your Referendums!

In Milwaukee County, voters will have five referendum questions - one from the state and four from the county.  Because these questions can be confusing and misleading and the anti-democracy, pro-poverty factions will try to mislead people, here are the questions as they appear on the ballot:

State

Question 1: Creation of a Transportation Fund

Shall section 9 (2) of article IV and section 11 of article VIII of the constitution be created to require that revenues generated by use of the state transportation system be deposited into a transportation fund administered by a department of transportation for the exclusive purpose of funding Wisconsin's transportation system and to prohibit any transfers or lapses from this fund?

County

Question 1:

Shall the United State Constitution be amended to establish the following?

1. Only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights, and
2. Money is not speech, and therefore, regulation political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech.

Question 2:

Shall the next State Legislature accept all available federal funds for BadgerCare to ensure that thousands of Wisconsin citizens have access to affordable health care coverage?

Question 3:

Should the State of Wisconsin increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour?

Question 4:

Should Wisconsin Statutes be amended to allow Milwaukee County to transition its management and administrative functions from an elected County Executive to a professional County Administrator?


As I have previously posted, on October 15th, there will be a discussion of the five questions.

In case you can't make it, the proper answer - really, the only responsible answer - to each of the five questions would be yes.

Milwaukee Voters, Save The Date, October 15th!

The good folks at Citizens Coalition are hosting a discussion of the five referendum questions that are going to be on the November 4th ballot.

Here is their notice about the line up:

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE NOVEMBER 4TH BALLOT REFERENDUMS?

Question 1
Milwaukee County Referendum concerns “that a Move to Amend the Constitution establishing human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not free speech.”
“Legalizing Democracy” Video
Mary Laan, Move to Amend SE WIS Coordinator

Question 2
Milwaukee County Advisory Referendum concerns that all available federal funds be given to badger care
Robert Kraig, Citizen Action of Wisconsin

Question 3
 Milwaukee County Referendum concerns a State Minimum Wage of $10.10 Per Hour
 Jennifer Epps, Attorney and executive director of Wisconsin Jobs Now

 Question 4
Milwaukee County Referendum concerns a County Administrative Coordinator either elected or appointed
Chris Liebenthal, free lance writer, social worker and community activist

Question 5
Wisconsin State-Wide Advisory Referendum concerns a constitutional Amendment allowing all Transportation Revenues be put into an Exclusive Transportation Fund
 Tom Stawicki, Legislative Director for ATU Local 998

Wednesday
OCTOBER 15, 2014

GREENFIELD LIBRARY
53RD AND WEST LAYTON AVENUE
6:00 p.m.

I hope to see you there, because an informed voter is a good voter!

Nearly 2 Million Wisconsinites Will Get To Vote On BadgerCare Referendums

This must be sending Scott Walker and Chris Abele into a tizzy:

One Third of Wisconsinites Will Have BadgerCare Referendums on the November Ballot
Eight counties advance advisory referendum on accepting the federal funds for BadgerCare, covering 1.97 million Wisconsin residents.

Statewide: One out of every three Wisconsin residents will see a referendum in November on accepting federal funds for BadgerCare, based on the actions of Dane and La Crosse counties late last week. Over 1.97 million Wisconsin residents will have a question on their ballot on whether the State of Wisconsin should accept enhanced federal funds for BadgerCare rejected by Walker and conservatives in the Legislature.

Eight counties have officially approved this referendum so far, Lincoln, La Crosse, Clark, Dane, Dunn, Outagamie, Milwaukee and Eau Claire, with more following soon. The support in red, purple and blue counties demonstrates how this issue transcends partisanship and is important to rural and urban Wisconsin.

The negative impact of rejecting these federal funds is particularly devastating at the local level. With fewer people guaranteed access to health coverage they can truly afford, uncompensated care costs will remain high in local hospitals and county-supported clinics, forcing cost-shifting to county-budgets, consumers and local businesses.

If Wisconsin accepted enhanced federal Medicaid funds for BadgerCare, 84,700 Wisconsin residents would gain access to BadgerCare. Rejecting federal money is costing more, while covering fewer lives. Wisconsin is losing up to $1 million a day in federal funds for BadgerCare. See the county by county breakdown here.

These referendum are especially important with the announcement that 38,000 Wisconsin residents forced off BadgerCare by Governor Walker were unable to sign up for private coverage. Because Wisconsin did not accept federal funds for BadgerCare, these residents have fallen into a coverage gap, unable to access affordable health coverage for all of 2014.

"In November voters in counties throughout Wisconsin will have the opportunity to send a clear message to the Governor and Legislature about the importance of guaranteeing affordable access to health care for everyone in Wisconsin," said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

Combine this with the work that Move to Amend has done with getting the Citizens United decision overturned and there's a helluva lot of democracy going on!

It's a damn good thing to see.

Blogging Abele's Referendum Blues

Last week, I wrote about Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele expressing his opposition to three referendum questions that the Milwaukee County Board were considering.  The three referendum were about whether the state should raise the minimum wage, whether the state should accept additional federal funding to expand Badger Care and whether state law should be changed to allow Milwaukee County to have the more efficient county administrator type of government.

Pro-Abele blogger Zach Wisniewski took umbrage with my post:

After hearing news of Abele’s opposition to placing three more non-binding resolutions whose results can be easily predicted on the fall ballot, Chris Liebenthal of Cognitive Dissidence trotted out his predictable line of attack against Abele, an attack that goes something like this.

“Plutocrat, plutocrat, plutocrat….rich guy, rich guy, rich guy.”

Sure, Liebenthal cites some examples of how money could be found in the County’s budget to pay for the cost of placing the referendums on the November ballot, but he seems to ignore the fact that passage of the referendums by voters will change absolutely nothing in Milwaukee County. No policy or laws will change as a result of the passage of the referendums, and given that the outcomes of the referendums really isn’t in doubt, I have to question the point. It goes without saying that I support the policies behind the referendums that will be on the November ballot, but I simply don’t see why they’re necessary. The County Board of Supervisors could just as easily pass resolutions expressing their support for the policies at the heart of these referendums with the same effect as placing them on the ballot, while saving money in the process.

I have yet met anyone that thinks adding these three questions to the ballot, which is already being printed anyway, is really going to cost anywhere near the $120,000 Abele is mewling about. If it does cost that much, perhaps he should find a new company to print the ballots. (There is a print shop at the House of Corrections that could probably do it for cheaper and give inmates job training.)

Wisniewski must really besides himself since this wanton spending spree is happening statewide:

Dane County voters will get a chance in November to weigh in on raising the state minimum wage, an issue that has left researchers, politicians and activists arguing over the impact on the broader economy.

But it will be a largely symbolic gesture since a 2005 Wisconsin law prohibits local units of government from implementing a minimum wage different than the state.

Still, the County Board at its meeting Thursday is expected to overwhelmingly pass a resolution putting a $10.10 minimum wage on the November ballot, joining similar referenda in Milwaukee, Eau Claire and Kenosha counties.

All these spendthrifts, wanting democracy! The horror of it all!

But I have to wonder if that is how Wisniewski really feels or if he was asked to help Abele out.

Six years ago, Milwaukee County voters were given a non-binding referendum question about whether Milwaukee County should increase the sales tax by 1% in order to support the transit, parks and emergency medical systems.  Naturally, Scott Walker, who was county executive at the time and was gearing up for his gubernatorial run, was vehemently opposed to the question even being on the ballot, much less it actually happening.

Wisniewski had a couple of posts about this.  Let's see what Wisniewski said about that non-binding referendum:

So in vetoing a proposal for a referendum, Scott Walker’s basically thumbed his nose at the citizens of Milwaukee County, in essence sending the message that he knows what’s best for the people of Milwaukee County and that they can’t be trusted to make decisions for themselves. Whether the referendum had passed or failed, at least the citizens of Milwaukee County would have had a say in the decision, and it’s shameful that Scott Walker took away their ability to choose for themselves. What’s really ironic is that for all their criticisms of how liberals favor a “nanny state” that interferes in the day to day lives of people, conservatives are no better, as Scott Walker has just shown.

And then there's this:

What I find really interesting about conservatives is the level of their hypocrisy. Many conservatives I’ve either interacted with or heard speak have struck similar tones about wanting to “give power back to the people” and about “letting people decide for themselves,” yet every time they’re given an opportunity to put their words into action, they refuse and blame some liberal bogeyman. If Scott Walker really supports voter referendums, then I challenge him to put his money where his mouth is and allow the sales tax referendum to make it to the ballot.

Hmm, hypocrisy indeed.  I wonder what happened to make Wisniewski go from being for referendums to being against them.

Also of note, in the comments section of his post, Wisniewski said he would be all for them if they were binding referendum.  However, counties obviously cannot have binding referendums telling the state what to do.

I still say the people have the right to be heard, especially when so many people in the world don't even get that much of a taste of democracy.  If that makes me a bad person, so be it.

Chris Abele: Democracy Is Too Expensive

Earlier this month, the Milwaukee County Board's Judiciary Committee met and approved to put three non-binding referendums on the November Ballot.  The three were whether the state should raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, whether the state should accept federal funding to expand Badger Care and whether the state should change state statutes in order to allow the county to go from a county executive to county administrator style government.

These three referendum questions would be in addition to the Move to Amend referendum.  The Board had introduced this last year, but Abele vetoed it at such a late date that the Board was unable to override it in time to get it on the ballot.  When the board brought it up again, Abele was unable to manipulate the timing of his veto and the board easily overrode it.

Predictably, Abele has come out against all three of the referendum.  His irrational rational for his opposition can be summarized as "Democracy costs too much money":

With the $120,000 spent on the three non-binding referendums the county could serve 13,800 more home meals to seniors, process 4,500 more child support cases a year or expand the re-entry program for female inmates at the House of Corrections, he said.

While Abele said he supports a raise in the minimum wage, and expanding BadgerCare, he said that could be done with a resolution signed by the board and him.

"I am worried that we are spending much needed tax dollars on a question that we already know the outcome," he said. A resolution would "make as a compelling statement" without costing taxpayers, he said.

Abele's sudden concern about cost is laughable.

In a $1.3 billion budget, $120,000 is a misplaced decimal point.  But there are plenty of ways that Abele could find the money if he wanted to.

If he cut the salaries of his two top aides, his Chief of Staff and Director of Administration, to the level that Scott Walker pays his same staff, Abele could easily pay for two of the referendum. If one goes by his logic that the county board needed to be pared down to be like all the other counties, and did the same to his two aides' salaries, he could pay for all four referendums and have some left over.

Abele had no problems paying for the red herring referendum to cut the pay of supervisors, but I guess it's only OK when a plutocrat does it.

If he hired a budgeteer that didn't make $3.5 million dollar mistakes, he could pay for all those referendums and still have $3.38 million for services.

If Abele had made the necessary repairs to the courthouse's electrical system when it was brought to his attention, and not caused a massive fire that shut the courthouse down for weeks, he could have paid for all for referendum questions and still had $1.88 million to pay for all these services.

If Abele took a sheriff's deputy for his personal security, he could have used $300,000 out of his request for a private security firm to pay for the referendums and still had money left over for services.

If he didn't have top heavy departments with so many management personnel that no one is even sure what some of them do, he'd have enough money for the referendums and for the services he cited.

Abele could argue that a sales tax could be used to support county services, as the voters called for six years ago.  Instead, Abele would rather see that tax money go to support his fellow wealthy elite and build new arenas and convention center.

Abele could have used the money he spent lobbying to have the state legislature pass a law to redefine geographic history so he could sell off county assets to benefit his fellow wealthy elite and paid for hundreds of referendum questions and paid for tons of services to boot.

But Abele's hypocrisy doesn't end there.  As with all things Abele, there is more, there is always more.

Abele said that he supports the minimum wage hike.  He used the same argument when he tried to block the living wage law.  Heck, he even said that he would be glad to lobby the state for an increase in the minimum wage as opposed to the living wage.  But now that he has a chance to back up his own words, he refuses to.

The real reason Abele is so vehemently opposed is the last referendum - the one he so conveniently left out of his letter - which would allow voters to choose between a county executive and a county administrator.  He doesn't want to the people to have a voice in how their government is run, because he knows that they would reject his power-grabbing, money-grubbing plutocratic ways in a heartbeat.

It's the same reason he was so opposed to the Move to Amend referendum.  He is Citizens United personified - a person who thinks he should be in charge because he is rich and thus better than anyone else, especially mere commoners.  His arrogance and egomania are stunning in their enormity.

They're also proof that Abele can't see past the silver spoon that's been in his mouth since birth.