Milwaukee County Budget Looking Worse Than State Budget

Just before the holiday weekend, without any sort of advance notice, Scott Walker revealed the preliminary recommendations for the 2010 county budget. It's almost like he is ashamed of it or something. If he's not, he should be.

It includes some real doozies, like cutting more services for the elderly and the disabled:

Some $2.3 million in cuts in services to elderly and disabled people and others were proposed, including major trims in independent living supports, adult day care and job help. Support for emergency shelters would end, saving $460,000. County aid for children and adults who attend Wil-O-Way summer camp would be cut in half. Support for the 211 social services hotline would be reduced almost by half, to $192,000.

It also includes closing all the deep well swimming pools. Now one may wonder, "So what?" But think about it. A lot of people use those pools, especially when it gets extremely hot out. When they can't get in, violence can erupt.

And forget using Lake Michigan to cool off. If you drive, you'll have to feed the parking meters he wants to put up. Walker also wants to slash the transit system even more, so that you won't be able to take the bus there either. (Add to the slashing of more routes, he also wants to add a 25 cent charge for a bus transfer. What a racket...make it so people have to transfer, then charge them extra for it.)

Walker also wants to do his annual proposal to privatize the parks and other county positions, even though privatization has never saved any money.

Add to all this a new version of a death tax with higher fees for death certificates, as well as many other fees.

Even as draconian and poorly thought out Walker's budget is, he is claiming it is still over $40 million too much, and he will probably only add to the misery.

To add insult to injury, Walker also throws his own staff under the bus (if there is still one running), and blaming them for following his directives:

He noted that the measures were put forward by the bureaucrats, not him. Nonetheless, he imposed tough budget guidelines for his department heads that left little room for cheer.

But this is the norm for Walker and the budget process. He makes absurd demands, presents a lousy budget, and leaves it to the County Board to fix all of his mistakes.

It is also worth noting that he still hasn't done the any of the things that would help save tax payer dollars, like sitting down with the unions and do some good faith bargaining regarding the new contracts.

Another Business Leaves Milwaukee County

JSOnline is reporting that yet another business is leaving Milwaukee County:

General Rubber Co., a distributor of hoses and accessories for hydraulic, air, water, refrigeration and other equipment, has moved its offices from Milwaukee to a larger facility at 16988 W. Victor Road in New Berlin.

Note that it is not leaving the state. In fact, the article points out that they have another facility in Appleton.

In fact, Wisconsin is the best state in the country when it comes to having manufacturing jobs.

Yet Walker thinks he is the cure to the state's problems. I would think not.

In a Time of Crisis

I am sure that everyone has heard about the horrible fire at the Patrick Cudahy plant that has been burning for more than 24 hours now.

The fire crews from several surrounding communities should be commended for the valiant efforts to fight the blaze, as should Cudahy Mayor Ryan McCue, who showed good leadership in a time of crisis. He was willing to make the hard decisions in the effort to protect the public safety as much as he was able to.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

It should be also noted that County Board Chairman Lee Holloway and County Supervisor Pat Jursik were quick to pledge County resources to aid in the emergency. The Department of Aging did a lot to help area seniors safely evacuate and made sure that they will be safe until they can return home.

But I have one question: Where was Scott Walker? One would think that a man who claims to be the best person to run the state would be at least doing something during a crisis in his own county, and so close to the airport.

The Big Gotchas That Weren't

Last Thursday, Owen Robinson reported that bombastic radio host Mark Belling "broke" a story showing that the state's takeover of Milwaukee County's Income Maintenance program was purely political, and that the state and the local newspaper were in cahoots to make Walker look as bad as possible.

The basis for their argument was a series of emails between the state's Department of Human Services and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Steve Schultze.

For one to believe that this was indeed an act of political skulduggery, one would have to first ignore a few major facts.

One is that in the emails that Belling and Robinson provide, on the fifth page, one of the state staffers noted that Walker was given advanced noticed of the state's plans to announce the state takeover five days in advance. It would not take a great leap of logic to guess that it was Schultze that ran to Walker with the story. It could be that he wanted to just get Walker's side of the story, or it could be a little bit more. I have documented more than enough times about the way the local daily paper tends to treat Walker with kid gloves, if not outright hero worship.

Secondly, one would have to ignore the fact that Walker has been purposely short-staffing the call center, in an effort to force it to fail so that he could privatize it. His goal wasn't to save tax payers any money, since the cost would have been the same. His goal was to curry political (and probably financial) favor with the local business groups. By short-staffing the call center, the county's performance was not up to state or federal regulations, and was putting both the state and the county at risk for heavy fines from the federal government. Given today's political climate, why would a supposedly responsible elected official continuously put funding revenues at risk?

Thirdly, to believe Belling's and Robinson's conspiracy theory, one would have to completely ignore the class action lawsuit that had been filed against the state and the county, due to the county's inability to perform adequately. It is ludicrous and the height of desperation to try to argue the state set out to sue itself, risking tens of millions of dollars for a cheap political point.

Almost as farfetched was a hit piece by Patrick McIlheran, in which he tried to tell us that the State was not quite ready for the next phase of the takeover which occurred last week. He based this on the fact that the state didn't notify the media of what number to call for services. However, a quick phone call last week to the county's old number resulted in a phone message with a whole list of new numbers to call, depending on what service the caller was looking for.

Imagine that. People would have to call the call center to get the information. This was apparently more than McIlheran's journalistic ability is capable of handling. Not only that, but people were still getting service at the Coggs Building as well, so that argument is rather moot.

And as for PaddyMac's argument defending Walker's malfeasance:

None of this is, in the end, about whether poor people should get food stamps in the first place. They're entitled; that's long since settled. Even penny-pinching Scott Walker was simply fiddling simply with how to most economically use what taxpayers provide to serve the hungry. The state takeover scotched any such reform attempts.

I would simply refer the reader to my comments above about Walker's privatization and to this previous post that would more than adequately demonstrate the fallacy of such a preposterous argument. But then again, how could we expect anything else from McIlheran?

Happy Independence Day!

And remember:

Happy Blogbirthversary Day To Me.

It was two years ago today that I wrote my first post and officially entered the Cheddarsphere. (Please send all complaints to Jay Bullock, since he is the one that let me in.)

Then one year ago today, I started this here site. I have written just under 1,000 posts here (this one is #959 to be exact). And no, 900 of them haven't been about Scott Walker, only 889. From the time that I have started this site, my readership has more than doubled, even after you take out the 20 times a day one of Walker's interns is checking to see if I've written anything else about him. For this, I am honored and humbled. (Not for Walker's interns, but for you, gentle reader.)

During these past two years, I made a lot of friends, both in the cyberworld, and sometimes even in real life. Unfortunately, I've also made some enemies, but I guess that could be considered just a hazard of the job.

I am going to celebrate this personal landmark, as well as this great nation's birthday, by taking a long weekend and going to the castle.

Shortly after I come back, I will be embarking in yet another new adventure, and I hope that you will join me on it.

Have a safe weekend, and thank you again for your patronage and support.

Balls Of Steel

You go, girl.

Odds and Ends

Just a few quick notes and observations:

• Jay Bullock is going to lay the smackdown on Owen Robinson Sunday. If you, like me, won't me near a local TV on Sunday morning, he tells us it will be available on the Intertubes.
• Mark Sanford, the Carolina Governor that took the Appalachian Trail all the way to Argentina, still doesn't get it. Zach explains. Illy-T says that some are blaming biochemistry. Or, like some, you could just believe that Obama saw into the future that Sanford would refuse stimulus dollars and made him start having an affair years ago. (Yeah, I don't quite get it either.)
• Speaking of the wing nut brigade, they are also blaming President Obama for California's Prop 13 and all of its consequences.
• What is it with gun nuts anyways? Yeah, a guy that is stupid and/or crazy enough to think that they need to carry a gun everywhere is going to make good decisions around alcohol. Right.
• Dad29 is multi-talented. Not only can he take a big word and use it in a sentence, but demonstrates the word by doing so. What a guy!
  

There's Still Time To Help The Monarchs

I recently advised the gentle reader that once again the Monarch Trail was in peril, this time from the state's Department of Transportation.

Gretchen Schuldt has now advised us that the DOT is still taking feedback, now until August 10. More information can be found at her site, CASH.

State Reprentative Kaufert Stands Up For Justice

After justice was thwarted, at least temporarily, in Waupaca County, Republican State Representative Dean Kaufert calls for a change. From his press release:

Rep. Dean Kaufert [R – Neenah] announced today that he will be working with colleagues in the Legislature on an initiative to clarify Wisconsin law relating to animal cruelty regulations. A potential problem with current law was brought to light recently as a result of a Waupaca County judge’s dismissal of felony animal cruelty charges against two defendants accused of running down and killing deer with their snowmobiles.

“To equate a pack of snowmobiles running down and killing deer with legal hunting is a slap in the face to all legitimate hunters in our state,” Kaufert said. “This interpretation of state law does not make a lot of sense and is certainly not the intent of the statute. The decision will likely be appealed, but I think we also may need to look at clarifying current law. I have requested that the Legislative Reference Bureau develop draft language to clarify the intent of this statute to prevent this from happening again in the future.”

There is a provision under current state law that animal cruelty charges cannot be brought against people who are hunting. Kaufert noted that he wants to keep this provision in place to protect legitimate hunters, but narrow the language to make clear it applies only to people engaging in legitimate and recognized methods of hunting. “I don’t know anyone who would say that a snowmobile is a legitimate way to go deer hunting,” Kaufert added.

I, for one, applaud Rep. Kaufert for his insight and encourage him to follow through with these changes with the necessary timeliness the situation calls for.

Click It Or Ticket

Remember, big brother is watching.

"Walker Exceeded His Authority." Again.

The arbitrator that decided AFSCME's grievance against Scott Walker and his plan to put almost 2,000 county workers on an indefinite furlough issued his written decision on Wednesday.

Frankly, it was better than I had hoped it could be.

The arbitrator ruled that Walker took a number of missteps in issuing this edict.

The biggest issue is that Walker again exceeded his authority:

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker exceeded his authority in attempting to unilaterally cut union employees' hours as a budget-cutting move, according to an arbitrator's ruling issued Wednesday.

The County Board would have to agree to such a move first, the arbitrator, Amedeo Greco, said in his decision.

This is not the first time Walker has overstepped his authority. Just last month, he had to backtrack on closing the County's only two indoor pools and creating a new tax on toddlers, when he admitted he did not have the authority to do those things.

This disregard of the law has been a pattern for Walker. Every budget season, he keeps trying to remove state mandated positions and/or programs.

Why his repeated abuses of power hasn't been sent to the DA's office for investigation is beyond me. Especially when one considers that he is pulling these stunts to just try to gain the support of the fringe conservatives.

But back to the ruling.

The arbitrator also found other flaws with Walker's actions. These include the fact that Walker had failed to show that the County's projected deficit was severe enough to warrant such drastic actions. In fact, it was in the testimony that Walker's chief number cruncher, Steve Kreklow, admitted that the deficit was only one third the number of what Walker has been reporting. And even the new lower number of $4.5 million is almost seven times the number that the award-winning County Auditor found it to be.

Another error that Walker made was that he left the furlough open-ended which was contradictory to a previous arbitration hearing.

But even though it was ruled that Walker did everything wrong, Walker is still refusing to accept the truth of the matter:

Walker disagreed with the arbitrator's decision and said it conflicted with the reasoning behind a judge's ruling on the subject last week, when Reserve Judge Dennis Flynn said the county executive had the right to order furloughs without the board's consent. Walker said he would study the issue with county lawyers before deciding whether to appeal the arbitrator's decision.

Walker said another option could be to try to persuade the board to go along with shortened workweeks for 45 days, the length of time Greco suggested would pass muster.

The third option remains layoffs, though Walker said he was unsure how many might be needed.

What Walker isn't admitting to is that the hearing that was in front of Judge Flynn was completely separate from the issues presented int he grievance. Furthermore, Walker must have elided over the part that said he failed to show the County in a fiscal crisis that would warrant excessive furloughs, much less layoffs.

I've said it before, and I will keep saying it because it is the simple truth. If Walker was serious about wanting to fix any deficit, real or imaginary, he would first sit down with the union and do some good faith bargaining on the new contract. But while he dinks around and keeps stalling, he is costing tax payers millions of dollars.

That is perhaps what he wants though. If he keeps stalling, then that would give him the wiggle room to call for the lay off of hundreds of workers. What he fails to recognize, or perhaps just doesn't care, is that such a mass layoff will raise the pique of most of the citizens of Milwaukee County who suddenly find themselves without services. Then he might have much more to worry about than trying to keep up with Mark Neumann.

The Park People Of Milwaukee County

This video was made by the incomparable Dan Cody.

Congratulations To Jerome Heer

From the desk of County Board Chairman Lee Holloway:

Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway is congratulating the Director of Milwaukee County’s Department of Audit for being selected as a recipient of a David M. Walker Excellence in Government Performance and Accountability Award, which was recently presented in Arlington, Virginia. The Department of Audit reports directly to the County Board of Supervisors.

Jerome J. Heer, who has served as Audit Director since 1995, has nearly 30 years of experience conducting performance audits and is a nationally recognized leader in government accountability issues. He recently testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on how local governments can help oversee federal stimulus funds.

“Jerry Heer is a valuable member of the team here at the County Board and this recognition is well-deserved,” said Board Chairman Lee Holloway. “He does a great job providing information and advice to all County Supervisors on a wide variety of issues facing Milwaukee County.”

Mr. Heer has contributed leadership and expertise to help address complex, and sometimes sensitive, policy issues in Milwaukee County. He has also played a key role in a number of professional organizations, serving as past Chairman of the Midwestern Intergovernmental Audit Forum and is a founding member and former President of the Association of Local Government Auditors.

The Walker awards, named for former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, recognize local, state and federal auditors for outstanding efforts to transform their own operations, improve governmental efficiency and effectiveness, and hold government entities accountable for results.

Mr. Heer and Stephen Cady, County Board fiscal and budget analyst, were the ones who uncovered that Scott Walker had been lying about the supposed deficit that the county was facing.

Happy Blogbirthday, BB!

Blogging Blue, the fine establishment of my good friend Zach Wisniewski (don't you just love his work?!), turns two years old today.

Here's hoping many more years of some mighty good writing.