The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XX

Scott Walker's budget is basically a taste of the austerity measures that he really wants to impose on Wisconsin.  And it's having it's predictable and negative impact across the state, from school districts to counties to municipalities.  For example, look at the City of Sheboygan (emphasis mine):

Possible options for bridging a $1.3 million deficit in the city's 2012 budget include laying off 21 city employees, privatizing garbage collection, closing a fire station, cutting funding to the Mead Public Library, or bringing back a storm water fee or a $2 "wheel tax," according to an executive summary on the budget submitted to aldermen.

"This is just the first kick at this budget. These aren't the end-all and be-all of budget options," said Ald. Don Hammond, who is chairman of the Common Council's Finance Committee. "We're just putting numbers to things to give aldermen an idea of what some of those savings might be."

The city's shortfall is primarily due to $787,000 in decreased revenue and a $513,000 hike in expenses, according to the summary that Finance Director Jim Amodeo delivered to aldermen at their Monday night meeting.

The budget was most heavily affected by Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill passed earlier this year, Amodeo said in his summary.

That includes a $979,000 reduction in state aid while savings from increased employee contributions to retirement and medical plans totaled $470,000.

And unless we are successful in getting His Malevolence out of office in the upcoming recall, things will get only worse as his budget gimmickry, also known as his "tools," are no longer available.

For a vision of what is to come if we don't rid ourselves of Walker and his fellow parasitic pals comes from Walker's hometown of Colorado Springs, Colorado:

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won't pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.

You know what, I don't see any of that creating one job either.

Walker Phones It In With "Job Hotline"

When Scott Walker first traded in sacking Milwaukee County in favor of pillaging the State of Wisconsin, he made a grand showboating affair of setting up a "Jobs Hotline" for businesses to call in with suggestions and/or questions.  The premise was that he was going to smooth the way for business to relocate to Wisconsin or for companies already here to grow and bring in his 250,000 jobs he promised.

Many observed at the time that he was treating businesses better than the citizens of this once and future great state.

Well, it turns out that his hot line is a cold fish:

Few leads and apparently no jobs have come from a hotline for businesses looking to expand or relocate to Wisconsin that was set up as part of Gov. Scott Walker's plan last year for creating 250,000 jobs during his first term.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obtained the hotline's log from its creation on Jan. 28 through Aug. 25 through an open records request. The newspaper reported that no jobs appeared to have been created as a result of the 113 calls logged.

That's about one phone call every other day. And even with that low amount of calls and the fact that he had a full time staff person for the phone, a whopping 39% of the calls to the "hot line" got a call back in less than 24 hours, another thing that Walker had promised.

Boy, doesn't that bring back the memories?!

It seems just like yesterday, when then County Executive had willfully chosen to ignore and neglect the people who were losing their jobs as the recession was start to reach its full impact. Back then, he would only have five to ten people working in the call center even though he had enough money to pay for 30 workers. This led to only a small percentage of calls being answered, much less any of them being returned.

Perhaps the problem with answering the phone for the jobs hotline is not that the person was overwhelmed, but the underwhelmed with the quality of calls:

But not all calls were as promising. One caller in the hotline's records for the first week let Walker's staff know that she "wants to be president of the United States," according to the call logs. Another woman called in to say she had a "turkey recipe" and wanted to start a business, according to the phone log.

Then again, given Walker's arrogance and slow learning curve, it could have been that that poor staff person was too busy to answer the phone because they were busy commenting at JSOnline or working on getting campaign donations for his defense against the recall or in regards to Walkergate.  Or maybe they were afraid to the leave the Koch phone in case the real David Koch were to call.

A Busload of Baloney

What is it with conservative politicians and their love of showboating?  People would be much more impressed with them if they actually did the people's work instead of just hamming it up for the cameras.

Scott Walker is a primary example.

But three local stooges - Supervisor Mark Borkowski and Aldermen Joe Dudzik and Bob Donovan - make a good showing at being useless or worse.

The Perpetual Pillaging Proposal*

In a conversation I was having last week, I tried to explain how Scott Walker and the Republicans were operating.  I referred to the classic science fiction series related to "Dune" by Frank Herbert.  I said that there was a turn of phrase from the book that dealt with very complex schemes to reach a desired outcome, which went something like "a plot within a plot within a plot."  It stuck with me throughout my life and would often arise when watching what Walker and his allies were doing.

One example would be one of this favorite ploys of declaring a fiscal emergency in order to grab the authority and power to do what he wanted regardless of whether it was ethical or even legal.  Ofttimes, the fiscal emergency was really non-existent or one that he contrived to create.  He did this shortly after being sworn in as governor, declaring a fiscal emergency where none existed before, then giving huge tax giveaways to companies (read campaign donors) to artificially construct a deficit.  By doing so, he gave himself the excuse to do all sorts of things that would not have been allowed to happen otherwise, like busting the unions.

And we're seeing another such chain of events unfurl before our very eyes.  One which will allow Walker and his Republican cadre to set up a perpetual pillaging machine on the middle class of Wisconsin.

It's no deep dark secret that Walker is greatly beholden to the well-moneyed special interests that funded his entire gubernatorial campaign and already coughing up big money to defend against the recall which is coming his way.  Among these special interests are groups such as land developers, real estate mavens**, Big Business, and of course, the road builders.

Walker's ties to the road builders are so strong that, during the campaign, he had a land developer fly him to Florida in order to get money thrown at him by the boatload during a road builder convention.  Laughably, Walker had this to say about the donations he received:

Donations from those at the Florida event won’t affect his decision-making on transportation as governor, Walker said. Those donations were no different than money from other groups, he said. Walker did not provide a figure for how much was raised in Florida.

Of course, he didn't mean a word of it.

Shortly after taking over as governor, partially lost in the furor over his assault on the working men and women of the state by attacking their rights, Walker took transit out of the transportation fund and put it in the general fund. This meant that the transit systems across the state now had to compete with other very important things, like education and health services, to get their funding.

It also meant that road construction had the transportation fund all to themselves. And Walker was quick to sweeten that pot for them:

Regional Transportation Authority board member Steve Hiniker reminded those in attendance that the bill will cut off millions of dollars in federal funding to Wisconsin’s public transit system and redirect the money to highway construction,

Walker’s bill freezes $107 million of federal funding for public transit, allowing for all previously earmarked funds for the transit system to be transferred over to highway work. The bill also includes provisions to redirect money from state recycling programs into funds for the construction.

The city’s transit system currently receives federal funding through the State Segregated Transportation Fund. When Walker’s bill goes into effect, funding for the public transit system will instead come from the state’s general fund and will consequently need to compete for its funding.

The general fund also supports other public services, such as education and aid to low income families. This means transit’s federal funding will be cut by $48.6 million annually, Hiniker said.

“The governor is trying to kill all government programs except for highways because his friends are in the road building business,” Hiniker said, alluding to 40 private companies that financially supported Walker’s campaign.

Funds for highway construction will increase by 15 percent and the total revenue going into the highway fund will be more than $400 million.

But apparently that pot still wasn't sweet enough and Walker and his allies are gearing up to dump a whole lot of our money into it for them.

A extreme right wing front group, WPRI (Weasels Promoting Republican Ideology), came out with a "comprehensive" study that found that Wisconsin needs to start up toll roads.  Not just any toll roads, but electronic ones that don't require real people to man them.  This way they can be easily privatized, like they've done in other parts of the country, and would mean huge profits for the entities who are so eager to snap them up and are willing to pay top dollar to get their piece of the pie.

Sounds like something right up Walker's alley.

So watch for Walker and his Republican buddies in the legislature cite this propaganda in order to ram through privatized toll roads, maybe even as soon as in this "special session."  Then they will make the contract for some crazy length of time, like 99 years. That way they can keep gouging us for a long, long time, even after the Republicans are booted out of office.

Now, before the gentle reader says that Walker is so anti-tax that he would never consider doing something which would raise taxes, let me point out to the gentle reader, he had already opened that Pandora's Box while he was campaigning.

After all, he has to keep raising funds to support his ultimate goal of running for president. (Yes, even with Walkergate and everything else, he is still that narcissistic that he thinks that is an attainable goal.)

And all of this goes to support something that I've been saying for a long time: The Republicans don't give a damn if you're paying  less taxes. In fact, they would like to see us pay more, as evidenced by their continuous tax hikes, fee hikes and rate hikes on the middle and lower classes. What the Republicans really care about it making sure your money goes to the right places, like the pockets of their corporate sponsors.

*Alternate Title: Walker's Troll Road

**It's no coincidence that many of Walker's cronies, from Tim Russell to his just turned former campaign treasurer, John Hiller, are deep in the real estate business.

So, What Else Is Old?

Yawn.

Big news of the day so far: Walker lied - yet again.

A few days ago, I informed the gentle reader that Walker was painting himself into the proverbial corner by lying about his knowledge of his spokesman being given immunity in the ongoing Walkergate.

Today, Dan Bice, bordering on beating a dead horse, confirms what common sense and logic dictates - that being given immunity in a John Doe investigation is not a secret.

The only real question is whether Walker will admit to his gaffe or will he try to blame his attorney, former US Attorney Steven Biskupic for the mess that Walker put himself into?

The Most Important Question On An Application For A Walker-Created Job

Are you willing to relocate?

Nearly one in five of the jobs listed on a state website touted by Gov. Scott Walker as a resource for unemployed Wisconsin residents are actually located in neighboring states, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

More than 32,000 job openings were posted on the Job Center of Wisconsin's website as of Tuesday, but about 18 percent of them were in Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan. It was unclear how many of those roughly 6,000 jobs could be filled through telecommuting, though many appeared to require on-site work.

Walker ran on a promise to add 250,000 private sector jobs in the state by 2015, and the Republican repeatedly referenced the website -- the state's official jobs site -- in his radio address last week as a place for Wisconsin's unemployed to find jobs and quickly connect with employers.

But even though Walker's job gaffe is breathtaking in its dishonesty and absurdity, that isn't the thing that really made me want to bang my head against the wall. It was these lines from Walker's mouthpiece, Cullen "Mr. Immunity" Werwie (emphasis mine):

Filling any of the out-of-state jobs wouldn't help Walker keep that campaign promise, but his spokesman said Tuesday that the jobs were worth pointing out.

"Residents who live in our state and work elsewhere create a positive impact on their local communities," spokesman Cullen Werwie said. "They spend their money back in their communities, create economic activity and ultimately help create an environment for job creation in those areas."

Wait! What's this? Spending money creates economic activity and ultimately jobs?

So how does Team Walker justify taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the economy by busting the unions and gouging the workers? Is it any wonder that Walker has led the state into losing jobs and having up the unemployment in the state?

He either just doesn't know what he's doing or he doesn't give a damn as long as he appeases his campaign donors.

People Who Wish They Were In The Union

There's a story in the Racine Journal Times telling the sad story of ten people who lost their job when the stimulus dollars funding them ran out.  But the story also shows why unions are still just as relevant as they've ever been, probably even more so with the corporate state Wisconsin is becoming under Scott Walker's maleficent regime:

Cotton said employees were told when the funds were received that layoffs would be necessary once the money was gone. The notices were given Friday, the same day the terminations were effective. Those laid off included two inspectors, two crew chiefs and three crew workers.

Addo Williams Jr., 48, of Racine, who had been with the agency 11 months, said he has never missed work and was promoted to crew chief after his first six months — yet he was still let go.

“If I’m not producing, how was I promoted?” he said. Others say their reviews show they’ve been more than competent at their jobs.

Racine resident Vanessa Tellez, who was also laid off, said the agency played “favorites” with its employees, some who’ve been working for about three months and others who are related to the agency’s managers.

“They just didn’t do this right,” she said.

Cotton could not be reached for comment later Friday. However, he had said that the agency doesn’t recognize seniority
.
“We told them we would be keeping the best individuals,” Cotton said.

The right wing, including Walker and his mindless lieutenant governor, Becky Kleefish, keep saying by destroying the unions, it allows them to reward the "best" teachers and the "best" workers. But as this story clearly demonstrates, it's not necessarily the best they are after, but the cheapest labor or the chance to practice cronyism and nepotism without restraint.

Or as we've seen with Walker, to practice graft and corruption to the hilt.

H/T Fred Dooley (whose Obama Derangement Syndrome prevents him from seeing that these people would never even had work if not for the stimulus money - they're sure going to be lucky to get one the way Walker is chasing them out of the state)

Hey, #wiunion, When We Recall Walker...

...let's make damn sure we recall Becky too.

Walker Proposes Stage Two Of His Death Panel

Scott Walker, realizing his days as governor are numbered, is going to try to get through as many of his corporate master's wishes as soon as possible.  This includes the installation of a death panel, in which Walker is the sole panelist, and wants to play God, deciding who gets to live and who gets to die.  All of his decisions, like any major insurance company, will be based not on the person, not on their illness, but on the bottom line.

The first stage was enacted on July 1, 2011 when he put a cold stop from counties handling the logistics s of their own medical transports in an efficient manner.  Instead, he contracted with some private out-of-state agency to do all the scheduling state wide.  As one could have predicted, they are under-performing to the detriment of the health of our most vulnerable citizens.

Now, Walker is ready to roll out the next step, and the real reason he brought in someone like Dennis Smith to head up the chop job Walker and company wanted to do to Medicaid.  To the tune of more than $550 million.

And if you look at the break down, it's not just the poor that Walker wants to throw under the stretch limo. He is also going after the disabled, the frail and elderly, and children, whether they are healthy or disabled.

Strangely, the conservatives who have been squawking about death panels under President Obama's health care reform proposal have been oddly silent about Walker's death panel.  Same for those that made, and continue to bring up, the handful of protesters who held a silent protest during Walker's photo op with Special Olympians.  (That was the same day that he announced he was freezing Family Care, denying many of those same Olympians the services they need for independence.)

So, when he says that he is going to focus on jobs, his real plan is to cut tens of thousands of people off from health care, all in order to pay for the big tax breaks and sweetheart contracts that he is giving to his campaign donors.  And this at a time when one in five Wisconsinites are dependent on government subsidized health care.  Ironically, this will also end up cost tax payers a lot more in the long run.

As Steven Walters pointed out months ago, this is going to prove to be wildly unpopular, even more than his attack on the working men and women of this state.  The elderly and their advocates aren't going to lay down and take this any more than the unions are.  And as Walters put it in his article:

One other reason Walker's call to put new limits on Medicaid's explosive growth is that 42% of all Medicaid recipients are children.

Think of it this way: Would you want to be the legislator blamed for ending Wisconsin's record of providing health care for 100% of all low-income children?

Is it any wonder that Walker has spend the last several months traveling the country to raise big money and has sent his chief of staff back to his campaign to prepare for the recall? His unnecessary maliciousness is going to make him even more unpopular than he is now. And more and more people are beginning to realize that things won't get better, the jobs won't come back and people won't be able to regains some sort of normalcy until Walker and his ilk are gone.

Right Wing Derangement On Display

Dan at Las Vegas Badger demonstrates the right wing derangement that we have to deal with every day.

In a post complaining about how the United Way wants to actually help people, he has this to say:

... Yep, that United Way that tries to embarrass you into giving through your employer. They were protesting the usual liberal stuff- education, poverty and the need for fresh produce (?)

How far down the rabbit hole has his mind gone when education (he's a teacher, BTW - I really feel sorry for his students), helping the poor and making sure they have healthy food is a thing to be hated? And then to go off on a charitable organization who's mission is to help people when they actually want to help people.

It boggles the mind how hateful these people are.

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?

Confirming What We Already Knew

Yuppers, we are living in a fascist state now.

But we already knew that when the governor and other Republican leaders sent state troopers after political opponents with orders to arrest them and drag them back to the Capitol.  Even the pregnant women.

I can already hear the gales of November coming early.

More Cuts At Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Even though it's already been reduced to being little more than a press release regurgitation machine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is acting quickly to make it even less of a newspaper:

A new round of buyouts and involuntary downsizing has eliminated six jobs in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom, including five represented by the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild.

Journal Sentinel Inc. management has not announced the total number of positions eliminated throughout all newspaper departments, but some sources indicate it could be more than two dozen. The staff reductions were completed during the past week.

The latest cuts mark a return to what had become a troubling trend. During 2009 alone, buyouts and layoffs cut the newsroom work force by one-third. But no downsizing had touched our bargaining unit since then.

“I’m hoping we can keep our current numbers stable, but as we’ve seen the company is willing to squeeze the newsroom any time it feels like its financial numbers aren’t up to snuff,” Guild President Tom Silverstein told members. “I remain dismayed that, with few exceptions, the newsroom cuts have been aimed at bargaining-unit employees and not management.”

While I cancelled my subscription eight months ago, my dad will sometimes drop off his copy of the Sunday paper for the ads. I can read the entire thing in less than 45 minutes, including the ads and the comics, there is so little useful information in there. By the time the editors are done with the articles, there is little fact left to them. And with David Haynes took over the Editorial Board, it's not even worth the nausea that comes with their unabashed water-carrying for Scott Walker and the Tea Party.

Even now, I find myself even avoiding their website as much as possible, because their coverage, with a few notable exceptions, aren't even worth the frustration of their relentless pop-up ads and other clutter.

I would love to see either another daily paper come into the market or the Shepherd Express to expand their coverage and increase their frequency.  I bet either way, their business would take off in this honest news deprived town.

Another Rat Flees Walker's Sinking Ship

It's being reported that Scott Walker's Chief of Staff, Keith Gilkes, is leaving his state job to go back to his political consulting business.

And speculation as to why and why now abound.

The speculation regarding Gilkes departure is fueled by the fact that so many of Walker's other staffers, both from the past and those currently serving him, are embroiled in the ever-expanding Walkergate.

It doesn't help Team Walker that there are inconsistencies, as usual, in their messaging.

The report from JSOnline indicates that Gilkes is going back to campaign life at Walker's urging and to prepare for the upcoming recall:

Walker said he wanted Gilkes to go to the campaign now because he wants to tout the benefits of his policies - including an explosive repeal of almost all collective bargaining for public employees.

"I think when the public sees the facts and we get our message out, people are going to be appreciative of what we've done and, hopefully, they'll want to send more people to Madison who have that kind of common sense when it comes to reforms," Walker told reporters at a Madison event.

"I absolutely do take it seriously," he said of a possible recall attempt.

But later in the very same article, Gilkes said that he was planning this all along and that there's nothing to see here:

Gilkes and Walker said the departure was not related to the investigation. Indeed, top Republicans had been privately saying even before the raid on Archer's home that Gilkes would be leaving the administration soon to prepare for a likely recall attempt.

Gilkes disclosed his plans to top Walker aides earlier in the day during a meeting of Walker's cabinet at a Madison hotel. In an interview, he said he would serve as lead adviser to Walker's campaign, but would also take on other clients for campaign work. He said he would not go into lobbying.

Gilkes said he had long planned to revive his political consulting business, the Champion Group, after working as chief of staff.

"My reputation is one of not wanting to stay in state government for very long," Gilkes said, referring to past stints in the Capitol between campaign jobs.

Both Walker and Gilkes deny that Gilkes' resignation has anything to do with Watergate.

But is that true?

Bill Christofferson says maybe, maybe not. He makes a valid point that not everyone is cut out for government work and thrive more on the political sides of things. To further support this would be to just say "follow the money." It is probably very likely that Gilkes can make much more than his state salary of $112,000 as a consultant, especially if he picks up other clients. (I did hear rumor that he has been in contact with one of the presidential hopefuls.)

For what it's worth, I haven't even heard of a rumor tying Gilkes into the ongoing investigation into all of the nefarious misdeeds of the Walker campaign and his staff. But then again, it's hard to imagine that Gilkes, who managed Walker's campaign and then served nine months as his chief of staff is completely unaware of everything that was going on. After all, it was Gilkes who allowed the phony David Koch phone call to go through, indicating that there was some awareness of the Kochs' ties to Walker.

But to say Gilkes' resignation has absolutely nothing to do with Walkergate would be a stretch of the truth, in my opinion.

Gilkes' truly might not be a person of interest in the investigation, but it's very hard to believe that he does not have some knowledge of what was happening during the campaign he was managing or in Walker's office where he was Walker's right hand man. It would not be surprising if he was at least questioned during the investigation.

At the very least, it would make sense for anyone to want to distance themselves from Walker's sinking ship, even in a discreet fashion. Especially if the pasture is greener away from Walker and his scorched earth.

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XIX

A scant ninety days into Scott Walker's budget, and we see it's having it's predicted effect on the job market:

Wells Fargo plans to lay off 31 employees at its Wells Fargo Capital Finance and commercial banking groups in downtown Milwaukee beginning Nov. 29.

The San Francisco-based bank told Wisconsin state officials that employees would be notified of the layoffs on Friday. Wells Fargo disclosed the layoffs in a Friday filing with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Wells Fargo gave no reason for the layoffs.

Doesn't it make you so glad to know that they're so successful in driving away jobs that they are calling another "special" session to accelerate the downward spiral they've put the state in.