Quick follow up to yesterday’s post regarding the final “Budget Workshop” given by County Exec. Walker last night at the Washington Park Senior Center…

The first thing I have to say is this is a brilliant piece of politicking by Walker. No matter how much I disagree with him, having these “workshops” that basically take the heat off him and put it onto his department heads and the people attending by having them work in small groups to come up with “solutions” for the budget is smart. At the end of the session, the focus of responsibility is on those who attend and if they did or didn’t come up with any creative ways to craft the budget within the constraints given them. It’s not on what Scott Walker is responsible for, and that tactic makes perfect sense considering it came from a man who loves to offload responsibility onto others.

The primary problem I saw was that since this was the only “workshop” held outside of most people’s working hours, it was packed. Every table was filled, and their was a great level of representation there from advocacy groups, unions, and regular people who didn’t want to see their bus line cut. But not everyone was able to participate or have their voice heard, and that’s unfortunate since many of the people who attended last night’s workshop from the Washington Park neighborhoods don’t have anyone in the courthouse to stand up for them.

From the placards in the crowd, it was clear a lot of people showed up and expected their voices to be heard. That didn’t happen.

At the end of the day, it was a very well run “workshop” by the County Exec and his department heads, and it framed the upcoming budget discussions very favorably for Walker since everyone walked out of there with a printed powerpoint presentation which was basically just talking points about “holding the line on taxes”, “budget challenges”, etc nicely.

While it’s always a good idea for elected officials and assorted department heads to get out in front of their constituents, it’s even better if those constituents can ask tough questions directly and publicly to said officials. It would be great if Walker would continue to hold these kinds of events in conjunction with public question & answer sessions in the future to the residents of Milwaukee could get straight answers about the major issues and services that affect them.

With the County budget process looming, County Exec. Scott Walker has been holding a series of “budget workshops” recently that people can come to and voice their opinions with various County leaders.

Tonight is the last in the series of these events, and I’d encourage residents who are interested in hearing more about the budget process and voicing their concerns to attend. The details:

DATE: Monday, August 13, 2007
TIME: 5:30pm – 7:00pm
PLACE: Washington Park Senior Center 4420 West Vliet Street

Hope to see you there!

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker wanting to “talk” with other regional leaders about the possibility of him ditching the responsibility Milwaukee County Transit on to them shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, least of all residents of Milwaukee County.

This is right out of his play book for abdicating himself of having to make tough decisions regarding how this county is run. All so he can say he “held the line on taxes” and please Republican donors and special interest groups outside Milwaukee in order to secure their support for his eventual campaign for Governor (again).

If you think you’ve heard this play called before, you’d be right. It was a similar situation when Walker proposed a separate “Parks District” with taxing authority who would run the Milwaukee County Parks system. Basically, they’d get the same share of taxes which are already spent on parks, but have to cover things that the County covers like administration, benefits, capital improvements, etc. It’d be a huge loss for the County Parks system because they’d have to do much much more with the same or less money and services would suffer as a result.

So it’s no wonder why Scott Walker would be for something like that, right?

What’s happening here is that Milwaukee County residents are paying more money for fewer services than they were in 2000. Fewer bus routes but higher fares. A parks system in shambles but higher property taxes. Fewer mental health resources for those who need them, yet a pension buyback scandal for those who needed it least.

If only the words that came out of Scott Walker’s mouth could be trusted, we’d at least be getting fewer services for less money, which is “only” half as bad, but that hasn’t panned out either.

Almost as bad as our County Executive doing everything he can to run this County into the ground before he ‘moseys on down to the next town on his political cattle drive are some of the County Supervisors we elected doing anything they can to let the status quo run its course while breathlessly throwing their hands up in the air and bemoaning “Well what am I supposed to do?!”.

My answer to them: get out of the way and let someone who’s willing to lead take over the oversight reigns for Milwaukee County you seem so afraid to hold.

My advice to our County Executive would be to buff up his resume before next springs election, because even if you do manage to pull out your own election victory, the people of Milwaukee County and the Board of Supervisors have had enough of your brand of “leadership”.

Congratulations are in order for Pat Jursik who won the special election for County Supervisor yesterday in the 8th district (Cudahy, Oak Creek, St. Francis and South Milwaukee). I think she’ll be an effective Supervisor and has some great ideas for moving Milwaukee County forward.

Next springs elections for the entire County Board of Supervisors will hopefully yield even more victories for progressive candidates in Milwaukee County who have a positive vision for the future.

(Side note: You’d think this would have made the paper, but apparently it’s not enough of a “story” for the MJS?)