Daniel Cody - “Left on the Lake”

As promised, here is the text of the referendum the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted to approve last week:

Shall the State of Wisconsin grant Milwaukee County the authority to provide property tax relief of at least sixty-five million dollars ($65 million) by levying a one percent (1%) county sales and use tax to be used to removed the following three items from the property tax levy: parks recreation culture, transit and emergency medical services (EMS)?
YES
NO

Two developments since last week: County Executive Scott Walker has unsurprisingly said he’ll veto the measure, and County Supervisor Theo Libscomb has indicated his support for the measure. Sup. Libscomb’s support should give the County Board the votes they need to override Walker’s veto and let the people of Milwaukee County decide once and for all on this issue.

Ken Mobile has some relevant thoughts about our Supervisor, Lynne DeBruin, and her changing excuses over the past few years to block this initiative.

We’ll see whether she chooses to side with Scott Walker again, or if she’s got another excuse to block the people of Milwaukee County having their say when the override vote comes up in July.

Semi-good news out of today’s Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors meeting; the Board passed a resolution that would put a referendum question on this Novembers ballot asking the residents of Milwaukee County whether or not they would support a 1% sales tax to replace the property tax levy for parks, transit and EMS services.

I say semi-good news because it passed by a vote of 12-6, which means there aren’t enough “yes” votes at this time to overturn what is assuredly going to be a Scott Walker veto of the resolution. However, one of the new Supervisors, Theo Libscomb, was absent today. How he’d vote is anyone’s guess, but I’d have to assume he’d go with Walker on this one, which leaves the Board one vote shy from overturning the veto.

More later including the actual text of the referendum as it would appear on the ballot this November, and some thoughts about my own Supervisor’s continued obstruction of simply letting the voters have their say on this issue once and for all.

I was enjoying some big band music this evening at “Tosa Tonight” in Hart Park when I was surprised to see County Supervisor Jim “Luigi” Schmitt announce himself and ask for my signature on nomination papers for his bid to become the next Milwaukee County Clerk.

I knew that the former Clerk, Mark Ryan, had announced he was retiring recently, but I was a bit surprised to hear that Sup. Schmitt was running for the job a mere two months after winning re-election for County Supervisor in the 19th district which represents Wauwatosa.

When I asked him who was running to fill his seat should he win the office of County Clerk, he jokingly replied, as is his manner, that he didn’t care.

I’m not aware at this time of any other candidates running for the office and would have to say that his name ID across the County puts him at the top of an as yet unknown list of candidates in the November election.

It will be interesting to see how his campaign for a County wide office will influence his voting between now and November, especially on issues like the County wide sales tax increase that he’ll be voting on tomorrow.

While the district he’s represented in Wauwatosa as Supervisor is one of the more conservative in the County, and hence most friendly to his mostly conservative record, it will be interesting to see how that record plays out in a County wide race.

It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since former Alderman Mike McGee was arrested on charges of bribery.

He was found guilty last night and will certainly go to prison for a maximum of 30 years, but probably more like 3-5. Then he’s got an entire state trial to deal with which hasn’t even begun yet and could add a serious amount of time to that sentence.

While I don’t have any specific comments on the trial or McGee himself, I think it’s important to close this ugly and disturbing chapter in Milwaukee’s history.

One has to wonder who the Wisconsin right-wing will use in his place though when they want to bash the African American community here in Milwaukee. McGee had been a convenient figurehead for them to use in recent history whenever they wanted to parrot the “Milwaukee thug” meme.

At any rate, guilty by a jury of his peers who found it hard to ignore the overwhelming evidence against McGee. Good riddance.

Amtrak usage between Milwaukee and Chicago is up over 24% over a year ago.

Amtrak says its passenger train service between Milwaukee and Chicago continues to set ridership records.

For the first five months of the year, the seven daily Hiawatha Service round trips carried more than 281,000 passengers. Amtrak says that’s a 24 percent increase over last year. Chicago Tribune

I can hear the counter argument already… “Maybe Milwaukee’s use of fixed rail is up, but Milwaukee’s situation is different than the one here in …. Milwaukee”.

Imagine if we had a commuter rail line between the two cities like the proposed KRM route between Milwaukee and Chicago?

Check out the synopsis from a segment of this morning’s Jay Weber show. For the 99.983% of people who have no idea who that is, he’s the morning drive right-wing talker on WISN 1130. In short, a less entertaining, more narcissistic version of Rush Limbaugh.

“Milwaukee’s hand-out crowd storms the welfare office for freebies.”

This is not only classless, but heartless, cruel, and disturbing on several levels to anyone with a conscience.

Mocking those unfortunate ones who don’t have enough to eat, or are looking to feed their children, as looking for “hand-outs” or “freebies” is sick.

The double irony here is that this comes from a person who spends hours a day talking about how Sen. Obama is “out of touch” or “elitist!” with regular Americans.

News flash to conservatives like Mr. Weber: Millions of “regular” Americans go to bed hungry every night. When they fall on tough times, they’ll do anything they need to feed their families. That includes weighing the shame and powerlessness that can come with relying on someone others against the basic human instinct to feed and care for your children.

I know, because I’ve personally been in that line in my life. We were never there for “hand-outs” or “freebies” or anything so trite as Mr. Weber tries to make it out to be. We were there because we needed some help to make it through the week.

So unless you’ve been there yourself, you have no right to judge those who are.

Can anyone else see the problem in this story about the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority choosing not to hire the same consultant I wrote about last week? The one who got paid $30,000 to make the common sense recommendation that increasing routes and lowering rates would actually help Milwaukee County transit?

Other transit authority members contended that Rubin’s status as a rail transit critic, backed by the Libertarian-oriented Reason Foundation and the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, would give the authority added credibility among Republicans in the Legislature.

Any idea why the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority doesn’t hire a “LIBERAL” highway critic who has ties to progressive transit think tanks to provide recommendations for its highway policies?

The real question is why the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority pandering to “conservatives” at all with regard to shaping their policy towards mass transit in Wisconsin? Transit policy in this part of the state has been mired in partisan politics for the better part of two decades now, the last thing we need is a continuation of that policy that has yielded exactly nothing for the residents of Southeastern Wisconsin.

After watching this process play out for nearly four years it’s no surprise that the Milwaukee Wi-Fi plans, which I’ve been covering since day one, have pretty much been put to a quiet death:

Plans for wireless Internet access blanketing Milwaukee have stalled and won’t be completed unless major financial sponsors step forward - something that doesn’t seem likely, city officials say, as similar systems are failing.

For all practical purposes, the plans have “stopped dead in the water,” Ald. Robert Bauman said, adding that city government has no intention of sinking millions of dollars into a Wi-Fi wireless system. - Journal Sentinel

For what it’s worth, it was never the intent of the Government to sink any money into this project. The company who proposed the deal, Midwest Fiber Networks, originally promised that they’d take care of everything if only the city would grant it rights to the municipal fiber network - the backbone of the wireless plan.

As I and a number of others pointed out at the time, letting Midwest Fiber have that kind of freedom would only hurt the city and it’s residents in the long run.

Unfortunately I was right, and now because of this failure, it’s going to be extremely difficult to get buy-in from municipal government anytime in the near future.

Another city is ramping up development of their commuter rail lines.

(Houston) City Council approved an agreement Wednesday with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, giving permission for the agency to build five light rail lines on Houston streets, but also pledging to make sure Metro does the job right. - Houston Chronical

Houston isn’t the most progressive city in the Country by any stretch of the imagination, and yet it’s leaders managed to identify and plan for the needs of it’s residents with regard to their increasing desire for mass transit options.

Healthcare is a privilege, not a right in America.

If you get sick, or are unable to afford what insurance companies are willing to give you for coverage, it’s because you just haven’t worked hard enough or made “bad choices” in your life.

Stop relying on the government, or anyone else for that matter to help you out in the event you’re given a life threatening diagnosis.

Even if you’re 8 years old.

When Barack Obama changes his mind about opting out of public financing restrictions for the Presidential election, does that make him a “MAVERICK” on the issue of campaign finance reform?

Keeping track of the double standard in this years election is going to be quite a task.

When Sen. McCain “flip-flops” on every issue from tax cuts to reproductive rights to torture, he’s a “MAVERICK!”.

When Sen. Obama changes his mind, he’s a “flip-flopper!”.

Go figure.