County Executive Scott Walker is not going to take any stimulus money because tax cuts are the only stimulus he likes, according to the JS.
Wow. That’s dumb. County facilities and even the county workforce are in shambles because of Walker’s policies. Walker has been a joke of an administrator; now he is proving himself to be a buffoon. Thank goodness the major workforce training entity was moved from the county to the city because surely Walker would rather see an even more obscenely astronomical unemployment rate in the central city than accept stimulus money.
There are a lot of questions about what the stimulus package will contain and whether it will do any good. Here’s hoping that congress critters actually know what they are voting on this time around before they approve it. But to simply reject, in advance, any funding from the package is just plain crazy stupid.
Questions:
Can the County Board override Walker’s bone-headed stance?
If he runs for governor and due to some obscene twist of fate actually is elected, will Walker refuse stimulus money for the entire state?
Will he reject any stimulus money that flows through the state to the county?
Walker says he won’t rule out stimulus money for local infrastructure projects (a rather large exception to his general stance). So stimulus money used to fund WisDOT’s freeway expansion concrete-a-thon might be OK, but stimulus money meant to pay for transit operating costs somehow would not be OK. Isn’t much of transit funding on the local property tax? So Walker would rather maintain a higher property tax burden for county residents than take stimulus money? Is he nuts?
Will he refuse to contract with private agencies that receive stimulus money either directly or through other levels of government?
Shouldn’t Walker, to be ideologically consistent, reject all state and federal funding, since all that funding requires some sort of taxes to be levied (and increased) and all that funding has the indirect effect of stimulating the economy and creating jobs?
Hasn’t he spent a lot of time complaining that the state does not give the county enough money?
Who the heck is advising him on this stuff?
one word:
Yes.
Walker is a tax cutting anarchist. He wants to weaken government to the point where you can drown it in a bath tub. Some people have likened Walker’s ideological bend to Bolshevism, like the communist rulers of Russia, he is so ideologically driven as to ignore the needs of the people. He is a radical, incapable of pragmatic compromise.
We have a government in Washington willing to support and pay for rail mass transit, as well as long needed infrastructure improvements, and we are stuck with County Executive who is ideologically apposed to asking for help. This is completely unacceptable, especially for a political leader of a region with our level of concentrated and racially segregated unemplyment.
I encourage the establishment of a strong and active coalition against Walker before he runs for governor. I am willing to meet with anyone willing and able to participate in a building a coordinated opposition.
Like Harry Truman used to say, “How many times do you have to get hit over the head before you figure out who’s hitting you?”
Oh my God, how can the community stand by while this moron is turning his back on potential federal funds?
County services are dreadful, prisons are understaffed and poorly run, parks are underfunded and this bozo is philosophically opposed to accepting a federal handout?
Walker isn’t fit to be governor. He isn’t even fit to be County Executive.
Recall the bum.
Kudus to Scott. The hangover from this rash of spending will be horrendous. Does anyone really believe that you can spend a lot of money right now then discontinue doing that after the Fed money is gone? No, you will have to continue those programs and they will go right on the property taxes as a result.
Once again Gretchen Schuldt, a know liar in regards to Tom Reynoldsand his supposed use of campaign funds for his utilities per the DA has missed her mark.
If you want more spending, Gretchen,yo u and your liberal friends can donate it.
Gretchen and Joe, you said plenty.
Walker is an anarchist and a social and economic terrorist with a megalomaniacal conception of his own power.
His peculiar stance will do nothing to ease the burden on the taxpayers of Milwaukee County.
Very often federal funds can be used by a county to ease the impact of state mandated programs, as Gretchen points out.
So now what? The programs are still mandated, the federal and state money isn’t there, and the money has to come from somewhere.
Absolutely the most boneheaded political gambit I’ve seen in ages.
Horne
It is unfortunate that Walker’s opponent from the last election, Lena Taylor, actually a normally savvy woman, hadn’t run such a lackluster campaign. Another part of the problem is that Walker, early on, found the value of constantly appearing in the media over the years whether he knew anything or not (often not). He’s a great smoozer.
Pretty good for a guy who ran for student government President at Marquette University in 1988, losing because, angry at not being endorsed by the Marquette Tribune (the paper liked both candidates), he had his cronies go around and seize piles of the paper and toss the,. Subsequently, the paper endorsed his opponent. Side note: Scotty never did graduate.
[...] Gretchen Schuldt also questions Walker’s sanity. [...]
Hello,
We have a web site up and there will be mor organizing to recall the bum. check us out at http://www.recallwalker.info.
Dave