Thursday, March 19, 2009

County Board Prevents Walker From Wasting Tax Dollars

There is some good news coming out of the Milwaukee County Courthouse today.

No, Walker did not see the light and resign. We're not that lucky.

However, the County Board did see the light and did vote to reject Walker's proposal to move the mental health complex to the old St. Michael's Hospital. This proposal the most expensive out of three options, the other two being renovating the current structure or building a new one across the street from the current one.

Tim Russell, Walker aide and on-again-off-again campaign staffer, lamented the Board's insight and offered the usual garbage that spouts from Walker's camp. Hopefully the Board will now look at what a realistic plan would look like and act on it with all due promptness.

But that good news isn't all that we learned today. To put icing on that piece of cake, the Board also overrode, by a 16-3 margin, a veto of a resolution to pursue the sales tax proposal that was passed last November.

I guess Walker, in his perpetual bid for governor, thinks it is better to cater to people in the surrounding counties (who, unsurprisingly, make up a good part of his campaign donors, according to his most recently released campaign finance report) rather than allow the property tax payers of his own county enjoy some tax relief, and bolster the local economy by an improved transit system. And in these economic hard times we're in, who wouldn't want to enjoy something that is free, like a day in the improved park system, which would be another benefit from the sales tax proposal.

On the bright side for Walker, being outmaneuvered by the County Board is something that happens with regular frequency, and probably won't draw as much attention as when he was run over by Mayor Barrett's streetcar.

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