Sunday, April 19, 2009

Scott Walker: Tosa Deranger


In 2002, shortly after Scott Walker won the special election for Milwaukee County Executive, following the recall of Tom Ament, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was kind enough to publish a list of Scott Walker's promises. Some are his own, some are he agreed to based on the platform of his pay for play buddies at CRG.

Since then, Walker has systematically gone about breaking each and every one of them, just has he has systematically gone about destroying Milwaukee County, all in the vain pursuit of the unattainable goal of being called Governor Walker.

The most recent broken promise affects the town he lives in, Wauwatosa. In 2002, Walker made this promise:
Oppose development of northeast quadrant of County Grounds for anything other than state forest.
Yet in the speech that was the unofficial kick off to the latest version of his perpetual run for governor, a speech he euphemistically called his "State of the County" address, Walker urged for the sale of the very land he said he would oppose:
Building a new School of Engineering for the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee on
the County Grounds is another project that will truly help stimulate the economy. We
negotiated a reasonable price for the land and now, we need to approve the deal and letUWM get on with their work.
I can hear my detractors now, "But, capper, the county grounds are so big. Obviously, he meant another part of them."

Au contraire, mon frere. We see in this article from UWM's own website that he is specifically targeting the area he promised to protect (emphasis mine):
One of the first steps is with the County Board Economic & Community Development Standing Committee, which has on its Monday, June 11, agenda, “discussions with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, or its designee, regarding their interest in a portion of the Northeast Quadrant of the County Grounds in the City of Wauwatosa for the development of a school of engineering, and biomedical and advanced automation research and teaching campus.”
Not only did Walker break one of his promises, again, he tried to shortchange the people of Milwaukee County by trying to sell the land for millions of dollars less than it's worth:

Last fall, the board approved negotiating a sale of the tract, which is on the Milwaukee County Grounds, east of U.S. Highway 45 and north of Watertown Plank Road. A UWM affiliate made the $11.8 million offer of privately raised funds for 89 acres.

The board's Economic & Community Development Committee voted unanimously Monday to hold the item until some changes, including an increase in the sale price, can be made. The proposal could return to the committee later this month.

UWM would pay $13.55 million for the land under an amendment proposed by Supervisors Jim Schmitt, whose district includes the County Grounds; Toni Clark, committee chairman; and Lee Holloway, board president.

Once again, the County Board had to come in and rescue the tax payers from Walker's ineptitude.

On top of all that, learned and/or invested people, such as James Rowen, Dave Reid and the Park People, all are opposed to building the new campus in Tosa, but would rather see it in downtown Milwaukee.

In fact, about the only people in favor of it are the land developers, Walker (who has benefited greatly in campaign contributions from said developers) and UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago, who is looking to get out of Milwaukee anyway.

I will readily admit that I have not been overly fond of some of the things Governor Jim Doyle has done, but really, he stills appears to a prince when compared to the ever-lying Walker: Tosa Deranger.

Addendum: Don't expect the local paper to point this out. They think that "he's been honest and he's maintained his principles." That alone says something about the local paper, doesn't it.

*Credit for the picture goes to Jay Bullock.

1 comment:

  1. Hey thanks for the link, and the new information regarding Walker's promise it could help. Thanks

    ReplyDelete