Thursday, September 24, 2009

Initial Thoughts Regarding Walker's Proposed 2010 Budgets

These are just my initial reactions to a preliminary look through Scott Walker's proposed budget for 2010. As is my wont, I will be examining them more closely in the days to come, covering them by sections.

When I first read Walker's campaign speech budget address, I will admit that I was impressed. There were some good news in there indeed, such as the restoration of some key services. Needless to say, I was dismayed about Walker's hopes to try to balance his budget on the backs of the poor, the elderly and, yes, the workers, such as myself. More on the workers part in a little bit.

Dan Cody shows that Walker is proposing his fancy water parks in the suburbs at the cost of several pools, including the two indoor pools, and the community centers. This will not gain him any favors with the elderly or the poor.

Cory Liebmann and Harris Kane discuss how Walker seems to have suddenly become a tax and spender, like those he just criticized at last weekend's Teabaggerfest.

Walker also cuts several bus routes, including at least one serving the poorest neighborhoods, in favor of a rapid transit bus that will serve a school that will probably never be built.

Speaking of which, I am hearing from more and more sources that the UW-Tosa deal for the county grounds is going to fall through. I hope that the County Board shows enough sense not to count on that money anymore.

I did notice that it appears Walker has reversed himself on closing one of the units serving disabled adults at the mental health complex. Since I am the only one to have written about it, to the best of my knowledge, I take at least some of the credit for putting that pressure on.

It is good to see that Walker, after months and months of decrying the stimulus money, is now embracing it to rectify some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance and the disrepair that comes with it. Furthering his hypocrisy, he is also using the stimulus dollars to put the burden on taxpayers for years to come, despite saying how he thought that was a bad idea. And to put the cherry on this hypocrisy sundae, he is taking credit for the hard work the County Board did just to shut him up and get the stimulus dollars he didn't want in the first place.

Walker is also taking credit for Family Care, which was actually ordered by Governor Doyle to happen statewide. And by the way, it will take three years, not two. He really should have been paying more attention to his county instead of the state.

The fact that Walker is trying to balance his budget on the workers' backs during contract negotiations shows his lack of understanding and/or lack of respect for the laws governing such issues. All the union has to do, if push comes to shove is go to arbitration, which will end up costing jobs and cuts in services, but will also cost the County a pretty penny.

Also, as with the Income Maintenance programs, if Walker cuts services too much, the state will come in and take over these programs as well. There is already a class action lawsuit against DHHS for failing to provide services in a timely fashion to disabled adults.

On a similar note, I heard from a birdie today that Walker has sent a letter to the Board, asking for a special meeting to immediately implement the reduced work hours plan he had tried a few months ago. This time he learned his lesson, and is only asking for the four weeks as allowed under the old contract. The new one that he has threatened to veto would have given him six weeks to play with.

Walker also wants five days of furlough for non-represented employees, the birdie told me. I wonder if that would include his own staff.

And to top it off, Walker already has identified the 300-400 workers he wants laid off at year's end. Any guesses if I am on the list?

The County Board dropped a bomb on themselves today as well, when they voted to lay over the contract for AFSCME, after they approved two others that included raises, where AFSCME didn't. One of the bigger hypocrites was Supervisor Pat Jursik. She gave her fellow lawyers a raise, and is pushing to spend a wad of money on the underutilized Hoan Bridge, but thinks it's outrageous that a housekeeper or parks worker making $12 or $14 an hour gets to keep their job.

The other big hypocrite is Supervisor Johnny Thomas, who is a member of the Personnel Committee and voted for the contract in committee, but turned around and voted for the layover. But then again, it appears that he is pushing for some higher position himself, as evidenced by his "Road Map for Milwaukee County's Future." And like Paul Ryan's road map, it is a bunch of words that don't say anything.

6 comments:

  1. Well spoken as usual, capper. Here are some more salient points that Walker & company have delivered over the last eight months. Actions by the personnel committee have granted numerous pay raises by salary reclassifications and basically have rewarded managers with lucrative pay increases while expecting the majority of County workers to accept o% raises and an increase in health insurance costs. Examples of this would include; chief of staff Nardelli's huge salary increase, increasing the second in command parks manager salary to $112,000/ year, and increasing highway department supervisors hourly wage by almost $5/ hour. These are just some of the examples of Scott Walker's version of Milwaukee County Government AIG style. Isn't it wonderful we live in a country/county where the wealthier and highest paid employees can continue to get richer on the backs of the poor and downtrodden workers.

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  2. A growing number of folks in the private sector face pay cuts or freezes; layoffs, furloughs or outright job loss and ever-increasing employee contributions for retirement funds and insurance. They have little sympathy for government unions who come and twist their arms to force them to pay more in taxes and fees so said union employees can comfortably avoid the same hardships. This belt-tightening is going on in government agencies across the country...it's selfish for Milwaukee workers to not share the burden we all face in this economy.

    This "poor and downtrodden" rhetoric gets all your fellow members' heads nodding, but it's going to fall on deaf ears outside the union hall.

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  3. Roland,

    If you were paying attention, the workers are not only giving up pay freezes, but are actually taking pay cuts by voluntarily agreeing to pay more for their health insurance. On top of that, they are giving up some of their contractual rights.

    Meanwhile, while Walker is claiming poverty, as Kurt pointed out, he is giving $10K plus raises to his buddies and sweetheart, no-bid contracts to his campaign contributors.

    You might like getting taken in a swindle. We don't.

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  4. Why is it no one on the right...such as "Roland Melnick"...bothers to ever comment on the raises Walker is giving out?

    "Roland Melnick"...do you belong to a union?? If so...are you giving up anything (willing)? Do you agree with the pay raises Walker is giving out?

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  5. It's interesting how "Roland Melnick" is painting himself as a non-union worker in his comment...but yet when asked directly if he is in a union he won't answer the question. Come on "Roland Melnick" you can answer...can't you? Or are you afraid you just might look like a big fat hypocrite?

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  6. Well...I guess "Roland Melnick" isn't going to answer my question here or on BB. At least you are being upfront and honest with your association with a union capper. I think if a person is going to continue to bash unions for trying to negotiate the best deal for their members the least he/she can do is give full disclosure on whether or not they are reaping the benefits of belonging to a union....at the very same time they are condemning unions. I'll take "Roland Melnick's" silence as an answer.

    I don't know of a union that hasn't given up something...the question becomes how much should they have to give up and when is enough enough.

    There are many county workers who aren't making a lot of money so when you start talking about freezing pay raises, furloughs, higher premiums, etc., it does cause a hardship...and anyone who is happy about families struggling whether they are union or non-union workers is just sick.

    I'll never get how people like "Roland Melnick" and many other conservatives take some sort of sick pleasure in knowing union workers are suffering. And...then...extend that to Walker who is hell bent on appeasing those sick people. Blah! It will be a cold day in hell before I vote for Walker. I hope to God Mayor Barrett runs.

    Oh...and again...nothing said by "Roland Melnick" or any other conservative about the pay *increases* Walker is handing out and to whom he is handing them out to.

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