Wednesday, February 3, 2010

As The County Begins To Crumble

At Milwaukee County First, we discuss what could be the beginning of the end.

Walker has done a good job of driving Milwaukee County into the ground, and I'm afraid that it may be only a matter of time before we end up looking like Colorado Springs.

I cannot imagine how in the world Scott Walker thinks that this continuous cycle of failure on his part is going to help his campaign one iota. But then again, if, or should I say when, his campaign falters due to his bunglings, that will only be good news for the state at least.

12 comments:

  1. I'd be glad to trade 1/3 of the street lights if the money saved would go toward lower bus fares and maintaining county parks. Way, way, way more street lights on all over this county than are needed; we don't need to be lit up like a damn Xmas tree all year round. So many bright lights on every county road all night long every night where there is little traffic is a huge waste. Meanwhile we've got suckholes and tumbleweeds in the parks and it costs as much as two gallons of gas to take the bus to and from work or school.

    Priorities. Seriously. Let's turn off some of the lights.

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  2. nealb- maybe we should make don meredith the county executive.

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  3. Oh, come on. No copper helicoper. It's not that big of a city. Third of the lights on? So what, cars do have lights on their cars. Does your castle up north have street lights? Fewer cops and firefighters and the down side to that? Fires have been declining over the years because of better home building technology. Mowing every 2 weeks- hell, they live in a dry climate, especially in the summer. It's not like Wisconsin.
    So, go, Colorado Springs and I do hope Milwaukee and other cities and counties copy them.

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  4. Would the county be better off it remained under Tom Ament?

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  5. And BTW, I spent a few days in CO. Springs 2 years ago, visiting a Culvers. We traveled throughout the city, so I can say I know a little what I am talking about.

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  6. Anonymous 2:17

    Yes, yes, it would.

    Dan,

    So what? That was two years ago. I bet you wouldn't recognize it this summer, when it's a ghost town.

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  7. Then why did the county residents recall Ament?

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  8. Anonymous,

    Ament was, of course, recalled for the pension scandal. The fact that Ament, with his scandal, is still better than Walker is, with his own pension scandal, shows how bad he really is.

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  9. Ament was run out of office by a bunch of power-drunk tea-baggers, the penny-wise, pound-foolish, Republican-controlled local media, and the political hacks they promoted for the sake of destroying County government. The mob mentality aroused by those conspicuously co-ordinated forces led to the rash of idiotic recall elections that destabilized the County governance and has hastened its demise over the past decade.

    The above-mentioned conspirators that gleefully focused on ruining the careers of a handful of hapless-but-innocent county supervisors and the exec are no friends of Milwaukee County or its citizens.

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  10. NealB, you're 100% wrong. Ament was in the process of bankrupting the county. As it is he may have done so posthumously. Walker is trying to save a sinking ship.

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  11. No, Anonymous, you are dead wrong. Did you read the report by Public Policy Forum? I did. Furthermore, I spoke to Rob Henken, President of said group.

    While it is undeniable that Ament's pension scandal caused great fiscal turmoil, the largest percentage of today's issues are not from the pension scandal.

    The two major causes are the recession, which was caused by the same economic philosophy that Walker embraces, and by Walker's refusal to fully fund the pension fund, which exasperated the problem exponentially.

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  12. Anonymous: Whatever the incompetence/perfidy of Ament in the pension scandal, the mob-hysteria whipped up by egomaniacal local media personalities and the ousters they successfully engineered, did much more damage to the County and its citizens. Corrupt, incompetent leaders have always been with us, and always will. And removing them from office is our job, as voters. Elections.

    Ament would have gone much further than a replacement in fixing the damage he did, including perhaps indicting the consultants that did such shoddy work in advising him and the Board on the pension program. And after that, he likely would have lost his job in the next election anyway. The recalls were a waste of time and civic bandwidth.

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