Is There A Doctor In The House?

by capper


The brain drain in Milwaukee County continues. This time the cause can be traced directly back to, who else, Walker.

The medical examiner's office has lost 50% of its qualified forensic pathologists, and there is a strong concern that the others will also leave.

To be fair, Dr. Jeffrey Jentzen retired after 22 years, so I won't blame Walker for his loss. However, the next in line, Dr. Russell Alexander turned down a $75,000 a year raise to move to Maryland.

The medical examiner's office and the D.A.'s office are both warning Walker that there is a strong danger of there being a backlog of autopsies, which would hamper law enforcement and prosecution of murderers. Walker is now forced to increase the salaries for pathologists, which he slashed in 2004, by $25,000 each, and replace a position for a forensic investigator, just one of the one's he cut out in previous years.

There is no word on how Walker plans to pay for all of this. Perhaps he will tap the $7 million dollar surplus that the County Board gave Milwaukee.

There have been no return calls from Dr. Quincy. Walker is standing by the phone, just in case.

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

by capper

My grandfather was born in Upper Michigan, but when he was still a baby, his family moved back to the Marche Region of Italy. When he turned 18 years old, he moved back to the United States, just in time for the Great Depression. Those years taught him to be frugal, to a fault.

One of the favorite family stories is how Grandpa bought some frozen pizzas that were on sale for 50 cents each. He was so proud about the money he saved. But after he ate the first one, he found out that they tasted terrible. He ended up going back to the store to buy mozzarella, pepperoni, and onions to put on the others, to make them tolerable. He ended up spending a lot more than if he had bought a more expensive, but better tasting pizza.

In other words, he was being penny wise and pound foolish.

This story came to mind when I read a comment from "Andy" who was expressing his opinion on one of my many posts on how Scott Walker has been ruining the transit system in Milwaukee County:

Ideally, I don't want any of my tax dollar to go to support the bus because I never use the bus system. Plus, If I ever do have a need to ride a bus, I would rather pay my fair amount that keeps the bus running at that time. I know this doesn't help those who use the bus now, but if you were in my shoes, you would understand my view.

I would also like to add my theory about why ridership is going down. I drive through the Marquette interchange every day on my way to and from work for the past 10 years. I have found that traffic flows very nicely most of the time. The only exceptions is when the weather kicks up and when there is a crash. I would have to say that rush hour in Milwaukee is better for drivers than in most other major cities. I'm also sure that it will get even better once the construction is over later this year. Combine that with the facts that a car is more comfortable, more personnel, and faster at getting you to your destination (especially if it changes for some odd reason) are good contributing factors in the drop in ridership.

Andy Homepage 03.05.08 - 7:53 am #

In other words, Andy didn't want his tax dollars go to something he doesn't use, and sees no value to him in having to sustain it. He is being penny-wise.

What Andy doesn't see, is that a healthy transit system helps get people to jobs, where they can earn a living, and not have to take government hand-outs. He also doesn't see that having a supply of workers would be attractive to a business, which would also help the local economy, and make things better, and less expensive for everyone. As in my previous post, I would refer the reader to mid coast views for a very well done explanation of how this works.

Another fine example of what can happen when a transit system isn't properly maintained and operated is laid out by Rob Henken at Milwaukee Talkie. For those who aren't familiar with his name, Mr. Henken was the director of Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services for several years. He was then promoted to Walker's inner circle as the administrative services director. After a short time, he left the County altogether and became president of the Public Policy Forum. (Rob's leaving the county puts a chill through my spine, especially if Walker were to win again. He pulled Walker's budgetary bacon out of the fire on many occasions.)

Another example would be set forth by Brew City Brawler, who compares our broken parks to the broken windows philosophy of policing. This again shows us where Walker saves a buck or two in the short term, but costs us much, much more in the long run.

Of course, Walker might very well be aware of the folly of his chosen course of action. If he is, he is probably hoping to be out of here, maybe in the Governor's Mansion, maybe in Washington D.C., if Sensenbrenner ever retires, before the fecal matter comes in contact with the air propulsion device. And then, it will be us that will have to clean up the mess, and that is a very expensive prospect.

A Sure Sign That Your Campaign Is In Trouble

by capper

Scott Walker has sent out another email from his campaign. It reads:

Reason #1 to Vote for Scott Walker

While many politicians make promises about taxes during elections, Scott actually delivers on his promises. He said that he would not raise the property tax levy from the previous year, and he kept his word in each of his six county budgets. In fact, several of his budgets actually cut the tax levy.

To further his agenda of tax relief, Scott needs your help to elect more like-minded individuals to the County Board. With a few more Supervisors who are willing to look out for the taxpayer, Scott can have even greater success in 2008 and beyond - which means we all win as taxpayers.

Let's parse this out. "Scott actually delivers on his promises." Does that include his promise not to run for County Executive in 2008 or not to privatize? Apparently not. (Don't worry, I'll be doing more posts on his other broken promises later.)

And regarding the tax relief, well he might have been accurate on the syntax, but is slimy on the semantics. Walker has known all along that the County needs to raise taxes. After the last budget battle, with a 3% raise in taxes, he called it a "good budget." He has also repeatedly pushed for a regional parks authority and a regional transit authority, both of which would have the ability, and would exercise that ability, to raise the necessary taxes.

We have also seen how well his budgets have held up. There was the fiasco of closing the pools early during one of the hottest times of the year. There have been yearly budget blow-ups where the County had to scramble to find enough money and/or cut enough services to not go over budget. This past budget even set a record by blowing up before the ink was dried.

What good is a promise that is harmful?

And for the request for more supervisors that see his vision? Well, he tried that already. It didn't work for Chris Kujawa, and it's not going to work now. People are getting sick of his neglect of his duties. They sure aren't going to help him make it even worse.

Scott Walker: A Legend In His Own Mind

by capper


This morning, the supposedly-liberal Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in their Crossroads section, ran Scott Walker's spiel that he issued with his vetoes, which have since, for the most part, been overturned. Now, I know that politicians are wont to be braggarts and embellish their accomplishments, but some do take it to extremes.

He starts out with the first and third paragraphs saying how he is "optimistic" and has "great hopes for this county". This is the same guy who compared regional cooperation "putting lipstick on a pig".

He then blabbers on with his apparent campaign slogan of Safety, Affordability and Pride, which has already been addressed and refuted. Likewise, our friend, Gretchen, has been putting in overtime to show the shambles he has made of the parks, and the devastation that would have been by his transit proposals.

But then he gets into human services with this list of bullet points. I have taken the liberty of putting the reality behind each point in bold.

Finally, our budget includes major support for those in need in our community.

These items include:

• Continuation of senior centers and senior meal programs. Which was restored by the board after his vetoes. Not to mention his early threat to close two community centers which serve the poorest neighborhoods.

• Long-term care needs for older adults continue to be met under FamilyCare. Which was going on before he took this office, but he was the one that had the million dollar deficits.

• Expanding the benefits of FamilyCare to those under 60 with developmental or physical disabilities. Because of a law signed by Doyle last year and state funding in this years budget. The last I've heard, the system won't be up and running until at least 2009.

• Major improvements in staffing and resources for mental health services. This is after years of cutting these jobs and monies. It is like a doctor breaking your arm, setting it, and taking credit for fixing your broken arm.

• A new initiative to address the housing needs of those with mental illness. Only after a year long series of articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caused outrage among the community.

• Managed care coverage for those with no source of health care. Again, originally cut by Walker and then restored by the County Board.

• A new child care fraud unit to protect children. You got me on this one, I hadn't heard of it.

I must say, I do rather agree with Ma Brawler in her assessment of Walker.

The other thing that I wonder about is whether the supposedly liberal MSJ will also give column space to the Lena Taylor, who is running for County Executive.

UPDATE: Even with the budget fixes put in by the County Board, it wasn't enough to correct all of Walker's mistakes. Even Sheriff Clarke is turning on him. Isn't this an all-time record for one of Walker's budgets to implode?

Thoughts On The County Budget

by capper

The county budget has been resolved, for better or for worse. I won't go into details, but for those that may have missed the news, Brian Fraley has a break down on each override vote by the county board.

I won't insult any conservative or libertarian readers by offering platitudinous expressions of sympathy, and I won't insult myself by gloating.

I will mention that in the supposedly liberal Milwaukee Sentinel Journal had an article in this morning's paper regarding Walker's vetoes. As usual with the Journal, the good stuff is buried near the bottom of the article:

Walker said he was able to leave the board's transit add-ins intact because of an unexpected extra $3.2 million in aid for the county included in the state budget and championed by state Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee), a candidate for Walker's job in the spring election. Walker hasn't officially announced that he will run for another term, but has hinted he will.

Senator Taylor, who hasn't even been elected as County Executive yet, has already done more good for and has shown more commitment to Milwaukee County and its residents than the current County Executive has in the past six years. That says a lot.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

by capper

Even though Halloween was two weeks ago, with all the usual ghosts, goblins, things going bump in the night to scare us, there were some who felt more terrified by other things. If you listened to most of the right wing pundits and bloggers, the scariest thing out there was Doyle's Frankenstein Veto.


But now comes something even scarier, creeping out from its underground lair tomorrow....

Scott Walker and his Giant Crayola From Hell!!!!

Yes, that's right, tomorrow is the day that Walker wastes everyone's time with a big grandstanding production to announce the vetoes which we all know will be overridden by the County Board on Wednesday. (With the possible exception of the pay raise for the County Board, and I won't cry about that one.) Expect all the local right wing bloggers and/or squawkers to be singing his praises and booing the Board. Yawn.

If you wish to contact your County Board Supervisor, and tell him or her that you value a better quality of life over Scott Walker's $12.50, and wish them to override Walker's vetoes, you can call them at (414) 278-4222. If you're not sure who your Supervisor is, you can find out here.

What Were They Thinking?

by capper

I have already written about Scott Walker and the decimation he would create to the public transit system if he would have gotten his way. The County Board restored many of the cuts that he had made, as well as removed his massive increase of Transit Plus.

But the County Board, for whatever reasons, chose not to restore all of his routes. One of the routes they chose to leave off of the county budget was Route 11, which travels Vliet Street from Water Street to 47th Street. This makes no sense.

On 12th and Vliet is the Marcia Coggs building, which holds Economic Support Services, Disability Services, and most of the other social services that Milwaukee County provides. Most of the people that utilize these services are the poor, the physically disabled and the developmentally disabled. These same people are often reliant on public transit to get around, including to meetings with case workers who provide the social services for them.

On 17th and Vliet is the Martin Luther King Community Center (which Walker had also threatened to cut). This facility offers many community activities, including lectures, social events, educational sessions, community meetings and various charitable activities. One of the most notable is the donation of school supplies like backpacks, pens, pencils, paper and the such to neighborhood children who are in need of these items.

One would think that even if the County Board wouldn't or couldn't restore all of the routes that Walker had cut, they would at least have maintained the ones that were most needed.

McIlheran Watch: Setting The Bar Low

by capper

Patrick McIlheran wrote an editorial column singing the praises for Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. He praised Walker for consistently proposing a county budget that reflected no tax increase from the previous year's budget. But this as far as he goes with being accurate.

First, McIlheran points out that for every dollar spent on the parks system, almost three times is spent on health care for retirees. I won't squabble on the numbers, but would like to point out that this particular benefit ended in 1995. This means that any county employee hired after January 1, 1995, will not receive the free health care. McIlheran also blames this on "the way labor peace was bought decades ago". Again, he forgets to mention that it wasn't a burden for the taxpayers until health care costs started to accelerate at an unreasonable rate. But instead of blaming the insurance companies or the high-priced health care providers where the blame should rest, he chooses to blame politicians from decades ago.

What really caught my eye was the title of the column, "'Same as last year' a reasonable place to start". Now given that the parks are in decay, inmates are escaping from the House of Correction and sometimes killing people, people with mental health issues are living in squalor and sometimes are allowed to die, as well as the transit issues, the problems at the court house, and all of the other issues Milwaukee County is currently facing, I would not consider this a reasonable place to start. Unfortunately, due to Walker's misadministration this is where we are forced to start.

No, it is not a reasonable place to start, and it would be an even more unreasonable goal to maintain this status quo, even if Scott Walker would have to pony up another $12.50 in taxes next year. McIlheran may be willing to live in that type of world, but I, for one, am not.

Where's The AFP When You Need Them?

by capper

We have seen the AFP and their conservative allies storm the capitol during the state budget discussions, claiming that taxes are too high. We have also seen the same likely suspects take action regarding a referendum regarding the West Bend school system.

I would not be surprised to see them and their cohorts spout off about the Milwaukee County budget for 2008. They would focus on the dastardly county board which went a long way in correcting Scott Walker's imprudent budget proposal. After all, the board's proposal would raise Walker's property taxes on his $324,400 house by a whopping $12.50 per year. Oh, how could he afford such a burden?!

Ken Mobile of Mobile's Take points out that it would be much fairer to raise the property tax by 3.7% rather than raising the transportation fees for the disabled and the elderly by 14% or by $273.75 per year. After all, let us not forget that the elderly and disabled are living on fixed incomes that is usually less than $1,000 per month.

In the comments thread of the same post, we have St. Fred, Patron Saint of Taxpayers, pointing out:

Yes just increase taxes everywhere 6 to 10%.

Did it ever occur to you that people's ability to pay their taxes is hurting?

Scott Walker is a breath of fresh air.

At least he tries to hold the line on spending.

So, now we have St. Fred and AFP (Americans Foolishly Posturing) leading the crusade against higher taxes, while willfully dumping on the ones that can truly least afford it.

Meanwhile, we have gasoline prices that have jumped up 45 cents per gallon in the last month, and 90 cents per gallon in the last year. That is an increase of 16% and 40% respectively. Even if the average consumption of gas was ten gallons per person per week, that would add up to a hell of a lot more than any of the tax hikes that have happened or have been proposed.

My question, and challenge, to St. Fred and his AFP buddies, is this: When can we expect you to hold a rally outside of the offices of Big Oil? I bet you would find a lot more supporters from both sides of the aisle if you would actually go after the people really hurting the average family. After all, if you're going to spend the money anyway, would you rather it go to actually help people that need it, or to help Big Oil and their extremely rich fat cats increase their wealth?

Are County Politics Scripted By Writer's Guild?

by capper

With the Writer's Guild of America going on strike, there is talk that most TV shows are going into reruns. Late night shows are already being affected, and there is reportedly only a few weeks before most shows go into a rerun mode.

I wonder if Milwaukee County politics are scripted by the Writer's Guild, because this too seems to be a rerun. It is the same story every year for the past five years. First, Scott Walker comes out with an unreasonable budget proposal that is so out of touch with reality that it would be laughable if it wasn't so scary. Then the county board steps up and does the right thing to make sure necessary safety nets and programs are maintained at least at minimum values.

Next, Walker will hold some flamboyant production number to issue his draconian vetoes. This is the only thing that has potential for variance. Will he veto the entire budget, like last year, and have it blow up in his face again? Or will he veto out just parts of it in the hope that some of the vetoes are upheld? And where will he do his routine? Last year he did it at the property of his buddy, Chris Kujawa. Will he go back there, or will he find some other supporter to host his event?

Anyway, after his veto(es), the County Board will restore most, if not all, of the items that Walker vetoed. Wouldn't it be nice to have a County Executive that understands the county, its communities, its constituents and their needs, so that we don't have this rerun every year? Milwaukee Rising has a video of someone who does get it and is also happening to be running for County Executive-Lena Taylor.

Walker Is Either Incompetent or Corrupt

by capper

In this morning's paper, MSJ has a short story in their regional briefs, about the county board continuing to do their corrections to Walker's poorly thought out budget. The corrections made today kept Walker from breaking state laws by eliminating positions that the state has mandated by law. I am not defending the appropriateness of the state laws, but the fact is they exist. The short article also includes these two paragraphs:

Cynthia Archer, Walker's budget director, said she had been unaware of the state laws.

She said, however, that other staffers in those offices could be designated as deputies without having an extra job solely for deputy clerk or deputy register of deeds.

These two lines lead to several questions.

1. If Cynthia Archer was not aware of the state laws, how can she make a statement regarding how the laws can be enforced?
2. If Cynthia Archer is not aware of the laws, why is she the budget director?
3. Why wasn't Walker aware of the state laws?
4. Didn't Walker read the budget before signing off on it?
5. Or did he want the illegal measures put in there on purpose, to take the heat off of himself, and on the County Board?
6. Why is Walker continuously hiring people that cannot do their jobs?
7. Is Walker really corrupt, or just that incompetent?

For another view on whether Walker is a liar, crooked or incompetent, the Brawler offers us his insight.

Cry Me A River

by capper

UPDATE: Scott Walker is such a tease. From today's full version of the story, MSJ has this:

Walker said it would be unfair to presume he will run and get re-elected, so he wanted to restore the money for a possible successor.

It's really unfair to get a guy's hopes up like that, saying he might not run.

There is a new river in Milwaukee, and it is coming from the office of Milwaukee County Executioner Scott Walker. Walker, who has spent the last six years decimating almost every department and service in the county, somehow felt it OK to increase the budget for his office.

Today, the county board, which has spent the past week correcting most of Walker's short-sighted budget fiasco, continued with their Herculean efforts by eliminating the money Walker wanted to give to his own office.

It turns out that Walker and County Board Chairman Lee Holloway had a deal that they would leave each other's budgets alone. But by proving the adage "There is no honor among thieves", Walker reneged on his end of the deal, and cut the budget for the county board's operation costs. Holloway returned the favor by introducing the cut to the extra funding for Walker's office. It passed 7-0.

Walker, never one to admit to responsibility for his actions, blamed the board's action as retaliation for his not approving their pay raises This is even though the money he cut from the board had nothing to do with the pay raises, and the fact that he admitted he did have an understanding with Holloway not to touch the board's budget.

More On Walker's Proposed Budget

by capper

I was going to stop writing about Walker and his proposed budget for a while. Even I am getting tired of it, and I do have other interests in life. But then three things came to my attention this evening, and I had to give up my short hiatus.

One was that there are at least two entities, besides his usual cheerleaders, that are all for Walker's proposed budget. One is the Wisconsin Lutheran College. In 2003, Walker sold 25 acres of county land to WLC, with an option to buy almost another 9 acres, if the county vacated the greenhouses which stand on the land. If purchased within five years of the original deal, WLC would pay $100, 000 per acre. If between five and ten years, it would be sold at the appraised value at the time of the sale. As you can guess, Walker has it in his budget this year.

Not a bad deal right? But part of the agreement is that the county is responsible for the cost of demolishing the 30,000 square feet of greenhouses and abatement of any hazard materials. He also has a plan to build a 7,500 square foot greenhouse on the grounds of the Domes, at the price tag of $1,470,246. This plan would also force the county to purchase the flowers and plants it can no longer grow due to the loss of all that square footage. Perhaps he knows a landscaper that might be willing to work with him on this? That person would probably enjoy this budget as well.

Then I saw this. He brags about funding the deputies to patrol the lakefront and the buses, pointing out how it adds to the county's safety, which is true. But it takes audacity to take credit for restoring what shouldn't have been cut in the first place, but that politics for you. He also brags of the affordability of his plan, pointing out how much in taxes the county taxpayer was "saved" in the past five years, but does not mention the huge bills that are waiting in the forms of shorted payments to the pension fund, the lawsuits, and the cost of finally cleaning up the mess he made.

The funniest was when he spoke about the pride that he is bringing to Milwaukee County. Yeah, right. These people look real happy and proud of his transit plans. And we've already seen the beauty of the parks.

But all is not doom and gloom. Hope is just around the corner!

Now, maybe, I can move on to something else.

Walker's Budget Proposal

by capper

Well, Walker has done his trick with smoke and mirrors, and has come out with his 2008 proposed budget. It is pretty much as bad as expected, with some nasty twists, and at least one pleasant surprise. Here are some of the highlights:

SIDENOTE: I seemed to have failed to properly link the pdf's for each of the following sections. To see these for yourself, please go to the above link, and then click on the appropriate department to see Walker's proposal's for that department. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Transportation

As expected, Walker does a royal pooch on the transit system. He cuts routes, cuts back on Paratransit services and increases fees. I could live with the 25 cent raise for regular fares, but to stick it to the elderly and the disabled, who are lucky to have $80 a month in spending money is unforgivable. How could Walker look at these people and say, "Too bad for you that you'll lose your independence and quality of life, but my base needs those few bucks to gas up their Hummers"?

And how is he promoting economic growth in Milwaukee when he is making it harder for people to even catch a bus to get to work? Here's a hint: He's not.

Parks

As mentioned previously, Walker must not like nature, or the thought of people having a public place for people to enjoy it. He wants to abolish 81 positions of experienced parks worker positions, 50 of which are filled, so that he can hire a bunch of seasonal and temporary workers. Most people who use the parks on a regular basis, from picnic enjoyers to softball players have seen how the parks are deteriorating in front of their eyes. That would be fine if the responsibilities were only cutting grass, stacking picnic tables or other mundane tasks, but there is so much more to maintaining the parks and the buildings. Only Walker and his supporters would think that it would be more efficient to have 1.5 seasonal workers without experience or institutional knowledge attempt to do a job rather than have one person who knows what to do and gets the job done. Guess we can get used to more scenes like these.

Sheriff's Office/House of Corrections

This area is a mixed bag. Walker is proposing to maintain the specialized unit that is to patrol the parks, the lakefront and during the off-season, the buses. But I find it hard to praise him for this, as that he was the one that originally defunded these patrols. That is like praising someone for cleaning up the mess that they intentionally caused.

But even if one was prone to praise Walker for doing this, he takes away any benefits by making the county more unsafe. First he wants to close the Community Correctional Center, and place all the inmates currently on Huber, and give them GPS tracking devices. He rationalizes this as being money saving and that criminals don't need to be locked up at night. Ask any cop and they would tell you the time of the highest amount of crime is in the evening and at night, when these prisoners would have been behind bars.

In another matter, he wants to have a private agency transport prisoners around, instead of using deputies, you know, like in real law enforcement officers. Think about it. Who would you want to be in charge of a bus full of inmates going to or from court, going to prison, or on medical appointments, a armed, trained deputy or a rent-a-cop from an agency that gave the lowest bid?

And to top it off, despite public coverage of the dangerous situation that is currently happening at the House of Correction due to overpopulation and understaffing, and the fact that overtime at the HOC is through the roof, Walker wants to abolish 37 correction officer positions.

Mental Health Services

This is the area that Walker might have done the best in, but it still needs a very strong caveat.
Walker commendably wants to initiate a massive increase in housing for the mentally ill, but it is not clear how these new housing units would be staffed. The best I could tell, it would be a boon for developers, but how it would be administered is unknown to me at this time.

In another positive development, Walker is expanding the psychiatric crisis and observation units at the mental health complex. The unit is full and has been full for quite a while. It is so full that emergency detentions are being deferred to other hospitals in the county, which are often not equipped to deal with the severity of an acute psychotic episode.

But, in Walkerworld, every silver lining has a big cloud. Walker also wants to cut funding for community support and alcohol and drug abuse counseling. And he doesn't want to just trim these services, but he is going for the throat by cutting these services by more than 50%. I have news for Mr. Walker, if you want to gut community support services, you are going to need to expand the mental health complex by a whole lot more.

The thing that scares me the most about Walker's budget is that all of these improvements to mental health services, as well as to Disability Services is based on the presumption that Milwaukee County will be able to reap the benefits of Family Care. This is an asinine and inane position to be taking. There is no guarantee that Family Care will be funded, much less how much Milwaukee County would receive if it is fully funded. He also fails to take into consideration that the savings from Family Care is questionable at best, and that it would take at least another one to two years to start effectively start implementing the new model.

And one cannot say that Walker is naive about this. In this morning's MSJ, there is a story about what would happen if the state fails to fully fund this program. Here is the story in its entirety:
State budget impasse threatens services

Cuts in services to people with mental illness and other disabilities in Milwaukee

County will become necessary unless the state Legislature soon cuts a budget deal that preserves increases included in early versions, County Executive Scott Walker said Friday.

He won't agree to adding any county money beyond what he recommended Thursday in his $1.3 billion county budget plan for 2008, Walker said. That could force some painful cuts, he acknowledged.

Walker warned Friday that cuts to social services, as well as to the courts, transit and juvenile corrections, might be needed. In his budget address Thursday, Walker touted some increases he proposed for mental health services without mentioning the potential for other cuts.

His zero-tax-increase budget banks on the county getting about $12.5
million more in state aid next year.

In summary, Walker doesn't give a damn about the poor, the mentally ill, the elderly, or anyone else in Milwaukee County. He only cares about helping to perpetuate the current cycle of the rich getting richer, and his own political aspirations. But even Walker knows that his budget proposal is a steaming pantful when he acknowledges more money will be needed:

Walker said he's used that as a strategy to rein in the board. Whatever he
proposes, the board will try to spend a little bit more, Walker said. He's not
insistent upon "an absolute zero" tax increase, he said

This Is A Public Service Announcement

by capper

All Milwaukee County citizens, tomorrow is the day that Scott Walker reveals his proposal for the 2008 budget. Keep your seat belts fastened, keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times, and enjoy your ride.

And yes, I'll probably have a thing or two to say about it, unless Jay steals my thunder again.

Please consider the betting window open on which department or departments will be having the midyear budget crunch. This year the prize was split between the Mental Health Complex and House of Correction.

SIDENOTE: Has anyone else noticed that when these mid-year budget crunches come up, Walker always has someone or something else to blame? It would seem that he is either lying and knows his budget proposals are doomed to fall apart, or he is very incompetent in planning ahead. Either way, not good.