Time To Go To Override

by capper

I wrote last week about the importance of the Milwaukee County Board to override Scott Walker's veto of the sales tax referendum.

Walker has, in the last week, offered up a lot of rhetoric in trying to persuade the Board in not going for the override. His rhetoric is full of false arguments, and a dose of hypocrisy. He claims that the sales tax would make Milwaukee County a "tax oasis", drive business out of Milwaukee County, wouldn't really provide tax relieve, and that the voters already had such a referendum when they re-elected him last April.

I wrote a piece nearly a year ago, at this here site, on the irrational argument of a sales tax making Milwaukee County a "tax oasis." And at that time, gas was relatively cheap at $3 a gallon. Now that gas is hovering around the $4 a gallon range, his argument is even more specious. His supporters try to argue about how much money they could save on a large purchase, ranging in the thousands of dollars. But in today's economy, how many people are going to be willing to make purchases that large on a regular basis? Not many, I'm sure.

In the same piece, I pointed out that the sales tax in Milwaukee County was already higher than that in surrounding counties, but that businesses were still thriving in Milwaukee. Having an even higher sales tax in Chicago doesn't appear to have shut that city down either. If anything, major employers, like Miller, are leaving Milwaukee, but it has nothing to do with the taxes. But transportation seems to have more of an effect on the issue.

Walker is absolutely incorrect when he says that the sales tax won't provide property tax relief. It will do so. Walker is hoping that people will confuse tax relief with tax prevention. It won't keep taxes from going up indefinitely, but it will ease the pain. More long-lasting tax relief would come from things Walker and his ilk oppose, like a rational approach to health care, developing alternative forms of energy and making corporations pay their fair share of taxes. The hypocritical part comes in when Walker argues that in the '90s tax relief measures still resulted in higher taxes. It is hypocritical of Walker to say this, as that a major reason for the increase in county taxes was due to the State government short-changing Milwaukee County (something that he still complains about), due to budgets that he and his Republican allies helped forge and pass.

Walker's assertions about the referendum already being held is as equally laughable as the rest of his arguments. Yes, he was elected by a respectable margin. But so were the members of the County board who are poised to override his veto.

The thing that Walker hasn't mentioned in his arguments about how much the sales tax would cost us, is how much more it would cost the county to have a failing transit system or a parks system that is in ruins. That would do more to drive away taxpayers and businesses alike.

It's not too late to call your local county board supervisor, and encourage him or her to override the veto. You can get the contact information for your Supervisor here, and if you don't know who your Supervisor is, you can find out by clicking here.

Cross posted at Cognitive Dissendence, with the slightest in modifications for coherency purposes.

How Are Those Talking Points Working Out?

by capper

During the course of the last year, we have had a deluge of talking points from the right side of the blogosphere, all in an effort to sway the elections their way. We have heard about how property taxes and sales taxes are too high, that light rail is the devil's work, and that the KRM would be just a waste of taxpayers' money, to name but a few.

These talking points helped get Scott Walker re-elected this past spring. He even ran commercials on the subject of taxes, and how an increase in taxes would drive Miller out of town:




Well, I guess that didn't work out as promised. MillerCoors announced that they will be moving their headquarters to Chicago, along with a couple hundred high-paying white collar jobs.

But their move wasn't based on taxes (emphasis mine):

In addition to being a neutral site, Chicago presents a more attractive location than either Milwaukee or Denver for the marketing talent that MillerCoors needs to be successful, Long said.

Chicago also boasts O'Hare International Airport, the world's second busiest airport. O'Hare offers global air connections, an important consideration for a company that is partly owned by London-based SABMiller.

Long said those factors outweighed the higher cost of doing business in downtown Chicago, where a specific site for the headquarters has not yet been disclosed.

He said taxes were not a deciding factor in evaluating headquarters sites, which included Dallas as a finalist. Illinois has a corporate tax rate of 7.3%, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators. That compares with 7.9% in Wisconsin, 4.63% in Colorado and 0.5% to 1% in Texas.

Need I point out that Chicago also has a high quality mass transit system, that includes a rail component?

Even though their headquarters will be in Chicago, MillerCoors has promised to not only leave their brewery here, but invest heavily into it in order to expand production. With their headquarters there, and their brewery here, I wonder what they would say about having a nice, efficient rail system connecting them?

Meanwhile, due to insufficient revenues, our parks and transit systems are being found to be subpar. It is way beyond time for the people's voice to be heard, and the sales tax referendum needs to be allowed to happen, before we lose more businesses and people due to the poor quality of life Milwaukee County is becoming known for.

Contact your County Board Supervisor and urge him or her to override Walker's veto on July 24th. If you don't know who your supervisor is, you can find out by clicking here.

More Silliness From Walker

by capper

In the same email that he has his "Vote for me, I break promises" propoganda, Walker's campaign also included this little tidbit:

Milwaukee County Parks: Strong, Vibrant

In case you missed it, a recent MKE Online article highlighted the beauty of our parks throughout the seasons. While you may not read these positive stories in the news, the truth is that our parks are running strong and continue to be one of our best assets. County Executive Walker will continue to fight for innovative ways to maintain our park services without raising taxes.

This surprised me on two accounts. One, I didn't even know MKE was still in existence, much less that anyone actually read it.

Two was that the parks could be described as strong or vibrant. But then, as I researched this, I realized I was partially wrong. The parks are strong and vibrant--as long as they are in an area that also includes Walker's base.

Here are some pictures, courtesy of Gretchen Schuldt, contrasting the baseball diamonds in Washington Park in the heart of Milwaukee and McCarty Park in West Allis.














Washington Park


















McCarty Park























Washington Park























McCarty Park





















Washington Park





















McCarty Park


For other pictures of those Strong and Vibrant Parks you can find them on Gretchen's blogsite, Milwaukee Rising, here and here and here.

Paul Cesarz, Walker's Mini-Me

by capper

County Board Supervisor Paul Cesarz was elected during the first pension scandal. He was the one of the candidates that received backing from CRG (Corrupt Republican Goobers). He has a long history of backing all of Walker's inept decisions and schemes.

Now, you can almost make out Walker's hand going up Cesarz's backside as he comes out with his latest proposal as outlined in JSOnline's Newswatch. Cesarz is proposing to sell part of O'Donnell Park, and using the money from the sale to support the parks. That is kind of like selling the tires off your car to pay for an engine tune up.

Of course, Walker is supporting this maneuver. But this is the same guy that wants to all but give away a good chunk of the county grounds where the greenhouses are, to accompany all the rest of the county grounds which he has already sold off.

Walker's and Mini-Me's rationale for this is to boost the declining public funding that the parks are receiving. Apparently, they are hoping no one notices that they were the ones that have been continuously slashing the funding to the parks in the first place. Or that they were the ones that shot down three different referenda to propose ways to fund the parks.

Not only does Walker have to go, but he can take Mini-Me with him.

A Tale of Two Counties

by capper

While driving between appointments this morning, I heard Charlie Sykes start to talk about Scott Walker's proposed cuts to the parks, and trying desperately to make it sound like this is a good thing. During his show, he said that this was based on an email he received from Walker. I also noted that another Walker apologist, PaddyMac, was echoing the same points at Chuckie. Both of these squawkers were trying to argue that Walker's plan would save money and increase the number of work hours provided by Parks workers.

This may be technically true, but the two of them were both dismissive of the loss of experience and institutional memory. They both attempted to portray the workers as glorified grass mowers. They fail to recognize all the Parks workers are responsible for and that their jobs include year round tasks, from maintenance of the pavilions and such little things like the Mitchell domes, to horticulture and operating the greenhouses so that they don't have to pay exorbitant prices in the private market (think about the army's $400 screwdrivers), and all the other tasks big and small that are done.

To exemplify what Walker's previous cuts have already done, Gretchen Schuldt at Milwaukee Rising has some pictures of what the parks look like now. One shudders to see what they would like if Walker were to get his way.

Meanwhile, in the September 15, 2007 issue of the Stevens Point Journal, it was reported that their county executive, Mark Maslowski, has allocated "roughly $1 million...divided among several projects including the Parks Department, which will get $500,000 for the purchase of a snow-making machine for the ski hills at Standing Rocks Park and $150,000 to seal coat some park roads..."

The articles goes on to say that Mr. Maslowski put his priorities in "projects that increased public safety and security, generated revenue and repaired existing facilities". Even though not all projects were fully funded, they received sufficient funding to carry them through the next year, when they would be addressed again.

It would be nice to live in a county in which the county executive actually cared about his constituents, and did the right thing. Instead, we have Walker doing his best impression of Vlad the Impaler.

On a side note, I noticed that PaddyMac had no comments on his blog, and this morning, Charlie was all but begging for people to call in. The only fervent supporter of this position was some guy from Pewaukee, who went on a complete anti-government rant. The ones that called in to present an opposing position, as usual, were interrupted, insulted and hung up on. That was all I heard, because I had to get in for my next appointment. You see, unlike Chuckie, I have a job where I try to improve my community.

Note to Jay: Sorry, no aardvarks, but plenty of weasels!

The Leader and the Leaker

by capper

Despite what one may think of his plan, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett is at least trying to make progress in regards to mass transit and the $91 million that has been sitting stagnant for the past eight years. On the other hand, County Executive Scott Walker has been pouting about wanting the money to bail out the Transit System that he has been systematically destroying over the past several years. Now, Barrett is basically telling Walker to either grow up or get out of the way. This is being a leader.

In contrast, Walker, the would-be governor, is still putting on blinders to anything but a tax freeze. Every budget year, Walker demands cuts from all county departments, so that he may have a single-planked platform to run on, if he can ever put together a successful campaign. This year is no different. The first department to announce the proposed cuts is the Parks and Public Works. Walker has done this before, with less than stellar results. But when it came to the time to admit it was a bad decision, he foisted the blame onto others. This is being a leaker.

Walker seems to keep forgetting that he was elected to manage Milwaukee County, and not to be a perpetual gubernatorial candidate. The duties he is supposed to be doing include balancing fiscal responsibility with maintaining a quality of life, not offering soundbites on local talk radio. If he can claim to have a $7 million surplus from last year, and is able to bail out the privately-operated Public Museum, surely he would be able to maintain the appropriate quality of life services that the County is supposed to be providing.