Add Milwaukee County Board Chair Marina Dimitrijevic to the list of people who think Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is following in Scott Walker’s footsteps. While the state is focused on the Nov. 4 election, Dimitrijevic and her fellow county supervisors are working their way through Abele’s Walker-like $1.3 billion budget for next year. Like Walker, Abele has proposed a flat-tax budget and is asking workers to pay more for their health insurance (which amounts to a 4% to 8% paycheck cut), is outsourcing and privatizing key services, and is cutting funds for cultural institutions that are already struggling in a flat economy.
“What we have here is the same old, same old,” Dimitrijevic told the Shepherd. “Balancing the budget on the backs of workers and outsourcing jobs were signature Walker items.”
Actually, Abele’s actions are worse for the average working person in Milwaukee County and for the concept of good government. Dimitrijevic pointed out that Walker always turned in his budgets on time, while Abele delivered his a week late and with far less transparency.
“That gives the board less time to go through a billion-dollar budget,” Dimitrijevic said.
In addition, Walker never took aim at the poorest in our community the way that Abele has. The billionaire’s son cut funding for homeless shelters and eliminated all money for indigent burials.
“These kind of draconian cuts are not helping our community move forward,” Dimitrijevic said.
The board’s finance committee is voting on amendments to Abele’s budget this week. On Monday, it approved a proposal from Dimitrijevic and Supervisor Gerry Broderick to restore the money Abele cut from cultural institutions and to provide $10 million for deferred maintenance at the parks.
The public is invited to comment on the budget at the board’s public hearing at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 3, at the Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Drive. The full board will vote on the budget Nov. 10.
