Walker and a county board committee have agreed toincrease the number of unpaid furlough days from 12 to 22 days this year for1,400 county employees.
The latest news is just one item in a long list ofwhat’s wrong with the numbers because Walkercould not craft an honest budget.
First, Walker triedto balance his “no new taxes” budget by claiming $32 million in wage andbenefits cuts that were never part of any pending labor contracts and, in fact,had never been proposed by Walker’slabor negotiator during 18 months of negotiations.
Then the board tried to soften the blow by reducingthat number to $17 million in cuts. But those concessions had not been approvedby labor unions, either.
Then, Walkersigned off on furlough days for employeesincluding sheriff’s deputiesthat he hadn’t quite intended to.Still, they stuck.
This is how you run a county?
The 2010 budget is pure fantasy and its impact onworkers is unfair. Walkershould have crafted a budget that honors labor agreementsMayor Tom Barrettfound a way to do sowhile being realistic about the county’s responsibilities.Instead, the budget is nothing more than a Walker campaign piece, designed to deceivevoters who aren’t fully informed of his leadership skills.
Hero of theWeek
Patricia Kemp
Rightfully, the honors keep coming to Patricia Kemp,Ph.D., now in her 34th year of teaching at Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). In1994, she was awarded a Kohl Educational Foundation fellowship for her“superior ability to inspire love of learning in students.” Kemp, in her 19thyear at Eighth Street School, was an early pioneer in collaborating withExpress Yourself Milwaukee, a nonprofit organization that empowers at-riskyouth by immersion into the world of music, dance and visual arts. The groupwill honor Kemp at its annual fund-raising event March 4.
Kemp firmly believes in the power of creativeexpression in helping to overcome the economic and social challenges faced byyouth in our community, and works closely with volunteer artists from ExpressYourself, who also share their talents in community centers, residentialtreatment centers and correctional facilities.
For her lifelong commitment to lighting a creativespark among underserved youth, the Shepherdhonors Kemp as “Hero of the Week.”
Readers who wish to get involved are urged to visitExpress Yourself Milwaukee at www.expressyourselfmilwaukee.org or attend thegroup’s event at Turner Hall Ballroom on March 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. For ticketinformation, call (414) 272-3498.
Jerk of theWeek
Scott Walker
It’s a rare moment when Mark Belling and the Shepherd Express agree, but it happeneda few days ago when we shared our disgust with gubernatorial candidate ScottWalker and his fat-cat fund-raiser. Last week, Walkerflew to Floridain a private jet to speak to and take money from the Wisconsin Road Builders,now conveniently named the Wisconsin Transportation Builders. (Yes, the peoplewho build Wisconsin’stransportation system would rather travel to another state for theirconvention.) Walker jetted there to raise fundsfrom wealthy business owners who make billions of dollars each year from Wisconsin taxpayers. Belling believes Walker left the fund-raiser with more than$100,000 from an industry group that lives entirely off our tax dollars. Whoelse builds roads and bridges? So it behooves industry businessmen tocontribute heavily to the candidate they believe, if elected, would send themthe most money backin this case, overwhelmingly it is Scott Walker. So if Walker becomes governorand faces tough choices in budget cuts, we know what will not get cut. And theRoad Builders will have gotten a good return on their campaign contributioninvestment.
