Xoff's BlogCommentary on state politics by Bill Christofferson, who often uses Xofferson or Xoff to shorten his 14-letter last name.
Christofferson, a recovered journalist and ex-political reporter, has been a Democratic strategist and consultant for 20 years and is now retired. He lives in Milwaukee. |
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Heckuva job, Scottie.
That must be what Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker told himself, before rewarding himself with a $50,000 a year pay raise.
Call it what you will, but Walker's announcement that if he is reelected on April 1 he will accept $50,000 more in salary than he currently does is a pay raise, pure and simple.
Does he deserve credit for giving back $60,000 a year in the past? Sure -- but he made that grand gesture purely for political gain back when he was running to succeed Tom Ament. Four years ago, he wasn't confident enough to change it. But he obviously thinks he's going to win another term in two weeks, so now's the time to grab the gold.
Is the county executive overpaid at his full salary of $129,000 a year? No, not if he/she is doing his/her job. It's a big job with a lot of responsibility.
The thing is, Walker hasn't been doing the job. He's been mismanaging county government, running it into the ground, all in the name of fiscal responsibility. In fact, it's fiscal irresponsibility, but he's hoping to get out of the courthouse before the chickens come home to roost.
After Walker, expect the deluge.
He's played a shell game with the taxpayers, taking credit for a "surplus" this year while the county's parks, bus system, and infrastructure deteriorate.
Deciding that his performance is worth a $50,000 raise is equivalent to the giving multi-million dollar bonuses to Wall Street and corporate execs when they leave a business they have run aground.
Whatever you call this raise Walker is about to give himself, we know one thing -- it's not merit pay.
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"He's played a shell game
"He's played a shell game with the taxpayers, taking credit for a "surplus" this year while the county's parks, bus system, and infrastructure deteriorate. "
Perhaps all of these things are happening because the city is not weathy enough to afford all of them. It appears that you believe that the magical answer is to just raise taxes. Guess what, the residents of Milwaukee can not afford to pay any more taxes. We have one of the worst school districts in the US while also paying an obscene property tax rate (in which we need Madison to kick in a ridiculous amount of money to cover our 50% graduation rate). We have a stadium tax which looks like it will be extended.
We have ALL kinds of bills to pay - do you propose lowering the standard of living for the residents of the city even more? All of these taxes are just going to hit the poor people even more in terms of being a regressive tax rate. Rents are going up to cover the increases in property taxes, shipping costs are going to cover the costs in gas, food costs are going up... It has been a cold winter, bills are a little higher than expected... People are being forclosed on left and right within the county, basically being kicked out of their homes as their ARMs flex....
With all of this inflation - do you seriously want to add even more to the bills?
Re: jamie gunn
In most cases one doesn't need to raise taxes, one only needs to allocate resources wisely. To raise one's own wage at a time when money is tight is unconscionable in the first place. To do it when you've done a piss-poor job is on top of that, is vauntingly capricious.
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