Waukesha's leaf riots

Aldermanic district seven erupted in flames overnight as rake-wielding peasants with large yards filled the streets with dried leaves and set them afire whenever a city-owned vehicle attempted to pass through. They chanted, "No leaf pick-up, no peace!" as they burned pictures of the mayor's Crocs. "Hey, Hey, ho, ho, bagging leaves has got to go!" Residents were so upset over the early leaf pick-ups in their district that any trees planted by the city between the sidewalk and the streets that still had their leaves were cut down with chain saws, doused with gasoline, and set ablaze.

Alderman Peggy Bull was quoted as saying, "Maybe we should have moved the fire stations to decrease the response time. "

"Oh, the humanity!" the mayor cried shortly before ordering the cannons manned at Cutler Park to defend the Taj Ma Larry Library. Then Steve Crandell whispered something to the mayor. "Oh, never mind. Someone get Pewaukee Mayor Scott Klein on the phone! We need reinforcements!"

"He's at Frame Park with his watercolor set," said Ron Grall. "He's trying to capture what the new stadium is going to look like blotting out the fall colors from view."

"Scott Klein doodles while district 7 burns?" Nelson asked. "Who's writing this?"

Great googly-moogly! The city budget's on fire!

I don't know why anyone was surprised by the sudden hole in the City of Waukesha budget. Pete Kennedy in the Waukesha Freeman wrote that the city's hope for a federal grant to pay for the firefighters for the new station fell through.

And looking back, Mayor Larry Nelson and the Waukesha Common Council were wrong (or at least most of them).

The city received word a few days ago that federal funding had fallen through for salaries and fringe benefits of nine new firefighters. The city had counted on a grant for $500,000 to cover most of the $659,000 in new salaries.

The firefighters are being added to staff a new fire station on the city’s west side. That station, near Summit Avenue and Merrill Hills Road, is being built as we speak. In fact, the city borrowed about $4.5 million for building and equipping the station. (That figure doesn’t include the dreaded salaries.)

So we have a fire station going up - as the grant falls through. All of a sudden we have a $500,000 hole in the 2009 city budget. That’s a big hit for Waukesha.

What will the city do? Nelson and City Administrator Lori Curtis Luther don’t seem to have a whole lot of ideas. Cutting jobs in other areas of the city might be a possibility.

“If we have to find $500,000 above the cost increases we’re seeing for gas and snowplowing, worst case scenario is that it equates to seven city employees,” said Steve Neaman, city finance manager. That means we’d get nine new firefighters - and employees in other city departments would lose their jobs. (But I bet those who oversold the grant will still be gainfully employed.)

Mayor Nelson responded like he just lost his best friend.

One of the reasons I respect Pete Kennedy as a columnist is that he has actually taken the time to interview or talk to me to get the facts before he writes his opinion column. {I thought it was because Kennedy endorsed Nelson for re-election two years before his term ends. - JW} Unfortunately, that was not the case in his Saturday Freeman column about a federal grant to help staff the new fire station on the northwest side of the city where Pete jumped to several conclusions that are simply not true.

Pete stated that “The city had counted on a grant for $500,000 to cover most of the $659,000 in new salaries.” Waukesha never “counted on” the grant. It was clearly stated when the new fire station was voted on, and again when the grant was discussed, that the cost of the new firefighters would have to be covered in the 2009 budget, and that even if we were fortunate enough to receive the grant, the city would need to decide how to cover the cost in future city budgets.

Unfortunately, the mayor is right. The city passed then-City Administrator Jim Payne's budget with the full expectation that the city would have to go to referendum to fund the staffing of the fire station. I tried warning Waukesha in 2006, and I would be doing my "I Told You So" Cha-Cha if I wasn't one of the poor unfortunates who will be stuck paying for this planned disaster.

We’re going to spend every cent we can - and then some. He even proposes a new fire station in the budget with no plan for paying for the staff other than raising taxes further (if the state caps are lifted) or going to referendum to raise taxes (if the state caps are not lifted). The taxpayers (unmentioned by City Administrator Payne) might be unhappy to learn the proposed site of the new fire station is 1.17 miles away from a City of Pewaukee fire station. The village of Wales has a fire station five miles to the west and the town of Waukesha has a fire station five miles to the south.

My idea of reaching out to neighboring communities was attacked at the time, but somehow the Lake Country can consolidate it's fire department. Now we're stuck trying to figure out how to pay for our new firemen.

A referendum is not going to work. You can't just TIF a fire station. So pick seven city employees you want to let go. Unfortunately Jim Payne is in New Mexico.

That's "award-winning" radio talk show host to you

Americans for Prosperity announced the Defender of The American Dream Award will go to Vicki McKenna, radio talk show personality on WIBA in Madison and WISN in Milwaukee.

The Wisconsin Chapter of Americans for Prosperity announced today that Vicki McKenna, popular radio talk show host on WIBA radio in Madison, and WISN radio in Milwaukee will recieve the Defender of The American Dream Award for media.

The award will be presented during ceremonies at the Defending the American Dream Summit being held at the Country Springs in Pewaukee on Saturday, February 9th, 2008.

It's at the Country Springs because holding a conservative event anywhere else in Waukesha County would simply be un-American. Perhaps Mayor Nelson should sit down with local conservatives and Republicans to see what he can do to attract more convention business to the City of Waukesha.

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Governor Doyle and the Extremes

Governor Doyle's constituency groups are whining, and Doyle responded by lashing out at "extreme Republicans" in the legislature.

“Whenever both sides are close to an agreement, extreme voices in the Republican caucus let out a howl and the leaders shy away.” Governor Doyle said. “If the Legislature has not come to an agreement by Monday, then I expect both houses to pass this compromise bill – because Wisconsin families cannot afford to wait any longer. Every additional day that the Republican leaders play politics and ignore their responsibility, real people suffer. It is time Speaker Huebsch and extreme Republicans put partisan interests aside and do what’s best for Wisconsin.”

Excuse me? Who are the extremists?

That's the question I take up in this week's column for the Waukesha Freeman (always worth the 50 cents).

Gov. Jim Doyle blames the "extreme Republicans," the "right wingers," for preventing a state budget agreement. Wow, they must be really extreme. They must be outrageous. Because the last I checked, many of the Republican positions are those that the governor has taken in the past or is currently adopting,
Republicans don’t want a tax increase. Until this year neither did Governor Doyle. As recently as his State of the State address in 2006, Governor Doyle bragged about not raising the sales tax, the income tax and excise taxes. "All together, I have signed into law tax cuts worth more than $660 million. That’s right, more than half a billion dollars in tax cuts."

Then Doyle was re-elected and proposed $1.7 billion in new taxes.

Just how far to extremes are the governor's minions willing to go to try to put pressure on Republicans? They're even willing to raid the personal files of college kids just to find a few props for Doyle's "extreme Republicans" rant.

Let’s talk about some real extremism, and decide whether it’s a vice. After all, most of us would find it pretty extreme to have private records invaded to find potential "victims" of the budget impasse.

Allies of the Democrats did just that when they dug through the financial aid files at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looking for students whose financial aid requests were delayed because the state budget has not passed. The students were then "invited" via e-mail to attend Governor Doyle’s rally Tuesday at the Memorial Union where Governor Doyle complained of Republican extremism.

Who exactly ordered the file dive is still a mystery, although university spokesman John Lucas told Wispolitics.com "the university followed the guidelines of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to protect student privacy." We might question if Lucas’ statement that the students’ privacy remained inviolate is extremely disingenuous.

Local politicians would be recalled if they tried this. Pewaukee's mayor was recalled for less. For Doyle's people, it's just one more petty act of extremism.

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