Top Five Political Blunders of 2005
As heard last week on NewsTalk 1130 WISN's Early Spin program, the Top Five Milwaukee and Wisconsin Political Blunders of 2005
5. Tim and his lefty cohorts posting at the Daily Kos site thought they were pulling a fast one rigging the Milwaukee TalkStar completion. While they boasted of their efforts, assuming the morning show on NewsTalkk 1130 would be hosted by a Milwaukee version of Molly Ivins, they failed to keep right wing zealots like me and Pat Crowley off the airwaves. The contest winner, Nicole Devin, is a lib, but she's not the crackpot Commie they hoped for, and the aforementioned new morning show in Milwaukee has a common sense tinge thanks to co-host Dan Deibert and the insightful, attractive and articulate part time politicalal analyst. Nice try, guys.
4. Finley Family Foibles. Dan gets a plum job at the Milwaukee Public Museum and even before he assumes the post, he floats the idea of a regional arts district (which would undoubtedly have taxing authority). During his big announcement his wife teases she may want to replace him as Waukesha County Executive. After realizing Vrakas had the election in the bag, she instead serves as his campaign manager and then for one month as his chief of staff. Her subsequent flighty, public temper tantrum/firing/resignation embarrasses her, raises questions about just how conservative her husband's budgets were and is a slap to competent female political operatives everywhere.
3. The Milwaukee Common Council spends a full session day arguing against naming the Christmas tree a Christmas tree, passes a meaningless ordinance about corporations disclosing ties to slavery from 140 years ago, and agrees to put a meaningless resolution regarding the Iraq war on the November 2006 ballot. Meanwhile, the city continues to lose an entire generation of black youths to drugs and violence.
2. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is a nice guy. He's also the only person with two entries on the list of Top Ten Political Blunders. As the controversial Pabst City plan was nearing a vote, the Mayor was on vacation. The plan was killed by the common council. They say showing up is half the job...
And the top Wisconsin Political Blunder of 2005...
1. During the formation of the State Budget, Governor Jim Doyle thinks he's pulled a fast one on Republicans by borrowing from segregated funds to buy down school taxes. He calls his shell game a "Tax Freeze" and claims the average property taxpayer will actually see a tax cut. Hundreds of thousands of property taxpayers (and voters) across Wisconsin would disagree (Including the more than 90 percent of Milwaukee property owners who see an average hike of six percent). While some throughout the state did see one-time decreases in their property taxes, Doyle dismally failed to deliver after raising voters' expectations. For a governor who has an approval rating in the mid 40s, this could end up being the number one political blunder for 2006 as well.
2 Comments:
Maybe if Milwaukee taxpayers weren't paying out $53 million for the Republican-supported school voucher program, their tax bills wouldn't have increased.
And Republicans want to eliminate the school voucher participation cap? That will increase the property tax bills of Milwaukee residents even further. And what do taxpayers get for their hard-earned tax dollars? Well, we don't know because there's no accountability in the so-called choice program. Parents have no information about how schools are performing and taxpayers have no idea if these private schools are actually teaching kids anything. All we have to go on are news reports of teachers taking kids to McDonald's during the school day, teachers employed by some of these schools who don't even have a high school diploma or GED themselves, and schools that apply for tax dollars that never actually open their doors.
Post a Comment
<< Home