Where’s Walker? Big Talker Goes Silent:
Mum on Damning Report, Hides from Questions, His Job
MADISON – His own campaign chairman commissioned it and it speaks directly to his body of work, but Scott Walker still has not stepped up to respond fully to the urgent questions raised by a nonpartisan report released Wednesday that describes in chilling detail what ruin Walker rule has brought to Milwaukee County.
“He was willing to go to Madison Tuesday to pose for campaign pictures surrounded by his political friends, but when the business of governing Milwaukee County comes up, the Big Talker Scott Walker is nowhere to be found,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Thursday. “In truth, given his broken promises of reform and his failed management, silence may be his only defense.”
The report by the Public Policy Forum released Wednesday and commissioned by Walker campaign chairman Michael Grebe contemplated whether Milwaukee County government should be abolished. The answer in recent days, from points as varied as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board and right-wing Republican talk show host Jeff Wagner was, in light of Walker’s management, a resounding, “Yes.”
So where is Walker in all this, if not on the campaign trail, to answer for what he’s done?
Among the questions Tate raised that Walker has yet to answer:
“Walker came to office promising pension reform, and yet the problem has only grown. How is it reform when the county is still saddled by $2 billion in obligations?”
“How can he in good conscience portray himself as a good manager when he is borrowing more than $400 million from future generations to pay for his mismanagement?”
“Why did he reward himself with a $40,000 pay raise in 2008 if it was clear he had failed at reform and left the county budget in such shambles?”
“Is he going to pass the blame for the structural deficits he did not fix even while increasing the tax levy by nearly $39 million during his time in office?”
Executive Summary of Full Report: http://www.publicpolicyforum.
“Report: County must deal with pension, health care costs to fix finances,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/26/10: http://www.jsonline.com/news/
“The Indictment of Scott Walker,” DPW Press Release, 1/27/10: http://wisdems.org/release_
