MADISON – As Scott Walker continues to roll out ad after misleading ad featuring supporters who claim his ‘reforms’ are working, localities all over Wisconsin are finalizing painful budgets that include tax increases and staff layoffs to offset Walker’s devastating shared revenue cuts.
The City of Manitowoc is facing what city staff has referred to as a possibly “crippling” deficit and is expected to make a 10 percent cut to personnel costs, or about 45 positions out of a city workforce of 350. These cuts include a nearly $1,000,000 reduction to police and fire department budgets.
Even with these drastic personnel cuts, which will surely impact services for city residents and have an effect on the local economy, the tax levy rate will still increase by about 10 percent.
“Scott Walker’s multi-million dollar self-preservation ad campaign goes to great lengths to convince Wisconsinites that his radical cuts to public education and local governments are somehow helping those entities balance their budgets,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Wednesday. “But when cities are forced to cut public safety workers by 10 percent to balance their budgets, even after a tax increase, its clear that Scott Walker’s “tools” are not working. His dishonest defense of these cuts just adds insult to injury.”
