Superior just wants to pay for the cost of picking up garbage...that's all. Not so fast say Republicans.
It's hard to imagine what they were thinking when state Republicans tied the hands of local governments to balance their books. But here we are, and Democratic and Republican areas are now left to ratchet down their own standard of living and quality of life for purely ideological reasons.
Scott Walker did this in Milwaukee, and no one cared to mention it in the campaigns. I've posted this cartoon for years, because it was that obvious at the time, and ripe for parody.
What's is happening now in the city of Superior is happening all over the state, all the while the cost of living continues to rise. The only choice now is to lower our quality of life in Wisconsin. You can thank the voters for telling us they didn't believe in recall elections, by keeping Walker behind the wheel of the GOP bulldozer that's about to plow down everything we've built up, and at a higher cost to taxpayers:
Duluth News: Wisconsin’s state budget is a game changer for the city of Superior’s plans to charge residents for garbage service.
It has left the city administration without a solution to recommend for solving financial problems at the landfill after a series of public meetings to discuss a proposal to institute a $20 per month household fee to replace an annual transfer from the city’s general fund.
The budget signed by Gov. Scott Walker on June 30 prohibits the city from raising fees without cutting its annual tax levy by the same amount.
Mayor Bruce Hagen said. “We don’t have a recommendation at this point.” That leaves the council with two options based on Larsen’s analysis: Do nothing and let the landfill deficit increase, or privatize the city landfill and garbage service at a greater potential cost for residents.
There is a third option: Spin the garbage service off to a non-profit local corporation or a cooperative formed for the purpose. In this way the fees collected won't pay management bonuses at the mega-waste companies, the money will be recirculated back into the local economy and local control will be maintained.
ReplyDeleteWalker and the corrupt Republican party are attempting to force the privatization of local services, under the influence of corporate bribes. Instead, let's give them something they hadn't expected.
Scott Walker remembers creating jobs as assemblyman in Wisconsin . It was easy with ALEC. 32000 UNION public sector jobs. It is not as easy this time with out using your tax dollars. Scott Walker has created ALL Wisconsin`s budget problems working for ALEC. In 1997 Walker and Prosser as state assemblymen championed for ALEC with truth in sentencing telling the legislatures it would not cost a dime it was to give judges not parole boards the control over sentencing. Then Walker filibustered to stop sentencing changes after the fact misleading ALL the legislatures. With out the sentencing changes Wisconsin`s prisons quadrupled over night. Most people sentenced to 2 years now had to serve as much as 6o years. As the Wisconsin Budget watch Blog shows . Stopping just a percentage of these long sentences Wisconsin would save 707 million per year. Wisconsin could have free tuition colleges. It shows Wisconsin has wasted 200 billion if you add the numbers to the state budget since 1997. Not including the building new or remodeling of 71 courthouses & 71 county jails & 273 police stations and dozens of prisons 28 billion plus interest. The total is over 70 BILLION plus the 100 Billion spent by social services to support prisoners families because the bread winner was a political prisoner as US Att gen Eric Holder explained. Then farming out prisoners in several states until the courts realized it was not allowed in the Wisconsin constitution. Wisconsin then hired 32000 union public sector workers to fill the jobs housing the prisoners from deputies , judges, district attorneys all owe Walker for creating there jobs. 32000 UNION PUBLIC SECTOR JOBS. This cost taxpayers over 3.8 billion or a half million per day to house these EXTRA prisoners per day in Milwaukee county alone. Wisconsin claims it has 24,000 prisoners compared to Minnesota`s 5500. Wisconsin`s corrections populatition is 104,000 with over 28,000 prisons in Milwaukee county alone . In 1995 Milwakee county had less than 1000 prisoners . Is Scott Walker moving Wisconsin forward ? This your reason for budget problems in Wisconsin. Big spender big government Scott Walker. Why does he not work for the people he is taking his check from the people ?
ReplyDeleteWisconsin Budget watch blog has a great article on this.