No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Walker, 7 supervisors to furlough themselves

by @ 10:36 on October 22, 2009. Filed under Politics - Milwaukee County.

While the story in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is heavily-slanted in favor of the supervisors, so much so that they include three supervisors donating 4 days’ worth of pay to entities other than the county government, it is encouraging to see that Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and several members of the County Board are taking the same 4-day lack of pay that they are having most of the county workers take, even though state law says that they cannot change their pay in office.

This stems from last week’s 16-1 vote by the County Board to order most of the county’s workers to take four unpaid days off between now and the end of the year. Supervisor Christopher Larson, in a moment of clarity, circulated a memo to the other supervisors asking they forego 4 days’ of pay (roughly $780 out of their $50,679 annual salary), and Supervisors Paul Cesarz (my supervisor), Mark Borkowski, Patricia Jursik, Joseph Rice, Joe Sanfelippo, and Jim “Luigi” Schmitt said they would do so. Borowski gave the following quote to the Journal Sentinel: “What’s fair is fair. I’m going to treat myself like a regular county employee.”

In a separate action, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said that he would return $1,936 (four days’ worth of the executive’s pay), in addition to the $10,000 he already returns.

Meanwhile, Supervisors Gerry Broderick, Lynne De Bruin, and Johnny Thomas said they would donate an equivalent amount to various charities and non-county-government entities. De Bruin noted that her donation to a Milwaukee County Zoo trust fund for animals could be deducted from her taxes.

Now, to the stupid statements uttered by some of the supervisors. First up, the aforementioned Schmidt. We actually have two of them from him; that he doesn’t have the spare cash to give up $780 in one fell swoop, and that he already “sacrificed” by giving up the enhanced pension benefits (a 25% boost in the payments plus an unlimited-time backdrop) that he voted for. Points of order #1 – the county workers aren’t being asked to give up those four days of pay in one fell swoop. In fact, it is spread over four biweekly pay periods. Somehow I think Schmitt can come up with four payments of $190.

Point of order #2 – the major long-term problem with county finances is due in large part to those enhanced pension benefits Schmitt voted for.

Next up on the stupid statement parade – Supervisor Theo Lipscomb, who said he gave up $25,000 a year to work in county government and is officially undecided on whether he’ll take some personal pain. What, he couldn’t figure out that being a Milwaukee County Supervisor means that he doesn’t really have to give up anything from his other job? Of course, considering his leanings, he seems to view government as a bottomless piggy bank.

Finally, we have the one person who explicitly rejected the idea of giving anything back, John Weishan. News flash for Karen’s little brother – that’s your budget that’s blown up since you overrode almost all of Walker’s vetoes.

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