Walker said West Bend should have a surplus of $572,814

And now we'll have a deficit

Health Insurance Savings (assumption: equals 4.2% of WRS payroll) = 1,638,599
Pension contribution Savings (assumption: equals5.8% of WRS payroll) = 2,262,827
Total Fringe Benefit Savings = 3,901,426
FY10 General Aid = 30,632,477
FY11 General Aid (under Governor’s recommended budget) = 27,478,870
General Aid Reduction: Estimated FY11 vs. FY10 = -3,153,607
Benefit Savings less Rev Limit Cut = 572,814

Appears what Walker said wasn't accurate. An intentional inaccurate statement is a lie.

West Bend would shoulder one of the biggest state cuts

The largest cut in state shared revenue payments to municipalities in Ozaukee and Washington counties, and the 16th largest statewide, under Gov. Scott Walker's proposed 2011-13 budget will be borne by West Bend.
The city will receive $535,421 less in shared revenue payments in 2012 than it did this year, under the proposed state budget. Shared revenue payments generally are used to help communities reduce property tax levies.
Savings that will come from city employees contributing more to pensions amount to $498,000 in 2012, or $37,421 less than the shared revenue cut, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

WTF, I thought under the Walker plan we were going to be money ahead.  And here I was planning on having my taxes going down.  It sounds like Scooter is bullshitting us taxpayers.

To makeup for the $37,421 we're going to be short I think our local officials should take pay cuts.  Once they balance our budget and then reduce our tax burden they can think about raising their pay.

From Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin Poll: Support for Budget Cutting, Not for Weakening Collective Bargaining Rights

Hmmm. Telling.

From Rasmussen Reports

Most Wisconsin voters oppose efforts to weaken collective bargaining rights for union workers but a plurality are supportive of significant pay cuts for state workers. Governor Scott Walker is struggling in the court of public opinion, but how badly he is struggling depends upon how the issue is presented.  There is also an interesting gap between the views of private and public sector union families.

Among those asked about weakening collective bargaining rights, 56% supported the union and 41% supported the Governor. There is a similar age dynamic on this question, even though the overall level of support for the Governor is lower.
While most voters oppose the Governor’s effort to weaken collective bargaining rights, 43% believe that the public employee unions have too much influence on politics in Wisconsin while only 9% say they have too little influence. Forty-two percent (42%) say the public union influence is about right.
Additionally, 49% believe it’s good that most teachers belong to a union. Among those with children in the public school system, 58% believe that’s a good thing.
Among households with a private sector union member, 44% say that public employee unions have too much influence while only 9% say they have too little influence. Those who have a public sector union employee in the household strongly believe that the level of influence is about right. Additionally, most private sector union households (57%) favor a pay cut for all state workers. Not surprisingly, households with public sector union members hold the opposite view.

Wasteful spending in Walker's budget

• Provide $1 million for raises for prosecutors.

• Set aside $1.04 million to investigate Internet crimes against children.

• Provide $993,800 for more public defenders.

• Provide $196 million in funding for the new Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

• Allocate $225 million to reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange. Money will cover engineering expenses, preparing for 2013 start of construction.

• Put $59.1 million into expansion of I-39/90 in Rock and Dane counties and authorize three other highway projects in Racine, Milwaukee, Winnebago, Calumet and Outagamie counties.

• Provide $5 million to clean up contaminated sediments in the Great Lakes and their tributaries.

We just don't have the money for all this.  Doesn't Walker know that we have a deficit?  Hard decisions must be made.

Ending our Military Waste

How much should the United States be spending on the military?  Would enough be to make sure we are stronger than the next four powers combined?  Well we could do that and still cut $400 billion dollars a year from the budget.

Let's take a look at what the next four top powers spend on the military;

2		China	$98,800,000,000
3		United Kingdom	$69,271,000,000
4		France	$67,316,000,000
5		Russian Federation	$61,000,000,000

The combined spending for these four top powers is $207,467,000,000.
The United States is spending $663,255,000,000.
We could cut $400,000,000,000 and still be spending more for our defense at $263,255,000,000 than the next four military powers.
Think how much money would be available to state and local governments during this federal, state, and local government budgetary crisis.
We need to start thinking differently about how we spend and defend ourselves and end Military Keynesianism.

Separated at Birth

Doesn't Glenn Grothman look an awful lot like Mrs. Doubtfire?

New Approach to Funding State Parks

Hmmm.  Interesting.

Can fiscally conservative Wisconsin taxpayers really afford this during a budgetary crisis?

North Carolina Republicans, like Wisconsin Republicans, are planning  to introduce a voter id bill.  It's noted that this would cost the state of NC more than $20 million dollars over three years.  They are also struggling to close a $3.7 billion budget shortfall.  This price tag appears to be similar to a program implemented in Missouri.

Now I don't know how much the cost to taxpayers for voter id would be in Wisconsin, but  I have an uneasy feeling that it would more than likely fall in line with the same costs found in other states.

As if getting tons of taxpayer money through Federal Farm subsidies wasn't enough

It now appears that our state law makers are willing to extend the dairy and livestock tax credit. Since 2004 the state has issued $200 million in tax credits. This credit isn't free money. Tax payers actually have to anti up for this credit.  Can we really afford this during a budgetary crisis?

Everything I know about blogging I learned from Owen Robinson

If I knew how import this would make me feel I would have done it a long time ago.  Owen is right, although some of us more enlighten individuals don't have the time to actually do anything that  involves running for anything, this is the least we can do, in our own little way, to bring our insightful wisdom to others.

Now I need to practice using opening terms like, Hmmmm,  Great!, Indeed, This is telling!, Good!, So let me get this straight, I find this utterley classless, Gee, Amazing, when I do my cut and paste.

States that don't have governor mansions

Arizona, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont don't provide their governors with mansions to live in.
Why does Wisconsin have one when we have a budgetary crisis?   Where is the Tea  Party on this?

Scott Walker lives in the lap of luxury paid for by tax payers.

Does a person making $137,092 off the tax payers really need to have tax payers also pay for an imperial palace?

The Mansion is:

• Is a three-story, 21,000-square-foot (including basement) Georgian Revivalin Maple Bluff, a village northeast of Madison.

• Was built in 1921 for Madison industrialist Carl A. Johnson and became home to governors after being purchased by the state in 1949.

• Has 13 bathrooms, seven bedrooms, seven fireplaces and seven garden areas.

It has a staff of seven employees, a chef, a gardener and a "facilities maintenance specialist." The part-timers are a housekeeper, a "laundress and flower arranger," and the head of the waitstaff, who has worked at the mansion for more than 32 years.


The fiscal bureau told PolitiFact Wisconsin that the mansion’s operating expenses are budgeted at $262,500 in 2009-’10 and the same amount for 2010-’11, nearly all of which is salaries. That’s a total of $1.05 million over four years.

By Popular Demand.........

Some guy named "cynical" at Boots and Sabers said,

If you want to have a debate about whether or not we should have public schools, by all means, start your own blog and invite us over to debate it.

So, here is what I posted that cynical was chicken shit to respond to.

Amend the state constitution and eliminate forced tax payer funded education. Move to privatized education.  This will eliminate our deficit and reduce taxes substantially.  Think of the opportunity for increasing employment in the private sector.
Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund educating other peoples kids.
And while we’re at it, sell all the publicly funded city and state parks, and allow the private sector to run them. The free market will dictate if the public really wants to use them.

And while we’re at it, sell the Governor’s Mansion.  We can’t afford a mansion. Scott Walker’s family can live in their home in Wauwautosa and he can commute.  Or he can buy a home of his own closer to Madison.  Us suffering tax payers can no longer afford mansions for our elected officials. 

 
And so, let the debate begin.