It’s amazing that the last nail in the coffin of the Milwaukee County Board as we know it is a bogus referendum that is just a week away. Except for two very minor articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this referendum has gone pretty much unnoticed. The left and the supporters of the board realize that 90% of the damage was all ready inflicted by Act 14 so this is just the epilog. County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic hit it right on the head when she declared the referendum a sham:
County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic has called the referendum a sham because last year’s law on the board already eliminated supervisors’ benefits, starting after the 2016 supervisors’ elections. The same law also will reduce the board’s budget so greatly that it would force a major salary cut, regardless of the outcome of the referendum, Dimitrijevic has said.
What is truly amazing is no one has started any kind of campaign to solicit a no vote on the referendum…it has been a forgone conclusion that it will pass.
But I was totally dumbfounded to read that Sheldon Lubar is supporting an eleventh hour effort to convince people to vote yes. He waited until two weeks before the election to start to campaign? And he needs other people’s money? WTF? Lubar can set up a $100,000 fund from his pocket change.
Well anyway, it will be interesting how many votes yea or nay this thing will pull in. After all there is nothing on most of the ballots in Milwaukee County…the only other county wide election is for MILWAUKEE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE, BRANCH 32 – contested by LAURA GRAMLING PEREZ and CEDRIC CORNWALL.
But I’ll urge everyone of you who votes on April 1st to vote NO on the referendum initiative. Here is the referendum for your consideration:
County Supervisor’s Pay – 2013 Wisconsin Act 14: “Shall that portion of 2013 Wisconsin Act 14 which limits the compensation of members of the board of supervisors of Milwaukee County other than the chairperson of the board and chairperson of the finance committee to receipt of an annual salary of not more than the annual per capita income of this county, which in 2012 was $24,051, and which limits the compensation of the chairperson of the board to not more than 150 percent of that amount and the chairperson of the finance committee to not more than 125 percent of that amount, subject to limitations and adjustments specified by law; and which prohibits supervisors from receiving any compensation or benefits not specifically authorized or required by law become effective in this county on April 18, 2016?” YES NO
By the way, this comes out to $11.53 per hour for a forty hour week…and the Republican’s claim this is part time money…yet they resist raising the actual minimum wage (and those making between minimum and proposals for a higher minimum) for people who work full time at the minimum. They are so totally full of it!
Let’s not only vote “no,” but let’s propose that the county executive’s pay and the pay of state legislators who actualized this awful idea be similarly restrained. After all, we already have a millionaire county exec who doesn’t need so many of our tax dollars; and, we have a state legislature which is very clearly a part-time, low-quality operation. So let’s see how well THEY function on (to use their own standard) an annual salary of not more than the annual per capita income of this state, which in 2012 was $27,426.