It seems Republican Gov. Scott Walker will never turn down an opportunity to stick it to the City of Milwaukee.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Sunday that some provisions of Gov. Scott Walker’s new state budget, including the end of residency statewide and a change in the way city billboards are assessed, were tantamount to political payback for the governor’s friends.
But one particular veto, which stripped out an estimated $3.5 million earmarked to help the state’s cities tear down vacant and dilapidated homes, vexed Barrett even more.
At a news conference Sunday afternoon just hours after Walker issued his vetoes, Barrett stood on a street choked with vacant homes. In a telephone interview later, Barrett wondered whether Walker realized there was a foreclosure crisis in Milwaukee.
“The governor has never addressed this issue in a serious manner,” Barrett said. “He has decided it doesn’t exist.”
It’s worth noting that the City of Milwaukee would have received most of the $3.5 million in foreclosure funds because the city has the state’s largest inventory of homes that need to be razed immediately.
Once again Gov. Walker has proven that ideology trumps all, especially at the expense of the City of Milwaukee.
If WisGov Walker will put infirmed and pennyless people out on the streets simply because he can, how could anyone…especially Barrett who practically spit in Walker’s face during their debate last year…expect anything but rancor from such a sleezeball.