JL- it took a year to correct all the failings Doyle had made during his reign. You can choose to put your democratic spin on his comments and call them lies, but the bottom line is our state is far better off today than it was a year ago. This impending recall election is absurd and unwarranted. All it does is cost tax payers money. Then again, I'm sure you're view is 'who cares -tax, tax, tax.' Accept your fate of a lost election last year and move on. Quit stomping around, whining and disrespecting the office of Governor!

@JL -

"jobs, what jobs?" - Politifact has confirmed Walker's job creation since taking office - a net 13,500 gained thus far. Not to mention that job creation in the state was outpacing the national average until the recall elections started, which caused political instability in the state that concerned job creators, thus stifling recent progress. Blame the recall crowd, including yourself for this reality, but not Walker.

"Education?" - Walker actually cut less than Doyle did from education, yet I don't see you blaming Doyle for the state of our public education system. And unlike Doyle, Walker offered reforms to make public education more effective and efficient instead of staying Doyle's course downward. He should be commended, and not condemned for such actions.

"balanced budget?" - Politifact confirmed that the budget is balanced according to traditional state accounting methods, but has a $3B deficit according to GAAP standards, which was reported to the federal government in order to refuse Obamacare money, which was a Walker campaign promise. Walker's office confirmed to Politifact that the next biennial budget would be balanced according to GAAP standards as the only reason it wasn't this time is because Walker didn't want to have to cut even deeper than he already did, as well as permitting his reforms and economic recovery some time to take effect which would have the effect of broadening the tax base and lessening the amount of additional cuts necessary. If you didn't know this, then where have you been? Obviously spending too much time over on the Daily Kos instead of in reality with the rest of us.

"Did'nt (sic) raise taxes?" First, Walker doesn’t have the power to 'gut local services,' as local budgets are up to local level governments. Second, Walker kept his promise of not raising state level taxes while putting policies into place that would help to effectively lower property taxes. The property tax decreases were confirmed by Politifact as being True. And if things are so bad, then please tell of specific services that you have been deprived of under Walker that you ordinarily and regularly enjoyed under other administrations - we'd love to hear about it.

"While you were in New York and Texas raising millions of dollars to blanket the TV stations with your lies we were here without jobs and trying to figure out how to pay our mortgages." Hmmm.. have you seen the state's job website, https://jobcenterofwisconsin.com/? There's over 32,000 jobs openings available. Instead of sitting around wondering how to pay the mortgage, perhaps you should be applying to some of those jobs. Just a thought. Also, why is it all of sudden governments responsibility to find you a job? I didn't see you complaining about Doyle's leadership, under which the state lost over 150,000 net jobs. A bit hypocritical, aren't you?

"Now EVERYONE that worked to get you in office is being put up on charges of fraud?" Yeah, did you forget that Walker himself called for the John Doe investigation into his staff?

"People to have stop believing in the "party line vote" and hold the people they elect accountable for what they do." That's why we voted the Dems out and Walker and the Repubs in. We were tired of illegally raiding funds, raising taxes, spending borrowed federal government money, etc. Time for some accountability, and Walker's giving that to us!

dude, you're so worked up you can't even type properly. Aren't you suppossed to be banging a drum or blowing a horn like the rest of your ilk?

Wow...now I read in the Milwaukee Journal today that one of the
charged Walker staff members in the John Doe investigation will fight
her case initially on procedural grounds. She wants her case moved to
her home Columbia County instead of Milwaukee County. Note that the
Columbia County District Attorney is a Republican!?
Walkergate continues to grow and may add to the reasons for the
recall. Fraud, misfeasance, betrayal of trust, abuse of power, and
failure to represent all Wisconsin citizens are the main reasons for
the recall. Those reasons may be taken over by malfeasance and the
possibility of a committed felony.
Republican efforts at changing 37 civil service jobs to political
appointments, at giving the governor's office the power to reject
administrative rules used to implement state laws, and other
legislation increases the chances that cronyism and abuse of power is
more likely.
Wisconsin so desperately needs honest pragmatic leaders who will
collaborate to find the compromises that will help us collectively
deal with the REAL issues facing Wisconsin. The recalls will start the process of finding such leaders!

As you can tell JL reads the liberal trash blogs and is blind to what is going on.... 1.2 Billion added to Medicare unlike most states that just cut it... Family Care now Statewide....

TGFSW!!!!

dpat did you want to recall doyle for all of his administration that were charged with felony's, jailed and fined? Do you want to recall lena 'don't you know who I am' taylor that was in a joe doe and refused to testify so she didn't incriminate herself?

The "kids" couldn't read before the 800 Million cut. They couldn't even fill out job applications correctly.

Lost thousands of jobs?? Next time you shop and pick up a item manufactured overseas or in Mexico you are costing a job.

Gutted what services?? The services that keep the freeloaders in the state?? Come to Kenosha sometime...if you haven't been here lately your in for a eye full!

Towns raise taxes every year. Your going to blame him for that??

As for the other things you are grasping at straws. Take any elected official I am sure you can find a way to slap a fraud charge on them.

You miss your Doyle, don't you? He did such a great job! (Sarcasm intended). From your little "blog", one must assume you haven't gotten the education that promotes reading COMPREHENSION. TRUTH is TRUTH, and you do NOT want to see it, hear it or read it. Your line items are all incorrect and you are ONLY pushing an agenda that is filled with empty "feelings", not information. Open your mind...there is a world out there filled with fact based KNOWLEDGE...real information, not just talking points from the left.

PERHAPS REMOVING SENIORITY WOULD BE A GOOD PATH TO FOLLOW IT IS TRULY NOT CONDUSIVE TO PRODUCTIVITY AND SHOULD BE REMOVED THE VERY IDEA OF THE MENTALY WEAK TAKING THE INSENTIVE OUT OF PEOPLE THE WANT TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE

Perhaps making the public sector employees pay their FULL 'fair' share instead of just HALF!!

@TOM... Home schooled, were you? You wrote a total 0f 40 words. You managed withing that 40 words to have 3 incorrect spellings; 3 punctuation errors; 1 error in grammar; and you produced 1 incomplete sentence. That's 1 error for each five words. This has to be a new record for the unthinking wingnuts who post here. We won't even go into the use of ALL CAPS.

Congratulations, Walker supporter.

I kinda find it funny when someone corrects someones spelling or grammar and yet they have an error in their own comment.....

Wow... Ms. Peel is something else. I see she seems to love calling people home-schooled as if that is some winning move that proves her higher intelligence instead of something that makes her seem ridiculous. Plus... really, in my life I have not run into that many home-schooled people, yet it seems in her mind everyone she disagrees with must be home-schooled? On top of that, I wouldn't personally assume someone home-schooled is lacking academically. Every individual is different. Looking through a few of her recent posts, Mrs Peel apparently sits around and counts out the number of times people post in a thread, or the grammatical errors they make as some proof of their viewpoints being irrelevant. It is purely non-substantive bashing. I encourage everyone to take a moment and look at some of her recent posts. Ridiculous. I am glad to see she is anti-Walker because she can only add to making that side look more fanatic. Plus, you gotta love a grammar snob who includes their own uncaught grammatical errors "withing" their posting about grammar. I personally don't generally get caught up in pointing out grammar mistakes because eventually everyone has some, and often they are more typos than anything else. More often than not grammar mistakes are a mistyped word or using the wrong form of a word in the heat of a discussion. I have been inspired to consciously avoid paragraph usage as a new general rule online now since it rubs Mrs Peel the wrong way... lol.

I have a sister-in-law that home schools her kids...... Amazing how smart they are. They even do plays and skits for their town and travel around their State performing. They also know the Constitution up and down and would put many public school children to shame.... Ya know mrspeel some parents are or should have been teachers............. You think they lack the skills to raise and teach their own kids? .

Facts are stubborn things. In 2009 and 2010 Wisconsin tax collections (that’s Manna from Heaven for you liberal readers) was down $1.4 billion due to the recession. According to democrats it was the worst economy since the Great Depression not a "manufactured crises."

Walker turned a $3 billion deficit into a $300 million surplus without raising taxes by modifying the organized theft that is a public employee union bargaining with bought and paid for democratic politicians. Where is it written that the political pendulum can only swing from liberal to radical? Scott Walker is doing exactly what needs to be done to rein in the fiscal recklessness of progressive excess.

Taking away jobs for life and (literally) no cost pensions and health insurance plans from our "public servants" paid for by taxpayers who will never see either has already saved local governments $475 million and avoided thousands of layoffs across the state.

There is nothing liberals hate more than success.

Adam, a surplus? Then why did his administration report a deficit through 2013 to the federal government? Facts are stubborn things.

Bren, I see this has been explained to you several times in different posts so perhaps your ignorance is not feigned. Walker balanced the state budget by the normal (for government) measure of "cash accounting" (instead of being nearly $3 billion short.)

If you use the normal accounting method for publicly traded companies or "generally accepted accounting principles" that takes into account commitments, for example, to build roads and bridges the state is running an additional $3 billion deficit and has done so for at least the past 10 years.

Needless to say you were outraged when the Doyle administration was running a $3 billion GAAP deficit and demanded immediate spending cuts and tax increases to eliminate it right?

In FACT at one point in doyle's last years he projected that WI had a 6.6 Billion deficit.... projections change..... Do you realize that Family Care went Statewide now? How much has that added?

Adam, Scott Walker claimed he would balance the budget using GAAP accounting. He claimed he would create 250,000 new jobs by 2013. I watched his interview with Mike Gousha this weekend and now he says they were "goals to work toward" that would show progress year after year. He also claims that his "deficit" report to the Fed was a sort of projection of what "could" happen to the budget (and the BadgerCare 53,000) if the Fed doesn't cooperate. (What did Saddam Hussein call them? Ah yes, "living shields." Nice.) Regardless of what passes for true this week, it's a campaign promise not being kept (never mind it shouldn't have been made).

My concerns aren't about which accounting method would be used or a goal to create jobs. It's the setting of goals which obviously could not be met within the stated time frame. At best it is frivolous grandiosity and at worst mendacious. He seemed nonplussed in the interview that anyone would consider his campaign promises to be serious metrics.

But that's Scott Walker. And I noticed once again that he constantly refers to himself in first person plural ("we") even when the answer is clearly a personal, individual response. I'm sure he does it to imply wide support, but should rethink that strategy as it can be symptomatic of dissociative identity disorder.

@Bren -

Wow, so when Obama does the same thing in talking about 'the American People,' and the fact that he's been at it for far longer than Walker, I guess you must believe that Obama clearly has "dissociative (sic) identity disorder."

So, I guess you won't be voting for Obama this year, will you Bren?

Honestly Bren, you're making this far too easy!

@Bren--We are one year into Governor Walker's first four year term and with the prospect of President Obama being voted out of office the markets appear to have already priced in an economic rally. There is plenty of time for employment to bounce back in Wisconsin and across the country.

Just so we're perfectly clear, it's important to you that we immediately implement the deep spending cuts and significant tax increases necessary to wipe out the states long term debt estimated at approximately $6 billion over the next two years. If Scott Walker keeps those promises by every means possible you are thereafter 100 percent in the tank for him?

Adam, I would first point out that Obama's approval rating has climbed to 53%, attributed to resonance from his State of the Union speech. Given the cast of characters in the Republican primary (and my Republican father's opinion of each) I would be very surprised if Obama is voted out of office. Certainly the right seems to be challenging itself to move as far from center as possible, leading me to believe they have prudently set their sights on 2016.

Adam, I'm on record as calling for a measured, multi-year approach to resolving our state's fiscal issues. Right now we're "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" so to speak. I can't support Scott Walker in his present course, cutting education etc., and because I can't accept "we're broke" while millions are spent on pet projects that aren't "his" because he's following a multi-state agenda.

Cry babies, sore losers. In my opinion, Tom Bode and the guy who threw a can of soda at Jason P. are the cry babies and sore losers.

Sore losers......Republicans claimed the house , senate and Govenor mansion. Hard to be a sore loser when you WIN!

No one is winning under Scott Walker, unless you are very, very wealthy. I suppose it's easier to be a Walker/Koch/ALEC pawn than to find out the facts on one's own and take action to get Wisconsin back on track through recall. If Walker wins and their "victory" blows up in their faces they'll try to blame Doyle or whoever they are told to blame. If I ever get that lazy about my state and country I hope it will be my last day on the earth.

@Bren -

"No one is winning under Scott Walker, unless you are very, very wealthy."

Not true at all Bren - ordinary people are saving on their tax bills with either a stagnant or reduced payment, the state (people) is/are saving millions in interest payments by paying down debts accrued with other states on reciprocity agreements, by refusing federal money for high speed rail and Obamacare (which would all be borrowed funds) we and future generations won't be burdened with the interest and repayments on those debts, by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse from the system we'll be saving tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars, … need I really go on?

How has Walker solely helped only "very, very wealthy" people exactly? The $2.3B in tax credits budgeted over the next 10 years is meant as a way to compete with other states with similar tax incentives to stimulate job creation, and businesses both large and small can apply for the credits. So please, help us out here without linking us to some liberal blog spouting a conspiracy theory that's only supported by conjecture, speculation, and inferences.

And I suppose that we're all winning under the Democrats' borrow, tax, and spend plan, right? While you may only be concerned about how policy effects your life, many of us are actually thinking about future generations, that are already heavily indebted because of spending done by both sides of the partisan aisle. Walker represents a solid step towards ending that kind of government mentality.

Although you may prefer to burden your children with as much debt as you can pile on just to make your life more comfortable in the now, some of us just aren't that selfish. Sorry to disappoint you, but that's the reality of it.

@Bren-Seriously? Well I am def not wealthy just your very very average middle class family man, a house that I can afford, older vehicles, nothing fancy here, 5 kids, 2 in College and Gov Walker has helped me tremendously. My property taxes were down for the first time ever since living in my house, I have had ZERO services cut in my community, my kids schools are doing great, no teacher loss, no over crowding, maybe if the Feds would get out of education and allow the teachers to teach and not just teach to the test our kids would rate a little higher. Maybe if teachers were held accountable for job performance our kids would rank a little higher.

Actually I find the sorry state of traditional Waukesha public schools to be a constant reminder of just how bad the local area is. I won't claim all of it is the fault of either party. Some of the issues came in under Democrats, some under Republicans.

I have been personally told by the head of mathematics instruction for all of Waukesha Public Schools that they cannot handle a student who is only moderately advanced in mathematics in elementary school. Advanced academic programs are effectively prohibited. The G/T program requirements were deemed satisfied by a part time coordinator who sent teachers extra work to pass on to students who were finishing assignments too quickly.

The classes vary widely in size, with one class my child is in being approximately fifty students (Spanish III). Even a very dedicated teacher will have difficulty with just the grading of assignments for that many students each week.

Elementary musical instrument programs are all but gone.

I remain very involved with my child's education. I find that the lack of opportunities for academic enrichment offered by the school district is something I have to apologize for to my relatives in areas with better schools. The main bright light is the online charter school, but I'm well aware that it is only a good choice for some students.

@Rick-No man its in the BEER:))

HAHA Patriot............ Thanks for the laugh

@jdelucia-Facts are Facts!! Property Taxes are down, no school district levies to make up the difference well at least in my district, no teachers were laid off, no city workers were laid off, all services remain. Gov Walker is making a difference but there is a small minority who do not agree. So there answer is Re-Call

Let's ask State Senator Shelly Moore about the majority's view, oh that’s right she lost by 15 percent just 5 months ago. Speaking of walking the walk there really is an historic difference between the political parties regarding slavery, civil rights and women's suffrage.

Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr were Republicans as was the majority that approved the civil rights act of 1964. The Democratic party declared itself the party of white men and was instrumental in passing the Ku Klux Klan Act and Jim Crow laws after the Civil War.

Just from memory, it was a republican governor who signed the first women's suffrage law in 1870 Wyoming and when Susan B Anthony was arrested for voting illegally in 1872 she boasted about voting "the Republican ticket, straight."

I'm always happy to engage in an intelligent, informed discussion.

Adam, exercise caution when you engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person. It get ugly fast. Name calling and one liners will come at you pretty fast.

jdelucia funny how you mention those distinct separations....Republicans are the reason for the end of slavery and women's (blacks) right to vote.

as for bren.... he's full of misinformation....

As for the 1 million....... you are spreading misinformation.......... Also we are already engaged and ready.

@jdelucia -- no, they can't, for the most part hold a conversation without the name-calling and characterization of anyone who takes the anti-Walker side as a 'leech' looking for a handout. I have been participating in these discussions since last spring, and I am beginning to consider it a waste of time.

@Cynthia -- while you may be correct that the Republicans were originally the party for social rights, they long ago skewed to the other end of the political spectrum. Today's Democrats are the Republicans of 1860.

And of course there's absolutely none of that that comes from the anti-Walker side whatsoever.

No one's being forced to read each and every comment, no one is being prevented from commenting in the fashion they so choose. If you want a sanitized, polite comments section where you won't be confronted with an opposing viewpoint and will receive nothing but nurturing approval for yours, they're out there and they're not that hard to find.

@Justa-See thats where your wrong. It is the Progressive Liberal who has hijacked the democrat brand.

It wouldn't be too difficult to convict the Left of acts of High treason against this country. So when can we start the stoning? Need a decent wall and massive supply of stones. Maybe a quarry would work better.

Go Pack Go!! I could not agree more with you. I as well lived in the disaster stricken California, the LA area to be exact. Gov Walker has saved this State from making some of the very mistakes that threaten Californias existance

LOL. Your opinion & that piece of paper saying you're an owner are worth the same amount.

Well you had me thinking you were on the mark until you started talking about your taxes and relating them to the drop in the value of your house...

Hey, my taxes went down by 700. but, then again, they did forget the $700 TIF district tax which will be extended out for another year down the road. Thanks Scott Walker, he obviously made this possible.

I wil ! Look at your 6:41 post today ( Monday). You can't even figure out what year your property tax bill is for. It's for 2011, not 2012. It's title " 2011 property tax", should have given you your first hint.

Oh, are you saying I didn't save money on my tax bill? Crapsticks, here I thought that it was all due to what walker did. I guess I (like many) haven't looked at all the factors that go into a tax bill and may have wrongly attributed a decrease to some irrational cause and effect with no correlation. The sarcasm of my previous post was pointing out that I didnt save a penny. They just plain forgot to charge the taxpayers, deferring the payment another year down the road.

Did your prperty value increase more that the local average? That would be the only way your taxes increased as much as you claim. In all fairness, you need to compare apples to apples and disclose your your assessed property value '10 vs '11.

For example, you claim your school taxes went up 7.5% when Hudson Patch on 9/14 reported a 1.98% levy increase. Something doesn't add up. Let's give you the benifit of doubt that you are just misinformed. Just supply more of your tax bill details, including what your property value did compared to district average. Mill rates are used by those who don't want to talk about levies.

"raided special funds and used cash accounting gimmicks..." SSDD. Doyle, McCallum, Thomspon, etc etc etc.

Celeste, I've noticed you're big on information dumps but short on analyzing what they mean. Higher tuition at U of W colleges is a "fee increase?" Gifting less money to poor people in the form of unearned tax credits is a tax increase? Moving $39 million from an unused environmental cleanup fund to the transportation budget with legislative approval is a broken promise?

Even PolitiFact is forced to admit "It's clear that Doyle's transfers dwarf those of Walker, but Walker's promise wasn't to do it less than Doyle--it was not to do it at all." Sounds like partisan gotcha to me.

What is your motivation, are you upset that Walker has not balanced the budget using GAAP accounting principles? Where do you propose to cut $3 billion from to achieve a balanced budget? Or do you simply have a partisan agenda and no answers?

@Adam Wienieski -- The loss of the state EIC most certainly does increase the taxes of low-income taxpaying workers.

Not necessarily Randy, with a tax credit you can owe nothing in state income tax and still get money back. After exemptions and deductions it's unlikely low income workers owe anything in state or federal taxes.

The policy of redistributing income to some people so they get back more than they paid in is called socialism. Nothing prevents Wisconsin voters from reducing or eliminating this or any other welfare program.

@Adam Wienieski -- You speak as someone who has never taken this credit. It's true that sometimes one gets back more than was withheld as federal or state income tax. But it is intended (at the federal level) to be a rebate for the FICA withholding that starts on the very first dollar earned. One could say that at the state level it would be a rebate on sales tax, which we all pay regardless of our incomes. And even people living below the poverty level need to buy such taxable items as toilet paper and soap.

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." -- Frederic Bastiat

In "The Law", Bastiat explains that if the privileged classes use the government for "legalized plunder" this will encourage the lower classes to revolt or use socialist "legalized plunder" and that the correct response to both the socialists and the corporatists is to cease all "legalized plunder".

Walker, not even trying to hide your real colors now? Advocating "the lower class to revolt or use socialist "legalized plunder" ( your quote). Just want to make sure everyone knows where Walker is comming from.....as if it's a big secret. Lyle must beso proud of you. As is Keith who this weekend came out for "socialism takeovers". Nice folks we're playing with today. Enough of the "man the barricades" diatribes.

"Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded--here and there, now and then--are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as 'bad luck.' " -- Robert Heinlein, in "Time Enough for Love," 1973

Adam,
I like that you use an atheist fiction writer to support the right wing religious political beliefs. I am not trying to discredit him, I just might use his quotes to defeat jesus loving political movements.

Say What?--A curiously appropriate moniker. The tea party emphasis on constitutional limits, freedom from government and fiscal sanity has nothing to do with loving jesus. We're not all social conservatives, although I'd rather sit next to an evangelical than a smelly occupy wall streeter. If you think Mr Heinlein is talking about occupiers or artistes or atheists in this quote you're not paying attention.

Adam,
I would liken your quote of this fictional writer to that of those who quote the bible on "an eye for an eye". The greater works as a whole might be more important. Or maybe, its just plain outdated.

Don't you think , in the spirit of honesty and transparency , you should disclose that the Hudson teacher union refused to renegotiate their contracts last spring, thus limiting the budget options the school board had? Sure appears as Shelly, a member of the teachers union, went down in flames in last summer's recall, that the majority of Hudson has had enough of heavyhanded union tactics and bullying?

You seem to be pretending there would not have been state funding cuts but for Scott Walker and the republican majority. State tax collections were down $1.4 billion over the last 2 years and $2 billion in one time federal stimulus funds were spent in the 2009-2011 fiscal year deferring the tough spending decisions until this year.

Thanks to Walker's reforms of the public employee unions collective bargaining process the Hudson school district was not compelled to layoff teachers and increase class sizes.

To avoid "undue hardship" the Hudson school district did not require their employee's to pay the 12.6 percent mandated by the budget reform bill for health insurance until next year (how much do you pay for health insurance?) Perhaps you should ask the local school board what motivated this generosity in light of the property tax increase.

What combination of spending cuts and tax increases are you in favor of to maintain the status quo Celeste?

CK, Just a side note on your post per the Red Start Obfuscator article. The local rag is in bed with the Hudson School District and is not a reliable source for correct information about school budgetary issues. Also, remember that your local school board is not known to have financial ethics when it comes to selling a boondoggle property referendum that is gonna cost you more in the end than what they are stating in their press releases. How about the 15mil dollars of confiscated taxpayers monies that they have stuffed into the local banks and keep a low profile on? Just shows that putting out info from the local rag is hardly justifiable as the school board has been drunk on spending money for years for their various tests of "new teaching" methods that have not panned out. The net results of this money scheme is a waste of taxpayer dollars and our youth not getting any better education as a result that is claimed by the educrats to be an "enhancement to a child's learning experience. The local school board is just not there as far as fiscal responsibility goes....

Good point, jdelucia. I bet Scotty and the Mrs. are still waiting for that promised trip to Cali.

Walker got busted for not following election rules when he was at Marquette and from the looks of the current investigations he didn't learn anything from that experience. A secret email system within his own office complex and he "wasn't aware of it". He is either stupid or a chronic liar. In fact I think he is likely a mixture of both.

For all of you who are "thrilled" with you $10 decreases in property taxes just wait until all of Walker's policies kick in next year. Gov. Timmie Pawlently did the same "smoke and mirrors" tricks in MN. Ask those people how it worked out for them.

mrspeel......... or should that be mispell......

Once again I don't know why you felt the need to tell Tom about his spelling and grammar when in both posts you have written you seem to also have a problem...

BTW.... I hope some day you get off the union talking points and see the light....

@Cynthia -

I think that MrsPeel's point is that it's OK for liberals to make mistakes because that's what one expects from those who espouse leftist ideologies - nothing but mistakes!

Meanwhile, conservatives are expected to be flawless, because let's face it, our ideology is much more 'right!'

Attempting to hold Tom to a higher standard than herself is how MrsPeel likes to demonstrate the coveted and infamous liberal hypocrisy that you've probably heard so very much about.

Cheers!

You just completed your statement of ignorance of local gov't. budgeting as it is obvious you don't have a clue. You claim you are no cop, firefighter or union shill but never answered my question about whether you are an elected local official. Because if you are, you got to be one the most ignorant I have come across and believe me I deal with a lot of local gov't officials. And what is it with twisting my signature? Do you feel that empowers you somehow? I see this all the time on these sites and got to think that you are maybe 15 years old because that is what teenagers do. Maybe show a little more maturity and civility, if it is not too much to ask.

$$andNonSense,
I just enjoy you peeing your pants.

I have been on a few government committees in the past. The process stated above I have learned from talking to various government officials, some elected and some appointed financial experts. What was incorrect about the explanation? Give me a specific, not the same old "you don't have a clue".

Act 10 allows government entities to:
Change health carriers instead of having to deal with groups like WEAC which have been gouging the taxpayers for years.
Modify the pay scale to a less complex and more equitable system.
Fire bad employees without going through long and expensive processes.
Modify sick and leave time to limit abuse.
Allow government entities to enforce work hours.
In the case of schools, allow the school board to create the calendar for the school year.
Have public employees pay a (still) small amount to health care and retirement costs.
Enact accountability standards in a public employee's job.

I think that should do for the main highlights.

@$$andSense -- put bluntly, the 'tools' are the ability to tell union-represented workers to take a cut in compensation or take a hike. Since they can no longer collectively bargain for working conditions, that may mean extra work under worse conditions as well.

$$andSense -

You do realize that you never answered the question I posed to you, don't you?

Also, what "Whitehouse guest" are you now referring to?

You haven't been drinking a little before you started Patching this morning, have you?

Hoffa

READ what I provided to you about revisionist history. Are you 12 years old or reading comprehension challenged? Dope smoking and acid dropping will do that to your brain sir. Whitehouse guest = president. Do you get it, or do I have to get the crayons out for you?

$$andSense -

Thanks for proving Rick James correct for us - cocaine really must be "a hell of a drug," as you're living proof of that my friend.

Again, please explain for us how NObama expressing his opinion is somehow using revisionist history, as you claimed, as you've yet to answer that question, as I posed to you.

Quit shifting the subject or employing other liberal tricks to take the attention off just how stupid the comment you made really was.

So $$, are you saying that instead of your property taxes going up like they have every year, a $38 decline is not a " great benefit"? Boy, I, for one, would have been happy with a zero increase, little less a lowering. I believe the Walker line is "without raising taxes", not " great benefit".

And if you read your 5:02 post, you never mention 2012. I believe your words were "tools ....they didn't have before Walker". That would include the BRB that wasn't available "before Walker" . And no, many local govts did not have ability to change union health plan companies UNLESS unions agreed. And they never did, due to not wanting to lose their sweetheart health plan that taxpayers could no longer afford to subsidize massively. Just look at WEAC Trust as a prime example. School boards were forced to use it until BRB.

By the way, since you don't even get your 2012 property tax bill to this comming December, your whole question is absurd. Maybe you should one, understand your own tax bill and two, read your own posts.

Wow $$, way to get cops, firemen, EMTs ( you forgot them) on your side. NOT ! So now you want to raise their taxes too. You must consider them part of the 1 % also

Thanks , Ben. In every online discussion there's always a person who comes in and tells people to quit wasting their time because, "it's just the internet". This is often followed by the classic, "Get a life" of "Move out of your parents' basement'.

I was about to agree with you until your crack about voting "again and again".

I'm self-employed, so I'll have to give myself a stern talking-to -- if I ever catch me, that is.

Randy, how about I scold you. Stop trying to be level headed! I have had enough of it!

Same here - self-employed independent contractor and entrepreneur that has actually created many jobs.

$$andSense -

Mighty tough words for someone who's quoted as having said earlier:

"Are you 12 years old or reading comprehension challenged? Dope smoking and acid dropping will do that to your brain sir."

Just make sure to thoroughly wash the bong after you've used it!

BTW - Hoffa is 100% drug and alcohol free. Many on Patch can confirm this as being true!

Have a great evening, as I'm sure you're dead tired after a long hard day of being productive, unlike the rest of us knuckleheads!

I didn't say I knew someone who knew someone that may have been elected. I talked to a past mayor when he was in office and the finance director. You have yet to answer my question about specifics on what I stated was wrong. And, I notice you had no comment on the list of tools from the Act 10 changes. Could you be speechless?

And are you peeing your pants again?

$$andSense -

1st Amendment doesn't apply here. Patch is a privately owned website and has a 'terms of service' limited use license that all commentators must agree to before being allowed to post here. If the editors, such as Mark, deem that certain comments don't live up to those terms, then they will delete them. Case closed.

For further confirmation of this policy, just ask poor old Angry White Dude, if he's even around any more.

Pretty simple, yes?

BTW - Welcome to the internet!

Actually, Hoffa's been 'straight edge' his entire life, and never had an addiction to get over.

And yeah, I know that you never called us 'knuckleheads,' that's a term that I reserve for those who constantly go back and forth on Patch without any sort of resolve - including myself!

I try to stay away from calling names, so if I've offended you in any way, I do apologize for that, as it wasn't ever intended to be personal.

Cheers!

It's troubling how far the haters will go to paint Scott Walkers managerial competence as broken promises or not living up to his word. They're afraid to admit his ideas are worked and the sky didn't fall. Balancing the budget, lowering taxes and encouraging the people who create jobs is the last thing in the world Celeste wants to see happen, but she will mindlessly hammer Governor Walker for not doing so in a precise fashion.

So far in this thread Celeste has (wrongly) said Walker's budget repair bill caused property taxes to go up, raised taxes and fees, raided special funds, failed to create jobs and either balanced the budget using gimmicks or not balanced the budget using generally accepted accounting principles (you pick it.)

Jim Doyle and the democrat's bread and butter was raising taxes, raiding segregated funds and adding to our future liabilities. I guarantee you Celeste has absolutely no issues with anything done by the tax and spend democrats over the last 8 years. We can debate if redistributing income from one group of Wisconsin citizens to another at tax time (called the Earned Income Credit) is pure socialism or just welfare and if taking it away is a "tax increase" but the hypocrisy remains the same.

For the Celeste's of the world there will always be another problem or injustice to fund with other people's money; there is no amount of income confiscation they consider "fair."

Adam,
He(walker) did say that they were running a 3 Billion deficit. This after he claimed a $300million surplus. This after having a $3 Billion deficit. I get confused, which is it?

The Wisconsin budget deficit is calculated and reported two different ways. It's confusing and people quote information with no effort to keep it straight. The state budget is balanced on a "cash" basis which counts expenditures only when payments are made. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) require the "accrual" accounting method meaning expenditures are reported when the spending is authorized.

When Walker first took office the estimated cash shortfall was about $3 billion, after his budget reforms the state's general fund probably showed a $300 million surplus while the Comprehensive Annual Fiscal Report (CAFR) prepared by the legislative audit bureau using GAAP showed approximately a $3 billion deficit. To keep things in perspective the state's financial statements have been in the red ever since it began using GAAP in 1989.