WALKER STIMULUS LIST FIRST APPEARS AFTER VETO OVERRIDE

Some Question Timing of Document,
Rationale of Walker Opposition to Funds

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Courthouse Rat

[Updated Monday, April 6th, 2009]

County Executive Scott Walker produced a list of $130 million in stimulus projects that he wants us to think adhere to his self-imposed restrictions on funding.
He also wants us to believe he actually applied for these funds, although the wording of the release was vague, his office could not immediately provide any documentation of such applications, and it appears the list was rigged together on the spot.
The list was released Tuesday afternoon, March 31st, 2009 by Walker's office after the county board overrode his veto of its stimulus package on a lopsided 16-2 vote. It was the first anybody had heard that Walker had made application for funds. It caught Supervisor Theo Lipscomb by surprise, according to an account in Cognitive Dissidence entitled "The County Executive's New Clothes."
He had never seen the list, Lipscomb said. Walker's list included projects he said were "applied for or received" by county department heads. Fran Walker of the County Executive's staff said some of the funds are recurring appropriations that have been deemed to meet Walker's objectives. She said she would provide Milwaukeeworld with examples of actual applications for stimulus funds, and we await them should they exist.
However, a visit to the Recovery.gov website shows absolutely no application or funding from Milwaukee County, and I will accept that as authoritative -- certainly more so than any Walker assertion.

"Give Walker the Milwaukee Chutzpah Award," headlines Jim Rowen at Political Environment. "Actually, Retire it," he adds.
Joe Klein adds his suspicions:

"The timestamp on the PDF is interesting:

ModDate(D:20090331171027-05'00')
/CreationDate(D:20090331163548-05'00')
/Title(Microsoft Word - 033109 Stimulus Projects.doc)
Author(franmclaughlin)

Does anyone have documentation dated before March 31st 2009 at 4:35 P.M.???"

What Joe is saying here is that it appears to him Walker only produced this list -- perhaps invented it -- some hours after the board overrode his veto.

[UPDATE--Monday, April 6th, 2009]
Supervisor Theo Lipscomb, Chair of the County Board committee on stimulus funding, says Walker missed several other funding opportunities for the county, including a significant appropriation for Mitchell International Airport which went unnoticed by Walker. A similar project in Madison was announced by both the County Executive there, as well as by the Governor.
See the documents here: newsreleasethecompletelistofmilwaukeecountyssti.zip

ANTI-STIMULUS STANCE IS PLOY BY GOP PARTY BOSSES
Walker Willing Stooge

Walker gave his reasons for opposing stimulus funding that might require long-term investments, commitments and expenditures by the county in a January letter that many found to be politically motivated.
Walker's list could have easily been cribbed from the official Republican Party Talking Points memo on the subject.
The Republicans are opposed to the stimulus plan since it is the only issue they have left. They hope to use it to secure congressional seats and statehouses in next year's election cycle.
Walker would like to be governor of Wisconsin, and he thinks it would be good to emulate such political superiors and intellectual equals of his as Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal, both of whom rejected stimulus funds with the same lame excuse Walker uses.
Again, Walker did not come up with this angle; he is simply spouting the party orthodoxy in his role as G.O.P. Guinea Pig for the 2010 election.
--Michael Horne