The State of Milwaukee County?

Scott Walker is the world's fastest buck passer. The buck never stops at his desk. With Walker, it's more like a game of Hot Potato -- how fast can he get rid of it?

Cory Liebmann of Eye on Wisconsin offers some observations on the State of Milwaukee County:

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker tried to bury bad news at the beginning of a holiday weekend last Friday. What was the bad news? The report that the Milwaukee County Parks Department has a $2.3 million deficit. Does that not sound familiar to anyone else? It should because the same thing happened in 2003.

Let me briefly summarize what happened at that time. The Parks budget was $2 million in deficit, then Director of Parks Susan Baldwin devised a deficit reduction plan that she says was affirmed and reaffirmed by Scott Walker. This plan included early closings of pools in the summertime. When constituents (mostly in Walker’s suburban strongholds) started complaining, Walker had to take quick action that would pass the buck to someone else. That “someone else” he passed the buck to was Susan Baldwin and four of her colleagues whose resignation/retirement he demanded.

Such drastic action was taken at that time and now an even greater deficit. Who will Walker blame now? The only common denominator between the deficit in 2003 and the current one is Walker and his policies. It does not take a genius to figure out that this County Executive job was only a stepping stone for Walker to run for Governor. It seems clear that he is only trying to bide his time as County Exec and then let some other poor soul clean up his mess.

Read the rest, including court documents about how Walker passed the buck in 2003.