Walker passes the buck

Quote of the day, from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett:

"Is the county executive asking me to raise taxes so that that he can say he's opposed to raising taxes?"

Barrett was reacting to County Exec Scott Walker's suggestion that the city might want to take over the public swimming pools Walker is threatening to close. Thirty-three of the 43 pools are in the city.

Walker's idea of how to freeze Milwaukee County taxes is to shift the costs to some other unit of government. The pools are just one example, as today's Journal Sentinel reports:

Closing the Community Correction Center would save a lot of money, but at the expense of public safety and the rehabilitation of offenders re-entering society. Walker's idea?

Walker thinks closing the CCC, at 1004 N. 10th St., is unworkable and could compromise public safety if electronic monitoring is not stringent enough. But the exec said he is exploring various cost-saving ideas at the House, including checking on whether the state or another county would want to run it.

I'm sure they'll be clamoring to take it over.

Walker's already proposed that the state take over the full cost of the courts and other programs which are now jointly state-county funded. That would dump it into the state budget, where the right-wingers also want a tax freeze, but what the hell, Walker's not running for governor any more.

Barrett's comment is quite telling. Walker is more than willing to increase the tax burden on anyone else, while continuing to strangle Milwaukee County government with his misguided tax freeze pledge.

When did passing the buck start passing for leadership?

UPDATE: Why they call Walker the anti-executive.