County Parks Plan Calls For Sales Tax

At Milwaukee County First, I wrote about how the local paper reported this morning that the long range plan for the parks system calls for and relies on the dedicated funding source that the propose sales tax would bring. Unsurprisingly, but no less disappointing, Scott Walker is against helping the parks:

Later in the article, they quote Scott Walker, who said that he opposes helping the parks. He goes on to say, true to his nature, that he is more than willing to dump the mess he created on a parks entity, but doesn’t want them to fix it either, just take the blame that lies squarely on his shoulders for their poor condition.

The neglect of the parks and the infrastructure is not new. It started before Walker was elected into office, but has increased at exponential rates under his willful neglect. From park facilities in such bad shape that they had to be closed to the public to the health-endangering exposure of PCBs in Estabrook and Lincoln Parks.

The MJS article also keys us in how clueless Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo really is:

Like Walker, county Supervisor Joe Sanfelippo opposes any sales tax increase, saying it would be particularly ill-timed during a recession. Sanfelippo said selling some park property with proceeds dedicated to park maintenance could ease the county's park funding problem. Prime parkland would not be considered for sale, Sanfelippo said.

First of all, it is not smart for someone who wants to keep their job long to follow Walker's pattern of leading by neglect. Secondly, Sanfelippo, being a businessman himself, should be keenly aware that all his suggestion would do is delay the eventual collapse of the parks system by a few years at best, and would do nothing to resolve the problems he and Walker created.