Opinion
Both sides now: Executive’s budget cuts ignite a firestorm of controversy
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Also by Elizabeth Sanger:
- Referendum fair gauge of opinion (March 30, 2006)
- The Madison Common Council stubbornly ignores opposition viewpoint (October 6, 2005)
- Affirmative action right for UW (April 13, 2006)
- Both sides now: Executive's budget cuts ignite a firestorm of controversy (October 20, 2005)
- Liz agrees with Joelle (May 4, 2006)
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County Executive Scott Walker's run for governor has yet again clouded his judgment in trying to manage Milwaukee County. In what some would call a bold move, but is really just shocking for the harmful implications it carries, Mr. Walker has proposed a 25 percent cut to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court system.
Executive Walker has stated he is trying to demonstrate the need for more state funding for the judicial system, but his protest comes at a price: thousands of Milwaukee County residents will be denied justice under his proposed budget.
Mr. Walker's cuts pose serious security threats and will most likely result in major operational slowdowns. The unavoidable negative consequences of these cuts have been predicted by the people who have the most interaction with the Milwaukee County Court system on a daily basis: the system's chief judge Kitty Brennan, the clerk of courts John Barrett, the Milwaukee Bar Association, Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs' Association President Roy Felber, and current Milwaukee County Circuit Court judges. Despite concern from the people who know best, Walker has continued to defend this blow to the judicial system.
A county that has seen homicides in its courtrooms as recently as 2002, and which is already utilizing the services of non-law officer bailiffs, can hardly afford to spare the 19 bailiffs who will be cut from courtroom staff under Mr. Walker's proposal. Just last Thursday, a Milwaukee courtroom was closed most of the day as bailiffs took a man found guilty of sexual assault to the hospital after he collapsed on the floor. If the courts could really absorb a 20 percent cut in bailiffs, then why weren't there any available to keep the courtroom open?
Mr. Walker's proposed cuts also do a great disservice to the public by forcing a slowdown, and in some cases a near halt, to court administration. He's squeezing the system from both ends, removing administrative positions as well as court commissioners. Dozens of deputy clerks, who manage everything from taking phone calls to opening mail to scheduling, will lose their jobs. These duties will be passed on to higher authorities that will subsequently have less time in their schedules for their actual job duties.
This domino effect transfer of duties, combined with a 50 percent cut at the court commissioner level, places unbelievable demands on individual courts and judges that cannot possibly be fulfilled. The brunt of this burden will be felt by regular people who rely on the courts to administer quick justice in everyday affairs.
The small claims court, often called the "people's court," will be hardest hit by Mr. Walker's proposal. His budget eliminates the four county-funded court commissioners who handle small claims cases. In anticipation of the absence of their positions beginning Jan. 1, these commissioners have already had to stop scheduling small claims trials past that date. Now a single judge is left to deal with the over 40,000 small claims that are brought to the court each year.
Litigants will have to wait eight months or more for trial dates and the court will stop taking new claims altogether later this fall. The small claims court, which handles disputes like unpaid bills or rent, failure to return down payments, property damage or loss, consumer complaints for defective merchandise or faulty workmanship, and unreturned security deposits, should be the last place to cut funding.
If people can't get these disputes settled in a court of law, who knows how they'll try to settle things using their own systems of justice? And students going to Milwaukee area schools who get screwed over by their landlords can forget using the "I'll drag your a** to court if you don't refund my security deposit" argument — they'll probably have moved away from the county by the time the court can accept their claims.
Mr. Walker's 25 percent slash to the county's judicial budget represents a total disregard for the unique responsibilities of the judiciary branch. He sees his refusal to fund the courts at an operational level as sending a message to the state to kick in more money for their upkeep. (This is, of course, after the state's budget has already been finalized, and despite the fact that he hasn't lobbied the state for more judicial system funding for over two years.) But at what price? Mr. Walker has merely succeeded in demonstrating to the public his inability to lead or think of creative governing solutions to better serve his constituents.
And if that's not enough, he's destroyed Milwaukee County's court system in the process.
Liz Sanger (ejsanger@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in violin performance and English, and hails from Wauwatosa, Scott Walker's city of residence.
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Interesting that you conveniently leave out Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke's position on this. Sheriff Clarke, a Democrat, recently stated that Kitty Brennan was using scare tactics.
You might hail from Wauwatosa, but you're a liberal Democrat first. A large majority of Milwaukee County residents support Walker and his efforts to hold the line on property taxes. He is the one candidate running for governor that has credibility on this issue, which is why he will be nominated and elected next year.
OH YES
Liz Sanger is the greatest
Stick to the violin...and next time, try and present both sides of the story.
The scare tactics of the judges and the others that are screaming that the sky is falling, aren't working on people that have all the information available to them.
Difficult decisions need to be made to clean up messes left from the DEMOCRATS that have been running Milwaukee County for decades. Scott is making those difficult decisions and will be an excellent Governor...helping to clean up the mess left my Jim Doyle.