Ignore Chris Abele’s fibs

In a democracy, the people rule. In our representative democracy, elected officials are expected to listen to their constituents and enact the will of the people. Checks and balances are built into the American system of government to require compromise. As a result, no elected official gets everything he or she wants.

In the modern era of American politics, the referendum is a common way to measure public sentiment. In the spring of 2017, Milwaukee County voters rejected County Executive Chris Abele’s $60 wheel tax by a landslide: 72% opposed it.

For five years after becoming county executive in 2011, Chris Abele was known for his austerity budgets and policies, such as his rejection of a living wage, and his near obsession with paying down the debt rather than investing in transit or parks. He boasted about never increasing taxes. After he was re-elected in 2016, Abele did an about-face, proposing a property tax increase and a $60 wheel tax — the largest proposed Milwaukee County tax increase in decades.

The Milwaukee County Board listened to citizens and cut Abele’s wheel tax in half, to $30, and called upon the Legislature to allow us to apply the wheel tax progressively. Supervisors then put the $60 question to voters, who said “No.” Abele refused to listen, saying before and after the referendum that he would propose a $60 wheel tax again in his 2018 budget.

Abele’s 2018 budget proposal was built around the $60 wheel tax that voters rejected, leaving supervisors with the tough choice of how to find about $16 million in savings to avoid his massive fee increase. Our budget avoids doubling the wheel tax by using a balanced approach: a smaller property tax increase, a rejection of about half of Abele’s request for new, unfunded positions, delaying road projects that Abele’s own appointees to the Capital Improvement Committee did not recommend, holding off on a new voicemail system and point-of-sale system, spending less of our savings, buying fewer new buses, and asking all departments to absorb a 0.75% reduction in expenditures, among other measures. Abele is spending at least $250,000 to run attack ads accusing me and the County Board of “demanding deep service cuts” of $15 million, even specifying absurd cuts I would never support, such as ending the UpLift MKE program (based on the Ready to Work initiative, which I co-authored), and closing the Schulz Aquatic Center (which is in my district), among other bizarre claims.

An effective propaganda technique is to tell a lie so big that people believe it. It’s a clever trick that uses a kernel of truth to spin a preposterous tale that plays on stereotypes and then amplifies the lie through repetition.

Abele’s phony claim of “$15 million in deep service cuts” is based on a modest reduction in departmental budgets of 0.75%, for a savings of $3.75 million. My proposal prioritizes services by giving control back to department heads, who can manage their departmental budgets to find these savings. Indeed, I know it can be done because all the independently elected county officials have already come forward with specific plans to find these savings in their departments.

In a democracy, the people decide. The people rejected Abele’s wheel tax increase. Supervisors will continue to listen to the people, and compromise is required of all parties in order to continue providing quality public services, which is why we’ve agreed to more than 98% of what Abele asked for in his budget. This is democracy. The result is a better, more balanced, and more responsible budget.

Theodore Lipscomb Sr., is chairman of the Milwaukee County Board and represents the 1st District.