The theme heard round the state

Xoff and Eye on Wisconsin have great posts today about County Executive Scott Walker blaming Milwaukee County's budget mess on everyone but himself. He advocates TABOR-like constitutional amendments to gut local spending across the state but then starts to cry for help when he has to deal with limited resources in his own backyard. Now that's leadership!

Walker is not the only conservative County Executive out there gunning for a promotion that has been looking to blame others for budget cuts in the government they manage. Racine County Executive Bill McReynolds has done the same thing.

From the Racine Journal Times in October of 2005:

Racine County Executive Bill McReynolds has yet to release his budget, but he is already taking strong criticism for three of the cuts he has announced.

Included in his 2006 budget are cuts that will end the county Water Patrol, force the Heritage Museum to close its doors, and possibly signal the start of an admissions charge at the Racine Zoo. The budget is scheduled to be released Tuesday, prior to its presentation to the Racine County Board.

These cuts, McReynolds said, are unavoidable. They are the consequence of a tax system that has forced local governments to make up for poor budgeting at the state level...

Since McReynolds is running for a seat in the Wisconsin State Senate, why isn't he loudly calling on his would-be colleagues to stop the Bride of TABOR? Would he himself vote against it? Has he supported other state candidates that did support TABOR types of amendments?

McReynolds, like most conservatives out there, seems to want to get the votes of anti-taxers without taking responsibility for the hard choices cutting taxes forces. Oh he has made the cuts, but he says they are not his fault. This is exactly what the TABOR supporters want to accomplish with this amendment - force draconian cuts on local governments and then say it is not their fault, the constitutional amendment made them do it.

As a former Racine County Sheriff and current Racine County Executive, McReynolds should be leading the charge to stop the Bride of TABOR.