Litigation

There?s simply NO MONEY IN THE BUDGET!!!

By Tracy Coenen

Wisconsin is a tax hell, plain and simple. And if you live in the city of Milwaukee and actually hold a job and try to own a home, you are screwed even more.

So naturally it comes as a surprise (sarcasm!) that our politicians might be wasting money on unneeded trips (we call them boondoggles in the real world) yet telling us that they need to tax us more because there simply isn’t any money in the budget for anything!

Thank you, Milwaukee Alderman Joe Davis for wasting thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on your vacations.

Last year it was reported that Davis wasted over $15,600 on his taxpayer funded vacations over two years. The destinations of these trips included Las Vegas, Reno, St. Louis, New Haven, Charlotte, Wichita, and Washington DC (3 times).

And the very, very important business that was done on those vacations? Well no one’s really sure. But we do know that Davis himself spent 25% of the travel budget that was allocated for the alderman. (Now I’m not sure why there is such a budget.. which would be about $2,000 per alderman per year. What do they need to go on these trips for? Stay home and take care of business and do your cushy job for which you are overpaid by the taxpayers!)

Davis, of course, says these trips are educational! The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted him:

“I’m trying to be an educated elected official,” Davis said in a news conference Monday. These trips, he said, help him to “innovatively talk about the issues.”

Mmm hmmmm. And in addition to the $15,600 of vacations paid for by taxpayers, there were additional trips paid for by “outside groups.” Six days in Venezuela. A trip to South Africa.

Here’s the best part about the South Africa trip: When Davis was questioned about it, he tried to say that one of the things he was doing was talking with South African Breweries about the merger of Coors and Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing. Too bad that Miller is owned by SABMiller (headquartered in London) not South African Breweries.

The South African trip has now been reported at a cost of $4,500. Sure, someone other than taxpayers paid for it, but he missed important meetings and votes that are part of his job. That’s not acceptable.

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Full post as published by The FRAUDfiles Blog on April 30, 2008 (boomark / email).