Jay, who has lived in the Waukesha area for nearly 20 years, is an active volunteer who serves on numerous local boards and committees. He’s married to Colleen with three kids having gone through the Waukesha schools. He is the VP of a local distribution company and currently serves on several area Boards.
It is time to change what is unquestionably broken!
Property taxes are high. Too high – according to most.
Blame for property taxes is assigned to:
Education - Teachers and their salaries/benefits, school district officials; program funding within the schools which turns out “well-rounded” students; building maintenance; safety; extracurriculars; books & supplies; staples…everything is “wasteful” and not responsive to the local tax pressures.!
Local Government - Officials/employees and their salaries/benefits; the costs for safety, recreation, and public services; water & sewer; maintenance; garbage collection fees; pet licensing costs…basically everything you couldn’t blame on Education.
County Government - Same as “Local” plus adding in ”The size of the County Board”.
ATTENTION – EVERYONE! It is broke at the State Level!
Bi-partisan politicking is killing Wisconsin! Illegal power-brokering at the highest elected levels (remember Chvala & Jensen?) is killing Wisconsin... Maintaining electability before all else is killing Wisconsin. Avoidance of tackling really tough issues is killing Wisconsin.
I wrote the following to Governor Doyle and State Senator Kanavas last week:
Dear Governor Doyle,
Today – not tomorrow, is barely soon enough to save what has taken years to develop: the quality of the Waukesha School District. With 13,000 students, the Waukesha District has an excellent past history of providing excellence in education. The diversity of this District is further reason to admire past results.
The District Administration is currently undergoing the process of “discovering” over $3.4 million dollars in budget cuts for the next budget. This is on top of repetitive cuts in the prior years.
This is not “new”. You assisted in holding the line “for” education funding against withering attacks in the Capitol. Well, this is no longer just a “talking point” between parties. This is clearly a bi-partisan problem demanding a bi-partisan solution.
We have attempted past dialogue with Sen. Kanavas. It was wholly unsatisfactory. His responses blamed “Democratic Doctrine”. That is as totally evasive as Scott Jensen’s past responses were. Quit blaming each other and get to the negotiating table.
Both parties got us to where we are now. It is up to both parties to respond immediately and with impact.
Save our schools in Waukesha. Find a common dialogue with the opposition before these proposed cuts become reality. Assuredly, I am not alone in demanding - insisting on accountability from my elected officials. If our kids lose, the whole State loses.
Jay J. Walt
Cc State Senator Kanavas
Neither acknowledged nor answered my letter!
Politicians used to be “statesmen”. Today, they have become publicity-driven, power-hungry figureheads of their parties and only truly concerned with electability. Go ahead – write them! Good luck…
It’s really, really broke at the State level…We deserve better…
