Charlie Sykes: Sykes Writes

QUESTIONS FOR TOM BARRETT

By Charlie Sykes

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Mayor Tom Barrett declined our invitation to participate in our annual Insight 2010 show, which we taped Monday night and are replaying this morning. Scott Walker and Mark Neumann both appeared.

I assume these are some of the questions that he did not want to answer in front of a live audience.

I offer them freely to other media outlets who might be able to get the mayor off the milk carton. I began with two question on schools in Milwaukee:

*In August you launched a campaign to take over the Milwaukee public schools. You had the support of the president of the United State; the secretary of education, and the governor. In addition, your party controlled both houses of the legislature; you are the leading democratic candidate for governor. And yet your plan went absolutely nowhere. Does this reflect at all on the leadership skills you will bring to the governor's office?

*You have had the power to charter schools for six years. This gave you a chance to support alternatives to the failing educational status quo in Milwaukee. But during your term, only one school was chartered and that one has already shut down. If you are as you have professed recently, so concerned about the quality of education in the city, why did you do so little with charter schools when you had the chance? 

*As mayor, you control the MMSD Board. Given the fact that last year MMSD dumped 1.2 billion gallons of untreated waste water into local rivers and Lake Michigan last year make you Wisconsin’s worst polluter?

*Last year after thousands of taxpayers and voters gathered on Milwaukee’s lakefront for a rally, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin Mike Tate called them “extremist elements” who “frankly don't believe in this country. They don't want to see more people have access to quality affordable health care; they don't want clean air and water. They fundamentally don't understand how the American government, economy and capitalism work."He later compared them to the “red-baiting McCartyhyites to the Know-Nothings and the KKK… Fueled by ignorance, racism and intolerance, these groups have done everything in their power to obstruct progress – often resorting to intimidation and violence.

*Since you’ve increasingly relied on Mike Tate to speak for your campaign, and a spokesman for your campaign has praised Tate for his leadership, I’d like to ask if you agree with his characterization of the taxpayers who showed up at these rallies? If not, why haven’t you disassociated yourself from his attacks on these taxpayers?

*On this show several years ago, you scoffed at concerns over voter fraud, asking “Give me the name, Charlie.” Mayor, there have been lots of names. You may even have heard of a group called ACORN. Do you still think that there is no problem with voter fraud in Milwaukee?

*Your campaign has been touting the decision by a Spanish firm Ingeteam to locate in Milwaukee after it received generous federal and local tax breaks? If tax breaks are good enough for Ingeteam and if you acknowledge that lower taxes can lead to jobs, do you think we should extend similar tax breaks to all of the American businesses struggling to retain and grow jobs in the state?

*Last year Gov. Doyle and your fellow Democrats approved more than $2.1 billion in tax increases on individuals and businesses. This included combined reporting which hit companies like Harley Davidson especially hard.  Did you support those tax increases? Can you point to a single public statement, letter, or email in which you objected to any of the new taxes imposed on businesses in Milwaukee or elsewhere in the state?

*Would have you voted for the budget passed last year by the Democrat legislature and signed by Governor Doyle? Yes or no? If no, can you point to a single public statement, letter, or email in which you opposed the budget or any provision in the final document?

*Do you support the early release program approved by your fellow Democrats in the legislature and signed into law by Jim Doyle? Can you point to any statement, letter, or email at the time this legislation was pending in which you expressed concern over the release of felons back onto the streets in Milwaukee?

*Regarding the high speed train from Milwaukee to someplace near Madison: How much of state money are you prepared to pay for the train construction over and above the $800 million federal money? Where does that money come from? Will that money come from the transportation fund? What other programs will have to be cut to provide that subsidy and other ongoing subsidies?