Walker 'Budgets' Phantom Dollars To Repair Decaying Buildings

Even for Scott Walker- - whose campaign paper on jobs and finances was inflated with phantom pages - - this budgetary sleight-of-hand revealed today is going too far:


Walker is using in his proposed 2011 County budget millions of dollars from two real estate deals that haven't taken place to come up with money to help fix O'Donnell Park and other County buildings found needing repairs.


As described in the Journal Sentinel,. Walker proposes to use $3 million from the sale of a County property in Franklin that is inert in a lousy real estate market, and $5 million from a portion of the already-delayed land deal with UWM at the County Grounds - -  a deal that is contingent on UW system investment and millions more from as-yet unidentified private donors arriving - - perhaps - - after the County budget is approved.


Don't forget: there's been no deferred maintenance on Walker's watch.


And more millions for the repair fund are coming from the cancellation of two so-called aquatic centers, a move the County Board will probably resist, so Walker can, again, claim it is the Board that boosts the budget. 


Neato!

Budgets always use revenue projections, but sound and professional practice errs on the side of caution, and fiscally-conservative estimates - - not magic and Monopoly money.


Betting on complex land deals not consummated involving multiple buyers in a horrible market is truly reckless.


Is this honest governance?


No: more evasion.