In boozy Wisconsin, Walker budget cuts OWI treatment funds
Just call Walker's budget what it is - - stupid and dangerous:
The state would cut $732,000 in existing grant funding used to treat drunken drivers in southeast Wisconsin and the rest of the state, under a provision in Gov. Scott Walker's budget that comes before a key committee Tuesday.
Going forward, the county-run programs for intoxicated drivers could still get some state money but only if it's diverted away from other existing programs to treat substance abuse, under the plan being voted on by the Joint Finance Committee.So money would be stripped away from heroin treatment?
Ridiculous.
As is Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke's useless position that arrested OWI offenders pay the treatment tab, when he knows that many of the drunk drivers his own deputies arrest do not have the money, especially after paying their fines, or losing their jobs if jailed,
Do he and Walker want OWI treatment, or are they OK with drunk drivers returning to the roads without treatment, coming right at you and me?
This blog has long catalogued the realities that Wisconsin often tops national rankings for drunk driving and fatalities, binge drinking and first-offense wrist-slaps.
The cut to OWN treatment funding can be overturned by the Legislature's budget-writing finance committee, and since OWI reformer Alberta Darling is the committee's Senate chair, there's a chance the money or some of it will be restored.
After all, who wants to vote to remove the funding and then read that a repeat drunk driving offender who did not receive treatment wiped out a family on a Wisconsin roadway?
Even so, Walker's plan is crazy and dangerous, should be called crazy and dangerous, and ought to be slapped down no matter how strong the booze lobbies are in the Legislature.
9 comments:
As widely reported in Wisconsin's news, Our Gov. Scott Walker is doing the work of God. He communicates with God each day. He consults with God on everything. He is doing the Work or God.
If God says that the state should pay for OWI and other substance abuse treatments, we should all Praise the Lord and read our Bible. Scott Walker has Divine Intervention. Eventually, he may even replace Jesus as the Son of God in a new version of the New Testament where humanity is finally freed from the burden of helping those less-fortunate than billionares.
Walker wants to drug test anything and everything that walks so that as he claims they will be "work ready" for all the jobs that are available in Wisconsin [ what jobs in Wisconsin]. He further claims that the test failures will be provided treatment....yet his budget cuts the very treatment he claims that will be provided. This man talks out of all sides of his mouth as does Clarke. What Walker fails to acknowledge is that living wage jobs that would provide people with hope and money to meet their basic needs and beyond and a life they desire have been lost as manufacturing jobs that provided good wages and benefits that lifted many families into the middle class have been lost! He, WEDC and his party have authorized economic policies that lead businesses and corporations to ship jobs overseas and replace these jobs with low wage occupations that offer no pathway to the middle class. Even worse, Walker and his legislators subsidize businesses and corporations that don't pay their employees a livable wage.
anon 10:58 is on to something. If Jesus Christ of Nazareth was so right about preaching compassion for the poor, then why did God off him?
I think eventually it will be revealed that Gov. Scott Walker is not only talking directly to God about everything he does and humbly doing what The Lord tells him to do, but that Scott Walker is actually The Son of God himself and was sent to work to undo the many hundreds of years of damage that Jesus guy did by preaching commie crap. We need to all bow before the Mighty Holiness of Gov. Scott Walker and cheer him into the White House so that when the New Testament is rewritten to punish the poor, America is on the right side of Christianity.
Oh, but it won't be named after that false profit Christ any more, it will be called WALKERANITY!
So if Walker has no money for DWI rehab, how is he going to drug test people who get government benefits and "get them ready for work". He speaks out of both sides of his mouth. This is just red meat for his base. Plus, Florida's drug testing for SNAP benefits has been deemed unconstitutional by the federal government and program guidelines.
This sounds like something to take a road trip through the Fox Valley and celebrate by stoppin' in every bar on the main drag for a beer and a shot!
And every GOP in the Joint Finance Committee voted to go along with this move. The "we'll figure out how to pay for it" strategy is so adult, isn't it?
I, for one, am not surprised. All that was good in Wisconsin must be destroyed by Walker and friends. Everyone is on their own. There is no help for anybody for anything in Wisconsin anymore. All this in the name of shrinking government and growing our economy. It's Reaganomics don't you know. Scott's second lord and master, or should I say third. First are the Kochs, then God, then Ronald Reagan.
WISCONSIN is THE PARTY STATE!
This will surely increase tourism in our state, and add more tourism service jobs. It's working!
If you plan on a binge drinking road trip through Wisconsin this year, don't forget to add the infamous Silver Street taverns of Hurley to your tour!
The "lower end" of the street is now a national attraction. Hurley has the greatest number of strip clubs per capita in the nation—putting the sin in Wisconsin.
Welcome to Kinky City USA: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/the-big-picture-with-kal-penn/videos/kinky-city/
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