Dems say Walker camp is blocking release of county finance report

A Greater Milwaukee Committee draft report detailing the fiscal crisis in Milwaukee County could show the poor management skills that Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker would bring to Madison, Democrats say, charging Walker allies are blocking the report’s release.
Among the recommendations in the report, according to a copy leaked to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is that the state should consider legislation to allow the county to declare bankruptcy.
State Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate said Walker’s campaign chairman, Michael Grebe, head of the committee, is holding up the release to save Walker.
"Wisconsin voters deserve sunshine, not stonewalling from Scott Walker," Tate said.
Howver, Grebe said the group, a bipartisan panel of 32 members, agreed in September to hold the release of the report until after the election.
Grebe stressed that the report is only in a draft form, and he said the committee is meeting with other community organizations to reach a broad base of support for the recommendations before the report’s release.
"We did not want this report to become politicized," Grebe said. "We want the people of Milwaukee County to consider the report without partisan interference."
Grebe said some of the recommendations from the report, such as the privatization of some county services, mirror what Walker has been suggesting for some time.
In a statement on the GMC’s Web site, president Julia Taylor says the draft report is based heavily on findings from a Public Policy Forum study commissioned by the committee and released earlier this year.
“It is important to clarify that there are no additional reports or details that are not public,” Taylor said. “The draft recommendations were developed based upon findings from a series of Public Policy Forum reports. All of these reports are public and the recommendations that have been circulated are not an executive summary or overview of a larger report.”
See the PPF report: http://www.publicpolicyforum.org/milwaukeecountyreport.php.
– WisPolitics.com