MyCommunityNOW.com
Blog Home |  Email Author  |  About this Blog       Welcome to MyCommunityNOW - Blogs Sign in | Join

Curmudgeon's Corner

cur-mud-geon: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner

Open Letter To Rep. Wasserman...Part One

By Al Campbell
Friday, Nov 2 2007, 08:06 AM

A Germantown citizen, John M., provided me a copy of the e-mail letter he sent to Rep. Wasserman on October 20th.  It seems that Rep. Wasserman knocked on the John M. residence door and spoke with Mrs. M.  John M. then sent his letter seeking clarification on various matters so as to be able to make an informed decision about voting for either Rep. Wasserman or for incumbent Sen. Darling when that time comes.

I received a follow-up e-mail from John M. yesterday advising me that he had received no response to his original letter.  He also mentioned that he had telephoned Rep. Wasserman's office on October 29th and left a message asking if the assemblyman would respond to his letter.  He has since had no response to either his letter or the phone call.

There are some very tight rules regarding campaigning and it is possible that Rep. Wasserman is not allowed to respond to campaign-related issues from his Madison office on state time.

It is possible, however, for the private Sheldon Wasserman who is running for the Senate trying to unseat Sen. Darling to respond to the issues in other forums.  I have previously asked for his participation in a series of Q&As that would be published on Curmudgeon's Corner, all to no avail.

So once again, let's try to get some answers to common questions anyone might ask.

Candidate Wasserman, you refer to yourself as a "fiscal conservative".  How do you define that term and how does it apply to your record?

Candidate Wasserman, as you know, Germantown is moving toward filing petitions seeking to be allowed to leave the MATC district and to move to either the WCTC or to the MPTC district.  Do you support this effort?  If yes, why?  If no, why?

Candidate Wasserman, what is your position on the entire issue of appointed boards with taxing authority that are not directly responsible to the taxpayers?  Would you support legislation that would make such boards elected rather than appointed?  If yes, why?  If no, why?

We invite answers from Sen. Alberta Darling (who has already committed to responding) as well, and we'll publish those when and as received.

Filed under: , , , ,
Permalink |  Mail to a friend

Comments

Lucy S   

Germantown Beware - There is a traveling snake oil salesman in the neighborhood!  And his name is Sheldon Wasserman.

Rep. Wasserman has history of saying one thing and then actually doing another.  See here: www.jsonline.com/.../index.aspx

And here: http://crocodilecage.com/  And here: www.menomoneefallsnow.com/.../index.aspx

I'm not surprised Rep. Wasserman is dodging the Curmudgeon Corner's questions.  He is a shifty flip flopper who tries to have everything both ways.

Wasserman is challenging Senator Alberta Darling, who has done a great job representing Germantown in the Senate for many years.  If Rep. Wassermen stops at your door, tell him you aren't buyin' what he's sellin'.

November 2, 2007 6:07 PM

Al Campbell   

 

Sen. Alberta Darling writes:

Here is where I stand on the questions you posed:

1.  Re: My stance on Germantown seeking to leave the MATC district in favor of another technical college district:

"I support Germantown's decision to do what is right for the taxpayers of Germantown."

2.  Re: My stance on making appointed board memberships, like technical college boards, elected positions instead:

"The concept that the tax-paying voters get to directly choose their tax-levying leaders is a hallmark of American democracy.

Unfortunately, unelected technical college boards are one of the last few entities with the authority to tax without any direct accountability to taxpayers.  Members of technical college boards are named through a convoluted appointment process that sets aside slots based on race, gender and employer.  These unelected tech college boards have lately been approving property tax hikes that vastly outpace the tax growth of other local governments which, not coincidentally, are run by elected officials.

That is why I have introduced a bipartisan bill (SB 253) that would end the insulating appointment process for tech college board membership and replace it with an election process similar to most other local government positions.  The rationale is simple.  I believe technical college board members would feel more pressure to lower their taxing and spending if they had to answer directly to the voters who foot the bill.

Technical colleges are one of the key engines that keep Wisconsin’s economy humming.  Taxpayers just deserve more accountability in how they are governed."

November 2, 2007 8:21 PM

Leave a Comment

Please Sign In to post comment.