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Abele correctly vetoes Franklin referendum

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Oct. 27, 2011

Earlier this week, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele vetoed a Milwaukee County Board-approved referendum on the Ryan Creek Interceptor project, an effort, by the way, that has the potential for explosive economic development in our city.

Abele used his pen appropriately, rejecting a proposal that has so many flaws it isn’t funny.

A referendum on a Franklin project that would go before all Milwaukee County voters? Sorry, but this Franklin resident would prefer that uninformed, uninterested voters in Cudahy, Brown Deer, west Allis and other parts non-Franklin not be allowed to weigh in on this one. If there was to be a referendum, and I don’t believe there should have been, then it should have been debated inside Franklin City Hall and if passed by the Franklin Common Council, go before city of Franklin voters and city of Franklin voters alone.

The timing alone warranted a veto. Voters would have voted yes or no next spring. Construction on the project begins this fall. Duh!

Here’s another item that screamed, “VETO!” The referendum would have been advisory in nature. It carried zero weight, meaningless, not worth the paper it would have been printed on, not to mention the waste of taxpayer dollars.

Pushing this worthless idea was one of the worst members of the Milwaukee County Board, John Weishan. His motivation had absolutely nothing to do with appropriate public and fiscal policy. Hell no. Weishan wanted to stick it to Franklin mayor Tom Taylor who dressed Weishan down at a public meeting.

I didn’t vote for Abele. I won’t vote for him when he runs again. He got this one right.