Senator Tim Carpenter Calls For Veto of Police-Pay Provision

Democratic state Senator Tim Carpenter of Milwaukee, who includes some Greenfield residents among his constituents, is opposed to the state budget provision relating to pay for fired Milwaukee police officers.

Oak Creek Patch editor Mark Schaaf , a stance that is echoed by Carpenter, who issued the following press release yesterday regarding the manner: 

Madison – Senator Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) stated that the pressure is building for Governor Scott Walker to veto an item passed in the state budget that would once again mandate the taxpayers to continue to pay Milwaukee police officers full salary and benefits even after they have been fired. 

The old state mandate required the taxpayers of Milwaukee to waste scarce public dollars paying salary and benefits to police officers who have been fired, for example, for exposing their genitals to children, assaulting folks in custody, sexually assaulting women, intimidating witnesses, and tampering with evidence, to name a few.

“Fired officers would continue to be paid while all the appeals were pending, sometimes taking years and years.  It was an insult to the hard-working and honest police officers in Milwaukee that daily put their life on the line to make our city safe,” said Carpenter.

“Now that the return of this unfair mandate has been exposed in the light of day, an extraordinary chain of events has come together that is making even the governor’s supporters very uncomfortable, and asking that it be vetoed,” said Carpenter.

• First, the police pay measure was snuck into the budget last month in the middle of the night by the Republican JFC co-chairs Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. Robin Vos.
• Next, a Republican legislator went on record saying that he believes that the police unions have “bought out” influential Republicans.
• An online poll was published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showing 91% of respondents oppose returning to the Milwaukee police pay mandate. 
• On Sunday, June 19, 2011, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that eliminating this provision in 2009 has saved taxpayers $283,000. 
• On Monday, June 20, 2011, Senators Carpenter, Lena Taylor and Chris Larson released a letter that they had hand-delivered to the Governor asking that the governor veto the police pay provision.  When asked by a reporter about the letter, the governor’s spokesman stated that he had “no comment.” 
• That same Monday, the Journal Sentinel reported that in conversations with the editorial board, Sen. Darling and Rep. Vos had defended the fact that the police pay issue was slipped into budget in the middle of the night as merely “coincidental.”

“Sneaking this into budget just did not pass the smell test; now the stink is only getting worse.  It is hard to see this as anything but a political ‘reward’ to the Milwaukee police union for supporting Governor Walker’s campaign,” said Carpenter.

Senator Carpenter has fought to stop this issue from becoming law again, even working to find a face-saving way for the Republicans to back away from this issue.   On Tuesday, June 21, 2011, in a gesture of good faith, Senator Carpenter personally handed a copy of a letter to Sen. Darling that she could sign requesting the Governor veto the provision. 

“As Senator Darling was the one who added the Milwaukee police-pay item to the budget – and she does not even live in Milwaukee – I believe that she could stop this mess from going through by admitting her mistake and giving the Governor a strong signal that the police-pay issue is simply wrong for Milwaukee taxpayers,” said Carpenter.  Unfortunately, Senator Darling did not agree to sign such a request to the governor.

“My constituents who pay the salaries of Milwaukee police officers looked at this situation prior to 2009 and saw a loss of $4.5 million of their tax dollars that could have paid for more police officers on the streets, better equipment for our police force to fight gangs and crime, more officer overtime, more police academy classes, and better pay for honest hard working officers.  Continuing to pay police officers after they have been fired is wrong and must stop,” said Carpenter.

“Enough is enough.  The hardworking people of the 3rd Senate District don’t want their tax dollars wasted with this mandate.  Governor Walker needs to veto the police-pay provision in the budget,” said Carpenter.