Ziegelbauer Should Look in the Mirror

The following is a reprint from my letter to the editor at htrnews.com
http://www.htrnews.com/article/20111221/MAN0602/112210621/Letter-Ziegelbauer-should-look-mirror?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|s

It is in response to Mr. Ziegelbauer's despicable behavior with respect to Mayor Nickels and the fiscal troubles at the City of Manitowoc and the Walker Act 10 legislation he supported that added to the pain.

The situation at the City of Manitowoc is not good but it was made much worse by a raft of politicians who created the perfect fiscal and political storm. On the surface much of it is due to a lack of intestinal fortitude by the previous administration to fess up and properly apply TIF payments to debt in order to artificially holding down taxes. Certain members of the City Council who then foolishly tried to staunch the problem by refusing to staff the one position of finance director that could have dealt with the problem effectively.

Now comes County Executive Robert Ziegelbauer to wag his well worn finger in the face of the Mayor for raising taxes to cover it. Only that same Assemblyman Ziegelbauer has that same finger knuckle deep in the pie for his enthusiastic support for Walker's tax shifting budget that made the situation much worse. Beyond that his own work as finance director helped bring the city to its knees with crumbling buildings, leaking roofs and failing bridges. Much of the debt incurred under Crawford can be traced to the disgraceful neglect that he fostered in those dark days.

His own tenure as County Executive has been clouded with questionable finances, nepotism, cronyism, gutting critical departments, evaporating reserve funds and hard assets with nothing to show for it but a string of his own tax increases that belie his anti-tax rhetoric. It would seem his finger needs to find another subject, preferably the one in his own mirror.



See also the HTR editoral also taking him to task.

Editorial: Personal criticism counterproductive

http://www.htrnews.com/article/20111221/MAN0601/112210620/Editorial-Personal-criticism-counterproductive?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Opinion|s