DeBruin's veto votes become campaign issue

Nov. 21, 2007 -- County Supervisor Lynne DeBruin "has chosen to stand with County Executive (Scott) Walker" instead of district residents because she voted to uphold two of Walker's budget vetoes, said Dan Cody, who is challenging DeBruin in next spring's race.

DeBruin, though, said her votes were justified and she was not apologizing for them.

Cody said that DeBruin voted to sustain Walker's veto that would have cut funding for the 211 line, "a critical resource for hundreds of thousands of county residents seeking help with issues such as substance abuse, abusive relationships, and emergency shelter."

Walker proposed a budget that included $200,000 for the 211 line, and the County Board increased that by $280,000. Walker vetoed the increase. DeBruin voted to sustain the veto, but it was overridden on a 15-4 vote.

DeBruin said her vote was "more a protest that the line has not developed the funding it was supposed to develop."

DeBruin said she was one of the sponsors of the legislation that originally established the line.

"Their main operational plan was to have the 211 line totally off the tax levy in two to five years," she said. The line's backers hoped it could be paid for through an additional charge on phone bills, she said.

"When they didn't get that buy-in from the phone company and the state, they abandoned that approach and started to rely more and more on the property tax," she said. "It was never supposed to have so much property tax support."

Cody also ripped DeBruin for supporting Walker's veto of $2 million in courts funding, but DeBruin said she was voting against "phantom revenue" the county knew it would not receive.

"The Finance Committee, knowing it wasn't coming from the state, left it in," she said. "In my opinion, that's phony budgeting."

That veto was overridden on a 14-5 vote.

Cody said DeBruin "stood shoulder to shoulder with the County Executive by supporting his reckless plan to cut funding for Milwaukee County’s Court system, a move that would have a severe impact on the public safety of Milwaukee County residents.”

DeBruin said she supported the funding for courts, but believed it should come from the contingency fund. Court officials could seek the money as they needed it, she said.

"I have a long record of supporting the court system," DeBruin said.