Bottom Row: Daniel Gaschke (D), Ed Kubicki (D), and John O’Day (D)
All Photos Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye (Photo of O’Day – Facebook)
Tonight at the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors annual budget meeting, the general budget passed with few changes. Supervisor Rodriguez was able to successfully add a deputy and two detectives to the Sheriff’s Department Budget. Two other positions in other departments were removed from the budget and combined to pay for much of the new sworn officers’ salaries.
The “bonding” section of the budget authorizes the county to borrow money for road repairs, police cars, bullet-proof vests, medical equipment, and other capital improvements. A group of the board’s most extreme democrats made a protest vote. The members are Monica Yuhas (D), Jeff Gentz (D), Andy Berg (D), Daniel Gaschke (D), Ed Kubicki (D), and John O’Day (D). Unlike the general budget, which needs a simple majority to pass, the bonding needs a 3/4 vote to pass. The board needs 18 votes to pass the bonding, meaning it takes only six of the 23 members to kill the bonding. It is unknown what these six board members want in order to re-consider their votes. These six members have rubber-stamped every budget under the previous County Executive, Jim Kreuser (D). They voted against the bonding tonight without suggesting any changes or discussion.
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Unless one of these six makes a motion to reconsider their vote, no capital improvements will take place in 2023. All of the road repair projects will be put on hold and perhaps never happen.
We asked the six dissenters for their reasoning and they didn’t wish to comment. County Executive Kerkman doesn’t seem very concerned about the capital improvement budget being voted down and issued the below statement:
32 Responses
Why would any of them do anything to help Kenosha? Most can’t even keep their districts safe, but post on their Facebook pages how to vote democrat and their bias and fake agenda. I’ve heard bergs name many times in this site and something tells me he is on of the bought, fake, and an agenda only he sees fit
speaking of voting…I noticed PP website says voting polls don’t open until 8, but all the polls are supposed to open at 7. Wonder why they put 8 on their site……
Mr. Mathewson, would you mind explaining further what they blocked? I would like to better understand what exactly the ‘bonding’ section encompasses?
Isnt that what Erin, Poole, Nordigian did since they were on the board? They always voted against the budget and the bonding. So this group was successful doing what the others attempted for years. Sounds lime this group is better at governing for the people than the group in charge right now
The group that voted against the bonding are better and being hypocrites. Rubber stamping and not having any questions for Kreuser’s spending but voting against lowering taxes when a Republican is in charge.
If it weren’t for double standards, Democrats wouldn’t have any standards at all.
I just looked at the minutes and not again voted for the 2022 budget and bonding. I guess I don’t have time to fact check all your allegations but it seems like you are not being genuine here
Goverment NOT borrowing money the taxpayers have to pay back?
I feel like this is a win, even if it comes from libtards.
Wrapping goverment borrowing in a body armor bow is like Demorats wrapping goverment borrowing in a “do it for the kids” bow.
News flash, noone loans money without interest, at least until Jesus comes back with a whip.
How about Kenosha goverment lives within its means?
A lot of us conservatives probably agree with you in theory. The fact is the county has used this system and most other municipalities do too. They always borrow money for Capital improvements. So this is the system that is set up and it would take a lot of work to change the system completely
Tell yourself that the next time you drive into a gigantic pot-hole.
Need an edit button. The above retort was intended for Enrique.
Yuhas votes against funding for Joint Services when she is the Chair of the Joint Services Board.
ODay votes against funding for Brookside and the Historical Society when he sits on both boards.
Kubicki votes against money for Kemper Center when he is their Director. Isn’t him being employed by an entity that receives funding from the county a violation of the ethics policy? I recall David Celebre having to resign his county board position for that same thing.
I wonder if there will be consequences for their actions.
Kubicki being on the Country Board and voting to pay himself a salary at Kemper center is absolutely illegal. He is not punished because his buddy, Joey Cardamone, perhaps the worst attorney in the state, wrote a legal opinion that it is not illegal. Go figure
Kevin – if it is illegal – you know how to file a complaint – do it. Surely the you or the cabal have done this before. Why haven’t you done this?
Why does the county pave roads in the country areas.
Some of the barely meet it.
They don’t pave roads like Hwy G/30th av. Which is a major artery from north to south.
I heard because it’s in the city. All the cities residents pay county taxes.
The county is responsible for all county roads UNLESS there is an agreement between the governments to do otherwise which I believe is the case here.
Many years ago there were two tax equity studies and if you were to review them – cherry picking – as is the case here doesn’t work.
One instance – the courts – the jails – where do you think the majority of the cases come from? The city. For 2023 budget the city will pay 40.77% of the county budget while their population represents 58.84%
It’s not an exact science but that is the law in Wisconsin.
Kubrick Is so crooked they will have to screw him into the ground when he dies .
Hypocrisy at its finest. This same group wanted to keep the two eliminated public works positions. So, keep the jobs but don’t actually FUND the work the county needs done?! Morons.
If people vote against funding agencies that they themselves work for, does this mean that they are stupid, or perhaps that they feel the agency doesn’t need any funding because it has plenty of Reserves? Time will tell.
Berg may be further to the left but I would not categorize most of the rest as “far left.”
The county board is supposed to be a NONPARTISAN body.
The question is WHY did they vote that way. They owe that explanation.
Non partisan indeed. I do not think that word means to them what it means to you.
So the same left democrats that complained about justice for Blake, literally denied money for body cameras? The same that will post on their Facebook page how bad republicans are, voted against heating and air in the jail, against a generator for a senior living facility, and for more nurses in that facility? Wow talk about hypocrites
Better check your facts here – $700,000 heating system was a Nudo Decker stunt. I thought the body Camera’s were in the bonding that they stopped 2 years ago until Supervisor Wienke made a motion to reconsider.
Think you should all go back and look at the budget stunts of Nudo and Decker the past years – this is exactly what they have done. Look at Decker’s voting record on the budget. Poor leadership on the County Board. This was so predictable now as it is the card Nudo and Decker have played so many times.
I’m sure most who visit this site understand the need for 60 vote threshold in the senate – it enhances negotiation and compromise in government. Maybe if Kerkman, Nudo and Decker would would reach out and try to find consensus when crafting the budget this would not be happening.
A few years back Nudo hung his hat on this play and removed a $700,000 capital project that needed to be done and eventually was done at a substantially higher cost and higher interest rate later as I am told. Why – so he could say look what I did. Very self serving and short sighted. At that time Nudo couldn’t even deliver on the promise he made in getting this disastrous concession because his cabal still did not support the bonding.
Lack of leadership and foresight from the County Exec, Nudo and Decker are the blame here. The budget impact of these positions is minimal at best.
I’m sure there are area’s in the budget they can find compromise and hold the levy without robbing funds from transportation as they are now doing with Geersten’s budget move. We’ll address Dave at a later date.
One spot is to look at is the County Execs Office budget. When I first was on the board there were 3 FTE’s – now 4. What about the $145,000 in contracted services in the Exec’s budget? Did they scrub this budget line by line as they promised. Frankly I expected much better from them. Really a lot of hot air for very little results. Don’t get me wrong – I do appreciate where the budget came in – just expected more out of all their rhetoric.
Finally Kevin, offer your proof on Yuhas being a democrat as you report in your “news”. As you know by now, these types of statements can be costly. Decker’s slander and pride has cost the local Republican Party over $23,567 to date and counting with more fees and a significant financial settlement that has been mediated to come.
Oh yes Kevin – discovery – I never had any fear of the truth in my case and learned quite a bit in the process. In discovery, I also learned you shared my text to you with Decker when you were attempting to appear neutral. I’ll just let it roll – not a biggie to me – but a point well taken.
Better check your facts….. lol still don’t take the “facts” away that certain hypocrites in positions listed above vocally cry about how republicans don’t help anyone and it’s all about money. Support riots all summer long yet refuse body camera funding, half the damn reason protests lasted so long. And not to help the poor criminals. Man the hypocrisy is real in this one. But go ahead, vote left! The party that will lie to fit an agenda
How do you know it’s election season? Wack ass democrats from Kenosha post their agenda on Facebook. I never knew Andy berg, but after this site I check. What a thirst trap for democrats. He posts anything to fit his agenda to get his crowd to follow. What a idiot
It’s actually, “What an idiot”. But lets not quiver over such needlessness. To say you never knew him until you read this site says that you are not very bright either. You should reach out. I was like you once. Jaw-jacking and such. Grab a beer and actually meet the guy. A lot more level-headed than you think.
Who is more the fool? The fool or the fool who follows him?
About time somebody stands up against voodoo economics. We voted for Samantha to bring fiscal responsibility and then she floats this. They may have come to the table late but kudos to the supervisors who stood against this smoke and mirrors scheme.
That’s a new one. Leftists adopting fiscal conservatism? They who have printed such a large amount of cash that the Dollar Store is now the $10 dollar store?
Kenosha burned because Democrats failed to to their job. Now Kenosha will fall further into decay because Democrats are having a baby tantrum. Why do Democrats exist anyway? They seem against anything sensible and for everything that only a fringe group of deranged individuals seem to care about.
Kerkman didn’t blink an eye when she started all her staff at the top of the pay scale. Typically it takes many steps and years for an employee to be at the top of the pay scale. So once again, we have so-called Republicans being conservative, and promoting their agenda on the back of the taxpayers wake up people.
Democrats on the county board: “waaaaa, three jobs are being cut, one of the people was going to retire anyway, one hasn’t been filled in a year or more, and one person is going to lose their job but could apply for the new one! We’re going to shoot down bonding!”
*shoots down bonding, 20+ people lose their jobs because of lack of funding*