Update: Here is the Journal Sentinel story on the event.
I stopped by the first of two listening sessions Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is holding about the proposed county budget Wednesday night, and I’m glad I did.
It was a great reminder for me — and for Abele, I hope — that cuts in services, such as those being proposed at the county level, have real impacts on real people. Literally dozens of those stories surfaced in the meeting at the Kelly Senior Center in Cudahy.
Elderly concerned about cuts to senior centers. Mentally ill worried about cuts to county-funded mental health care. Disabled worried about cuts to paratransit. Commuters worried about cuts to Milwaukee County Transit Service bus service (as I wrote about the other day).
One by one, residents from around the area showed Abele, showed everyone there really, how government budgets are more than abstractions, more than numbers on a spreadsheet, more than line items, more than dollars and cents.
They fund vital services that, when threatened, force people to take notice.
It was a good lesson for me as we head into what is sure to be a tough 2012 budget process for the city. And I’m sure it was a good lesson for Abele, who is faced with having to make some painful cuts that will surely be felt across the county.
I hope he and the County Board choose wisely … and spare South Milwaukee and South Milwaukeeans some of the greatest pain. It won’t be easy.
I promise to help your voices be heard during the debate — starting with this blog. I urge you to speak out as well.
Elected officials need to hear your stories. Like those told Wednesday.
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