Executive Candidates Tell Different Stories On Milwaukee County’s Fiscal Picture

Gov. Scott Walker’s record as Milwaukee County executive continues to be an issue in this year’s for the office.

Before being elected governor, Walker was Milwaukee County executive for eight years. His successor, Chris Abele is trying to fend off a challenge from Milwaukee State Sen. Chris Larson.

At a recent debate, Larson charged that Abele has focused too much on reducing county debt, and not enough on repairing county facilities.

“That’s just looking at one side of that math equation,” Larson said. “I feel like that’s the result of problems that we’ve seen under Walker and we’ve seen under this administration.”

But Abele argues he’s been far more fiscally responsible than Walker was during his tenure.

“If we hadn’t cleared up a whole lot of that structural deficit — the credit card bill is still too big, but it’s a lot less than what is was,” Abele said.

Walker has consistently defended his fiscal record as county executive.