audio version of the segment here > Friday follow up on my firetruck segment earlier in the week
Jay Weber Show transcript 10-24-25
I have a good example of ‘why’ the city of Milwaukee is so screwed up. I’ve been annoying liberals for three days for simply calling them out on their incompetence and bad budgeting.
It’s the fire truck thing again. City leadership under Tom Barrett and Chevy Johnson had no plan- zero- to set aside money in the budget to replace the fire trucks as they aged. This is a major failure, and it has led to a cluster-farce in which ⅔ of the active fleet of fire trucks should have been decommissioned long ago.
And so, in short, now they are ‘all old’, all at once’. The chief is calling this a crisis.
And so, i said, blame Barrett, blame Chevy, blame the aldermen of those eras, because this is an inexcusable failure.
That led to Dan Shafer and some other Milwaukee area liberals insisting that ‘I didn’t get it’...and this was due to a lack of state funding.
It is not due to a lack of state funding. Milwaukee collects taxes on its own. It has ‘city coffers. It should be prioritizing police, fire, streets and sanitation. No matter what, those should be covered if nothing else. The city has a two-billion-dollar budget. Two billion. You can’t tell me that a few million can’t be dedicated to ‘fleet replacement’ at the fire department as needed. In fact, it should be.
So, I’ve been pointing out this failure of planning…and how Barrett’s government just really wanted to spend money on other things, like the hop…and I’ve been asking: how can city leaders not be prioritizing police, fire, streets and sanitation? It’s a basic question and it reveals one of the major failures of city of Milwaukee government.
Liberals are responding, ‘but the state doesn’t give Milw or any other municipality enough money.
But that’s not the topic. The topic is: why aren’t ‘you’ engaging in responsible budgeting? Because if that’s the case- city leaders should have even more reason to ‘prioritize’ and make hard choices, right?
I’m asking: how can city leaders-not? - have a built-in plan to budget to replace their fire truck when needed? Liberals are responding, ‘but the state’... I’m asking: why would you commit millions every year to build and run the hop when you need firetrucks?
And the liberals are responding, ‘but the state won’t’. Oh my god!
It’s like asking a child why his room isn’t clean…and him trying to blame it on a friend repeatedly. Don’t blame it on Sam. Clean your room.
I am saying: don’t blame the state for your budgeting failures, be smarter. Prioritize. Prioritize police and fire over the HOP. If those budgets aren’t adequately funded…you…as city leaders…don’t even move on to the other stuff.
This is my point. City leaders for decades have wanted to ‘find city funding’ for different projects…. while ignoring police and fire, obviously.
What the city of Milwaukee was doing under Tom Barrett (and apparently continues to do) failed to prioritize. They were neglecting police, fire, etc. in favor of other projects. Projects that-are not- vital to the city. That’s the only point I’m making and there’s no way for the left to weasel out of it or deflect away from it.
My entire point is you don’t ‘find the money’ to fund and build the Hop. When you don’t have regular replacement on your fire trucks. And if you do, that’s a disgraceful failure to do your job.
City leaders have been like children you send to the grocery store for you, saying: we need a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, and a dozen eggs. They wander over to the store and come back with…two eggs, two-day old rolls, and the smallest carton of milk they could find…so that they could buy 20 bucks worth of candy.
No, no: I sent you a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, and a dozen eggs.
You didn’t buy ‘the essentials because you wanted candy.
That is how city leaders-especially under Barrett- budgeted.
And so, what my topic has been about is: buy the essentials. It’s a city official’s job to prioritize and run government responsibly.
This has nothing to do with state funding.
You can blame your friend all you want…buy. It is city leaders and liberals…who didn’t have a plan to replace the fire engines as they needed replacing…because you wanted to spend money on things that were ‘more fun’ or ‘more interesting’ to you. That is a major blunder. It is a major failure of government. And let’s not pretend it isn’t. And let’s not blame the state for your failure.
photo credit: Fox 6 News/Milwaukee