While publicly proclaiming themselves advocates for smaller government, Scott Walker and his Republican Party have enacted a series of laws that attack the principle of local control, irking some conservatives and local elected officials.
Since 2011, Walker has signed bills passed by the Republican-controlled legislature that limit local government control over such issues as charter school regulation, frac sand mining, landlord-tenant issues, public employee residency requirements, and cell phone tower siting.
In an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal, Dan Thompson, executive director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities states that, “Many (municipal leaders) will tell you how terrible it is and how it’s the worst they’ve ever seen…What tends to happen is that cities and villages get pre-empted or run over particularly when one party controls both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office.”
These kinds of top-down mandates seem to be in direct conflict to Scott Walker’s frequent public comments that “smaller government is better government” and could make Walker’s re-election bid vulnerable, according to Dennis Dresang, a UW-Madison political science professor emeritus.
Read the Wisconsin State Journal in its entirety here.
