In his first overt show of support for his successor, former Wisconsin governor and current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson endorsed Gov. Scott McCallum's plan Friday to cut shared revenue allotments to municipal governments statewide, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
\The point Scott is making is the right one,"" Thompson said to an audience at the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's annual convention in the Wisconsin Dells.
In January, McCallum outlined a plan to shore up government spending and solve the state's $1.1 billion deficit by eliminating shared revenues, the money the state doles out to local governments. Currently, municipal and local governments receive more than $1 billion in shared revenues. McCallum's plan would eliminate that aid to 528 communities in the first year and will eliminate shared revenue entirely by 2004.
Thompson also promised that as long as a Republican occupies the state house, taxes would not be raised.
Previous to his comments in the Dells, Thompson was mute in his assessment of McCallum as governor, a position Thompson occupied for 14 years before being whisked off to Washington, D.C., to serve in the Bush administration.
At a Jan. 5 party in Milwaukee, Thompson was asked to evaluate McCallum's first year in office.
""He was a very fine lieutenant governor,"" Thompson said.
