MOVE TO CUT OFF CAR ALLOWANCE

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This falls into the “Well duhhhhhhhh” category.

A member of the Milwaukee Common Council wants to prevent his fellow council members from collecting their monthly car allowance when incapacitated, in the wake of Junior McGee collecting a $337 per month car allowance while a guest of the Crowbar Hotel.

Ald. Terry Witkowski’s ordinance would halt an alderman’s transportation allowance - currently $337 a month - if “the member is incapacitated for an entire month by illness, injury or otherwise fails to discharge the duties of the office.”

Sitting in jail would fit that definition, Witkowski said.

McGee was arrested last Memorial Day and charged with shaking down business owners for bribes, buying votes and conspiring to have a man beaten. He has been held in jail since then awaiting trial. But because he has not been convicted of any felonies, he remained in office and on the city payroll until his term ended April 14.

While in jail, McGee tried to handle some city business by phone, even introducing legislation and running unsuccessfully for re-election. But he couldn’t attend any council meetings and council President Willie Hines Jr. kicked him off all the committees on which he had served.

The Journal Sentinel reported last month that McGee was paid $67,023 behind bars. That included $3,443 for the car allowance, even though the state had revoked his driver’s license before he was arrested.

I don’t think anyone envisioned The Alderthug taking advantage of loopholes in the law to collect taxpayer dollars to which he was not entitled, but it doesn’t matter.

No one with a lick of common sense should oppose this.

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