Yesterday (26 days before his June 5th recall election), Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's Department of Administration (DOA) predicted that Walker's budget passed last year will produce a $154.5 miilion surplus by 2013.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau, on the other hand, in February had projected a $143 million deficit.
You remember the Department of Administration, don't you? They are the same people who estimated that cleanup costs to the Wisconsin capitol after last spring's protests would be $7.5 million.
The DOA then sheepishly released the paperwork related to the capitol cleanup estimate when forced by an open records request:
The final bill actually was about $200,000, a good portion of which was to repair existing wear and tear.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the agency that projected a deficit, is the non-partisan agency tasked with crunching numbers. It's what they do, all day, every day.
The DOA, headed by the most partisan of partisan political appointees, is tasked with things like cutting the grass around the capitol, ordering toilet paper for state government buildings, and issuing unconstitutional rules requiring groups of more than 3 people who want to visit the capitol to apply for a permit. (Cutting grass and maintaining bathrooms are good, honest work that I have done myself. My thanks to the DOA workers who actually do the work. They do a great job.)
Which agency do you trust?
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Finally, if you haven't seen the game-changing video where Scott Walker is recorded telling a billionaire donor that he plan's to "divide and conquer" Wisconsin's labor unions, go check it out in Naranjadia's diary.