· Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released their monthly coincident index report, which is an approximation of each state’s economic performance over the last 3 months, and Wisconsin did not do well. Using those updated figures, we see that Wisconsin has the worst economy in the Midwest since Scott Walker took office at the start of 2011. UW’s Menzie Chinn also talked about the coincident index with this post on Econbrowser, noting how ALEC states like Wisconsin and Kansas have failed to keep up with the growth in the rest of the country.
That’s just one reason not to vote for him. I’m starting a list of other reasons and welcome readers to add to this list, then share it with anyone who thinks another term of Scott Walker would be good for the state.
- The 71 day Walker presidential campaign dropped $1.9 million on payroll for 80-plus staffers, including several being paid at a rate of $200,000 per year. His staff included his two sons Matt and Alex, They were each paid $1,540 a month, collecting a combined income of nearly $10,000 in that short time period. The Republican governor raised $7.4 million for his short-lived presidential bid but spent his cash as quickly as it came in, plus left an additional debt of at least $1 million once all the bills roll in.
- Walker has consistently cut funding to public schools. The Wisconsin State Journal wrote an article on one example of the effect, discussing the 70-80 staff positions that are slated to be cut in Madison schools, one year after that same district cut 100 positions. These possible cuts also come 10 months after Madison voters passed a $41 million referendum just to keep up with maintenance and needed building improvements.
- The average Wisconsin homeowner is seeing his/her property taxes are going up, with additional local sales taxes possibly being stacked on top of that (it's either that or the roads fall apart).
- Despite a continuing charm offensive, Scott Walkers approval ratings have maintained themselves at 38% with a disapproval of 57%. Since returning from his failed Presidential campaign to find his statewide numbers at 37% approval, Walker has been holding highly publicized “town hall meetings”. Despite being listed as “town hall meetings”, they consist of about 20 invitation-only participants at each event.
- Here are some damning statistics anchored in economic reality. For every quarter from 2011 to 2015, per capita personal income (total income divided by total population) in Minnesota has averaged some $5000.00 higher than per capita personal income in Wisconsin. Even worse news for Wisconsinites is that personal income (differs from per capita personal income in that it does not factor in total population) in Minnesota is some $8000.00 to $10,000.00 higher than personal income in Wisconsin. In Minnesota, Dayton turned a $5 billion budget deficit into an over $1 billion budget surplus in just one term. By requiring the wealthiest earners to pay their fair share, Minnesota is now in a position to invest more resources into the state’s schools and infrastructure.
- Over the four years that followed the election of Scott Walker as governor, Wisconsin's economic performance ranked 35th in the country, according to the Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States, which tracks the change in a series of economic indicators. The state has lagged Michigan (3rd place), Illinois (14th), Iowa (18th) and Minnesota (19th).
- In Wisconsin, Walker was unable to take his state out of the red and faced a $2 billion budget deficit. Walker made the decision to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires, while slashing education funding and refusing to make investments that would benefit middle class families and Wisconsin’s financial wellbeing.
- After running on the promise to create 250,000 new private sector jobs by the end of his first term, Walker didn’t just fail to meet this goal, he failed miserably, creating barely half of his promised amount. Walker has implemented a failed economic strategy, based on basic and failed Republican economic principals, that has left Wisconsin lagging behind peer states. Even just a glance at economic metrics in Wisconsin tells a story of stifled job growth, ballooning deficits, and a shrinking middle class.
- Walker signed the Right To Work bill into Wisconsin law. RTW is insidious. It cripples the ability of a union to organize, bargain and protect strong contracts. Since unions typically support political candidates who represent the best interests of working families, the ultimate goal is to silence them to ensure elections for those who support corporate interests. This is just one example of why the middle class in Wisconsin is in trouble.
- The Wisconsin state government has copyrighted all the public information you paid for them to create, in case you might want to collect and use it against them. Walker has got one of his own in the state attorney general's chair, elected by the same dark money that is being investigated, and he's not afraid to go after people who don't toe the line. Wisconsin government functions on a need-to-know basis, and you as a citizen don't need to know.
- Across USA, water clocks are running faster as private firms swoop in on a precious public resource. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a company with similar intentions is Aqua America Inc. That's a Pennsylvania firm with operations in Illinois and seven other states, "whose aggressive growth strategy has resulted in nearly 200 acquisitions in the last decade." The newspaper reported that the firm now is eyeing water-rich Wisconsin — a state bordered by two Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and 15,000 inland lakes. Walker is for privatization and Wisconsin stands to lose control of its most precious resource.
- With one swipe of the pen, Walker took away the power of the DNR, paving the way to steamroll approval for mining, destruction of wetlands for corporate development and other big money interests regardless of environmental impact. Some proposals could seriously impact the headwaters of Wisconsin and open the door to contamination of our ground water across the state.
I know there are many more but it’s too depressing for me to go on. It just amazes me that so many in our state still support him.