By Urban Media News
There are seven days left to go until Election Day and Scott Walker is in the toughest fight of his political career with the polls showing a dead heat in the last week of the campaign.
Awful jobs numbers and a massive $1.8 billion budget deficit brought Walker’s first term into focus, allowing voters to question if Wisconsin needs another four years with Scott Walker as governor.
A look at Walker’s entire term reveals more than enough reasons for voters to reject another four years.
During Walker’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, he issued a promise to the people of Wisconsin to create 250,000 new private sector jobs by the end of his first term in office.
As the first term comes to close, the governor isn’t even halfway through to his promise on job creation. Wisconsin lags behind the rest of the nation in job growth and is in last place in private sector Midwest job growth through Walker’s first term – 10th out of 10 states.
2013 was the worst year for private sector job creation in Wisconsin since the great recession, and 2014 is on pace to be considerably worse.
During Walker’s time in office, the state’s annual private sector job growth lags behind the rest of the nation, averaging 1.35% growth compared to 2.2% growth nationally. Wisconsin would have 70,000 more jobs today if the state had simply grown at the same rate as the national average over Scott Walker’s term.
Walker’s first term has been more harmful than helpful for workers and Wisconsin families.
The governor’s first budget included record cuts in direct state aid to public education, slashing $800 billion from the public education budget.
In the face of a dire skills gap, Walker’s first budget cut funding for vocational and technical colleges by 30 percent -leaving the tech college system at 1989 funding levels.
For nearly four years, Scott Walker has experimented in creating jobs with policies and ideas we know don’t create jobs. Instead of investing in workers, Walker opposed a modest raise in the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
He even said he doesn’t believe the minimum wage “serves a purpose,” although the proposed increase would give more than half a million Wisconsin workers a raise and a boost to the state’s economy.
Unfortunately for working families, Walker’s focus has been on those at the very top during his first term – and there’s no indication that a second Walker term will be any different.
Walker issued huge tax cuts for those at the very top, giving 60% of the cuts to those making over $100,000.
For the average Wisconsin family, with a household annual income between $50,000 and $60,000, Walker’s lopsided tax cuts amount to just $2 per week this year.
While dishing out massive tax cuts for those at the top, Walker issued tax increases aimed at putting the squeeze on nearly 140,000 working class families.
Walker increased taxes on the middle class by $69.8 million, while forking over $610 million in tax breaks to businesses over his term.
Between budget cuts and fiscally irresponsible tax plans, Walker created huge budget deficits.
Wisconsin faces a projected deficit of $396 million in the current budget, and a massive $1.8 billion projected structural deficit heading into the next.
Deficits that will likely grow even larger as state agencies make budget requests for 2015 – 2017.
Since 2010, Walker has managed to work against Wisconsin families and run the state budget into the ground at the very same time.
His most high-profile bill signings -repealing the Equal Pay Enforcement Act, partisan voting restrictions, mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds – have been controversial and unrelated to creating jobs or giving Wisconsin families a fair shot at economic security.
That’s where a Mary Burke governorship would be different than four more years of Scott Walker.
Mary is committed to giving each and every Wisconsin citizen a fair shot at success.
She’ll do whatever works best to provide opportunities for the people of Wisconsin.
Above all things, Mary Burke is committed to pulling our state out from the hole Scott Walker spent nearly four years digging.
Walker’s first term record doesn’t warrant any reason to election him for a second.
As a governor, he’s run Wisconsin into the ground and let our state fall far behind the rest of the nation.
Walker shouldn’t have a chance to dig a deeper hole for Wisconsin families and workers.
