By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
Wisconsin has long prided itself on its forward political thinking and progressiveness as a state. Wisconsin also takes considerable pride in its tradition of fair and open government, where the will of the people can be freely expressed. Unfortunately, much has changed since that eventful third day in January, when Scott Walker took the oath of office as the new governor.
During his campaign and now since assuming office, Walker has repeatedly declared that “ Wisconsin is open for business.” I believe that it would be safe to say that most Wisconsinites didn’t fully understand the ramifications of this assertion, much less the extent to which Mr. Walker would be willing to stoop in implementing his misguided and draconian policies.
Scott Walker has been emphatic in his contention that the state is broke and faces a $137 million shortfall for this current budget cycle; and has a $3.6 billion deficit over the next biennium. If this is in fact the case, then why has Mr. Walker conveniently given $142 million in tax credits and breaks to his By State Representative, Leon D. Young Strong-arming Democracy! corporate cronies? There seems to be no bounds to Scott Walker’s duplicity. Using a contrived budget crisis as a smoke screen, the governor has insisted that state employees must pay their “fair share” for their health and retirement contributions. In truth, however, state employees had already bent over backwards in making this concessions granting Scott Walker over $100 million in benefit reductions.
However, this was never the end game for the new governor. The real and only objective for Mr. Walker has been to crush public sector unions in Wisconsin ; and, in doing so, destroying their ability to raise campaign revenue for democratic candidates.
Ultimately, the legislative impasse in the state Senate forced Mr. Walker and his Republican cohorts to reveal their true intentions.
It forced them to rapidly redraft and then hastily convene a conference committee in order to pass a budget repair bill that had nothing to do with resolving state fiscal matters since the spending provisions had been removed from the new version of the bill.
Walker’s war on public workers and their collective bargaining rights is far from over! It’s my fervent hope that legal/electoral regress will be forthcoming from the courts and at the ballot box. In the meantime, we must continue to stand firm in our resolve that Scott Walker will never succeed in his attempt to strong-arm Democracy in Wisconsin!