By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
It’s been a little more than ten months since Scott Walker assumed office that fateful day last January. In all honesty, it feels like a lifetime.
If you can remember back to his campaign for governor, Scott Walker was quite adamant about two issues. First, he promised in no uncertain terms, to derail the federal high-speed rail project slated for Wisconsin.
Mr. Walker won election in 2010, in large part by campaigning fiercely on limited government. One of his signature promises was a rejection of $810 million in federal stimulus dollars for a high-speed rail endeavor between Milwaukee and Madison. And second, his consistent pledge to create 250,000 jobs in Wisconsin.
Recently, during an orchestrated appearance in Sun Prairie, Mr. Walker announced that he was calling a special session on job creation, and encouraged lawmakers to “focus on jobs like a laser beam,” in a bipartisan manner.
This all sounds well and good, but this actually marks the second time that Scott Walker has used the guise of a special session in order to promote an economic agenda that clearly benefits his business cronies — and provides additional economic incentives, or “giveaways,” to corporations.
Initial analysis shows that 16 of the bills on the governor’s list appear to reward Republican allies or powerful special interests.
One proposal would require families and small businesses to subsidize lower power rates for large manufacturers. There is another proposal that would make it more difficult to bring forth litigious action.
Since most of these bills have little, if anything, to do with job creation, this appears to be yet another attempt by Mr. Walker to fast-track legislation through the process without sufficient legislative review or oversight.
During his brief gubernatorial stent, the unemployment rate has increased half a percent, and working- class families have been under constant economic attack. These are serious economic times and Wisconsin deserves a governor who is equally serious about REAL JOB CREATION.
As we have seen for the past 10 months, talk is indeed cheap – especially when it comes to the GOP and jobs!