By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
We all remember the bravado and vigor of Scott Walker’s remarks the night that he was elected as governor. Mr. Walker proudly declared that “Wisconsin was open for business,” and then went on to pledge that he would create 250,000 new jobs.
It has been a little over a year since Scott Walker took office as the state’s chief officer, and much has happened in this relatively short period of time. Mr. Walker has nearly torn this state asunder with his political overreach and draconian policy agenda: curtailing collective bargaining rights for state employees, new voter ID requirement, concealed carry of weapons and the New Castle doctrine.
But, how is Scott Walker doing in terms of his pledge to create a substantial number of new jobs for Wisconsinites? Simply put: not very well. In the last six months, the state has experienced six straight months of job losses.
In all fairness, Walker ’s first year was evenly split in terms of monthly jobs reports. There were monthly gains for the first six months, for a total of 41,200 jobs added. The second six months, however, were all losses, for a total decline of 27,700. The net difference is: 13,500 new jobs.
Let’s contrast Wisconsin ’s anemic output to the nation as a whole. For the last 22 months, the nation has seen a steady increase in new job creation. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 257,000 new jobs were created in the private-sector in January, while Wisconsin lost 3,900 jobs.
It should be apparent to any “reasonable person” that Scott Walker’s “trickledown” approach to reviving our state economy simply isn’t working, after giving millions in tax breaks and giveaways to corporate entities and businesses. Moreover, it should come as no surprise that the state faces a new (and real!) budget shortfall based on early revenue projections by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. It’s a one-two shortfall punch: Giving tax breaks to business entities means that they don’t pay their fair share and pay less corporate revenue to the state; and more unemployed people translates into fewer people paying state income taxes.
Interestingly enough, Mr. Walker has already said that he doesn’t intend to offer a budget repair bill to address this year’s deficit.I wonder why?
Scott Walker is undoubtedly feeling the recall heat, in light of the fact that he used the pretext of a budget repair bill to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights his first year in office.