By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
How can any chief executive of a state refuse to accept $810 million in federal stimulus money? But, that is exactly what Scott Walker did upon taking office.
Little did we know at that point, this was just the beginning of our journey down this dark and uncharted worm hole. Walker ’s next tactical assault on the residents of our state came in the form of his policy initiative to strip public-sector workers of most of their rights to collectively bargain.
This policy decision, which he conveniently neglected to mention when he ran for office, has literally torn the state apart politically, and is the genesis of the current recall effort.
Walker ’s radical political agenda would once again show its face in his draconian state budget proposal. His slash and burn budget included: $1.6 billion cut to public education (K-12 schools); the third largest cut to higher education in the country, totaling $315 million; and cutting $71 million from state technical colleges – the institutions where most people in the state receive their job training instruction.
The governor has been caught not once, but twice, with his political pants down. In the first instance, he was caught taking marching orders on union busting in Wisconsin, from an individual that Walker believed was David Koch. More recently, Walker was exposed on video having a conversation (which occurred in January 2011) with billionaire donor Diane Hendricks. Hendricks asked the governor if there was any chance he could make the state right-to-work. Walker explained that he planned to first go after public unions with a “divide and conquer” strategy.
Walker came into office promising that he would create 250,000 jobs during his first term. And although he has tried to confuse the issue with his own employment numbers, Walker and Wisconsin find themselves at the bottom of the heap in promoting new job creation.
To add insult to injury, Walker is also a prominent figure in an ongoing John Doe probe that involves alleged criminal activity by some of his former staff assistants, when he served as Milwaukee County Executive.
This investigation has the potential for implicating Walker in some unlawful enterprise, as well.
By most empirical measures, Scott Walker brief tenure in office has been a disaster for our state. This begs the question: What will it take for Wisconsin voters to wake up, smell the coffee and vote Scott Walker out of office?