Capitol Report
By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
Earlier this week, Governor Scott Walker delivered his State of the State address for 2016. As is generally the case, the occasion presented him an opportunity to highlight the “myriad of accomplishments” that are taking place on his watch.
During this address, Walker reeled off a litany of high-water marks, which he felt merited attention. Some of these included:
• The recent unemployment rate in our state is the lowest it has been since March of 2001.
• The percentage of people working in Wisconsin, the labor Force Participation Rate, is 67.8 percent, which Walker alleges is 5.3 points better than the national average and puts Wisconsin in the top ten states in America.
• According to the federal government’s current employment statistics and local area unemployment statistics, more people were working in Wisconsin in 2015 than at any time in the past 20 years.
• Wisconsin finished the fiscal year in 2015 with a $135.6 million budget surplus.
The governor took it upon himself to boast about the state’s “robust economy.”
However, reality paints much different picture. Media reports state Wisconsin companies issued 10,000 layoffs notices last year – more than any other year since Gov. Walker and republicans have been in the majority.
In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ quarterly jobs reports show that over the last four years, Wisconsin is dead last in the Midwest in job creation.
If that weren’t bad enough, Wisconsin is stalled at 34th in the nation in private-sector job growth; dead last in new business start-ups; and has a middle-class shrinking faster than any other state.
The GOP’s efforts to pillage the state don’t end there; education has also been in its crosshairs.
The state’s public school system (K-12) has lost $1.05 billion in GPR school aids.
The University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Technical College Systems lost respectively $795 million and $203 million in state school aids.
Not to mention, the rising tide in student debt obligations. Conveniently, Walker made no reference to the loan fraud scandal that currently surrounds WEDC, or the dismantling of the Government Accountability Board (GAB) that provided transparency and accountability to state politics.
Another blaring omission was the republican power grab to undermine the state’ civil service system, which has been a model for the entire nation.
While listening to Scott Walker’s address last Tuesday night, I was inclined to remember Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s famous quote: “You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”
It would behoove Walker and his cohorts to take this sage, political prescription to heart.