Yer Out: Walker’s False Job Claims Called Foul Yet Again
MADISON – Just as he begins another round of political advertising highlighting a sham “brown bag” theme from an ample kitchen payed for with a $50,000 raise he gave himself, failed Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker saw another of his false job claims crumble under scrutiny.
In an article in yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, it was revealed that Walker didn’t do what he said he did and was never where he said he was as he shamefully tries to claim credit for GE Healthcare bringing hundreds of jobs to Milwaukee County.
In fact, “That’s a good piece of revisionist history,” Theresa M. Estness, who was the independent mayor of Wauwatosa from 2000 to 2008, said in the article. “The county executive was never at the table negotiating this,” she said. “….There was never anyone from the county involved when we were negotiating with GE.”
Estness described herself as a political independent and not involved in the governor’s race. Campaign statements since 2004 show that she hasn’t made any campaign contributions to Tom Barrett.
“Scott Walker gives himself a $50,000 raise and then pretends to pack a “brown bag lunch” after an East Coast p.r. firm tells him to roll up his sleeves in his marble-topped kitchen. He opposes job creation plans in the County Research Park then falsely claims job successes there. He continues to make up his own self-serving reality out of whole cloth,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Monday. “Maybe Walker could quit fouling up Milwaukee County and get down to Arizona, since the Brewers seem to need a shifty rightie who throws curve balls in the dirt.”
Fact: The City of Wauwatosa and the State of Wisconsin, not Scott Walker, was responsible for bringing GE to the Research Park
· The city on Tuesday approved more than $27.6 million in incentives that will enable GE Healthcare to begin construction on an $85 million office building in the Milwaukee County Research Park later this year. (“Tosa Splurges on GE Healthcare Building,” MJS, 4/21/04)
· Wauwatosa will give the developer, Irgens Development Partners LLC, a $15 million grant to finance a parking structure and do site preparation work. That money would be repaid by 2016 through property tax revenue generated by the new building, Mayor Theresa Estness said. (MJS, 3/3/04)
· “The development would receive $35 million in proposed state and local financial help, including tax credits, a low-interest loan and grants. (MJS, 3/4/04)
· Governor Jim Doyle announced today that the state will provide GE Healthcare with a $7 million package to assist the company as it expands its business operations in Wisconsin. At a news conference in Waukesha today, GE Healthcare announced that it has selected a location in the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa that will house the company’s Information Technologies, Ultrasound, and e-Business divisions. (Press release, 3/3/04)
Fact: As Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker actually decided NOT to help close the GE deal
· Walker declined to help put together a package of pro-business incentives that would helped GE build a parking structure. (MJS, 3/5/04)
· Walker didn’t even help the city of Wauwatosa with the land, instead just selling the 25-acre research park site for $2.61 million, which in turn leased it to Irgens Development over 12 years. At the end of the lease, Irgens bought the land (3/3/04).
Fact: As a state legislator, Scott Walker stood in the way of economic development at the County Grounds. If he had his way, there wouldn’t have been any land at the Research Park for GE to utilize.
· In a letter he wrote with then Senator Peggy Rosenzweig to then Natural Resources Secretary George Meyer about the Milwaukee County Grounds upon which the Research Park now stands, Walker wrote:
“With proposals being advanced regularly for development and use of these lands, we want to make preservation of this resource a viable choice….State forestry aid could help stamp these lands ‘off limits’ to development…(that would hamper or destroy the character of the area and the public’s access to it.)” (MJS, 5/15/98)
