MADISON-Following is the statement of Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate on Scott Walker’s proposed budget.
“In his 20-minute phone call with whom he thought was a right-wing oil tycoon from Kansas, Scott Walker made clear that busting unions was about raw political power and had nothing to do with the state’s budget mess. Now, in a doubly-cynical move, history’s most divisive governor is using the end of the right of collective bargaining as a complement to slashing $1.3 billion in aid to education and localities. Walker has not reached out, like a good leader would, to seek shared solutions and neither has his lockstep Legislature. So what you get is a budget that takes Wisconsin backward, ends seven decades of labor peace, shifts responsibility to the localities and is a knife at the throat of our fragile recovery. Education is the foundation for our future, just as collective bargaining is the foundation for our middle class. Scott Walker’s backward budget takes a partisan sledgehammer to both.”
