Walker Claim: “A true commitment to real structural reforms for state and local government budgets led to our long-term fiscal stability.”
FACT: The national economic recovery has led to higher than expected tax revenues and projected budget surpluses in nearly every state in the nation, including Wisconsin.
Even still, Scott Walker’s “surplus” isn’t built on prudent financial decisions — it’s built on disinvestments in our future that harm the economic security of the middle class.
Walker’s first budget cut nearly one billion dollars from public schools and our technical college system that provides critical job training programs. It gave corporations and the super-rich more than two billion dollars in tax cuts while raising taxes on seniors and working families to the tune of nearly $70 million.
And between his two budgets Walker can also claim record borrowing, a massive increase in debt servicing that kicks the can down the road, and a multi-billion dollar structural deficit.
The people of Wisconsin cannot afford to have our state fall even farther behind Minnesota and other states on economic recovery, job creation, fair wages, health care and education. Before Scott Walker and Republicans in the Legislature plan another tax cut for the wealthy, they should think about how to pay our bills first, reduce the record debt they’ve forced on future generations, and begin to repair the damage they’ve already done to education and jobs training programs.
