Thursday, April 14, 2011

Scotty, it ain't working!

Couple of interesting state economic reports out today that continue to show that our state was and is nowhere near as bad off as Scott Walker and the Sykesists try to portray it.

First of all, Wisconsin's revenue situation continues to beat expectations. Individual income tax is up almost 10% year-to-date, and sales and corporate taxes have also stayed strong, so the state is running 6.6% ahead of last year, with a late Easter to come.

This extends the above-trend gains, so much so that if the 6.6% improvement holds up for the last 3 months, the state's revenues would be $240 MILLION over the original projections. Let me say that again, $240 MILLION.

When you put that together with the deficit-adding budget "repair" bill passed last week, the state of Wisconsin would end up with a surplus of over $220 million dollars BEFORE the extra money from state employees is counted. And then that surplus will go toward reducing the next budget's deficit, as well as give a higher revenue base to grow from in a more inflationary time. "BROKE" MY A$$!

Also, the new state unemployment numbers came in for March, and at first glance, it looks pretty good. Unemployment stayed well below the national average at 7.4%, and 9,100 jobs were added on a seasonally-adjusted basis. Sounds like things are really turning around under Scott Walker, right? Ehhh, not quite. When you grab the figures from the start of the year and compare them to what we had last year under Jim Doyle, it doesn't measure up.

Seasonally adjusted
January - March 2011- +18,800 jobs
January - March 2010- +23,300 jobs

Private sector
January - March 2011- +14,000
January - March 2010- +29,500 (that would be more than double)

Year-over-year private sector
March 2010 - March 2011 - +32,000
January 2010 - January 2011 - +47,500 (nearly 50% higher)

And we're not even mentioning the fact that there are actually 43,000 FEWER jobs in Wisconsin compared to December, but the seasonal adjustment accounts for that with the Holiday shopping season ending and construction season not in full swing. But with that in mind, Scotty better hope $4 gas doesn't kill Wisconsin tourism this Summer, because you'll start to see this + on jobs turn into a - really fast.

Jobs being lost here while the economy has been turning around nationwide would probably be enough to guarantee the recall, if it isn't baked in the cake already. Keep an eye on this the next 2 months, because it's going to prove Scotty, the Kochs, WMC and the paid hacks that back them to be even more dishonest and wrong than we already know them to be.

And way to be OWNED on the Hill today and embarass our state yet again, Gov, Dropout. Good thing that's as close to D.C. and national relevance as you'll ever get again. Bonbby Jindal respoinding to Obama's State of the Union thought that was a pathetic performance.

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