I got your uncertainty right here, Scotty!

Remember how Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP kept clinging to the claim that the Wisconsin Uprising and the recall movement led to major "uncertainties" that was holding job creation back in 2011 and 2012, and that's why Wisconsin's economic record sucked? This is despite that thing called numbers, which showed the "gold standard" jobs figures of the Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages said the rate of 12-month Wisconsin job growth was lower after the June 2012 recall election compared to the two years afterwards. But just because the Walker folks were lying about the effects of the recall movement, it doesn't mean that uncertainty can't be a factor in suppressing jobs. We know this, because the uncertainty resulting from Scott Walker's proposed budget is cutting jobs right now.

We've seen it regarding Walker's proposed $300 million cut to the UW System, as 4 of the 13 four-year UW campuses have already offered buyouts and early retirement to their workers as an alternative to layoffs that are a direct result of these budget reductions. In addition, UW-Oshkosh announced last week that they would cut two athletic sports and four other teams would be consolidated into two, and I don't doubt that similar moves with sorts programs are being debated at other non-Madison campuses, where the students already pay fees to help run these programs, and where general fund money assists in funding these programs. The budget situation also is hurting hiring and recruitment at the flagship UW campus, particularly when it comes to getting the best talent off the playing field.

UW-Madison’s first choices for director of the Carbone Cancer Center and a top-level faculty researcher in the nursing school turned down the jobs in early February because of concerns about declining funding and clout at the university, according to records obtained by the State Journal under the state’s open records law.

One candidate, Anne Sales, was chosen for a new endowed, tenured faculty chair in nursing and is said to have cited Gov. Scott Walker’s $300 million budget cut proposal to UW System.

“She has changed her mind about my offer and will accept a compelling counteroffer at Michigan,” Katharyn May, dean of the nursing school, wrote to chancellor Rebecca Blank on Feb. 5. “The candidate received the Michigan offer as the budget news was breaking on the national scene, and in her words, she is ‘unwilling to risk’ shifting her research program here, when Michigan is clearly willing to invest in it.”

Another aspect of Walker's budget plans of changing the state's Long-Term Care services, taking them from a regional and localized program, and making it a system based on statewide contracts, and these proposals led a Wisconsin health care business to cut hundreds of jobs this week.

The owner of Slinger-based GeminiCares Inc., which is closing and laying off 701 employees, said the causes of the company going out of business included "uncertainty" around Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed changes to the state’s long-term care system....

GeminiCares president and owner Kathleen Rublee issued a statement April 7 in which she said the state budget for long-term care of the elderly and disabled has been under the strain of increased costs and increased numbers of state residents needing care.

State officials have sought to make services cost-efficient, but that “put financial strains on those entities which are involved in this system, managed care organizations, county agencies and provider agencies,” Rublee said.

“This along with the uncertainty of the long-term care system of service provision due to changes proposed by Governor Walker weighed heavily into the decision to cease operations,” Rublee said. “Governor Walker has a large task before him as he attempts to address the significant cost pressures of long term care in Wisconsin while also attempting to maintain quality care.”

These actions are the direct result of Walker fiscal policies that have chosen tax cuts to corporations over investing in services that stabilize people's lives and grow the talent that improves the economy in the short and long term. Wonder if Scotty will take credit for these job losses and reduced economic activity as he goes around the country and the world, bragging about his "bold reforms." It also begs the question, do voters and our media care more about Walker's alleged "boldness", or do they care about the failed results and unnecessary stress that have been a result of those "reforms"?