Hey Scotty, you don't need a $7 mil ad campaign to get young people to Wisconsin!

I know this happens a lot in a country where Donald Trump is the president and a state where Scott Walker is the Governor, but add this to the “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?” file.

Walker on Wednesday called on the [Wisconsin] Legislature to approve funding for the $6.8 million ad campaign before the end of the current session in early 2018. He said the marketing campaign would pitch Wisconsin as a more affordable place for millennials to live where they could be spending more time in a canoe, having a drink with friends or attending a concert, rather than sitting in traffic.

Walker announced the marketing effort at the Future Wisconsin Summit, an annual meeting organized by the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Foundation bringing together some of the state’s business leaders.

Calling it “critically important” to “get more bodies,” Walker said the effort would be a collaborative marketing campaign that involves the state’s chief economic development and job-creation agencies and the Tourism Department. The effort would include $3.5 million in ads targeting military veterans and their families and $3 million marketing Wisconsin as a destination for young professionals, particularly those already living in nearby Midwest cities of Detroit, Minneapolis and Chicago, Walker said…

Part of the effort would be to woo back young adults who attended college in Wisconsin. The key time to reach them is four or five years after graduation when they start thinking about where they want to live long term and raise children, Walker said.

Hey Scotty, I thought we were “Open for Business” and low taxes under GOP rule would attract workers all by themselves. Are you telling me that maybe people make decisions on something other than $5 off of their property taxes when it comes to finding a place they want to work and live in?

Not that you deserve any help at this point, but I’ll give you a tip, Scotty. If you want to get young families to settle in Wisconsin, maybe you should FUND PUBLIC EDUCATION AND PAY THEM A GOOD WAGE. Think about it- what talented person would come to a state that pays them less and has a declining standard of education at the K-12 and college levels when he or she can go to plenty of other places nearby and end up better off on both counts?

And throwing hundreds of millions in WEDC money at donors corporations who continue to pay substandard wages and having WisGOP push for bills that would outlaw state standards on air pollution isn’t something that's makes the typical person choose Wisconsin for their home? Who would have thunk it?

I have a better suggestion. Put that money into roads and good transit, and maintain Wisconsin’s great natural resources and scenery. This will encourage our state’s visitors to want to become residents, and improve our chances of keeping around the little talent we have in the state because of a higher quality of life.

Instead, Governor Dropout wants to blow nearly $7 million in taxpayers’ dollars on an ad campaign to convince people that our lack of transit…is a good thing?

One ad being planned in Chicago starting in January will be along a CTA train, taunting riders that their one-hour commute could be used riding bikes in Wisconsin instead

— Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) November 29, 2017

Hey Scotty, if people are in a place in Wisconsin where they can bike to work or nearby rural areas-

1. They won’t be the type of people that take a 1-hour train ride to work because THEY’D LIVE NEAR THE CITY AND BIKE IN ALREADY,

2. Or they’ll live in the burbs in Wisconsin, like they do in Chicago, which means they’d either be busing in or (more likely) be stuck in traffic on our many pothole-filled highways,

3. Or they’ll live in a small Wisconsin town that doesn’t pay anything near the big-city wages they currently pull down, and likely lacks high-speed internet because YOUR DUMB ASS TURNED DOWN $23 MILLION IN 2011!

And why would they locate in any of these places for quality of life reasons as long as Wisconsin’s public schools stay underfunded and polluters are allowed to spew whatever filth they want without consequence? Because that’s the reality they’d deal with as long as Scott Walker and the GOP are in charge.

State Senator Dave Hansen has a better idea on how to attract young, educated people to Wisconsin. Take action to remove one of the biggest barriers to economic stability so they have the flexibility to choose to live in Wisconsin.

Hansen said one of the best ways to keep and attract young workers would be to pass his Higher Ed/Lower Debt bill that would allow Wisconsin residents to refinance their student loans at lower interest rates.

“Employers could use a state student loan refinancing program as a selling point to prospective applicants, many of whom are struggling under the high cost of their student loans. Passing HELD would give Wisconsin employers a competitive advantage over their competition in other states. And refinancing could be done at very little to no cost to state taxpayers.”....

“Rather than paying millions to media consultants for a marketing campaign that is unlikely to work, Governor Walker and Republicans could do something that would actually benefit up to 900,000
Wisconsin residents and provide a real incentive to keep and attract young workers by embracing student loan refinancing and the Higher Ed/Lower Debt bill.”

Of course, Scotty is too busy kissing up to banksters and other big-money donors to do this common-sense move that would give a real competitive advantage to Wisconsin when it comes to attracting millenial talent.

But the real story here is that Scott Walker is admitting that his policy decisions since 2011 HAVE FAILED MISERABLY when it comes to trying to attract young talent to the state, which puts a lid on any type of growth the state may have. And just like with Scotty’s one-time boost to K-12 public schools, he thinks a PR Band-Aid is somehow going to wipe away all of the bad things that have left us far behind our peers over the last 6 years.
Sorry Governor Dropout, a few ads and the Confidence Fairy won’t change the rotten, regressive political choices that you and the rest of the ALEC crew have made, causing our economy to stagnate and make Wisconsin unattractive to people with options for their careers.

And if that wasn't enough, this image from last year has already driven away a lot of young people who might consider Wisconsin for their future careers.



Young adults hate that guy. They aren’t going to vote for Trump, Walker or any other Republican, and they don't want to live in a place that supports such a hateful moron. Besides, why is Scotty trying to bring college-educated young people that value quality of life to Wisconsin anyway? After all, if Walker actually is serious about getting more young people with intelligence to live in Wisconsin, he’s increasing the chances that he loses next year!