We finally are starting to see how much Walker is billing us for his campaign

You've probably heard me complain quite a bit about the time and money our Fair Governor spends on photo ops and other media events around the state. Not only are these events cravenly political and often at the businesses of campaign contributors, but state vehicles, planes and personnel are used to shuttle our governor around at these events.

Well, we finally got some idea today about how much Governor Scott Walker’s taxpayer-funded campaigning has cost us, courtesy of the good people at One Wisconsin Now.

In total, between dropping out of the presidential race in September 2015 and April of this year, Walker has flown 114,390 miles on the state plan at a cost to taxpayers of about $818,500, the report from One Wisconsin Now showed.
On average, Walker's flights cost taxpayers about $241,030 during his first term between 2011 and 2014. But that jumped to an annual average of about $317,000 between September 2015 and April.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle averaged $240,000 on state flights in his last two years in office, 2009 and 2010. When including 2006, the year Doyle ran for re-election, the average spent was $280,000.

The flights included distances as short as 24 miles between campaign stops appearances. That’s not exactly living up to the “frugal, fiscal conservative” BS that Walker constantly spouts through his absurd tweets like this.

Another brown bag lunch while traveling on our bus tour! pic.twitter.com/NPFsj6fgmQ

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) August 9, 2018

Great few days in New Hampshire last week. Pic of the Kohl's where I found my new sweater. Be back in April pic.twitter.com/6whc8XNA6Y

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) March 16, 2015

How stupid do you have to be to still buy into this 'I'm an everyday guy who pays his own bills" shtick from this lifetime grifter?

The list of flights that One Wisconsin Now accumulated includes one Walker took last Sept. 7 from Madison to Rhinelander to “tour Three Lakes High School Fab Lab.” That event was back in the news earlier this month when the local school board objected to being used as props in Walker campaign ads talking up Scotty’s newfound commitment to K-12 education.

Quite tellingly, a Walker campaign flack said that Three Lakes Superintendent George Karling should have known better when the Governor showed up at his district.

A spokesman for Walker's campaign said Karling knew why Walker and a film crew were on school grounds, however, and provided the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel with a permission form sent to Karling allowing the footage to be used for broadcast purposes….

Brian Reisinger, spokesman for Walker's campaign, supplied the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel with a July 15 email from the campaign to Karling with an attached form on campaign letterhead for film participants to allow the footage to be used for commercial broadcasting purposes, among other things.

The form features Walker's name on the letterhead and says the footage can be used for any broadcast purpose, but does not explicitly mention campaign ads.

Again, did you really think I was doing this for the kids?

So Reisinger is admitting that these trips are at least partly designed to help the Walker 2018 campaign. Yet instead of having his donors pay for it, us taxpayers are the ones paying the price.

One Wisconsin Now director Scot Ross accused Walker of abusing public money and trust in his use of airplanes.

"He's operated as if the state airplane is his personal vehicle and available for him whenever he wants to for whatever he wants," Ross said.

And that $818,500 doesn’t include the costs of the Governor’s sizable security crew on these trips, a group that cost $1.75 million in 2014. Hmm, that sounds like one of the next projects OWN or someone else should track, since the costs could prove every bit as intriguing as the Governor’s flight itinerary over the last 2 ½ years.

Whether it’s Walker’s usage of state planes for his own benefit, State Rep (and State Senate candidate) Dale Kooyenga trying to make us pay a $30,000 settlement after Koo-Koo stole a citizen’s sign at the Capitol, or US Senate candidate Leah Vukmir hiding records about her work with ALEC, and making us pay $15,000 to make her follow court orders, these Republicans truly think they can (ab)use the state Treasury for their own political needs. And we’re the only ones that can end that arrogance on November 6, by booting their unethical asses out of office.

Fox-con water deal seems to soak Racine Co taxpayers even more

As the Fox-con advances, we continue to find all sorts of surprise extra costs cropping up with this scam. The latest was described in a well-detailed article by Ricardo Torres of the Racine Journal-Times on Friday, and describes an agreement where the Village of Mount Pleasant is going to work with the Racine Water Utility to hook up and upgrade water and sewer lines in the village, to handle the larger needs that come with the Foxconn campus and related developments.

Alan Marcuvitz, attorney working with the village on matters related to Foxconn, said funding for the upgrades will be paid for by the tax incremental district (TID) set up in the Foxconn area.

“That’s going to cost approximately $100 million of funds that are being borrowed by the village in order to (pay for the project),” Marcuvitz said. “It’s going to be funded through the TID … it will be recouped through the collection of revenues flowing from the future as a result of development that occurs in the TID area.”

If approved by the city, Marcuvitz said this deal would be completely unique compared to what has been done in the past.

“Normally what has happened in the past is the Racine Water Utility has fronted the money and has recouped the money through REC (residential equivalent connection) fees,” Marcuvitz said. “But in this case, all of the new infrastructure, whether it’s mains or tanks or booster stations or pumper stations, anything to do with this at all is being paid for by the village.”

Uhhh…is that a good thing? That sounds like all of the costs are being dumped on the few taxpayers left in Mount Pleasant, and given that these costs are now being added to the $764 million TID, does that make it an $864 million TID that’ll take even longer to close, since another $100 million is designated for this project? Sure sounds like it (if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me).



Here’s another way it sounds like Mount Pleasant taxpayers are going to be put on the hook. The difference between REC fees and the cost to pay the debt to build the new water infrastructure is going to cost $26.8 million, and Marcuvitz says Mount Pleasant will pay THAT as well.

“The Racine Water Utility is going to go out and finance that $26.8 million, the village is covering any shortage that does not pay for the debt service based on (water) consumption,” Marcuvitz said. “Let’s say two years from now there’s a payment that needs to be made on the debt service and (the city) is short because the revenue is not sufficient to cover it, the village will cover that shortage for that year. (The village) will cover any shortage for any succeeding year.”

As if this isn’t enough of a potential budget-buster, it also looks like any developer of new property in Mount Pleasant is going to get the equivalent of a tax break in the form of lower REC fees.

Currently if a single home needs to connect to the water and sewer lines, it would cost $3,623. If, for example, a business or apartment complex needed 10 connections to those lines, then the fee would be $36,230...

When the agreement is final, the REC fees plan to be $500 to connect to the [Racine] water and sewer lines.

And that lowered fee will stay in place until that $100 million in upgrades is paid off in Mount Pleasant. Not a bad gig if you’re a scummy speculator who bought up land around Foxconn, but it also means the gap that Mount Pleasant has to make up is much larger than it otherwise would be.

And why would you need to cut the fee to build in and around Mount Pleasant in the first place? What happened to “if you build [Foxconn], they will come”?

This water and sewer deal reeks, and the 26,000 people that live[d] in Mount Pleasant and have to pay a large amount of these costs in the next few years, while Foxconn and the new developments will pay next to nothing. With the reality setting in that this Fox-con will lead to far fewer jobs than promised, why would anyone sign away their community’s present and future to take on further risk with this project?

And if you think, "well, that's Mount Pleasant's problem, and won't affect me" - WRONG! Remember that's there a "moral obligation pledge" written into the Foxconn bill to help Mount Pleasant sell all of this debt, and it means state taxpayers have to make up to 40% of the difference in interest and principal if the local communities can't pay back debts related to the Fox-con. As I noted back in January, the LFB estimated that the state could be on the hook for $64 million for a $100 million financing, such as we're seeing with this water deal. So yes, we all should care, beyond the fact that this is a horrible case study of how local communities can get screwed over by these deals.

The rest of the state already recognizes the Fox-con as an absurd, crooked boondoggle. But I’m starting to think there will be recall petitions flying in western Racine County once people start to see the new property tax and water bills that they’re going to have to pay for in order to build up all of the new infrastructure and local tax breaks that are included in this scam.

Zoo Interchange's costs go up due to Walker/WisGOP delays

This article kind of flew under the radar last week, but new reports show the North End of the Milwaukee area's Zoo Interchange is going to cost $30 million more.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation now pegs the cost of completing the Zoo Interchange at $232.6 million, which is up from an estimate of $202.2 million issued in 2017. Critics had warned that a delay could drive up the project’s costs when Republicans were busy adopting a provision barring work on the north leg of the Zoo Interchange during the 2017-2019 biennium.

Michael Pyritz, WisDOT spokesman, said in an email that the higher estimates are the result of inflation and design-cost predictions. He noted that the project is now scheduled to be let in 2021, rather than 2018. He cautioned, however, that the project’s final cost won’t be known until the state receives bids for the work.

“Until the bids are received it is premature to make a statement saying it is higher or lower than estimated,” he wrote.

Most of WisDOT’s increased estimate for the Zoo Interchange is the result of $21.6 million worth of contingency costs. Without those, the agency estimates that the project would cost $211 million, $7.7 million of which would result from expected inflation and $3.1 million from design costs. Pyritz declined to provide details about the cost estimate, saying that such information could influence bid results. He said the latest estimate takes into account seven components of the Zoo Interchange’s north leg.

This is a direct effect of the Walker Administration and WisGOP Legislature refusing to raise enough revenue to finish the Zoo project and other road work in the state. And this decision isn't just extending the time it takes to pay for these projects, but it’ll cost us $30 million more along the way.

As these costs of doing future Wisconsin road projects go up, the money we have available to pay for it continues to stagnate. And WisGOP's costs of inaction continue to hurt our state, and our economic competitiveness.

Strong July jobs report in Wisconsin, but big picture still weak

This week featured another Wisconsin jobs report, and July's figures were very good for our state.

The state added 9,100 private sector jobs and 8,700 total non-farm jobs from June 2018 to July. One-month gains were significant in durable goods [manufacturing] (+2,400) and Health Care and Social Assistance (+2,800).

In brief, the seasonally adjusted estimates show:

• Place of Residence Data: Wisconsin's preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 2.9 percent in July, up slightly from the record low of 2.8 percent experienced in April and May of 2018. Wisconsin's labor force participation rate remained at 68.9 percent in July, 6 percentage points higher than the national rate.

• Place of Work Data: From July 2017 to July 2018, Wisconsin added a statistically significant 38,500 private-sector and 21,300 manufacturing jobs, as defined by BLS. Wisconsin also added 9,100 private-sector jobs, 8,700 total non-farm jobs and 2,500 manufacturing jobs from June 2018 to July.

Pretty good report all around. I continue to be very skeptical of the great gains the Walker Administration keeps reporting in manufacturing (they’ve been revised down numerous times in recent years), but there were also solid gains in the service sectors (+6,200) and June’s jobs numbers were revised up by 1,200 private sector jobs and 200 overall.

Even though the household employment stalled out (down by 2,100), 2.9% is still basically full employment, and maybe the disparities in Wisconsin between in "employment" vs "jobs" in the household and payroll surveys is being smoothed out (both are now in the mid-to-upper 30,000s for the last 12 months).

Given that our Fair Governor is losing in the polls, he needed some good news, and welcomed this strong initial jobs report.

ICYMI: Wisconsin has now added over 28,000 private sector jobs during the first half of 2018! “Wisconsin added 9,100 private sector jobs in July.” @BizTimesMedia #WIWorkinghttps://t.co/IRKr9Mv3ct

— Governor Walker (@GovWalker) August 17, 2018

Hold on there, Scotty. It’s not like Wisconsin is pulling away from the pack with these figures. Just cast your eyes across the Saint Croix River, where Minnesota added 11,200 jobs in July, and had its unemployment rate drop to 3.0%. In addition, the newly-released state-by-state comparisons show that Minnesota continues to grow more jobs than Wisconsin over the last 12 months.

Job change, July 2017- July 2018
All jobs
Minn +43,100 (+1.47%)
Wis. +38,800 (+1.32%)

Private-sector jobs
Minn +38,700 (+1.54%)
Wis. +38,500 (+1.52%)

Total job change, Midwest July 2017-July 2018
Mich +1.52%
Ohio +1.49%
Minn +1.47%
Wis. +1.32%
Iowa +1.21%
Ill. +1.09%
Ind. +0.61%

It’s also funny to see Walker talking up Wisconsin’s recent job gains, given that they are coming after Walker reversed his prior positions in 2017. The reversals include finally adding back some money to public schools, increasing rates of reimbursement for health care providers and nursing homes, and trying to limit the increases in the cost of health care instead of actively sabotaging the ACA. It's almost like these more liberal policies work better in adding jobs than the ALEC austerity that this state was under before 2017.

These pre-election band-aids don’t repair all the damage that happened for the first 7 years of the Age of Fitzwalkerstan. Despite the recently strong numbers, the job losses in April and May in Wisconsin means that there has been little change in the Walker jobs gap for the first 7 months of 2018.

Walker jobs gap
All jobs
Dec 2017 138,900
July 2018 137,600

Private sector jobs
Dec 2017 133,000
July 2018 136,600

There's an even more important jobs report dropping next week – the “gold standard” Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages (QCEW). This report has consistently shown the monthly jobs figures from the Walker Administration to be overestimated, lets us give a more thorough comparison between Wisconsin and the other 50 states, and also includes wage information that the monthly DWD reports does not have.

Interestingly, the Walker Administration’s report did not include the typical “preview” of the QCEW numbers that would be expected this month, and I’m wondering if that’s because those figures aren’t as rosy as the initial reports that came out a few months ago (which would be SOP for this crew). We’ll start to find out next week if my theory is right, and we’ll get more detail in early September as to where those jobs are, and how much they’re (not) paying.

Look, gaining jobs are better than losing jobs, and that shouldn’t be ignored. But I’d prefer my governors not to have to face the pressure of an election to have to do the things that more successful states like Minnesota have been doing all along. And if Tony Evers and other Dems aren’t elected in 80 days to get us back to investing in our resources in all years (not just ones before elections), you can bet that we will see Wisconsin backslide even more on the jobs, wage, and investment fronts in 2019.

Why the Packers (and Wisconsin) suck in 2018

It's the 2nd half of August, and that means it's time to get into football mode. And one of the highlights of this time of the year is Deadspin's Drew Magary putting out his series of "Why Your Team Sucks" for each NFL Club. It's 1/2 ripping on the faults of the team, a nnd about 1/2 ripping on the fans and city/state that the team is located in.

Well, it was the Packers' turn in the barrel this week, and the 2018 picture wasn't pretty.

I grew up in Minnesota but I’m being completely earnest when I tell you that, while I like my home state, I also appreciated its neighbor to the East. I had friends from Wisconsin. I went to camp in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has cheese, beer, and pretty woods. For the bulk of my life, it seemed like a perfectly normal, good little state. But now I know the truth about Wisconsin, and that is that it’s actually a fucking loony bin. The governor is a union-busting turd. The biggest city is more segregated than apartheid-era Cape Town and was run, until very recently, by America’s Most Corrupt Sheriff. Their most prominent congressman will go down as one of the most spineless enablers in human history. The cops beat up a Milwaukee Buck and laughed about it. The citizens have brains and asses made of boiled weisswurst. The entire state is a series of cool cities surrounded by psychotic suburbs in which people have been stifling their racism in the name of politeness for so long that their eyes are now just swirling like cartoon characters. It’s a cut-rate Illinois filled with crackpots, serial killers, and racists. Wisconsin is INSANE.

Why you little Mud-Duck bastard, you are…..pretty correct. This is how we appear to the rest of the country after voting for Donald F’ing Trump for president and a dimwitted college dropout for Governor 3 times (!!!)

Some of the comments by actual Packer fans/Wisconsin residents in the article are also far from endearing.

Fuck this fanbase who would chop their own arm off for Clay “OMG Hair” Matthews and Jordy Nelson, but wouldn’t recognize Mike Daniels or Davante Adams in their own jerseys.

I’m a Canadian who moved to Northeast Wisconsin - holy fuck these people are drunk.

I’m not shocked this state went for Trump. It’s drunk, it’s racist, it puts hunter camo on everything, and it’s absolutely terrified of taking an alternate route to Miller Park.

A buddy was a professor at Marquette and went out cycling when he first moved there. He ended up on MLK. Some white dude pulled over and yelled “get in.” He asked why and the dude said “you’re going to get killed.” Probably someone from Waukesha.

That said, if you are an African-American in a bar in Green Bay you won’t pay for drinks since everyone will think you play for the Packers.

We continually seem to think Scott Walker is an electable human being and not the evil dad in every Nickelodeon movie from the 90s.​

…Michigan and Pennsylvania were always suspect. Wisconsin was not. Wisconsin was the “SUPRISE, WE’RE ASSHOLES” of the 2016 election. Michigan and Pennsylvania are much more like Ohio and Florida, in that they’re inhabited by mostly douchebags already.

And here’s a sadly accurate football take from a commentator.

All it took was one fateful October Sunday afternoon in Minnesota, fucking Minnesota of all places, and an Anthony Fucking Barr sack, to reveal the Packers for what they are: a fraudulent, house of cards organization that was lucky enough to see a cross-bread of Moses and Jesus fall into their laps as their quarterback. Ted Thompson’s defense, entirely built with his 90+ 3rd to 7th round draft picks, looked like the French army in 1940, and Mike McCarthy stuck with a QB who was unable to throw a single TD in Lambeau Field.

You may notice a certain edge to the fans’ letters, and I think a lot of it is the general know-little idiocy that has been allowed to be in control of much of Wisconsin politics starting in 2010 at the state level and Ron Johnson's election to the US Senate, and culminating in the state going for Trump in 2016. I know I have found a lot less humor in seeing some drunken yah-hey-dere dipshit wearing a variation of a Cheesehead chanting “GO PACK GOOOOO!” when he/she comes onto my TV screen since Act 10 and the related culture war was dropped on all of us 7 years ago.

Us in the home state of Titletown have to do better than we’ve been showing to the rest of the country. On the field, in the voting booth, and in our everyday lives. All are very possible, and 2018 could become a memorable year in Wisconsin where things turned back into the greatness that we used to have.

But some people in Wisconsin need to get it together, be honest about what they're seeing, and demand more.

Despite Walker's and WisGOP's efforts, UW System still gives a huge boost to Wisconsin

This didn’t get much notice after the big primary elections, but this week, the University of Wisconsin System had its annual economic impact report released.

It's not necessarily news to hear that an employer of tens of thousands of people has a large economic impact in the state. And indeed, everyday UW operations along with the wages and salaries earned by UW workers account for about half of the $24 billion impact that the study says the UW generates. What’s perhaps more interesting are the other ways the university system adds our state’s economy. Much of it comes from spinoff businesses that use what is learned and produced on the UW to become strong entitites themselves.

The second largest contributor to UW System’s economic impact is UW Hospitals and Clinics, an organization long affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison. UW Hospitals was established as a public authority in 1996 but has deep and continuing ties to the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. UW Hospitals accounted for $3.5 billion of UW System’s overall economic impact in the 2016-17 fiscal year.

The third largest contributor to UW System’s economic impact is startup companies, many of which are founded by professors and staff conducting research at the UW System. The data in this calculation comes from startups out of UW-Madison. Approximately 350 startups came from UW-Madison (not including those in UW Research Park) in the 2016-17 fiscal year and accounted for $3 billion of the UW System’s overall economic impact.

Additional startup and established companies located in UW Research Park in Madison, Wis., accounted for $1.1 billion of the UW System’s impact on Wisconsin’s economy in 2016-17.

2 other big areas that add to the UW’s impact on the state are student spending on everyday items ($2.2 billion) and visitor spending for conferences, college sports, college visits, and other campus tourism-related events ($2.0 billion, visit the beer gardens on Regent Street in 2 weeks if you need an example).

And not only does the UW System’s analysis note that the UW System is responsible for 92,000 jobs itself, and its activities lead and/or support 75,000 other jobs, but that those jobs pay better than the typical Wisconsin job.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s publication “American Fact Finder” reports Wisconsin’s median earnings at $31,195. These are reported earnings without fringe benefits. Adjusting for a fringe benefit rate of 30% would push median labor income to about $40,553, compared to the average overall labor income of jobs generated by UW System economic activity of $55,502.

That better pay and better-educated work force raises tax revenue (to the tune of $1.1 billion in 2016-17), and the study’s author noted that the relatively small amount of money state taxpayers kick in to the UW results in a major bang for the buck.

“The breadth of UW System activity is striking,” said Dr. David J. Ward, CEO of NorthStar Analytics, which conducted the study. “With the state contributing slightly over $1 billion to the university system’s budget in fiscal year 2016-17, Wisconsin taxpayers are realizing a substantial return on their investment in the UW System.”

The 2018 UW System Economic Impact Study by NorthStar Analytics refreshes a 2002 economic impact report prepared for the UW System by the firm then known as NorthStar Economics. The new study shows the UW System’s economic impact measures have more than doubled in the years since. Ward will present the report to the Board of Regents at its next meeting on Aug. 23 in Madison.

“The biggest change since 2002 is the economic development activity the UW System is now involved in,” Ward said. “There is very significant startup activity, and it’s beginning to spread across the state.”

UW System President Ray Cross noted that the overwhelming number of graduates of UW schools stay in the state, which helps Wisconsin employers in particular.

Each year, the UW System confers more than 36,000 degrees, and a very high percentage of recent graduates (more than 80 percent) stay and work in Wisconsin. “This continuing stream of new college graduates helps to replenish the talent base of Wisconsin’s workforce and provides skilled employees for Wisconsin businesses,” Cross said.

Additional data show that UW System graduates with bachelor’s degrees are filling key shortages in health care, science, and engineering fields. In 2016-17, there were 9,716 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates, and 3,460 health-care graduates.

Wow. Sounds like we get a heckuva deal with the UW System. Which leads to my question for President Cross. Why haven’t you done a thing to stop the WisGOPs and Scott Walker’s lackeys on the Board of Regents from trying to turn the UW into a second-rate system?

Throughout Cross’s tenure as president, right-wing haters of independent thought in the State Legislature and Governor’s Office have taken numerous steps to injure the UW. This included defunding the schools (the System gets $20 million less from the state than it did in 2011), eradicating tenure (which hurts its ability to recruit and retain talent), and giving an unfunded mandate to freeze in-state tuition (leading to more budget cuts and non-competitiveness).

In addition, Cross has allowed it to be used as a punching bag in the resentment politics that get regressive WisGOPs elected in non-UW towns across the state. Not only has Cross not spoken out against that or other GOP attacks on the UW, he’s even supported some of their absurdity. That includes Cross giving a full-throated defense of a Fox-con that will likely lead to more reductions in funding to the UW due to the state not having enough money to go around.

Given the clear economic boost that UW gives, why has the “business lobby” of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce not defended something that pays them back in spades? Instead, those greedheads have not only stayed silent, but continue to throw millions of dollars in support of the same Wisconsin GOP politicians that are driving the UW into mediocrity, and they've had hundreds of million of dollars in tax cuts kicked back to them, which have drained the state treasury of available funds.

And with the reduced amount of funds remaining, Walker and WisGOP have chosen to give those scarce dollars to agencies other than the UW. Let me bring back this chart from last week, which shows that we are slated to have the Corrections get over $140 million in Wisconsin taxpayer dollars than the UW will this year, and we will nearly pay as for write-offs in state property taxes (which overwhelmingly go to richer homeowners) as we will for a System that adds $24 billion to the state’s economy.

The burdens and defunding that has been imposed on the UW is what’s makes this economic impact report all the more remarkable. It somehow continues to be a boon to Wisconsin despite the efforts of the jealous WisGOP trash at the Capitol and the dopes who have kept them in office, and is one of the few reasons this state hasn't fully devolved into a cold-weather Mississippi. Can you imagine how good it would be if educator Tony Evers and pro-UW Dems were put in charge, restored the investments to the higher levels of the 20th Century, and restored the respect we used to have for science and college educators?

The crossroads are here for the UW System, and for the state. If you value it, you’d better choose wisely in November.

New Walker tax proposals laughably desperate, with no money to pay for it

Fresh off of seeing Dems outvote Republicans by more than 8% in this week's primary, our desperate Governor decided to throw out a number of tax cut plans to see if the media would give them free, uncritical publicity.

However, the Wisconsin State Journal's Matt DeFour didn't take the bait, and actually dug into the policies that Walker was proposing. DeFour's article noted that Walker’s “new” ideas are similar to things that Evers called for months ago.

Walker is calling for a new tax credit of up to $5,000 over five years for college graduates who live and work in Wisconsin as a way to reduce student loan debt. Evers has called for a new statewide authority to help college graduates in the state refinance their student loan debt and new tax incentives to help retain college graduates, though he hasn't offered specifics. (Note, there already is a Dem bill that would do the things Evers supports, but the article doesn’t say if what Evers is backing is that exact bill).

Walker also wants to provide a state child care tax credit of up to $6,000 per year per family to match the federal child care tax credit. Democrats introduced a bill that did something similar last session, but it went nowhere. Evers said during the primary he supported a state child care tax credit.

Our Governor sure seems UNINTIMIDATED, doesn’t he? You can tell the guy just got a polling memo back and grabbed for the first thing he could find.

Among the rest of Walker's proposals are items that Walker and WisGOP have done little to take care of since 2011 – until they saw the 2018 Blue Wave rolling in.

Walker also is calling for a tax credit to help senior citizens stay in their homes, though he didn't provide specifics. The state already offers a homestead credit intended to do just that, though Walker and Republicans in the Legislature ended indexing of the credit in his first budget and eliminated it for non-disabled people under age 62 in his most recent budget.

Walker wants to expand youth apprenticeships to students in 7th and 8th grades, a proposal he previously mentioned in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal when he declared himself a "pro-education governor." Walker also plans to increase spending on technical education, though he didn't specify by how much.

And Walker plans to continue the University of Wisconsin System tuition freeze for four more years. Evers, a member of the UW Board of Regents, said Wednesday he supports a tuition freeze if it is offset by additional state aid for higher education.

Notice one big difference between Walker and Evers’ plans? Evers actually recognizes that there needs to be money available to pay for these things, and to maintain quality in education.

Just like with the roads, lifetime grifter Scott Walker apparently feels that available funds will fall from the sky to make all of his big talk work out.

Hey Scotty, we have $2 billion in deficits looming for the 2019-21 because of the unpaid-for tax cuts and borrowing you pulled in previous years. So where’s the money for all this, Scotty?....WHERE’S THE F’ING MONEY????

I can imagine Walker pounding walls and collapsing into Tonette’s arms like this as he sees another poll showing him and the rest of the GOP falling further behind for November. Gov Dropout is losing, he knows it, and is acting like a con man who can’t get his schemes over on anyone anymore.

It’s pathetic, and if the need to get this dishonest dimwit out of office wasn’t so big, I’d be laughing my ass off at how Scotty is flopping about.