Walker: Our reforms are working for the state
Two years ago, I ran for governor because Wisconsin faced a fiscal and economic crisis. From 2008 to 2010, Wisconsin lost more than 100,000 jobs. When I took office, our state faced a budget deficit of more than $3 billion.
We had to take immediate action. Wisconsin couldn't wait.
The good news is that our reforms are working. We're turning things around. We're heading in the right direction. We're moving Wisconsin forward.
Already, we've documented more than $1 billion in savings for taxpayers from our reforms. Property taxes are down on a median-valued home for the first time in 12 years. The state now has a $154 million budget surplus.
Most important, we're gaining jobs in Wisconsin.
The actual survey of nearly 160,000 employers in the state shows that Wisconsin gained jobs in 2011. Economists agree that these are the most legitimate numbers. Overall, more than 30,000 jobs have been added since I took office.
Today, the unemployment rate is down to 6.7%, the lowest it has been since 2008. In contrast, the unemployment rate is over 10% in the city of Milwaukee and, sadly, it is one of the poorest big cities in the country.
We need to do more to help our state's largest city. That's why my administration spent more than a year putting together a plan to invest $100 million into Milwaukee's most economically challenged areas through our Transform Milwaukee plan. On the other hand, the mayor wants to spend $100 million on a trolley that would travel downtown and on the east side of the city. That's the kind of wasteful spending that got Wisconsin into a budget mess in the first place.
We balanced a $3.6 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, without massive layoffs and without cuts to programs like Medicaid. In fact, I put more money into the program that funds BadgerCare and FamilyCare than any governor in Wisconsin history.
Instead, we balanced the budget with long-term structural reforms that helped balanced both our state and local government budgets for years to come. We thought more about the next generation than we did about the next election. Isn't that what you elect us to do?
In contrast, the mayor was asked more than 50 days ago about what he would do to balance the budget. He will not tell the voters, so we have to look at his record to get an idea. In Milwaukee, taxes and fees have gone up 43% over the past eight years and the unemployment rate has gone up 28%.
Recently, we learned that the mayor is wrong about violent crime in his city as well. Sadly, it went up over the past year in Milwaukee. That is going backward. Instead, we want to go forward.
Our reforms are working in education, too. In the past, many school districts across the state had to buy health insurance from just one company. Now, our reforms allow them to bid out for health insurance and that saved our schools tens of millions of dollars. That's money that goes directly into the classroom.
Under the old system of collective bargaining, schools were forced to make decisions based on seniority and tenure. Our opponent wants to go back to that old system. We want to go forward.
Because of our reforms, schools can staff based on merit and pay based on performance. That means we can put the best and the brightest in the classroom, and we can keep them there, too.
We are turning things around, but there is much more work to be done. Looking ahead, we are ready to move on and move forward.
Recently, I toured a manufacturing plant in Oshkosh and an employee named Chris told me that he voted for my opponent in the last election and he was raised as a Democrat. He then told me that he was voting for me because he was impressed that someone had the courage to take on the tough issues in this state.
Sometimes it seems odd to me that politics is the only profession where you are called courageous just for keeping your word.
I see this kind of courage every day from the people of Wisconsin. I see moms and dads like Tonette and I who work hard at their jobs for the same reason we do: To ensure that our kids have a better life. I am running for governor because I want to make sure my sons, Matt and Alex, and every other kid and grandkid in this state inherits a Wisconsin at least as great as the one we did. Respectfully, I ask for your vote on June 5.
Scott Walker is governor of Wisconsin and the Republican candidate in the recall election.
Opinions
- Tom Barrett | Final Arguments: We can't fix the state with Walker
- John Gurda: An autocratic King Scott damaged state
- Christian Schneider: Wisconsin: America's noisiest neighbor
- Rose Locander: Watershed moment for Wisconsin
- High-paying industries hire, but wages fall in Wisconsin
- Our View: After Tuesday, top of the to-do list for governor: jobs
- Another View: Walker's jobs record an unmitigated disaster
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