What are the facts about Scott Walkers policies in WI. .

Since Scott Walker announced his candidacy for president I’ve heard very conflicting reports about how his policies have affected WI. Some say he has the state way in debt while others claim a surplus. Aside from policies that have some partisan preference, how have his actions affected the average citizen, the state economics, and/or specific groups?

Wisconsin is 17th lowest in unemployment:

Economic growth in 2013 was 1.7%, slightly below average.

Contrary to what you might gather from some news sources, Walker has not been a lean, mean conservative-policy-pursuing machine. For instance, taxes in Wisconsin remain high.

When the hell did he do this? :confused:

I don’t think he has. He’s sniffing around it, but hasn’t declared yet.

Ok, with all the press he’s been getting I assumed he had. The point is , what are the facts about WI. He’s being touted as an example of republican policies succeeding. I hear things about WI debt , then suddenly that’s not true. Any dopers from WI have anything to add

One fact about WI is that the teachers’ unions hate Walker like a vampire hates holy water, for pulling their noses a little out of the trough. Another fact is the the capital city, Madison, is loony-left-land and the largest city, Milwaukee, is moderately loony. The rest of the state is more centrist.

The debt question is, as usual, subject to spin both pro and con. Walker got tax cuts back when Wisconsin expected a $1B surplus, but tax revenues were lower than expected and now Walker wants to skip a debt payment and take the hit in interest in order to balance the state budget. This is, of course, a hideous corrupt evil bad irresponsible etc. act when Walker suggests it, and when Doyle (a Democrat) was governor and he suggested the same thing, it was - look over there, a bird! :smiley:

Democrats in Wisconsin keep convincing themselves of their own spin, but it tends not to work out well in the real world. Walker was elected, the Dems told each other often enough to believe it that they could win a recall. So they ran the same candidate against Walker in the recall that they did in the general election, and that worthy candidate got clobbered even worse. Then Walker was up for re-election last time, and the Dems convinced themselves that when the judge dismissed the charges in a scandal they were trying to blame on Walker, and the lawyers issued a statement saying there was no evidence of wrong-doing by Walker, that this was going to be their chance to get Walker. So they ran a woman against him, she was caught lying about her performance in a family business she was fired from, and Walker cruised to re-election by a comfortable margin.

Now Walker is working up to a Presidential bid, and the same sort of scandal-mongering and spin is kicking up. Take everything the Walker people say with a grain of salt, everything the unions and WI Dems with two grains, and you will probably be able to pick out the needle of truth from the haystack of campaigning.

Regards,
Shodan
Recovering Cheesehead

It’s impossible to present only facts. Biases are going to sway ones position of what the “facts” are. And that is the only true fact I can guarantee.

Resident of Wisconsin for 55 years. My observation is we are much better off with Walker than we were with his predecessor and better off than we would have been under either of his opponents. I haven’t looked at the numbers but IIRC what they were we are also better off under Scott Walker in 2015 than Arkansas was under Bill Clinton in 1992.

Economics aside, Walker also pushed for and signed other significant legislation that Jim Doyle, Tom Barrett or Mary Burke would not have, bringing this state into the 21st century and not the late 70’s like they wanted to keep us in.