Walker’s Latest Ad Repeats False Claims About Taxes, Jobs

MADISON, Wis. — The latest ad in Gov. Scott Walker’s multi-million dollar campaign continues to distort Walker’s record of failure on job creation and deficit reduction, including the false claim that Walker did not raise taxes.

“Gov. Walker believes that if he repeats the lie enough, the people of Wisconsin will believe it,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Gov. Walker’s millions of dollars in out of state special interest money can’t change the fact he raised taxes on seniors and the working poor, led Wisconsin to the nation’s highest job loss since June and tore our state apart with his attacks on the middle class.”

In Walker’s latest ad, titled “Results,” he states, “We wiped out a $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes.” The facts are indisputable: While Walker passed legislation that will cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy by $2.3 billion, he raised taxes on seniors and the working poor by $70 million.

The two tax increases on working families in Walker’s budget were changing the Earned Income Tax Credit program (EITC), which raises taxes on by $56.2 million over the biennium, and removing the indexing of inflation from the homestead property tax relief program, which raises taxes by $13.6 million over the biennium. Walker’s tax increase on the Homestead program affects 68,000 seniors alone. [Legislative Fiscal Bureau, 4/15/11; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/31/11]

“The non-partisan legislative fiscal bureau calls Walker’s actions a tax increase,” said Ross. “The 68,000 seniors who are saddled with it know it’s a tax increase.”

Walker also claims to have created jobs in the past year, but since June, Wisconsin has lost 27,600 jobs — the most in the nation. In 2011, Walker signed $2.3 billion in new tax breaks for corporations and the rich, while gutting public education by $1.6 billion and preparing to cut 65,000 from the health care, including 29,000 children. [Bureau of Labor Statistics; Institute for Wisconsin’s Future; Legislative Fiscal Bureau

At the same time, Walker has diverted $35 million more in public education dollars to private schools, which according to a comprehensive analysis by One Wisconsin Institute, does not improve performance and is unsustainable. [D Is For Dismantle]

“Gov. Walker’s way has been a failure for Wisconsin,” said Ross. “Texans like Swift Boat Tycoon Bob Perry can write all the $250,000 checks to Walker’s campaign he wants, but the facts are the facts.”

Walker’s latest finance report showed he is financing his ad campaign with an unprecedented amount of out of state money. Nearly half of Walker’s $5 million take came from outside of Wisconsin, including over $400,000 from Texas and Illinois alone. [One Wisconsin Now]