Gov. Scott Walker’s Choice: Taxpayer-Funded Ads Over Solutions

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker announced today that he will spend millions of state tax dollars on a national marketing campaign to try to attract millennial workers to Wisconsin. One Wisconsin Now Program Director, and millennial, Analiese Eicher suggested Walker save our money and instead throw his support behind legislation to allow borrowers to refinance their student loans, just like you can with a mortgage.

“Student loan debt is an economic albatross for millennials,” commented Eicher. “An actual policy solution to the economic crisis of student loan debt is a far more compelling reason to come to or stay in Wisconsin than a TV ad from Scott Walker.”

Gov. Walker’s proposed marketing campaign is reported to cost taxpayers nearly $7 million, on top of the untold millions he has cost Wisconsinites with his disastrous policies on higher education and student loans. On Walker’s watch Wisconsin has become a top five state in the nation for the percentage of graduates with student loan debt. Driving the crisis are his policies including double digit tuition hikes and rising student fees, under-funding financial aid programs leaving thousands of eligible students with no assistance, and record cuts to state funding for the University of Wisconsin System and technical colleges.

Meanwhile, he has steadfastly refused to embrace common sense legislation introduced in 2013, 2015 and again in 2017 to help student loan borrowers refinance their loans, just like you can with a mortgage. According to his own 2015 financial disclosures, Scott Walker carries over $100,000 in student loan debt at 7.21 percent interest.

Eicher concluded, “If Scott Walker stopped blocking the plan to let student loan borrowers here refinance their loans, like you can a mortgage, he would have to erect his Canada Wall around our borders to keep millennials from across the country from flocking here.”