Top GOP Legislator on Gov. Walker’s Sleazy United Sportsmen Deal: ‘The Process Has Worked’

MADISON, Wis. — Almost daily new revelations have raised serious questions about the propriety and legality of Gov. Walker and Republican legislators inclusion of a sweetheart deal in the state budget that would have given $500,000 of taxpayer money to a group that endorsed Walker in his recall election. In the face of mounting questions and rising public outrage, Gov. Walker stopped payment on the first installment of the grant to United Sportsmen, after he signed it into law and it was approved by his administration.

Today at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, the committee that added the grant to the state budget, Republican co-chair Rep. John Nygren responded to questions about the grant raised by Democrats by saying, “Every step along the way, the process has worked, but we are not here to revisit past action.”

The following are the statements of One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross regarding Rep. Nygren’s comments:

“Apparently in Rep. Nygren’s twisted view, state government is working as it should when at the behest of wealthy donors a rigged bid is quietly slipped into the budget to deliver taxpayer money to a blatantly partisan political organization.

“In Nygren’s world it seems the only way ‘the process’ could work better is if the state wrote $500,000 checks directly to Gov. Walker’s campaign and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.”

One Wisconsin Now has compiled a timeline chronicling “the process” involved in the development and signing into law of the grant available here: http://goo.gl/9nsdwQ