Scott Walker Flip Flops on Immigration; Remains Firm in Refusal to Explain How to Pay for $2 Billion Tax Giveaway to Rich, Big Business

MADISON, Wis. — Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s pandering flip flop on the racist Arizona immigration law has One Wisconsin Now asking whether a similar strategy could get him to answer the question he has refused to answer: How will Scott Walker pay for his $2 billion tax giveaway to benefit the rich and big business? Walker flipped his position from a weekend Associated Press story after his Facebook page was riddled with criticisms by tea party types.

“It’s a simple question and five months after announcing his $2 billion tax cut plan for the rich and big business, Scott Walker refuses to tell us how he’ll pay for it,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Walker can’t pay for his ”wealth care bill’ without slashing BadgerCare, education, police and fire protection, or the University of Wisconsin — that’s why he won’t answer the question.”

Walker has been under fire for promising nearly $2 billion in tax cuts on top of the state’s non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau $2 billion-plus deficit projection for 2011-13. The four components of Walker’s oft-repeated $1.85 billion biennial tax cut plan include:

• Slash income taxes for the top one percent of income earners who make more than $225,000 a year — two-year budget cost: $287 million.
• Reopen the “Las Vegas Loophole” which allows Wisconsin businesses to shelter their tax obligations to Wisconsin families through phantom “offices” in states without corporate income tax — two-year budget cost: $375 million.
• Repeal changes made to the capital gains tax deduction, despite the fact 70 percent of capital gains filings are from those earning more than $200,000 a year — two-year budget cost: $243 million.
• Shelter the assets of the wealthiest Wisconsinites even more by a radical end to tax paid on retirement income, regardless of income — two-year budget cost: $920 million. [Legislative Fiscal Bureau , 2/23/09, 7/8/09, 1/25/10; “Upfront,” WISN-TV, 11/8/09; La Crosse Tribune, 11/24/09]

In order to keep his impossible $2 billion promise, Walker would need to slash critical programs such as:

• Ending health care assistance to over 100,000 families (two adults, two children) per year enrolled in the state’s BadgerCare programs;
• Wiping out the $1.86 billion shared revenue program, resulting in either sky-high property tax increases or severe cuts to local services, like shutting down police and fire stations and inadequate snow removal and road repair;
• Firing 14,000 dedicated public school teachers, ending Wisconsin’s long commitment to providing a high quality education to our children; or
• Cutting nearly all funding to the University of Wisconsin System, pulling the rug out from under our sons and daughters’ futures and jeopardizing a strong, educated workforce for the future.

“The only thing more obnoxious than Walker’s pandering to the tea party on immigration,” said Ross, “is Walker’s cowardly refusal to tell us how many children will lose their BadgerCare or classrooms to give only people making more than $225,000 an income tax cut.”

Further information about the mismanagement and skewed priorities of Scott Walker, which have devastated Milwaukee County, please visit: http://www.scottwalkerfailurefiles.com.