#WalkerAt20: Promises Made, Promises Broken

MADISON, Wis. — In his twenty years in office, Scott Walker has amassed a truly astounding record of failure. To commemorate the looming anniversary of his first election to office, One Wisconsin Now is highlighting a different and depressing failure of Gov. Walker every day, for twenty days. As the legislature prepares to begin debate on Gov. Walker’s 2013-15 biennial budget, a review of some of the promises made by candidate Walker, and broken by Gov. Walker, is timely.

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross commented, “Career politician Scott Walker has been willing to say just about anything to get elected to his next public office. Of course, once he got there, the campaign promises were out the window and in their place are budget busting tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and special interest favors that have no place being tucked into the state budget.”

Candidate Walker explicitly promised to:

• “Strip policy and pork from the budget”;
• “End the practice of raiding segregated funds to pay for other programs”’
• “Require the use of generally accepted accounting principles to balance every state budget”.

[http://web.archive.org/web/20101118093945/http://www.scottwalker.org/issues/government-reform]

Gov. Walker’s failures to keep candidate Walker’s promises of responsible budgeting include:

• Breaking his “no policy in the budget” pledge within weeks of taking office, including stripping 175,000 workers of their rights and numerous other provisions as part of budget adjustment legislation. He’s followed that up by larding biennial budgets in 2011 and 2013 with 46 and 58 items respectively, identified by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau as “non-fiscal policy.” [Legislative Fiscal Bureau “Non-Fiscal Policy Items” memos 2/14/11; 4/20/11; 4/24/13]

• Shattering his promise to eliminate funds raids, with over $415 million in raided funds in the 2011 budget he signed, and nearly $290 million in raided funds either proposed or proposed to be continued from the 2011 budget in his 2013 budget scheme. [Legislative Fiscal Bureau, “Use of Certain Funds” memos 7/5/11; 3/28/13]

• Not only failing to include a requirement that either of the two biennial budgets he has produced be balanced using GAAP accounting, but introducing a 2013 budget scheme with a structural deficit of over $680 million by non-GAAP accounting standards. [Legislative Fiscal Bureau Summary of Governor’s Budget Recommendations 2011 & 2013; 2013-15 and 2015-17 General Fund Budget memo 6/11/13]

One Wisconsin Now is commemorating over 20 days, the failings, scandals and imbroglios of Gov. Scott Walker’s 20-years in elected office. Gov. Walker, who was first elected to the State Assembly on June 29, 1993, has spent virtually no time in the private sector and has enjoyed nearly half his life on the taxpayers’ dime, including receiving well over $1 million in salary alone, as well as health care benefits for he and his family.

Previous information compiled by One Wisconsin Now about Scott Walker’s failure as Milwaukee County Executive is available at www.ScottWalkerFailureFiles.com, his first disastrous year as Governor is available at www.WalkerFailure.com and the millionaires and billionaires behind it all at http://pinterest.com/onewisconsinnow/who-s-buying-gov-scott-walker