WMC ‘Survey’ Finds Big Corporate Elites Overwhelmingly Approve of Gov. Walker Pandering to Them

MADISON, Wis. — Asking corporate special interests, “how can we love you more?” in closed-door meetings may be paying off with adulation from corporate CEOs for Gov. Walker’s Administration, but for the rest of us the state economy continues to lag the nation and region in economic growth. A recent survey of an elite slice of big business CEOs being touted by Gov. Walker is at odds with the economic reality for the rest of the state.

One Wisconsin Now Executive Scot Ross commented, “Gov. Walker and his administration’s pandering to the big business lobby behind closed doors has left him with a talking point. But the real world results of his policies show there’s a vast difference between his spin and the economy the rest of us are stuck with under his policies.”

Walker touted a similar study from 2012 citing the favorable views of merely 281 executives from a state with over 160,000 business establishments. The results of a survey from the state big business lobby the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce for 2014 is based on 341 responses.

A lapdog Republican legislature has adopted Gov. Walker’s agenda built on billions in tax giveaways overwhelmingly benefitting the wealthy and corporations while making record cuts to public education and kicking tens of thousands of working people out of the state BadgerCare health insurance program. But Wisconsin, according to the latest national data, ranks in the bottom 25% for job growth and lags our neighboring states.

Recently Walker and his administration have upped the ante pandering to the economic elites by floating a tax scheme that could dramatically hike the state sales tax, by nearly 300% according to some estimates, to replace the revenue lost by giving a tax break windfall to upper income earners.

“To no surprise, what’s been a hit in CEOs’ in corporate boardrooms has been a disaster for the middle class and working families of Wisconsin. Trying to ‘love them more’ at the expense of the rest has been a proven failure throughout history and now in Wisconsin under Gov. Walker,” concluded Ross.

Ross reiterated the quote “how can we love you more?” came directly from Lt. Gov. Kleefisch, as revealed on video of the event One Wisconsin Now obtained under the state open records law after a newspaper reporter was denied access to the event, which was filmed by a member of Kleefisch’s taxpayer-funded staff.