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Blog for America: Why Recall Scott Walker?
Written by: Linsey P on May 8, 2012 12:39 PM EDT
When he was running for the office, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker made a promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs and 10,000 new businesses in his state by the end of his first term. He is not making good progress. So far, under his leadership, Wisconsin has added only 5,900 private sector jobs. The governor got off to a bad start. In his first year in office, Wisconsin was dead-last in the country in job creation. It was the only time in twenty years of record keeping that Wisconsin suffered that indignity. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that Wisconsin was the only state in the nation to suffer statistically significant job losses between March 2011 and March 2012. That was in large part because the state shed nearly 18,000 public sector jobs.
The public sector has been under sustained attack since Walker took over the government. In addition to massive lay-offs and the revocation of collective bargaining rights, the workers who remain are spending an average of 3,000 additional dollars a year on their health care plans and have taken a collective pay-cut estimated at $700 million. Another nearly billion dollars has been taken out of the Wisconsin economy through cuts to state programs and projects.
Walker's radicalism has done damage across the board. By outright rejecting $553 million in federal funds ($390 million for high-speed rail and $130 million for Medicaid), the governor destroyed an estimated 4,700 private-sector jobs. In explaining Wisconsin's anemic jobs performance, Walker can't point to a down economy or outside forces. His state has been the worst performer in the country, and he has no one to blame but himself.
More: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/blog_posts/37873-why-recall-scott-walker
When he was running for the office, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker made a promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs and 10,000 new businesses in his state by the end of his first term. He is not making good progress. So far, under his leadership, Wisconsin has added only 5,900 private sector jobs. The governor got off to a bad start. In his first year in office, Wisconsin was dead-last in the country in job creation. It was the only time in twenty years of record keeping that Wisconsin suffered that indignity. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that Wisconsin was the only state in the nation to suffer statistically significant job losses between March 2011 and March 2012. That was in large part because the state shed nearly 18,000 public sector jobs.
The public sector has been under sustained attack since Walker took over the government. In addition to massive lay-offs and the revocation of collective bargaining rights, the workers who remain are spending an average of 3,000 additional dollars a year on their health care plans and have taken a collective pay-cut estimated at $700 million. Another nearly billion dollars has been taken out of the Wisconsin economy through cuts to state programs and projects.
Walker's radicalism has done damage across the board. By outright rejecting $553 million in federal funds ($390 million for high-speed rail and $130 million for Medicaid), the governor destroyed an estimated 4,700 private-sector jobs. In explaining Wisconsin's anemic jobs performance, Walker can't point to a down economy or outside forces. His state has been the worst performer in the country, and he has no one to blame but himself.
More: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/blog_posts/37873-why-recall-scott-walker