Scott Walker Acts Quickly in Wisconsin

While opponents to Wisconsin's Governor Walker's budget repair bill took to the streets this week to protest the legislation, the Walker administration gave back another $23 million of stimulus funding. He has now returned $833 in stimulus funds to the Federal Government. The latest funds were intended to provide high speed internet to rural communities and upgrade police and fire communications.

Since Governor Walker took office, the state legislature which is totally controlled by the Republicans has passed sweeping legislation with little or no floor debate and no time for public debate. This legislation includes dismantling the Dept. of Commerce and replacing it with a privatized public hybrid office of business development. They passed tort reform making it harder to sue for negligence by manufacturers, distributors, and advertisers. They passed tax cuts for new industries coming to Wisconsin, tax cuts for every job created, and repealed the tax on health savings accounts. One curious bill gave permission for a Bass Pro Shop store to be built on wet lands even after the store said they would not build.

If the state's Democratic senators had not left the state, the governor's budget repair bill would have been passed as quickly as these other bills. The senators felt there was no other way they could slow down this legislative locomotive to allow public comment.

Both houses of the legislature are firmly controlled by the Republicans with many members endorsed by the Tea Party. It appears that the Governor has been setting the agenda and writing the legislation up to now. Senate President Mike Ellis, R-Neenah was reported by the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune on February 15, that he wished there was an alternative to the governor's budget repair bill that did not go as far and then he said, "We didn't set this menu, the governor did." Senator Ellis has said he will vote for the bill.

In the Governor's State of the State speech he stated the three budget areas he will be cutting are entitlements, public employee benefits, and state aide to local municipalities. He has made his plan known about the cuts to the public employee's benefits. The other cuts will be revealed later. Wisconsin is a testing ground for the Tea Party's slash and burn anti-government policies. What we are seeing today unfolding on the streets of Madison is just the tip of the iceberg.