Statement following the announcement of the Government Accountability Board’s decision to post the petitions to recall Scott Walker online for public viewing.
In the interest of transparency, the Government Accountability Board has posted the petitions to recall Scott Walker online for public view.
This decision is not without precedent. According to Wisconsin’s open records law, statute 19.32 states that a public record means “any material on which written, drawn, printed, spoken, visual or electromagnetic information is recorded or preserved, regardless of physical form or characteristics, which has been created or is being kept by an authority.”
This action by the Government Accountability Board follows the same protocol as was used during previous recall elections. During the Senate recalls in the summer of 2011, petitions were posted on the GAB website for the public to view.
This information will be available for public viewing during the review process.
The more than ten thousand pages of petitions to recall Scott Walker posted online are not in any particular order. Identifying a specific name would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
We believe that the release of this information will further validate the incredible desire of the people of Wisconsin to remove Scott Walker from office.
In the face of threats and intimidation from Walker supporters throughout the duration of the petition campaign, we strongly encourage anyone who perceives they are being attacked for exercising their democratic right in this process should immediately contact law enforcement. Furthermore, law enforcement should act swiftly to investigate any such allegations.
Scott Walker promised 250,000 jobs in his first term as Governor. He said that his budget would put people back to work. He claims that under his policies, Wisconsin is doing just fine.
The numbers show that those claims are simply untrue. Across the country, the rate of job growth steadily increased in every month of 2011. But in Wisconsin, since Walker’s budget became law in July, the rate of job growth has actually decreased every month. It doesn’t matter if you look at all jobs, only the private sector, or just manufacturing jobs – all of the numbers tell the same story.
Compared to the rest of the Midwest, Walker looks even worse. Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan all added jobs between June and November. Minnesota, which went through a government shutdown over the summer, suffered a net loss of jobs. But Wisconsin’s job loss over that time was nearly 5 times worse than Minnesota.
Education cuts do not create jobs.
Cuts to BadgerCare do not create jobs.
Corporate tax breaks do not create jobs.
Scott Walker is not working for Wisconsin.
Walker Busted in a New Lie
On Wednesday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker held a press conference touting that he was going to lift a cap on enrollment in Family Care, a state program designed to keep the elderly and disabled out of nursing homes. Good for him, right? However, it turns out that Walker not only imposed the cap in the first place, but that he was ordered by federal health officials.
(photo courtesy of Mark E. Andersen)
In the first 12 days of the recall efforts of Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch, the people of Wisconsin sent a clear message by gathering over 300,000 petition signatures. This was an amazing start, but our work is far from over.
Scott Walker and his allies have taken to the airwaves in a desperate attempt to defend his failed policies. We cannot allow the voice of the people to be drowned out by the misinformation and big corporate money of Scott Walker.
On Saturday, December 17th, volunteers across the state will be hosting a massive petition drive to collect recall signatures.
This Saturday we will raise our voices across this great state to remind Walker that we have not been deceived. The people of Wisconsin cannot endure anymore of Walker’s consistent job losses, attacks on healthcare, and unprecedented cuts to our education system.
We need volunteers from every county in the state to stand up. Click here to find a Total Recall Event near you. Counties are organized into six regions. Events are being added often so check back to find one near you! Recall Offices will be open throughout the state for petition signing as well.
Together, we will show the nation that democracy in action can overcome the voice of elite corporate special interests. On Wisconsin!
Scott Walker likes to claim his “tools” are working. He likes to say that schools across the state are getting better under his policies. Everyday, Walker and his allies take to the airwaves with misinformation aimed at convincing the people of Wisconsin that there is nothing to worry about, that he cares about education, that his reforms are improving our public schools.
All the corporate money in the world cannot hide the truth, however. Our public education system, once the envy of the nation, is suffering severely. A recent poll done of those on the front line of Walker’s war on education shows just how bad it has gotten.
The comprehensive survey, conducted by School Employees United, polled the staff at schools throughout southeast Wisconsin (excluding Milwaukee Public Schools). The results document the destruction being caused by the Walker budget cuts. Some of the key findings show that:
• 43.5% of respondents say class sizes are increasing
• 78.2% of respondents disagree with the statement that the schools are the same or better off than last year
• 75.8% of respondents say their school district has fewer resources this year to meet the needs of all children as individuals
• 57% of respondents have recently considered leaving their profession
• 71.5% of respondents would not recommend a career in education to a friend or college student
These results are especially disturbing given widespread agreement among district administrators that next year’s funding shortage will be significantly worse than this year. The districts in the survey combined had over $13 million in federal Education Jobs Fund money available that will not be available next year.
Clearly, the Walker approach to preparing our children for the future goes against the values of Wisconsin families. As a state we cannot endure, as the Superintendent of schools in Monona Grove recently stated, anymore of Scott Walker’s disastrous approach to education. Cutting taxes for large corporations at the expense of our children is not the way the people of Wisconsin do business.
SCOTT WALKER IS NOT ON OUR SIDE
SCOTT WALKER IS NOT ON THE SIDE OF WORKING FAMILIES
Scott Walker is making massive cuts to education and health care so he can pay for tax cuts to big corporations that ship Wisconsin jobs overseas and drive wages and benefits down for everyone. For example:
• Under Scott Walker, unemployment has risen from 7.4 to 7.9 percent.
• Wisconsin has lost not just public-sector jobs, but also private-sector jobs under Scott Walker’s failed policies. Wisconsin has lost private-sector jobs every single month since his budget was passed – and there are 7,000 more job seekers than there were at this time last year.
• Wisconsin leads the nation in cuts to education, averaging $635 less per pupil-even while corporations get big tax breaks.
• Poverty has increased under Scott Walker, while median household income has gone down
• Walker’s budget cut $2.6 billion from education and affected 97% of school districts THIS year.
• Meanwhile, Scott Walker is taking a $7,000 pay raise next year
SCOTT WALKER WAS DISHONEST WITH THE PEOPLE OF WISCONSIN
Never once did Scott Walker mention during his campaign for governor that he would take the radical step of ending collective bargaining for state workers. He’s also made it clear that he’ll continue to be dishonest with the people – for example, Walker was taped bragging that he would lie to elected legislators about compromise to get his way.
SCOTT WALKER IS ONLY INTERESTED IN POWER
Scott Walker deceived the public by telling them his radical policies were about balancing the budget-they REALLY were about hurting his political opponents and consolidating power for himself.
RECALL IS THE RIGHT TOOL TO STOP SCOTT WALKER
Recalls are rare for a reason, but are effective tools when elected officials make clear by their words and actions, as Scott Walker has done, that they will not act accountably to the people they’re supposed to represent. In fact, Scott Walker himself was first elected Milwaukee County executive during a recall election.
• For those who claim that Wisconsin can’t afford the recall, consider how little Wisconsin can afford Scott Walker:
• The Legislative Fiscal Bureau projects that Scott Walker’s tax giveaways will cost Wisconsin more than $2.3 billion in lost revenue over the next ten years. Most of these losses are a result of changes in Capital Gains and Combined Reporting – which benefit the highest wage earners and largest corporations in Wisconsin at the expense of working families.
• What’s more, the LFB notes that Walker’s budget will leave future state budgets with a higher than average percentage of debt service as a result of delaying debt payments. Walker is “kicking the can down the road” by adding debt to future budgets.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel partners with a non-partisan organization called Politifact to produce a regular feature in which they look at statements made by politicians and check the facts. They have looked at 38 claims made by Scott Walker, and his record is unimpressive. His report card includes 7 “Mostly False” ratings, 16 “False” ratings, and 3 ratings of “Pants on Fire”. Not exactly a passing grade.
So what did he lie about? You can read through his entire legacy of falsehoods here, but here are a few of the worst:
- He claimed that under his budget, “the average property taxpayer will save $700″. It turns out that claim was false. In fact, as Politifact reported, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau projects that the typical homeowner will see a $55 increase in property taxes as compared to 2010.
- Walker claimed that his Budget Repair Bill left collective bargaining “fully intact”. This one got a “Pants on Fire”. Under Walker’s law, public employees will no longer be able to bargain for wages and benefits.
- Walker has claimed many times that Wisconsin is “broke”. This earned him another false rating. Politifact spoke to journalists, business professors, economists, and ratings agencies, and they all agreed – Wisconsin was never “broke”.
Wisconsin is amazing! Once again, Wisconsin football is dominating, with the undefeated Packers and the Rose Bowl bound Badgers. It is a great time in Wisconsin for sports and for taking back our government.
Remember, we cannot recall Governor Scott Walker without recalling the Lieutenant Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch. Both Walker and Kleefisch are introducing radical policies that states across the nation are rejecting! These policies are negatively affecting millions of Wisconsinites. At a time when Wisconsin is leading the nation in jobs lost, they are focusing on making life more difficult for the middle class. And they will continue if we do not recall them both.
Other than coining the term, “Wisconsin is Open for Business,” Walker’s running partner, Rebecca Kleefisch, has done little to focus on jobs. Instead, she is running tv adds to try and save her own job. View her “qualifications” and ideas, here. If we do not recall her, she could be our new Governor. We need to recall them, both. Walker and Kleefisch: we need jobs — your policies are not working!
But Wisconsinites are working hard to take back our government and get Wisconsin working again. You have collected over 300,000 signatures to recall Walker and Kleefisch. On, Wisconsin! Forward!
We’ve been hearing from people from all over the state who are submitting their stories about how Scott Walker’s policies are affecting them. These are a few of the stories we have received:
Crystal from Oneida County told us that even though she and her husband both have jobs, they still struggle to pay the utility bills and put food on the table for their four kids. Her husband works for a small business, and since Walker’s policies have taken effect, he has had to take a pay cut of $7/hour. He works 6 days a week, and has even donated work to his employer just to keep the business afloat. Crystal says that “this shouldn’t be the way of life in Wisconsin” and that it is “heart breaking” to see what Scott Walker has done to our state.
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