EXPOSED: WI Democrats' Plan to Smear Conservative & Gov. Walker!

Wisconsin Divided

The story of the 2011-2012 session by Assembly Democrats

Assembly Democrats:Fighting for working families

OUR STORY

• The goal is a narrative story that conveys message.

– Why we fought…

– Who we fought for…and against.

– Stories include villains, heroes and causes

– How we did it – giving the credit to the people

FOCUS: People of Wisconsin

After a year of unprecedented abuses, the fight is not Dems v. Repubs or any ‘typical’ partisan battle.

It is people who support Walker’s extreme, divisive policies versus everyone else who does not and wants to return to Wisconsin values and priorities.

It was an abnormal, atypical year of conflict.Stakes have never been this high.

(*Do not use “we” when talking about GOP legislative measures.)

What they did: in few words

This session Republicans hurt the middle class and Wisconsin with:

1. No focus on jobs.

2. Severe cuts to public education.

3. Ethics abuses, power grabs, shutting out the public & constant legal battles.

3 KEYS expanded

• Republicans chose to focus on an agenda of divisive social issues instead of focusing on job creation.

• Republicans undermined our public education by setting up two education systems in WI. The public education system was hurt by taking $1.6 billion. Meanwhile the private voucher schools were given an increase in taxpayer money to nearly $300 million and were given a pass on accountability.

• Wisconsin traditions and values were trampled. It was a year of Republican secrecy oaths, legal battles, open meetings violations, rule breaking and a mounting John Doe investigation tainting the highest levels of WI government.

BOTTOM LINEResults of year:

• Republicans rammed through extreme, divisive legislation that benefited their wealthy special interest allies and hurt Wisconsin’s backbone: our middle class.

• Rather than being bipartisan and working together, Legislative GOP rubberstamped the extreme Walker agenda every step of the way.

• Wisconsin is divided and polarized as it has never been before under Gov. Walker and Republican leadership.

OUR STORY BY THE ISSUERepublicans turned our state in the

wrong direction:

Crowded classrooms, job losses, rising tuition, families losing health care, ethics scandals, court battles, criminal probe of top Walker

aides, among the biggest cuts to public schools and colleges in the country, raising taxes on seniors and struggling families.

JOBS

• Wisconsin is #1 in job loss. WI lost more jobs under Gov. Walker than any other state in the country – by a long shot. (Bur. Labor Statistics, 21,000 lost in 2011. Every month the country was gaining jobs.)

• Two special sessions that were supposed to be focused on jobs were roundly decried by editorial boards as a failure. (See quotations)

• Around five dozen jobs bills died as session gaveled closed.

• Walker campaigned on a vow to create 250,000 jobs. Having now lost jobs, he replaced his talk of creating jobs with vague talk of an “improved business climate.”

EDUCATION

Republicans brought Wisconsin some of the biggest cuts to education of any state. Shortsighted and bad for Wisconsin’s future, security & economic development.

• Public K-12 schools: Funding reduced by $1.6 billion, while increasing funding for taxpayer funded voucher schools by tens of millions to $300 million and giving them a pass on accountability.

• UW System: Third greatest cuts to higher education in the country, totaling $315 million.

• Technical colleges: Funding at the epicenters of job training was cut by $71 million, or nearly 30% in budget.

K-12 Public Schools• Reduced funding for public schools by $1.6

billion while upping taxpayer money for private voucher schools to nearly $300 million.

• While calling budget “reforms” – the actual impact is deteriorating conditions in public schools (much worse 2nd year of budget): – increasing student-to-teacher ratio (73% districts have lost teachers- DPI audit)

– 2,312 positions cut for the 2011-12 school year after Act 10 took effect (This is a 50% increase in staff loses…DPI audit, 4/18/12)

– increased class sizes (59% of districts – DPI WASDA survey)

– fewer courses– less experienced teachers (record high retirements)

– fewer classroom resources

• Demonizing and demoralizing teachers.

Higher Education

• UW System– Cut by $250 million in the budget – Forced a second cut (lapse) of $65.7 million,

disproportionately higher than any other state agency.

• Technical colleges– Cut $71 million (30%) from funding during an

economic downturn where job training is vital– MATC bill altering the board was a power grab that

hurt urban education and local control.

ETHICS ISSUESThis session featured the worst abuses of power and ethics violations of any session in recent memory according to veteran legislators.

•Walker replaced 40 civil service employees w/ his political cronies•Passed blatantly partisan and illegal redistricting to stay in power•They took secrecy oaths to hide redistricting plans from the public.•Reduced legislative oversight and put unelected bureaucrats in charge of state healthcare decisions.•Violated open meetings laws and countless legislative rules.•Shut public out & put ridiculous restrictions on Capitol visits•John Doe case corruption charges circling ever closer to governor.•Court battles dominated with redistricting, union busting, voter suppression and other rammed-through laws being tied up in expensive lawsuits•A Supreme Ct justice took free legal services as a gift from lawyers and ruled on their cases – ignoring calls for recusal.

BUDGET & FINANCES• BIG SPENDERS: Republican budget INCREASED spending by

$1.1 billion.

• SPECIAL INTEREST GIVEAWAYS: $2.36 billion to wealthy special interests and corporate tax breaks over the next 10 years.

• DISHONESTY: On one hand Gov. Walker claimed the budget was balanced, then certified to the federal government that the budget wasn’t balanced in attempt to kick 64,000 people off health care.

• DEBT: Walker’s budget kicks the debt can down the road by delaying $528 million in payments to future budgets – costing an additional $149.2 million in interest. (LFB)

• RAISED TAXES: By nearly $70 million on seniors and the working poor by cutting the Homestead and Earned Income Tax Credit.

BROKEN PROMISES

• GOP promised no fund raids but raided $411 million in the budget and continued raids in the session including taking from money meant for citizens harmed by the foreclosure crisis.

• GOP promised no tax hikes, but raised taxes on the most vulnerable seniors and families through the Homestead and Earned Income tax credits.

• GOP hiked fees (hunting licenses, etc.) by $111 million in budget. • Walker campaigned on budgeting by the more stringent GAAP

standards, by which his budget is $3 billion in the red, but he calls it balanced anyway. And he has yet to repair another $326.4 million new budget deficit for the biennium found this February.

• Turned away $1.3 billion in federal funds, much of which would have created infrastructure jobs & expanded rural broadband access.

HEALTH CAREWisconsin used to lead the nation in health care quality and access.

Republicans chose to take health care away from families and increase costs for others.

– GOP put a Walker appointee in charge of making sweeping changes to our state’s vital health programs with little-to-no public input or oversight.

– They approved a Walker plan to kick 64,000 people – including 29,000 children – off their health care. The Obama administration said no, after legislative Democrats sent a letter urging rejection of Walker’s plan.

– Republicans approved Walker’s harmful enrollment cap on Family Care that violated federal rules and forced seniors and people with disabilities onto waiting lists and only lifted the cap after forced to by the Obama administration.

– They proposed ending SeniorCare (stopped by a Democratic-led petition drive that got 14,000 signatures) in its current form and approved a harmful cap on Family Care that the federal government forced them to reverse.

– They used the final days of session to push forward an extreme war on women’s health that repealed comprehensive sex education, restricted private insurance coverage for women’s health services and interfered with the relationship between a woman and her doctor.

MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES  Gov. Walker and legislative Republicans balanced the budget on the backs of middle-class workers.

•The middle class priorities – education, healthcare, job training, public safety and local services – were attacked. The governor’s agenda is only working for a privileged few.

•Republicans talked about shared sacrifice – then told middle-class workers to pay more for their health care and pensions while giving away $2.36 billion to large corporations and Republican special interests.

•Democrats introduced two separate packages of jobs legislation designed to put people back to work quickly, give our workers much-needed training and connect skilled workers with potential employers. They were ignored.

•Democrats fought to restore the taxes Republicans raised on low-income working families and seniors through the Earned Income Tax Credit and Homestead Tax Credit.

•Democrats sought to protect programs that allow dislocated workers to find new opportunities and to eliminate a Republican-implemented waiting period for displaced workers to receive unemployment benefits.

AGRICULTURE

Republicans’ do-nothing session on jobs was also a do-nothing session on agriculture, which is a critical, $59 billion-a-year industry in Wisconsin. Investing in our farmers and promoting the agriculture industry creates jobs and grows our state’s economy. 

•Democrats voted to promote Wisconsin jobs and agriculture by giving preference to locally grown foods purchased by the state. (Assembly Bill 22)

•Democrats also voted to provide a tax credit for investing in crop farming and pushed for allowing farmers to reclaim damages for defunct farm equipment.

•Republicans raided the Purchase of Agriculture Conservation Easements fund.

•Republicans raided the Wisconsin Working Lands Initiative Fund (SB 396) and used that funding for the Wisconsin Premises ID program. Both good programs, but other funding was available.

•Republicans failed to fund the Wisconsin Farm to School initiative in the budget and failed to fund the Wisconsin Buy Local program.

CONSUMER PROTECTIONDuring special sessions that were supposed to be devoted to job creation, Gov. Walker and Republicans instead pushed bills that could harm consumers by removing corporate accountability.

•Assembly Republicans rejected a Democratic amendment that opposed using $25 million of Wisconsin’s share of a national mortgage settlement toward closing Walker’s state budget deficit. Raiding funds meant to help homeowners across Wisconsin is the wrong thing to do for our struggling families.

•Democrats also fought additional rollbacks, including: Republican measures that protect negligent doctors from lawsuits, hurt seniors in nursing homes, protect corporations from paying damages for injuring people or selling faulty products and allowing landlords to discriminate against tenants.

ENVIRONMENTThis session has been an unprecedented attack on Wisconsin’s drinking water, lakes, wetlands, health protections, and our legacy of bipartisan conservation progress.

REPUBLICANS:

•Sent clean energy jobs to Canada and train construction jobs to Illinois and other states.

•Stalled bipartisan rules on wind energy that would have created jobs, thus killing WI projects. 

•Voted to allow developers to destroy wetlands without looking at proper environmental determinations

•Cut $234 million from Wisconsin’s Stewardship program that protects critical habitat and parkland.

•Refused to support a bipartisan mining bill that would have created jobs AND protected our natural resources.

•Democrats introduced a budget amendment that would have:

– Restored the Focus on Energy program to create jobs, save energy and money

– Made improvements to the Clean Water Fund

– Fully funded local recycling assistance

LOCAL COMMUNITIESTo make up for their bad budgeting, Republicans passed the buck to local communities, forcing them to cut vital services like police and fire protection, public health nurses and snowplowing. 

•The Republican budget cut local road maintenance and slashed local transit aids by $49 million.

•Republicans rushed redistricting, not allowing local governments to draw their own boundaries first. This proved very costly & detrimental to local governments.

•Republicans’ voter ID law is extreme, costly and overly burdensome to local governments. (Total cost estimate for Voter ID this biennium: $17 million in expenses and revenue reductions.) 

DIVERSITYNot only did the Republicans wage war on women, they also went out of their way to

attack people of color.

• Photo ID for voting law – disproportionately keeps people of color from voting in elections

• Redistricting – The GOP’s historic power grab in an effort to secure their majority included an illegal redistricting map that attempted to split the Latino community.

• Earned Income Tax Credit – Republicans raised taxes on struggling working families.

• Racial Profiling – Republicans further marginalized communities of color by repealing a law that required the collection of traffic stop data.

• Transitional Jobs Program – Communities of color have been hard hit by our economy. Republicans chose to the successful program in 2013.

SENIORSRepublican’s focus on divisiveness rather than job creation was evident

through their attacks on seniors, including:

• Photo ID for voting law – Disproportionately hit seniors who do not have drivers licenses but want to exercise their right to vote.

• Homestead Tax Credit – This allows many seniors to remain in their homes. By blocking Democratic efforts to index the Homestead Tax Credit to inflation, Republicans ensured this popular program’s value will reduce by 28% over the next five years.

• SeniorCare – Walker’s budget proposal would have eliminated SeniorCare as we know it by pushing thousands of seniors into Medicare Part D. A Democratic petition drive collected 14,000 signatures & forced a budget change that saved SeniorCare.

PUBLIC SAFETYChoices made by Wisconsin Republicans put the safety of our families

and communities at risk

• Their budget slashes roughly $76 million in shared revenue, which funds the local police, fire, and emergency medical services we depend on everyday.– Also cuts many programs that have helped to promote safe

communities, keep kids out of trouble, and deter criminal activity

• Republicans repeatedly failed to support criminal background checks on teachers in taxpayer-funded voucher schools.

• Republicans voted against restoring $778,200 in funding for sexual assault victims services that they cut in the budget - this despite repeated public statements claiming they would fix the problem.

• Passed a dangerous proposal that allows people to carry loaded, concealed weapons in most public places without requiring training. (GOP Attorney General recommended minimum 4 hours of training.)

WAR ON WOMENWe have witnessed an unprecedented, ideologically driven war on women,

including the GOP using the final days of session to push an extreme social agenda allowing government to make women’s health decisions

• They repealed Wisconsin’s Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which allowed victims of discrimination access to state courts to seek less-costly redress

• Eliminated comprehensive sex education, allowing abstinence-only classes.

• Restricted private insurance coverage for women’s health services

• Made unprecedented cuts targeting women’s access to breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, and health care access

• Democrats fought to protect Wisconsin’s successful family planning program that ensures women have access to critical health services.

VETERANSThis was declared “The Year of the Veteran,” yet Republicans did little for

veterans

• Protecting the Veterans Trust Fund – Despite a pledge not to raid funds, GOP voted against a Democratic amendment to protect the Veterans Trust Fund from budget raids. (AA40 to ASA1 to AB-40)

• Power grab – Republicans voted to give Gov. Walker direct control over programs for veterans instead of letting veterans continue to have a voice in programs impacting them. (AB-96)

• Hiring disabled veterans – One helpful bill we voted for gives businesses a tax credit for hiring disabled veterans (2011 Act 212)

• Photo ID for voting law –Republicans refused to pass a bill that would have allowed their veteran ID cards to be used for voter identification. (AB-724)

LABORWisconsin’s 100th legislative session was scarred by Republican’s attacks on

workers.

• Reversed 50 Years of Workers’ Rights – Centerpiece of Walker’s tenure was “dropping the bomb” on working families by taking away collective bargaining rights from public employees.

– Walker refused to negotiate with workers and arrogantly ignored 100,000 people who came to his Capitol door to try to convince him to do so

– Rather than talking to anyone who disagrees with him in Wisconsin, Walker spends his time flying around the country, bragging about killing workers’ rights and raising unprecedented amounts of campaign cash.

• Child Labor Laws – Rather than improving the labor environment for adult workers, Republicans even rolled back child labor laws.

• Unemployment – After paying into unemployment for their entire lives, Wisconsinites now have a waiting period before receiving needed unemployment benefits when they lose their job.

Instead of a “laser-like focus on jobs”

Republicans instead:

• Allowed guns to be carried in the Capitol with no training requirement

• Rigged elections to benefit Republicans• Undermined wind energy business in WI• Removed local control over landlord ordinances• Rolled back consumer protections• Dismantled Healthy Youth Act• Passed floating toilet legislation

What we did

JOBS:• Jan. 3, 2011 Democrats introduced 10 jobs bills to put

unemployed people back to work quickly.– A few examples: encourage early stage investment in

businesses, increase access to capital for small business, expand a grant program to train in manufacturing.

• Nov. 1, 2011 Dems announced a package of nine job-training bills to connect workers with skills needed for available jobs.

SCHOOLS:• School funding plan – Save Our Schools - offered in

various forms that would have allocated more to 85% of districts (and held the rest even) while lowering property taxes. (It eliminated voucher-school expansions.)

What we did (cont.)

ETHICS PACKAGE focusing on eliminating CORRUPTION, CRONYISM & WASTE– Introduced a package of measures to:

• Eliminate 39 new crony positions• Ending unlimited fundraising during recall petition period• Commonsense recusal standards for judges• Mandate state legislature obey Open Meetings Law

•Hosted more than 124 hours of a public hearing with 18,000 registrants on the budget repair bill after Republicans shut it down & tried to close the building.•Moved our desks outside to meet with constituents after they were locked out of the Capitol•Fought the attack on workers’ rights for 62 hours on the floor to give people time to learn what Republicans were trying to ram through without public scrutiny.•Hosted public hearings all across the state when Republicans dodged public opinion on topics from the budget, to health care cuts to the mining bill. •Collected more than 14,000 signatures in a successful petition drive to save SeniorCare after Walker announced cuts. Immediately after these petitions were delivered to the Speaker’s Office, he changed course and announced the legislature would undo Walker’s cuts.

QUOTATIONSHere is what editorial boards and other observers had to say about this session:

•“The original reason more than 900,000 Wisconsinites signed petitions to get him out of office was his signature on a bill that stripped most public employees of their collective bargaining rights. But, every few weeks, Mr. Walker provides new grounds for becoming the third American governor to be removed by his own electorate.” (New York Times editorial on Walker signing anti-equal pay bill, 4/11/12)

Quotations on Jobs Session

•This session hasn't been a total washout …but day-in and day-out there have been more skirmishes over social and procedural measures than any real action to generate economic progress. (Beloit Daily News, 5/5/11)

• Calling a special session for jobs makes for a great political talking point, but the reality is we haven’t seen one bill designed to make a real impact on the economy. …to spend the entire session addressing nonexistent problems is a failure to uphold the responsibility of an elected official. (Badger Herald, 11/2/11)

BUDGET QUOTES

“No legislator who voted for this budget should remain in office. Nor should any legislator who voted for this budget claim to respect the rights of all women.” (The Capital Times, 6/17/11) 

“The bottom line is evident to anyone who cares to pay attention not to the spin but to the budget figures: Walker is manufacturing a fiscal “crisis” in order to achieve political goals…Walker is not addressing a fiscal crisis. He is not serving Wisconsin. He is serving his own interest and those of the lobbyists who represent his campaign contributors.” (The Capital Times, 2/16/11)

“Though Walker has always called his proposal a "budget-repair'' bill, it is clear that the motivation behind it is more about union-busting than budget-balancing.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3/10/11)

OPENNESS QUOTE “It seems ridiculous that we’re having a discussion about government openness in an age when taxpayer involvement should be welcomed instead of blocked. But this is Wisconsin in 2011. When a stranglehold becomes the new handshake in Madison, you really can’t take anything for granted.” (La Crosse Tribune, 7/12/11)

MINING QUOTE “There is no question that the Assembly bill…to make it easier to permit such a mine is a travesty of legislation that will significantly weaken environmental protections and reduce citizen participation in the permitting process. It's almost as if children had replaced Republican legislators and had dared each other to see just how outrageous they could make this bill.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial, 12/17/11)

REDISTRICTING QUOTES:  

“By designing state redistricting maps that seem to be aimed at keeping Republicans in power, GOP legislators led by Jeff Fitzgerald in the state Assembly and his brother Scott Fitzgerald in the Senate, have just made the best argument for reforming the way Wisconsin draws lines for congressional, legislative and other districts. The need to turn over this process to an independent panel couldn't be clearer. Those in power should not be allowed to choose their own districts and, thus, their own voters.” --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/12/11 “If they start messing with our lines ... it's ridiculous. We set the building blocks, we created our wards, our districts, and we've done a great job.” --Appleton City Clerk Cindi Hesse. AND “I suspect the state will get its way, but it's a shame. They are purely doing it for political purposes.” --Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris.

(Both quotes on Republicans jumping the line on redistricting in the Appleton Post Crescent, 7/13/11) “What could have—indeed should have—been accomplished publicly instead took place in private, in an all but shameful attempt to hide the redistricting process from public scrutiny.” --Federal judges’ written opinion, 2/16/12

SCOTT WALKER “His lying is notorious….If I lived in Wisconsin, I would be uncomfortable with this man, whom I find more Nixonian than even Richard Nixon himself (the authoritarian leader with whom I was, and am, so very familiar).” --Column by former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean, April 6, 2012

Examples of wasteful GOP spending

• Eliminating taxes on junk mail• Huge raises for dubious Walker appointees• GOP legal bills: Fighting countless legal battles

over redistricting after the court ordered Republicans to work with others. They refused & instead spent more on high-paid lawyers.

• Instead of focusing on WI and doing the job we pay him to do, Walker travels the country, promoting his national profile, raising record millions in campaign cash and courting conservative talk shows.

CONCLUSION

• The Walker Agenda only works for a privileged few Republican friends & allies.

• Republicans have our state moving in the wrong direction.

• It’s NOT working.