Here’s just a few examples of fee increases proposed by Gov. Walker:

No doubt the next state budget will be scary because despite the lies we’ve heard about how Scott Walker and Republicans like Scott Fitzgerald balanced Wisconsin’s [...]]]> Republican State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, speaking on the floor of the State Senate

“If you think this budget was scary, wait until the next one.”

No doubt the next state budget will be scary because despite the lies we’ve heard about how Scott Walker and Republicans like Scott Fitzgerald balanced Wisconsin’s budget deficit with the last biennial budget, they actually left Wisconsin with a budget deficit of $3 billion for this fiscal year and next fiscal year, if Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are used, as Scott Walker the gubernatorial candidate promised they would be.

Don’t believe a word Walker says, because Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch has the truth, which is that Wisconsin has projected budget deficits for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

What’s more, if we [...]]]> Have you heard those new TV ads Republican Gov. Scott Walker is running touting how he eliminated Wisconsin’s budget deficits?

Don’t believe a word Walker says, because Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch has the truth, which is that Wisconsin has projected budget deficits for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

What’s more, if we use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to take a look at Gov. Walker’s first biennial budget (as Walker himself promised to do as a candidate), we’d have budget deficits in the billions of dollars.

We examined Walker’s first budget, the 2011-13 biennial budget, to see if he lived up to his promise to balance the budget using GAAP.

There’s a chart every two years in the state budget demonstrating the bottom line under GAAP. The chart in the Walker administration’s Budget in Brief shows that the 2011-13 budget was not close to balanced by that standard.

In fact, the document shows that based on GAAP accounting, the state would have been left with a deficit of $3 billion by 2012-13 under Walker’s budget. That compares to the $2.9 billion GAAP deficit he inherited at the end of Doyle’s term, the state’s financial statements show.

So when Gov. Scott Walker says he’s eliminated Wisconsin’s budget deficit, he’s all rhetoric, no reality. Scott Walker didn’t eliminate Wisconsin’s budget deficits; he simply kicked the can down the road the same as his predecessors.

Obviously these signatures are the low hanging fruit…those Wisconsinites totally upset with the direction Wisconsin is headed under the governorship of [...]]]> Tonight United Wisconsin and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin announced that 300,001 signatures have been obtained in the effort to Recall Governor Scott Walker in just 13 days, 70,000 signatures in Milwaukee County alone.

Obviously these signatures are the low hanging fruit…those Wisconsinites totally upset with the direction Wisconsin is headed under the governorship of Scott Walker. From here on in it will be much tougher and the opposition will become much louder and more persistent in their efforts to disrupt the recall process.

Mike Tate said this evening, “We need to keep building and gathering, no let up. Please give whatever you can afford to help us pay for the rest of the effort.”

And he is correct…the goal is a million signatures statewide and I would hope that we could get at least 200,000 in Milwaukee County alone.

On September 23, 2011, by executive order, Gov. Walker created the position of deer trustee or deer czar. And then on October 3, 2011, Gov. Walker appointed Jim Kroll as Wisconsin’s [...]]]> There is one job here in Wisconsin that Governor Walker can 100% take credit for creating…but then he went and screwed it anyway.

On September 23, 2011, by executive order, Gov. Walker created the position of deer trustee or deer czar. And then on October 3, 2011, Gov. Walker appointed Jim Kroll as Wisconsin’s first deer trustee!

Kroll … has cultivated the moniker “Dr. Deer” from his work as a deer management consultant, appearances on hunting shows and as author of articles in hunting magazines.

He is charged with an “independent, objective, and scientifically-based review of Wisconsin’s deer management practices.” A preliminary report is due no later than March 1.

The DOA press release referred to Kroll as the “world’s foremost expert in modern deer herd management.”

To all of you outdoors men in Wisconsin this is a momentous occasion. But for the employment environment in the state, nothing changed…because I left out of the quotes above one significant issue: Mr. Kroll is a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.

So if we are keeping score, we have employment in WI up by 1, unemployment in WI…ah…unchanged.

But wait, I am a little confused about today’s article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. MJS Outdoors Editor, Paul Smith, interviewed Mr. Kroll by phone. He’s here in WI and eager to start talking with the DNR and getting some other out of state cronies involved in WI deer management. But I am unclear to whether he is a full time employee of the State of Wisconsin who will be working in Madison, or this is an auxiliary gig to his university gig in Texas.

And over the coming weeks and months, Kroll said he’ll be working to make Wisconsinites more familiar with him and his task.

Kroll, a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, traveled to Wisconsin to begin an “objective, independent and scientifically based review” of the state’s deer management program.

Kroll was appointed by and will report to the Department of Administration. The $125,000 contract for the review will be paid by the Department of Natural Resources.

Among Kroll’s first orders of business: a meeting in Madison on Wednesday with Scott Gunderson, executive assistant with the DNR.

“It will give us a chance to meet face to face and begin a relationship,” Kroll said by phone Wednesday morning. “I’m very open and transparent and that’s how I expect this process to work.”

Among his second: Kroll announced Gary Alt of Lagunitas, Calif., and David Guynn of Seneca, S.C., will join him on the review panel.

“We are going to go about this in a scientific manner,” Kroll said. “There are no preconceived notions. We’ll ask for data and information from the department and get more from the public, too. Only after that process we’ll make our recommendations.”

Kroll said he expects to return to Wisconsin with Alt and Guynn in coming weeks.

In the meantime, Kroll is accepting comments on his website from people interested in Wisconsin deer management. The website is www .drdeer.com/Wisconsin/html.

Hey, way cool, he’s got his own website! But it doesn’t end with wi.gov? What’s up with that…oh wait, I see, this isn’t a state post, this is a state contract. So I guess Gov. Walker didn’t really create a job, he just hired another gun!

So, for the Gov. Walker job creation ledger, employment no change, unemployment no change, another $125,000 WI tax payer dollars drift off to TX and other points red.

WISN Channel 12 for instance, offered this headline: Walker’s Chief Of Staff Resigns. And [...]]]> I will let the other pundits on Blogging Blue discuss the ramifications of the resignation of Keith Gilkes as Governor Walker’s Chief of Staff. But it is interesting how different people decide on how to report it or spin it.

WISN Channel 12 for instance, offered this headline: Walker’s Chief Of Staff Resigns. And here’s a few excerpts:

Gov. Scott Walker’s chief of staff who helped guide the administration during the tumult over public-employee unions and passage of his first state budget is stepping down

Gilkes said his resignation is unrelated to an ongoing secret investigation that stemmed from questions of whether current and former Walker aides took part in political activity on taxpayer time. He said he just felt the time was right to return to the private sector.

An earlier version of the WISN story stated that Gilkes said he’d be willing to work on a recall election if necessary. The current version

Gilkes, 34, hinted the timing was linked to promised efforts to recall Walker…

This edit may have been in response to the article at the venerable Milwaukee Journal Sentinel which with: Gilkes to leave Walker’s staff to head campaign for expected recall attempt.

Just a little bit different spin from one of the governor’s more ardent media supporters. The first lines of the article:

In the latest sign Gov. Scott Walker is preparing for a recall effort, his chief of staff is leaving the governor’s office to work on his campaign.

Keith Gilkes ran Walker’s campaign last year, helped lead his transition and has served as chief of staff since Walker’s January swearing in. Gilkes will return to his political consulting firm on Oct. 8.

Gilkes disclosed his plans to top Walker aides during a cabinet meeting Friday at a Madison hotel. In an interview, he said he would serve as lead adviser to Walker’s campaign, but also take on other clients for campaign work.

And posted at WisPolitics.com is what appears to be the official press release from the governor’s office via Cullen Werwie. The governor leads with the promotion of Eric Schutt to the chief of staff position and mentions Mr. Gilkes as almost an afterthought! And he stays as far away from a campaign of any kind in his ‘praise of Mr. Gilkes:

“Keith did an outstanding job helping to craft and implement our ambitious pro-jobs agenda,” said Walker. “I would like to thank him for his dedication to public service, and acknowledge the tremendous amount of time and energy he spent working to help improve state government. “I believe we have a team in place that will help our state create and execute policies aimed at allowing the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs by 2015.”

And then the release goes on to further discuss the rearrangement of the deck chairs on the titanic that is the governor’s office. And I don’t see it here but one of the things I read today stated that one of the appointments announced today was to a new position…so chalk up one more new job that Gov. Walker has created!

Here’s my favorite quote of Jake’s:
In fact, the original [...]]]> Over at Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse, Jake formerly of the LP has a must-read on how the school district of Kaukauna is using the union-busting provisions of Act 10 (the so-called “budget repair” bill) to balance their budget on the backs of teachers.

Here’s my favorite quote of Jake’s:

In fact, the original budget proposal from the guv resulted in a drop of Kaukauna’s available revenues of $2.16 million (a bit under 5% of their total), and $2.75 million from the state (check out your favorite district’s cut here, Kaukauna’s on Page 5).

So let’s recap: if not for the drastic cuts to state education aid to local school districts proposed by Gov. Scott Walker, cuts which led to a $3 million budget deficit for the Kaukauna school district, the union-busting provisions of Act 10 would not have been necessary.