For Immediate Release
Contact: Cullen Werwie, 608-267-7303
Governor Walker Column: Budget Protects Middle Class, Future Generations
Madison – Below is a column written by Governor Walker on the state’s balanced
budget for consideration to run in your paper.
Budget Protects Middle Class, Future Generations
The Kaukauna School District recently announced that our reforms will allow them
to add more teachers, reduce class sizes and set funds aside to reward excellent
teachers next school year. This is a prime example of how our budget and budget
reforms protect middle class jobs and property taxpayers – as well as future
generations.
The 2011-2013 state budget I recently signed transformed a $3.6 billion deficit
into a surplus, it caps property taxes and it provides support for basic safety
net programs to protect seniors and needy families. It does what we said we
would do to get this state working again.
The balanced budget is built on our reforms that give schools and local
governments the tools to balance their own budgets and protect jobs – without
hurting taxpayers.
Recently a 60-year-old custodian wrote to me about his property taxes. He noted
they went up $500 last year. When he retires he said, “My property tax bill will
be my highest expense next to health insurance. I will have to find a part-time
job just to live normally.”
Under our budget, the average property taxpayer will save $700. It is my hope
that savings like this will help keep more people like that custodian safely in
their homes.
Our balanced budget also provides a safety net. Over the next two years, nearly
all new revenue that the state receives will go to programs that care for needy
families and children – as well as our seniors.
As the father of two kids in a public high school, seeing our schools do well is
important to me. Spending for our public schools continues to be the largest
part of the budget at the same time that our reforms allow schools to put more
of their resources into the classroom.
Our budget also allows us to look to the future. It is the first truly balanced
budget in more than a decade. The national bond rating agencies call it “credit
positive” because we make the structural changes needed to ensure stability for
the future.
This fiscal stability will do more than balance the budget; it will help us
improve the economy.
Already, we have seen signs of recovery. That’s vital to middle class families.
Recently, a woman named Tina emailed me about her family of four (soon to be
five). Her husband lost his job last year and she said that she’s hoping that
our efforts to boost the economy will continue to grow jobs in this state.
Through May, Wisconsin has added more than 26,000 private sector jobs (13,000 in
manufacturing). Our national ranking on good places to do business rose from 41
to 24. And a ranking of job creators in the state showed that 88% of them think
we are going in the right direction this year (versus 10% in 2010).
Still, we can not rest until the economic recovery goes from Wall Street to Main
Street and – most importantly – to every street in Wisconsin. That is why our
budget includes incentives to create more manufacturing and agricultural jobs,
in addition to increasing investments in Wisconsin-based companies that employee
our residents.
We have to succeed so that families like Tina’s can get back to work. And
working together, we will.
Our budget chooses to fix our problems now, so that our children and our
grandchildren don't face the same challenges we face today. I want them to grow
up in a Wisconsin even better than the Wisconsin I grew up in - that's what this
budget sets out to do.
Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin
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