Sure enough, in the beginning of August, we saw evidence that he was blowing smoke up our collective rear ends and that his attack on Milwaukee was taking fruition as evidenced by the fact that manufacturing in the Milwaukee area was in a downward spiral.
Now things are getting so bad in Milwaukee that even Walker's staunchest supporters, both politically and financially, cannot hide the evidence that Walker's plan is NOT working:
For the first time in four months, less than half of metro area business activity indicators tracked by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) registered improvement vs. year-ago levels.And remember, Milwaukee is the engine that keeps the state's economy going.
Only 10 of the 23 July indicators pointed upward, down from the 14 positive indicators posted in June.
“Much like the nation, local area economic growth has had difficulty getting fully
established in 2012,” said Bret Mayborne, the MMAC’s economic research director. “This is largely due to a less than stellar job trend. For July overall job levels were down from year-ago levels for the eighth consecutive month and only one of ten major industry sectors posted year-over-year employment growth.”
And with Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele embracing the same austerity measures, things are guaranteed to only get worse.
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The announcement of Walker's Transform Milwaukee plan was about a month before the June 5th recall. They were obviously covering their rears because of their failure to create jobs on the State level, but also wanting to save face for the non-existent job creation in inner-city Milwaukee (Walker's attacks on Barrett's Milwaukee also did not help their cause).
ReplyDeleteApril 2012 Walker got the legislature to pass Act 214, bringing WHEDA $150 million in bond financing.
Transform is extended out of the older Be Bold Wisconsin initiative Walker adheres to.
Initial talks for creating Transform were in April 2011, between directors for Wisconsin Departments of Children & Families, Workforce Development and Milwaukeeans The Zilber Family Foundation and--get this--newly appointed state government relations director for the International Council of Shopping Centers' BOB DENNIK (cohorts before of Walker--as County Executive--and Walker flunky Tim Russell).
What a Dream Team for Milwaukee job creation!
Wisconsin leads the nation!
ReplyDeleteWhooping cough on rise despite immunizations
Wisconsin tops nation in reported rate of cases
Wisconsin leads the country in what could be the worst national outbreak of whooping cough in 50 years. Experts are warning that the current regimen of immunizations may not be enough to protect children from the serious and sometimes fatal disease.
Possible Scott Walker responses include
1. Cutting funding so that the extent of the problem is hidden.
2. Make another out of state fundraising trip, and ignore the problem.
3. Announce that this is a serious problem and that healthcare is best done by the private sector. The problem is caused by ObamaCare.