Politics & Government

Gov. Walker: Solutions for Wisconsin

Gov. Scott Walker reflects on year anniversary of his election during weekly radio address.

Every Thursday, Gov. Scott Walker delivers a weekly radio address. This Thursday's address was titled Solutions for Wisconsin.

The state has partnered with the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association to produce and distribute brief radio address once a week.  Audio files and a written transcript of this radio address can be accessed on http://www.wi-broadcasters.org and http://walker.wi.gov/section.asp?linkid=1761&locid=177.  To download an mp3 file you can visit http://walker.wi.gov/section.asp?linkid=1761&locid=177, right click the radio address link and click “save link as.”

Here is the transcript from this Thursday’s radio address:

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Hi. I'm Scott Walker.

A year ago this week, I was honored to be elected the 45th governor of Wisconsin.  When we took office there were a couple big things we wanted to do: help the private sector to create 250,000 jobs over the next four years, pass a budget that was balanced honestly, reform government, and protect the taxpayers.  We made positive process on each of those goals.

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Starting on the first day in office, we immediately got to work on our jobs agenda. We passed major legislation - much of it with bipartisan support - to improve our business climate and encourage job creation.  As a result, Wisconsin jumped up 17 states in the rankings of best states to do business in; and 88 percent of the job creators in our state say Wisconsin is headed in the right direction.  Most importantly, we saw more Wisconsin families getting back to work.

Hearing from people who have found jobs that support their families has been one of the most meaningful parts of being your governor.  That’s why I was so excited that there were nearly 40,000 private sector jobs created during the first 6 months of this year.

We also balanced the budget honestly for the first time in years.  In doing so, we eliminated a $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes or resorting to budgeting and accounting tricks used in the past.

We also kept education as a priority.  Having two sons in public schools reminds me how important good schools are to the state.  In our budget, K-12 schools are still the single largest expenditure. 

In addition, we also dramatically increased state spending on healthcare for needy families, children and seniors.  In fact, we put more than a billion dollars in new state funds into Medicaid.

We also passed reforms that will help protect taxpayers and improve government.  Our reforms help local governments save hundreds of millions of dollars.  Just as important, our reforms give local governments the ability to better manage their workforces.  For example, schools are able to implement merit pay for teachers and the state has been able to eliminate overtime abuses.

So far, we are meeting our pledges to improve the business climate for more jobs, to honestly balance the budget and protect taxpayers and to reform government so it works better for the people of Wisconsin. Now, we need to work together to do even more to improve our state in the year to come. 


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