MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Republican lawmakers on the Legislature’s finance committee moved Thursday to restructure Gov. Scott Walker’s struggling job creation agency, approving a plan to remove the governor as chairman, dramatically reduce the agency’s reserves and eliminate a program that would fund regional loans.
The move immediately drew praise from the committee’s minority Democrats. They declared that Republicans want to “fire” their own governor from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and demanded the GOP get even tougher on the agency.
“WEDC was part of the governor’s promise to create jobs. That promise has clearly been broken,” said Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison.
Republicans countered that Walker proposed removing all elected officials from the board in the state budget he introduced in February. They said he wants to depoliticize the agency and called on Democrats to dial back the rhetoric.
“We share your major concerns about WEDC. There’s no question about that,” said Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, the panel’s co-chairwoman. “If we are just so negative about everything WEDC does, who’s going to want to deal with us as a state?”
The committee debated the package for nearly three hours before voting. It passed 12-4, with all four Democrats on the committee voting against it.
The governor created WEDC in 2011 to serve as the state’s flagship economic engine. But the agency has been plagued by problems, including failing to track past-due loans, leadership turnover and blistering audits revealing mismanagement.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Low-income childless adults on Wisconsin’s BadgerCare Plus Medicaid program may have to pay higher premiums if they engage in risky behavior.
The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee approved Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal that could lead to the change as part of a wide-ranging Medicaid motion Thursday.
Walker is requesting federal approval to charge premiums to the program’s roughly 157,000 participants. Higher charges could be assessed to people who engage in unspecified risky behaviors that could affect their health such as smoking or being obese.
Walker hasn’t specified what premiums would be charged or whether there would be penalties for those who can’t pay.
The committee tweaked the proposal to require Walker’s administration to submit details of its plan and the fiscal impact before requesting the federal waiver.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Gov. Scott Walker made it only about halfway toward fulfilling his signature 2010 campaign promise - repeated in the 2012 recall - that 250,000 private sector jobs would be created over four years under his leadership.
New figures released by the Republican’s office on Thursday show about 35,700 private-sector jobs were created in Wisconsin in 2014. But taken together with the previous three years, only about 129,000 private sector jobs were added during Walker’s term, or just over halfway to what was promised.
Walker, a likely presidential candidate, is building his presumed campaign around his record of achievements as governor. It was clear during his successful re-election bid last year that he would not fulfill the pledge.
Walker has said that meeting the 250,000 mark is still a goal in his second term, but he points to other figures to argue that he’s turned around the state’s economy. The new figures also show Wisconsin’s unemployment rate hit a new pre-recession low of 4.4 percent.
Still, Walker’s Democratic opponents pounced on the latest figures to argue that his policies have been a failure.
“I know math is hard for Scott Walker, but 52 percent is a failing grade by any standard,” Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate said. “Scott Walker might only care about his next job but Wisconsinites still want the jobs he promised.”
Walker spokeswoman Laurel Patrick cited the drop in unemployment, and the creation of more than 129,000 jobs, in arguing Walker’s policies were working.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) - One of the leaders of the Legislature’s finance committee says his colleagues are pondering imposing a new tax on new bike sales.
Rep. John Nygren, a Marinette Republican, is co-chairman of the committee. He told reporters Thursday that Republicans on the panel are looking into inserting language in Gov. Scott Walker’s two-year budget plan that would create a tax on the sales of new bikes with wheels larger than 20 inches. The money would fund bike path construction. He said the tax could generate as much as $1.8 million in the budget’s first year and $3.8 million in the second.
Nygren says it’s just an idea right now and there’s a less than 50 percent chance it will actually happen.
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