FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2017
Contact: Joe Fadness
media@scottwalker.com
[Madison, Wis.] — In case you missed it, on Thursday Governor Scott Walker unveiled a new eight step agenda to support rural Wisconsin and to keep moving the state forward. The agenda included increased investments in broadband access, sparsity aids and more, to ensure the regions’ economic outlook continues to remain bright.
Read more from WDIO-TV here or find excerpts below:
Walker Highlights Eight Steps for Rural Wisconsin’s Future
Baihly Warfield
WDIO-TV
October 26, 2017
Governor Scott Walker told about 150 people at the Northern Economic & Community Development Summit that the conversation in Wisconsin has changed since he was running for office. …
“Everything was about jobs, jobs, jobs,” Walker said. “Now it’s about workforce, workforce, workforce.” …
As part of his eight-point plan, he wants to focus on developing the rural workforce through grants and housing. He said they have $10 million to work with to achieve those goals. …
“One of the things we’ve heard increasingly, particularly here in the north, is that communities that have tried to bring in projects or expand existing businesses have said one of the challenges is not only finding enough workers, but finding enough places for the workers to live at,” Walker said. …
He also cited broadband access as a challenge for rural communities. There are $35 million in available grants, Walker said, to be split between two purposes. …
“Grants that help communities get access to people who live in the far outskirts, whether it’s in the woods, farmland, areas in the past haven’t been reached to get broadband internet connections,” Walker described the first option. …
Second, he wants to expand educational opportunities. …
“One of the things we’ve just proposed expanding is allowing school districts to do things like hot spots on buses,” Walker said. …
Walker said he hopes those efforts and others will keep Wisconsin on the right economic path. …
“We want to make sure there’s no gaps, that it’s not just one part of the state versus another,” he said. “That every area of the state is doing well, and that’s why we’ve got this eight-point strategy to make sure that rural Wisconsin does well.” …
Here are the eight steps Walker laid out Thursday morning:
1. Improve education
2. Expand broadband access
3. Encourage economic development
4. Develop Wisconsin’s rural workforce
5. Improve rural health care
6. Invest in Public Safety
7. Care for Wisconsin veterans
8. Move state resources out of Madison …
Paid for by Friends of Scott Walker
