Contact: Rep. David Bowen
(608) 266-7671

MADISON – Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee) issued the following statement on Governor Walker’s final state of the state address:

“In delivering his last state of the state address, Governor Walker continued to project a sudden urgency to transition from seven years of failure into one desperate year where he will attempt to convince Wisconsinites he’s had their best interests in mind all along. Wisconsinites aren’t stupid. They are not suffering from the collective amnesia the governor is counting on.

“The way the governor’s time in office will be remembered is clear: attacking the hard-working people of our state, hurting Wisconsin communities by gutting education funding, rigging the Wisconsin economy against everyday people by giving billions of taxpayer dollars and tax cuts to a foreign corporation and the wealthy elite while raising taxes and fees on working families, and leaving his responsibilities as governor behind to embark on a failed run for president where Republican voters nationwide rejected his agenda.

“The governor hopes you’ll forget all that, and he’s going to use your time and your money over the next year to try to help you forget. Fearing the end of his political career, he’s issued a “wake up call” that Wisconsinites are rejecting his failed agenda.

“He wants you to forget the crisis in youth corrections he caused and ignored for six years.

“He wants you to forget he signed off on a plan that will give up to $4.5 billion to a foreign corporation who might end up creating jobs in Wisconsin.

“He wants you to forget he signed off on billions in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

“He wants you to forget he eliminated the Working Families Tax Credit and cut the Homestead and Earned Income Tax Credits that hard working Wisconsin families counted on to reduce the burden of a tax system that Republicans have rigged against them.

“He wants you to forget that the state’s commitment to funding public education still has not returned to the level it was at before his record cuts in the classroom.

“He wants you to forget he vetoed additional help for rural school districts faced with mounting transportation costs.

“He wants you to forget he turned down nearly $2 billion of our own federal tax dollars to improve our state’s transportation system, expand rural broadband, make sure kids don’t go hungry, and offer healthcare to thousands more Wisconsinites.

“We won’t forget.”

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