Governor Scott Walker’s administration has dropped plans to sign the budget at Badger Sheet Metal Works in Green Bay, following media reports that the executive at the company was convicted of felony tax evasion.
The announcement comes on the heels of a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Gregory A DeCaster was convicted in the 1990s of six counts of felony tax evasion. DeCaster is the current chief executive of Badger Sheet Metal Works, where Sunday’s signing was scheduled to take place.
Cullen Werwie, a spokesman for the Governor, says the decision was made after the business brought the “decade old tax related issue” to the attention the office. Werwie says the convictions had not been previously disclosed.
Werwie says they decided to move the budget signing to a new location in order to keep the focus on the budget signing.
Governor Walker will still sign the $66 billion state budget bill in Green Bay. The ceremony is now scheduled to take place Sunday afternoon at Fox Valley Metal-Tech, Inc.