Burke, Walker
Republican Governor Scott Walker and his Democratic challenger Mary Burke weighed in Tuesday, on a projected state budget shortfall.
“We’re in this situation because Governor Walker spent money we didn’t have,” Burke said during a media conference call. “It was fiscally irresponsible to push through tax cuts, largely benefitting those at the top, before we even had that money to spend.”
Projections released Monday by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau show that the shortfall for the next two-year state budget now stands at almost $1.8 billion. Democrats pounced on that, but Walker fired back during a stop in Green Bay.
“The Democrats reaction is selective amnesia,” Walker said. “They were the ones that gave us a $3.6 billion deficit,” The projected deficit about half of what it was when Walker took office in 2011.
“The voters should look at that, and contrast that with the record of my opponent, who left us the policies of Jim Doyle that were embraced by Mary Burke entirely.
Burke, a former executive with Trek Bicycle, also served as state Commerce Secretary during the Doyle administration.
Governor Walker took a surplus, and turned it into the third-largest deficit in the last twenty years,” Burke said. “At the same time we have a growing national economy, and other states governors have used this opportunity to improve their fiscal health.”