Gov. Scott Walker delivers his 2017 State of the State address (File photo: WRN)
As he works to make the case to the people of Wisconsin to consider electing him to a third term in office, Governor Scott Walker will deliver his eighth State of the State address this afternoon at the Capitol.
The Republican governor has been previewing issues he plans to address his speech over the last few weeks. They include making changes to the juvenile corrections system in response to problems at the state Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake facilities, urging lawmakers to pass new welfare reforms, and increasing state aid for rural school districts. Walker’s office says he will “announce his Ambitious Agenda for 2018” in the speech.
Democrats have questioned the governor’s change of heart on several of the initiatives he has talked about in recent weeks, many of which Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) notes are similar to issues his members have been focusing on for years. “Every time he comes out with a new proposal that embraces things that Democrats around the state have been talking about for the last seven years, it’s really an acknowledgment of how much he’s failed,” Hintz says.
Hintz says things he doesn’t expect to hear about in the speech are how he’s failed to fix problems with transportation funding in the state or the historic cuts made to education funding prior to restoring some of that money in the last state budget.
Walker will appear before a joint session of the Legislature at 3pm today.