I keep hearing from state politicians like Gov. Scott Walker how proud they are of their accomplishments, such as the economy. We'll be hearing this spin until the November elections. But let's look behind the facade.
True, Wisconsin's economy has improved over the last 10 years, but so has the economy of every other state since the Great Recession of 2007 ended. More relevant is how Wisconsin's economy is doing compared to other Midwest states. Here things are not so rosy.
In the period 2011-2017, Wisconsin ranks 34th in the country job growth according to Wisconsin Public Radio. If Wisconsin's job growth kept up with the national rate, we would have more than 100,000 additional jobs today, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. If we had gained only a fraction of that, we certainly wouldn't need to throw billions of hard-earned tax dollars to a foreign corporation to build a factory near the Illinois border.
Gov. Walker promised 250,000 new jobs during his first term. Despite the national recovery, and even after seven years, his policies have still failed to deliver that number, according to the BizTimes. Not a great source of pride.
The economic policies that Gov. Walker and the state Legislature have supported have caused us to fall behind other states around us in terms of wages, new business startups and overall job growth. We need a new direction, a new governor and a new Legislature.
