Even among the Republican faithful, Gov. Scott Walker has been generating criticism for his performance as Wisconsin governor while unofficially campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.
Fortunately for the governor, Walker’s longtime allies, the corporate bill-writing outfit American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), tried to come to his rescue with its latest Rich States, Poor States study, an attempt to rank the economic competitiveness of the 50 states. The study’s primary author is Arthur Laffer, who had been discredited decades ago with his theory of trickle-down economics, which some conservative Republicans still cling to as a means to justify and applaud lowering taxes for the wealthy. Also chiming in is Stephen Moore, the founder of Club for Growth, whose state chapter is embroiled in Walker’s John Doe investigation, which is in front of the state Supreme Court.
As unreal as trickle-down economics is ALEC’s ranking for Walker’s Wisconsin: 13th of the 50 states for economic outlook. ALEC gave Wisconsin high marks for having a low minimum wage (the state uses the federal minimum of $7.25, and Walker has even questioned why a minimum wage is necessary), a low number of public employees including teachers (Walker’s notorious Act 10 made public employees Public Enemy No. 1), and lots of recently enacted tax changes (Walker and the GOP-led Legislature passed 43 tax cuts since 2011, primarily for the wealthy and corporations). Wisconsin would have had an even “better” ALEC ranking if the state had passed right-to-work legislation before the study was conducted.
Laffer and ALEC’s rankings are obviously not taken seriously by reputable economists and forward-looking entrepreneurs. The rankings narrowly look at things like income tax rates, but totally ignore factors that are important to a state’s longer term prosperity and quality of life, such as the number of teachers in the classrooms, the support for higher education to create respected research universities and strong environmental regulation, which are factors very important to young entrepreneurs. Unfortunately for ALEC and Walker, there is a reality. You can talk all you want about a wonderful “economic outlook” but the question is, are we creating the needed jobs compared to our neighboring states? On that measure, Walker’s Wisconsin continues to get failing grades. If Walker’s Wisconsin consistently lags in job creation when compared to the national average as well as our Midwestern neighbors, how, for example, could Minnesota, which beats Wisconsin on just about every economic indicator, be ranked 48th and Wisconsin 13th in Laffer and ALEC’s report?
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Walker has been able to hide his disastrous economic record while on the campaign trail, preferring to talk about everything but his budget deficit and unworkable state budget. But when his rival Republicans start looking at his record—not the fantasy pushed by Walker, his billionaire donors and the corporate-run ALEC—his stint as governor isn’t going to live up to the hype.
