Today, student loan debt in the U.S. is estimated to hit the $1 TRILLION mark - far surpassing auto-loan and credit card debt.  It's a huge drag on our economy that not only places a heavy burden on the backs of recent graduates, but also poses a risk to our future economic prosperity.

In Wisconsin, the average UW student graduating with a 4-year degree has $27,000 in student loan debt, a daunting figure in our state's worst-in-the-nation job loss market. 

Add to this grim picture Gov. Walker's $107 million tuition hike, Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal to cut $200 million from financial aid and the very real threat that the GOP in the U.S. Congress will prevent action to stop a doubling of student loan interest rates and we've got a full blown crisis on our hands.

The trillion-dollar student loan debt crisis is no laughing matter, but we thought it would be fun to calculate what the average UW grad could do with their $27,000 share ... Wisconsin style.

With $27,000 you could get:

So, what would you do with $27,000?

Little Time Scheduled For Working With Legislators to Advance Agenda at Capitol

Madison -- A One Wisconsin Now analysis of Gov. Walker's schedules from August 2011 through January 2012 reveals that little time was scheduled by the state's chief executive for communicating with legislators or working on a legislative agenda but that huge amounts of time were blocked off as "personal".

One Wisconsin Now Spokesperson Mike Browne commented, "The taxpayers of Wisconsin pay Gov. Walker over $144,000 dollars a years, provide him with a mansion to live in, a security detail to drive him about and a staff to cook and clean for him. You'd hope in return he'd be working with legislators to fix problems like Wisconsin's nation-leading job losses."

Based on the calendars maintained by Gov. Walker's office, released under the state open records law, between August 2011 and January 2012 Gov. Walker was scheduled to spend a grand total of just over 44 hours meeting with legislators or his policy staff or working on an a specific policy issue. Meanwhile, over the same time period, a whopping 614-plus hours were blocked off as "personal" time.

Browne said, "Gov. Walker's schedule shows a stunning lack of interest in governing, while massive chunks of time were blocked off for 'personal' time. The old adage that actions speak louder than words certainly applies here. The Governor claims he's working to create jobs, but his actions, or lack thereof, tell a much different story."

Browne noted that although there is no detail on how Gov. Walker spends his personal time, a significant uptick occurred when he was allowed to start raising unlimited amounts in campaign contributions because of the recall effort against him. It was also at this time that details of the serious nature of the criminal investigation of close Walker aides and associates began to come to light.

In August, just under 64 hours were classified as personal time, but that climbed to over 120 hours in November when the opportunity to raise unlimited campaign cash began and topped out at nearly 153 hours in January.

"It looks an awful lot like Gov. Walker may have spent the last several months ducking out of the office to take care of political business like meeting with his criminal defense attorneys or hitting up out-of-state billionaires for campaign cash instead of doing the job as Governor," concluded Browne.

A Dane County judge permanently enjoined the state's new voter ID law on Monday - the second judge in a week to block the requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls.

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

via Mike Browne, One WI Now Deputy Director

Gov. Walker and Republicans in the legislature have spent the last 15 months taking away the rights of Wisconsinites to have a say in their workplace, hold their elected officials accountable in fair elections and, with voter ID, the right to vote.

On Tuesday Dane County Circuit Court Judge Flanagan struck a blow against the GOP assault on the rights of Wisconsinites by issuing an injunction against the voter suppression law.

Experts testified that 220,000 legal Wisconsin voters could be barred from exercising their Constitutional rights as a result of the GOP's voter suppression efforts. News reports from the February elections showed multiple instances of legal voters being denied their rights - including a 69 year-old veteran and a couple who had voted for over 40 years who, because of an automobile accident, did not have photo IDs.

It is also offensive to see the cavalier attitude Gov. Walker and other defenders of voter suppression have expressed towards our most sacred of constitutional rights today by comparing the franchise to a bottle of cold medicine.

Gov. Walker's campaign raised over $8 million from a cross-country cash grab, over 60% of it from out-of-state donors and much of it from mega-contributors giving up to $250,000 at a time. But his campaign is asking that, instead of offering their own challenges, allegations of improper signatures on recall petitions from an alliance of Texas and Wisconsin fringe political groups accused of voter suppression activities be considered by the Government Accountability Board (GAB).

One Wisconsin Now Deputy Director Mike Browne commented, "Gov. Walker had plenty of time to fly around the country raising millions from out-of-state special interests and the super-wealthy. He even went to court and was granted three more weeks to review recall signatures." 

He continued, "But instead of offering his own challenges to recall signatures, he wants that outside groups with shady histories of voter suppression to do his dirty work."

One Wisconsin Now detailed a 2010 "voter caging" scheme between the Grandsons of Liberty, the Republican Party of Wisconsin, headed by then-chair Reince Priebus and the Americans for Prosperity, then-run by Mark Block, in September 2010. Voter caging is a notorious voter suppression technique used to challenge the registration status of eligible voters to prevent him or her from voting in an election. 

After initial denials, all the groups admitted their involvement. More information about the 2010 plot, including audio recordings, transcripts and documents, is available at www.SaveWisconsinsVote2010.org.

Wisconsin Tea Partier's Texas-based partner, True the Vote, is also no stranger to voter suppression controversy.  Activities by their associated organization, the King Street Patriots, were reported to have triggered Election Day monitoring by federal Department of Justice officials and have they are the subject of legal action for alleged voter suppression. A Texas based nonpartisan watchdog group has also lodged ethics complaints alleging illegal fundraising and coordination with a county Republican Party organization against them.

Browne concluded, "This unholy alliance of anti-voting rights fringe groups from Texas and Wisconsin, with their sordid histories of meddling in elections and voter suppression plots, ought not be allowed anywhere near the recall signature verification process."

Why do Wisconsin's legislative Republicans and Governor Walker do what they do? 

Looking at their track record it is clear that they're motivated by campaign cash and political power. If legislation privatizes public assets to help donors, prevents the public from holding them accountable, or places their hand-picked cronies in positions of power, you'll find it on the legislative fast track.

Consider the last year in which they passed:

• Act 10 busting public employee unions;
• Act 43 to try save their own jobs by rigging elections with gerrymandered legislative districts;
• Act 23 to suppress the vote among students, minorities and seniors; and 
• Act 32 (aka the state budget), the mother of all special interest sell-outs, that doles out huge tax breaks to large corporations and the wealthy, paid for by the rest of us with the largest cuts to education in state history and draconian cuts to health care.

But it doesn't stop there.

Hell-bent to hand over public assets to private sector/special interest control and suppress the input of constituencies like minorities, students and average taxpayers in the direction of public institutions, the GOP has decided to rig the membership Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) board.

Right now there's a GOP scheme on the legislative fast track that singles out the MATC board for new membership requirements and a new process for appointing board members.

If passed, the bill would eliminate all current minority members of the board and make it almost impossible for significant minority or female representation in the future.

And, the proposed board selection process hands over disproportionate influence to gives the County Executives from Ozaukee and Washington counties in making new board appointments.  

As if we needed a reminder, Republicans are once again putting power grabs and the privatization agenda of the 1% before the best interests of the rest of us. 

Concerned Citizen emailed Sen. Leibham's office to ask whether or not Sen. Leibham signed the secrecy pledge; here's Sen. Leibham's reply:

Looks like he pivoted right to some talking points and a plug for his website after the initial denial.

And just to be clear - if you think Sen. Leibham isn't - he most certainly signed what everyone is either calling "pledges of secrecy" or "secrecy deals". Here's a copy of Joe Leibham's John Hancock he put on the secrecy pledge:

Thanks to the concerned citizen for bringing this to our attention. 

The signers of this secrecy pledge assaulted democracy and open government, putting their own political interests before our right to fair elections.

They promised, in writing, to sit down and shut up while Republican legislative leaders tried to take away our rights and carve up the state to protect their political power grab.

Mike Browne, head of the liberal One Wisconsin Now, said it looks like Walker was picking up Morse's tab for both campaigns without disclosing it. Browne pointed to emails in Rindfleisch's criminal complaint in which she told a Walker staffer that she had terminated her fundraising contract with Davis because Morse was brought on and was now "in charge."

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

As legislative leaders secretly developed new election maps last year to strengthen their majority, Republican lawmakers were told to ignore public comments and instead focus on what was said in private strategy sessions, according to a GOP memo that became public Monday.

Other newly released documents also show almost all Republican lawmakers signed legal agreements promising not to discuss the new maps while they were being developed.

...

"Public comments on this map may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments," the talking points also say.

[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

We've thought all along that what Scott Walker described as a "voluntary" talk he planned to have with Milwaukee DA John Chisholm wasn't Walker's idea, but Chisholm's.  That's confirmed now.

Read more at Uppity Wisconsin

According to none other than Gov. Scott Walker, any person he found illegally campaigning when he was Milwaukee County Executive would be asked to resign.

Yet as of today, two high-ranking members of Gov. Walker’s administration – spokesperson Cullen Werwie and state Medicaid Director Brett Davis – continue their state employment. This despite the significant evidence that they knew of, coordinated with and benefitted from the secret campaign operation allegedly run in the Milwaukee County Executive’s Office.

The long-ago resignation of constituent relations employee Darlene Wink for campaigning on county time provides no defense for Walker allowing Davis and Werwie to continue to collect state paychecks.

Surely, Gov. Walker has read himself, or at least been briefed on, the 50-plus page criminal complaint against his former Deputy Chief of Staff and campaign fundraiser Kelly Rindfleisch.

Surely he is aware of the evidence presented that Rindfleisch, Werwie as Davis’ Lieutenant Governor campaign’s manager and Davis himself as the candidate were in frequent contact with each other regarding his campaign.

In fact, the criminal complaint reveals that while Rindfleisch was employed by Milwaukee County and retained by the Davis campaign, she exchanged emails with Davis at least 300 times. In total, she sent or received nearly 1,400 e-mails related to campaign fundraising during regular business hours.

Davis and Werwie directed and supervised the activities of their contract campaign fundraiser Rindfleisch. They were fully aware of her position as an employee of Milwaukee County, and yet did nothing to discourage or stop her alleged illegal activities. Their actions, regardless of whether they are prosecuted, do not demonstrate the type of character one would want in top administration posts.

If Gov. Walker continues to fail to abide by his own policy by not asking for the immediate resignations of Davis and Werwie it, sadly, seems to confirm that he remains more concerned about getting caught illegally campaigning than getting to the bottom of serious allegations of abuse of the public trust and treasury.

Perhaps even more ominous is the appearance, if not the reality, that the continued public employment of individuals interviewed by prosecutors and alleged to be intimately involved in the criminal activities under investigation amounts to the payment of hush money.

As an elected official entrusted with the legal operation of his office and responsibility for the actions of his employees, the buck stops with Scott Walker.

To maintain any credibility in the face of this deepening scandal and mounting questions about his involvement, Gov. Walker must act consistent with his stated ethics policy.

Gov. Walker must see to it that Davis and Werwie’s state employment ends now.

With rail on the mind as Joint Finance meets today to discuss establishing a high-speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee, this seems to be an appropriate time to point out that Scott Walker received a $10,000 contribution from a railroad chief who happens to be a very visible advocate for using Recovery Act dollars for freight rail development to stimulate the economy.

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

There's been much talk about passenger rail lately. But Bill Gardner is trying to get people to talk about freight rail, too.

The president and CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad has spent the past year speaking to federal and state elected officials and community leaders about his plan to spur economic growth if federal stimulus dollars are earmarked for freight rail improvements. Gardner proposes that with $90 million, three sections of state-owned track could be repaired.

...

"We heard (President Barack) Obama was ready to do some shovel-ready projects," Gardner said. "We can have this thing up and running in less than 90 days. We're ready to go to fix a state-owned property."

And from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Walker received the maximum $10,000 contribution from five individuals, including... William E. Gardner, president and chief executive officer of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad in Milwaukee.

Walker has been back-tracking and re-tracking and back-tracking again his initial declaration that he'd refuse federal Recovery Act money. Now it appears as though Walker himself is willing to get stimulated even by those who have known all along that the Recovery Act is good for Wisconsin.

Dear Mr. Walker,

Yes, jobs are the top concern for people all across the state of Wisconsin. But unlike you, who didn't start addressing job creation until after your announcement for Governor earlier this year, Wisconsin families have been concerned about losing their jobs in this Bush-created recession for nearly two years now.

It's great you finally joined President Obama's bandwagon in recovery dollars for its intended purpose: creating jobs and boosting local economies, like Milwaukee County's. It's also great you created a new marketing scheme within your office to "boost economic development." I am curious, however, about why you booted the Office of Community Business Development Partners out of your office in your 2006 budget, and eliminated the Department of Administrative Services Economic & Community Development division right when the economy was collapsing. I can't even believe an elected official would so completely abdicate his responsibility to help create jobs right when such efforts are needed the most.  

Here's what you said in October of 2008, during the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression:

The state and municipalities play larger roles than the county in shaping development, Walker said. They have access to more incentives that developers want and, in the case of cities, control zoning decisions. Often, firms interested in a deal mistakenly assume the county has a grab-bag of incentives, he said.

County Supervisor Toni Clark said she would oppose Walker's move, calling economic development "probably the most important division of county government."

The county needs to redouble its efforts at marketing its Park East holdings and hire more experienced development staffers, not downplay its development role, said Clark, the chairwoman of the County Board's Economic and Community Development Committee.

Walker's last two choices to lead the county economic development office, Bob Dennik and Tim Russell, came from his campaign and lacked depth in the development business, Clark said. Dennik left the post this week to become an executive with a Pewaukee construction company. Russell is now Walker's community relations director.

"Walker chooses folks who don't have (the necessary) experience," she said. (MJS, "Walker Budget Adjusts Priorities; He would lower profile of development efforts," 10/3/2008)

Your change of tune now that you're running for governor in what the county can do to spur economic development is hypocritical at best.

I'm also curious about what "Milwaukee County Works" will be marketing - your campaign for governor? It seems to me economic growth and job creation should have been an every year, year-round effort for an elected official with your responsibilities, not just in years leading up to an election. "Milwaukee County Works" sure is a great marketing ploy for campaign television ads though.

And then let's review your stance on federal recovery funds, and whether you were for or against, or was it you were against it before you were for it?

First of all, aren't federal dollars really taxpayer dollars that we sent to Uncle Sam out of our paychecks? And if Wisconsin is getting federal dollars, aren't we just getting back our own money? And if so, wouldn't we want to get back as much of our money as possible? So why would an elected leader take a stance in which he's refusing to accept our own money? Especially when he doesn't even have the authority to reject this return of our money.

Mr. Walker, your "criteria" are nonsensical and ridiculous and it's fortunate for Milwaukee County residents that the Board ignored you and did what is best for the taxpayers. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board rejected your arguments ("Just Plain Wrong," 1/8/09) in favor of the best interests of residents of Milwaukee County. So do your constituents.

1. When Scott Walker emailed Tim Russell with the above listed message, why did he use his campaign email account?... [Read more]

2. Scott Walker's email to Russell specifically mentions "no laptops", so that shows us that he knew that his top staff were busy using such laptops on county time. How and when did he find that out?... [Read more]

3. Could someone please explain the employment dates of Kelly Rindfleisch because the timeline looks pretty damning?... [Read more]

4. What is up with Walker's top past/present campaign staffers? What? Didn't a single one of them wonder why county employees were communicating with them on a regular basis during work hours?... [Read more]

[Eye on Wisconsin]