Gov. Scott Walker (R) calls for pay raises for Wisconsin state employees.

Apparently the budget can handle it now. Makes sense, now that all those bloated union contracts are receding into unfond memory:

Most state workers would get a 1% pay raise in each of the next two fiscal years under a plan by Gov. Scott Walker’s administration.

The general wage increase would be the first in four years for most rank-and-file employees and the first in five years for most managers, according to the administration.

The pay raise would cost more than $140 million over two years and apply to most state workers, including employees at University of Wisconsin System campuses. Employees making less than $15 an hour would see an additional increase of up to 25 cents an hour.

If you think that I’m laughing at this rather elegant in-your-face to Wisconsin progressives, you should read Ace of Spades HQ: they’re using the phrase “Pondering menacingly while relaxing upon his throne of skulls.” AoSHQ thinks that this is part and parcel of a general plan to build support for a hypothetical 2016 Presidential campaign; I personally want to get through the 2014 election cycle first, but it certainly won’t hurt Scott Walker if he’s demonstrating skill at turning states around.  Because God knows we’re going to need somebody to do that in 2016. Continue reading Gov. Scott Walker (R) calls for pay raises for Wisconsin state employees.

Wisconsin Democrats looking at “Anybody But ME!” for Governor race?

Democrats in Wisconsin want you to know: they’re going to be on the stick for 2014!

Wisconsin Democrats repeatedly made the argument at their state convention over the weekend that Governor Scott Walker needs to be defeated in 2014.

Hear that!  They’re tanned! Rested! And ready to go!

However, there continue to be few hints about exactly who will take on that challenge in the coming months.

…Oh.  Right.  One of them will have to actually volunteer to walk into the buzzsaw. Continue reading Wisconsin Democrats looking at “Anybody But ME!” for Governor race?

Former Wisconsin recall Lt-GOV candidate breaks with Left, Stands With Scott Walker.

Cle-ver, Governor Walker:

Mahlon Mitchell, the president of the Professional Fire Fighters Association of Wisconsin, says he backs Gov. Scott Walker in his effort to end residency rules statewide.

The move comes less than a year after Mitchell ran unsuccessfully against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in an attempted recall of Walker and Kleefisch.

This is a good way to help splinter off the firefighters from the government drones.  Oh, yes, I’m sure that Mr. Mitchell will take the position that this is just a one-time, specific issue, no-precedent sort of thing.  He just wants to know what it’s like to be on the winning side in Wisconsin for once, you see.  And he’d like his fire fighters to know, too.

So, don’t worry your pre… your heads over this, ye Wisconsin progressives.  Everything’s still going your way.

Judicial probe into Scott Walker associates ends unhappily. For progressives.

Point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vapsfffHj3Y

Ed Schultz concluded the segment by making a wild assertion. “Scott Walker could very well be indicted in the coming days,” the MSNBC host said.

…What’s that?  You want to take a moment to drink Schultz’s pain, there?  Of course, of course.  We can wait*. Continue reading Judicial probe into Scott Walker associates ends unhappily. For progressives.

Scott Walker opts Wisconsin out of Medicare expansion.

Gee, no bias in this at all:

Gov. Scott Walker announced Wednesday that he won’t propose expanding Medicaid services in Wisconsin, breaking with other Republican governors who decided to accept federal money for an expansion as offered under the health care overhaul law.

And, from later in the article:

So far, six Republican governors have agreed to the Medicaid expansion, while fourteen have turned it down.

Which means that it was those six Republican governors that have been doing the breaking, Sparky. And every single one of ’em is keeping close to the exit, setting it up so that the legislature could tell ’em no, or both.

Sheesh. The media we have today!

Heads up: bad news about Scott Walker’s new budget numbers…

… well, it’s bad news if you’re a progressive Wisconsinite, that is.

Wisconsin’s budget picture brightened Thursday, with new estimates that show a surplus will grow to $484 million, giving Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker even more room to pursue their tax cutting agenda.

The estimate from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau was nearly $137 million better than one Walker’s administration released in November. The numbers will be used by Walker as he puts the final touches on his two-year spending plan, which he’s set to unveil on Feb. 20.

Yes, I’m a dirty so-and-so. So?

Via Althouse, via Instapundit.

Scott Walker (R, Wisconsin) planning state income tax cuts.

He’s also planning to freeze property taxes as much as possible, but Walker is thinking about how to lower Wisconsin’s state income tax rates for upcoming years.

Walker didn’t discuss how much of an income-tax cut he was talking about, other than to say it would be “significant” and would be put in place over a number of years. That means some of the tax cuts wouldn’t take effect until 2016 or later – after the next budget ends in mid-2015.

And here’s the important bit (bolding mine)

For years, such long-term commitments created a massive structural deficit that made budgeting much more difficult for governors and lawmakers. Walker largely eliminated the structural deficit – the imbalance between expected revenue and expected expenses – in his first state budget and has repeatedly touted that.

As well he should tout that; between Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature, Wisconsin’s showing/projecting a budget surplus for the first time in years.  Good thing that that recall nonsense went nowhere, huh?

Via Legal Insurrection.

#rsrh ‘Won’t Back Down’ and the Walker Effect.

The interesting bit in this article on union pushback against the new movie Won’t Back Down is not this one…

In real life, Parents Across America, an advocacy group which has received union funding, has launched a “fight Hollywood” campaign asking members to contact entertainers at all involved with the film or even a summer concert to kick it off. The intent, according to its website, which lists phone numbers and emails of agents and publicists, is to brand the film as a “feel bad, not feel good” movie. On their list: Davis and Gyllenhaal, plus Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Jack Black, the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and Josh Groban.

…it’s this one: Continue reading #rsrh ‘Won’t Back Down’ and the Walker Effect.

The Democrats’ Lost Wisconsin Lesson for Obama.

Lord, please continue to make my enemies’ cheerleaders ridiculous.  Amen.

From Hot Air Headlines comes this entertaining Wisconsin post-mortem, and the first paragraph will tell you why I used that adjective:

A controversial incumbent hangs on and retains his job despite fierce opposition in a bad economy. Sounds like a hopeful scenario for the Obama campaign, right? Instead it was Republican Scott Walker’s impressive victory in Wisconsin. If President Obama is smart—and he is nothing if not that—he will go to school on Walker. Here are some lessons he has probably already absorbed.

I’ll just list the ‘lessons’ – Money Matters Most, Ground War Can’t Counter Air Superiority, The Base Ain’t Enough, Go Ugly Early, and Class Warfare Has Already Begun – to reassure my readers that the Democrats (well, Paul Belgala) haven’t actually learned a darn thing from Wisconsin.  No, that actually covers The Base Ain’t Enough: Paul Begala seems to think that the President doesn’t need to move any further to the right to keep independents, which is funny as all get-out.  Just like the thought that the President learns lessons; but that’s not what I want to get into.  What I want to get into is what’s missing from that list of lessons. Continue reading The Democrats’ Lost Wisconsin Lesson for Obama.