Last February, Gov. Scott Walker became a Republican icon after successfully orchestrating the near complete destruction of union rights in Wisconsin. Walker and the state GOP managed to strip collective bargaining rights for almost all public workers by separating the initial budget bill into two portions: one bill that comprises the state budget, and another that solely exists to strip public union rights.
These events were heavily reported and most everyone in the state now has a strong opinion about whether Walker's practices were morally or practically sound. What's often forgotten in these discussions is that, before Walker signed the blatantly union-killing bill, he initially argued that the rights had to be taken away in order to balance the state's budget. ""I don't have anything to negotiate,"" Walker declared in February while promoting his budget. ""We're broke.""
That phrase, ""we're broke,"" is repeated a lot by Walker. Yet, in spite of the dire financial straits which he warns of in speech after speech, it was reported last week that an agency which Walker personally created, spent $60,000 on iPads for a staff technology upgrade. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. purchased 73 iPads and 3G service for half of the tablets purchased with public, tax payer funds. In an article by Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tom Thielding, a WEDC spokesman explained that the 73 iPads were ""cheaper than buying everyone a laptop.""
This assertion is false. Anyone who even casually travels to commercial electronics stores knows that there are several laptops from brands such as HP, Toshiba and others that retail well below $499, the current retail price for the basic, 16GB model of the iPad2 which Walker's staff purchased. If you want something cheaper than a laptop, there are netbooks, humble computers to be sure, but their price in the mid $200 region makes them extremely affordable for companies looking to buy computers in bulk.
There are countless options of equally new, perfectly usable computers available for Walker's staff to buy, and the notion that iPads were a more cost-efficient option for the agency is absurd. Meanwhile, Bice's article contains another questionable assertion by Walker's staff. Theilding claims that the iPads were a necessary purchase, saying ""The old Department of Commerce…was just lumbering along."" That claim has been refuted by an anonymous employee of the Doyle administration, who Bice quotes as saying he ""never"" thought the technology department was in need of a technology upgrade.
It's difficult to get too upset about small scale-business expenses such as this. In 2010, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, attempted to demonstrate fiscal responsibility by proposing a 5 percent cut to every Congressional office, a meaningless savings of $30 million among a multi-trillion dollar deficit. Just as Boehner and other politicians who practice similar acts of grandstanding deserve no credit for responsible spending, Walker doesn't necessarily deserve to be labeled an irresponsible spender for the iPad splurge alone.
However, Walker's spending spree is emblematic of his lack of credibility on budgetary matters. In March, it was reported that Walker had spent nearly $41,000 on travel expenses in his first three months in office, more than twice the amount Jim Doyle had spent in the same time period. Also in March, Walker asked the federal government for $150 million in stimulus money for necessary upgrades the state's train system after publicly and theatrically rejecting the high speed rail funds during his campaign. Then, of course, there is the biggest fiscal lie Walker told: that the state was facing a $137 million dollar deficit in the coming year and needed to cut worker's rights to save it. This artificially created budget crisis was the result of a $140 million special interest tax cut for state businesses.
There are more examples, to be sure. And while the iPad purchase alone doesn't signify much, the cumulative weight of Walker's financial irresponsibility is unmistakable.
With the Walker recall effort scheduled to begin Nov. 15, the heated arguments about the success of Walker's governorship will resume. When they do, Walker will make many stump speeches and produce endless ads saying that Wisconsin was broke, and that he was merely being fiscally responsible.
Let there be no dispute: our state has never been broke. And Walker has clearly never been fiscally responsible.
Ryan Waal is a sophomore majoring in English. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
