Link to article Amid presidential campaign, Walker's Deficit Balloons to 2 Billion Written by Louis Weisberg, Staff writer Thursday, 29 January 2015 08: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will have to plug a roughly $280 million budget shortfall by the end of June, and the state faces a two-year deficit that could be as large as $2 billion, based on new estimates released from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. When Walker took office in 2011, the state faced a roughly $3 billion budget shortfall, based on agency requests. Walker declared that the state was “bankrupt” then, an assertion that was supported by the media. Somehow, there’s no mention of “bankruptcy” in the right-wing media this time around. Walker used the 2011 deficit as an excuse to dismantle public unions, an action that was high on the agenda of right-wing groups such as the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity. His Act 10 forced public workers to pay more for their health care and pension benefits and ended nearly all their collective bargaining rights. He made deeper cuts to education than any other governor in the nation, including cuts to public schools, the University of Wisconsin and technical colleges. He also cut the state workforce, taking millions of dollars in income out of the state’s economy. Over his first term, Walker turned down hundreds of millions of federal dollars for expanding Medicaid, building high-speed rail and expanding high-speed Internet service in the state. Those were among the decisions that put the state on the slowest track in the region for job creation. But Walker’s Act 10 brought the largest demonstrations to Madison in decades, making him an instant sensation with the tea party acolytes Fox News. Now Walker is using his fame to mount an exploratory campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The governor has spent a great deal of time since his re-election pulling together his presidential campaign, visiting other states and raising funds. The latest budget figures were released just a day before Walker joined other GOP presidential hopefuls at separate events in Iowa and California. Democrats renewed their criticism that Walker is distracted by his political ambitions and instead should be focused on fixing the state’s budget problem. “The Scott Walker claiming that he cut taxes and balanced the budget faces a different reality at home,” said WisDems communication director Melissa Baldauff in a press release. “While Walker is campaigning in Iowa and promising caucus voters he’ll be back there soon and often, Wisconsin is facing a $2.2 billion budget deficit for the next biennium that is well on its way to $3 billion and higher. Worse, the state is expected to end the current fiscal year with a $283 million shortfall.” Baldauff continued: “Instead of bragging to Iowans about how he busted unions with an unnecessary budget repair bill in 2011, Walker needs to start talking to his Republican Legislature about a budget repair bill right now to address this staggering deficit. The $283 million shortfall for this year is more than three times the $79 million threshold in state law to trigger a budget repair and is more than double the amount of the deficit Walker used as justification to pass his contentious Act 10 legislation. Wisconsinites need to start hearing real, serious solutions from Scott Walker about how he will close this deficit without gutting critical services or raising taxes on the middle class.” Walker will not release an emergency budget plan to balance the $283 million shortfall for the year that ends June 30, his spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said in an email to The Associated Press. The state constitution requires the budget to be balanced, meaning that savings will have to be found over the next five months to make up the deficit. Walker’s deficit will likely spur deep cuts across state government, which would please conservatives, but make it difficult for him to follow through on additional promised tax cuts. Walker and Republican legislative leaders have stressed for weeks that difficult decisions lie ahead. Wisconsin’s two-year shortfall hits about $2 billion when state agency requests — which will certainly not be filled in full by Walker or the Legislature — are taken into account. The budget will be about $650 million short by mid-2017 just to continue spending at current levels. Walker is set to release his roughly $68 billion, two-year budget on Feb. 3 and the Legislature will make changes to it over the next several months. Co-chairs of the Legislature’s budget committee issued a statement attributing the budget woes to the $2 billion in tax cuts passed during Walker’s first term, which they supported. Large cuts went to the wealthiest Wisconsinites, while cuts for the middle class were minimal and taxes for some poor residents increased under their plan. The Associated Press contributed