Free Republic

PLEASANT PRAIRIE – Surrounded by more than 50 supporters, including children and war veterans, Gov. Scott Walker on Sunday signed Wisconsin’s $70.1 billion, 2013-2015 budget into law. The Republican governor, put the executive pen to a Republican-led budget, signing the biennial spending plan beneath a banner that declared, “Working for Wisconsin.” Walker, appearing at Catalyst Exhibits Inc., a trade show booth design and marketing company that relocated to the state from Illinois in 2011, said that while the media would focus on his vetoes, the “real story is this is a budget built for the hard-working taxpayers of the state...

MADISON — They picked up their ball and went home. Assembly Democrats, fed up with what they saw as the futility of fighting a “disastrous” Republican-crafted state budget proposal, on Wednesday declined to offer amendments or to even debate the $68 billion, two-year spending plan. Instead, the minority party effectively gave the majority the silent treatment. Republicans quickly brushed off the political statement, and used their numbers to pass a budget they praised for lifting a big burden off of Wisconsin taxpayers. Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, had plenty to say at a press conference following the budget’s passage on...

Madison - With a turbulent year behind him and the prospect of a historic recall election before him, Gov. Scott Walker is expected to highlight Wisconsin's economy in his second "state of the state" address Wednesday. ~snip~ In his first year, he balanced a $3 billion budget deficit with a focus on spending cuts rather than tax increases; presided over a modest increase of 13,500 private-sector jobs; and has seen unprecedented campaign fundraising and a new poll Wednesday putting him ahead of Democratic challengers. But challenges abound: The state has lost jobs for six months straight while the nation has...

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, filed a complaint Thursday morning with the Dane County district attorney charging that the Joint Conference Committee that convened at 6 p.m. Wednesday and passed an amended version of Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill is in violation of the open meetings law. The complaint states that Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and his brother, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and others "knowingly attended the meeting in violation of the Open Meetings law" and are subject to penalties identified in state statute. The complaint asks that the actions taken at the meeting be declared void....