Gov. Walker: Budget Will Focus on Jobs, Education, Infrastructure, Reforms

Gov. Scott Walker gave his weekly radio address on Thursday. Here, he talks about the upcoming state budget process.

Hi, I am Scott Walker.

I recently received budget requests from each state agency, which outline the money each of those agencies would like to spend in the future.  Over the next few months, I will be carefully reviewing each of these budget requests.  These requests are just the first step in the budget process—I will eventually propose a complete budget early next year for consideration by members of the State Legislature.

The budget I signed into law last year made long-term reforms balancing a $3.6 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, without massive public employee layoffs, and without massive government service reductions.  Wisconsin has a projected budget surplus this year.  We are depositing money into the state’s rainy day fund in two consecutive years for the first time in our state’s history.  Unlike other states, instead of burying the next generation under a mountain of economically crippling debt, we are making responsible decisions—leaving our children and grandchildren with funding reserves for future hard economic times.

The next state budget I plan to introduce early next year will focus on five main priorities:

1.      Creating Jobs

2.      Transforming Education

3.      Developing Our Workforce

4.      Investing in Infrastructure

5.      Reforming Government

As I work on the next state budget, I am excited about Wisconsin’s future and the opportunities we have to grow private sector jobs in our great state.

The state partnered with the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association to produce and distribute brief radio address once a week.  Audio files and a written transcript of this radio address can be accessed on http://www.wi-broadcasters.org and http://walker.wi.gov/Weekly-Radio-Addresses.  To download an mp3 file, you can right click the radio address link and click “save link as.”