Former Gov. Scott Walker urged Wisconsinites to vote “YES” on the two state referendums on the Aug. 13 primary ballot.
“We need checks and balances,” said Walker. He made the comments in an interview on Aug. 12 with talk show host Jay Weber of WISN 1130 AM.
Walker is the second former governor to urge a yes vote on the referendums; former Gov. Tommy Thompson penned an op-ed with the Monroe Times newspaper also urging a yes vote.
Walker said he and his family were voting yes.
“The answer should be for accountable and efficient government to vote yes,” said Walker. He urged people to strip partisanship out of it and consider whether they would want any government to be able to engage in “wild” spending without a check and balance.
Walker said there “should be an objective, clear process, particularly with this level of funding out there.”
He said “the size and the magnitude” of the COVID money flowing into the state “exposed the weakness” of the current system, which dates to the Great Depression, when the Legislature delegated away its constitutional spending authority to the governor.
Walker noted that he had concerns when Democrat Jim Doyle spent federal money too.
He said that $4.8 billion has flowed into the state since Covid.
Walker criticized “the idea that one person, a governor – Republican or Democrat – can take money from the federal government and send it wherever they want – in this case, Planned Parenthood and a soccer stadium.”
Walker added, “A soccer stadium in Milwaukee – what does that have to do with COVID? That’s a class example out there.”
He added that “special interest groups have a vested interest, have a slush fund right now. Government seems willing to spend money on anything out there.”
He said Democrats are trying “to confuse people that somehow this would slow down emergency funds, but I don’t think they can cite any real example.”
