POLITICIANS KEEPING PROMISES

It was a big week at the Capitol as Governor Walker delivered the biennial budget.  Shortly after the address I got on the road and headed north to keynote the Portage Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner and the very next morning went to Waukesha to speak at our Dept. of Transportation's minority contractors' Golden Shovel Awards to tout some budget highlights.  I’m happy about a number of budget initiatives that will have a major impact improving our economy and expanding our workforce.  This budget expands career and technical education in our K-12 schools, our technical colleges, and our correctional institutions.  We are adding another $20 million to the rainy day fund, making it 178 times larger than when we took office.  We are cutting income and property taxes so both will be lower in 2018 than they were in 2010.  And we’re putting more into connecting homeless people to jobs, the first boost in 25 years.  This budget carries through on our campaign’s promises and funds our priorities – lower taxes, more opportunity.

THE FIGHT FOR LIFE GOES ON

Since Roe v. Wade in 1973, more than 54 million abortions have taken place in the United States.  That’s 54 million little human lives never born, never even given a chance to make their mark in the world.  This week I spoke to activists with Wisconsin Right to Life who were in Madison as a voice for the voiceless.  We have had several victories in Wisconsin in the last few years that further protect the lives of the unborn and the health and wellbeing of mothers.  Wisconsin state law now requires that a woman see an ultrasound and meet with a doctor before she can have an abortion – a policy that educates a woman about the lasting impact that an abortion could have not only on the life of her baby, but her own physical and psychological health.  Abortions in Wisconsin cannot be performed after 24 week of pregnancy, which protects unborn children at the point at which they can certainly feel pain.   And we defunded Planned Parenthood.  This meeting was a reminder that we still have more to do; the fight for life goes on.

MAKING NEW FRIENDS A WORLD AWAY

Early this week I met with our 25th largest trading partner, Sweden. I've met with the Ambassador a number of times over the years but this visit I also talked business with their Trade Minister.  The Swedish delegation was not the only one shopping in our state this week though. 

In 2015, Wisconsin exported $1.5 billion dollars’ worth of goods and services to our third largest trading partner, China.  In 2014 I traveled to China and everywhere I went I saw Wisconsin products from Harley Davidson motorcycles to Wisconsin grown ginseng.  As Wisconsin’s jobs ambassador I sat down with a delegation from Guangdong Province and my friends from the Chinese Consulate of Chicago to talk about expanding our trade.  Both Wisconsin and Guangdong occupy about the same geographic space, but Wisconsin, with a population of 5.7 million people pales in comparison to the more than 100 million people who live in Guangdong.  That’s a whole lot of people who can buy products “Made in Wisconsin.”

Forward,

Rebecca Kleefisch
Lt. Governor