[img_assist|nid=52888|title=To boldly go....|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=155|height=155]Gov. Scott Walker's job-creation fervor so far has been mostly all tax cuts for corporations ... and hot air. The state's employment shortfall actually has worsened in Walker's first year but the one thing he wants us to believe is that "job creators" -- that would be businesses which, in the main, are creating virtually no jobs while shedding scads of others -- are "uncertain" about the future and thus need more hand-holding and palm-greasing from the state Capitol.
And look at this: Walker's antics have come at the cost of the state's highest budget in history, significant cuts in wages and benefits for state employees and more spending on loyalist hacks. He's replaced scads of civil servants with political appointees answerable to him, paying some of them tens of thousands of dollars more annually than the veteran professionals they have replaced, despite their lesser experience.
The self-described "bold" governor also has created work, though not more jobs, within his office by creating a "jobs hotline" that could better be described as a jobs tepid-line. It's an operation that sounds pretty inept. From today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (highlights mine):
... The 113 calls logged to the help-line for businesses don't appear to have created any new jobs yet since the hotline was created on Jan. 28, and some of the ideas from callers showed little promise at all ... .
The hotline - and the pledge that businesses would receive a call back within 24 hours - was one element of Walker's broader campaign plan last year for creating 250,000 jobs during his first term. The log for the hotline through Aug. 25, released to the Journal Sentinel through an open records request, showed that about 39% of the calls did not receive a return call within the 24-hour goal set by the governor.
[Candidate Walker promised:] "I will create a 'Jobs Hotline' so job creators have direct access to the governor's office within 24 hours. No more unreturned calls, no more uninterested politicians. When job creators are looking to expand or relocate to Wisconsin, or if they are thinking of leaving, my office will be able to offer immediate action to bring new jobs to our state and save existing jobs."
Or not.