Under Gov. Walker and the legislative Republican majority, Wisconsin’s reputation for clean, honest and transparent government has taken a serious hit.
Again and again, they have chosen to reward special interests and big corporate donors over working families across our state.
This all began about a year ago when the governor introduced his budget repair bill, which rolled back 50 years of workers’ rights and divided our state like never before.
But it also included attacks on good government, such as allowing the governor to replace 39 civil service positions in state agencies with his own political appointees and allowing for no-bid contracts for the sale of state-owned power plants.
Since that time, this unprecedented cloud of secrecy and scandal has only grown larger.
From an ongoing criminal probe involving many of the governor’s top advisors, to the governor raising millions in out-of-state campaign contributions, to the oaths signed by Republicans to hide their taxpayer-funded redistricting plan from the public – our citizens are simply losing faith in their government.
That’s why my fellow Democrats and I are putting forward a package of proposals that would reverse the worst abuses of power of the Walker Administration and legislative Republicans and help restore integrity and trust in our government.
These proposals will help to restore integrity in all branches of government, including eliminating the governor’s newly created positions for his political appointees, ending unlimited fundraising during a recall petition period and measures that would help re-establish faith in our judicial system.
The people of our state need and deserve to know that their elected leaders are going to bat for them – not for big corporate donors and politically connected special interests.
We are serious about working to restore the public’s trust and faith in government after a year of extreme and divisive actions under Gov. Walker and his Republican allies.
And our proposals present a solid first step toward repairing that trust and restoring Wisconsin’s proud tradition of open and transparent government.
The people of Wisconsin deserve nothing less.
State Rep. Sandy Pasch, D-Whitefish Bay, is the assistant Democratic leader of the Wisconsin Assembly.