"We want student success:" Governor Walker visits Sheboygan on state budget tour

SHEBOYGAN -- On Friday, September 22nd, Governor Scott Walker sang the praises of the state budget saying it invests in schools, cuts property taxes, and freezes UW tuition. But some critics say it just kicks the can further down the road.

Governor Walker works his way through the Sheboygan South High School tech lab and told students if they're interested in tech jobs, they will be plenty of opportunity under his new budget.

"Right now in the State of Wisconsin, our big problem isn't jobs, its finding enough people to fill the jobs," Walker said.

The $76-billion budget the Governor signed Thursday, September 21st provides $600 million more for K-12 schools.

"It's really important at a time when there are more people in the workforce than ever before, we need as many trained people as possible, and K-12 education is really the fundamental building block in that," Walker said.

Among the Governor's 99 vetoes to the budget was extra funding for low revenue school districts that assembly republicans had pushed for. A strike of the pen drew criticism from democrats as well.

Gordon Hintz

"The fact that the governor vetoes an additional $90-million for low-income school districts like Oshkosh and Green Bay and was able to maintain a tax cut for 47 millionaires shows you where this governor's priorities are," State Rep. Gordon Hintz said.

But the Governor said his budget invests $11.5-billion in education, more actual dollars than ever before. while keeping property taxes down.

"We want student success for every student in this state, but we also want to build a strong workforce," Walker said.

"After years of cuts to the UW system and public education, if you lower your expectations, I guess it's nice that they didn't get cut anymore," Hintz said.

This budget also delays the north leg of the zoo interchange in Milwaukee and takes the I-94 project near Miller Park off the state's to do list. The budget was signed 12 weeks overdue.

Now that the budget is signed, Governor Scott Walker is expected to announce his re-election campaign soon.