[Madison, Wisc...]  Doctors who handed out sick notes to protesters while on the corner of Mifflin and Hamilton streets last year claim protestors received more thorough examinations on the street in public than they would have at an office visit. This revelation was discoverd in an examination of  documents obtained by the MacIver News Service through an open records request.

The Medical Examining Board issued reprimands to seven doctors in October, who had given hundreds of sick notes to protesters last February so they wouldn’t get in trouble for skipping work.

The MacIver News Service was the first to report on the incident with a video catching the doctors in the act. The video included one of the doctor’s examinations, in which the videographer gave a list of trivial symptoms. Dr. Shropeshire said he should take some time off of work and wrote him a note.

Scores of complaints soon flowed to the Medical Examining Board, including a dozen from other physicians who saw the news reports.

“This is not medicine, and the doctors standing on the street issuing these fraudulent medical excuses are completely unethical in doing so,” wrote Dr. Paul Maguire.

However, during the investigation, the doctors not only defended their actions, but they claimed the exams they provided on the street corner were superior to examinations they perform in their own offices.

“Many evaluations are done on the phone and often are based on a quite brief conversation with my nurse. In that common circumstance I don’t have any conversation with the patient,” said Dr. Louis Sanner, who can be seen in the MNS video. “On February 19, however, I did see and speak with each patient.”

Dr. James Shropeshire, who appeared in the MNS giving a sick note to the videographer, wrote to the MEB, “None of these notes were ‘phony’ or contained false information. I did not distribute blank notes to anyone. My evaluations of these patients were often more comprehensive than those I, or my support staff, perform when we prepare work or school excuses in my office.”

In the end, the Medical Examining Board issued reprimands to the doctors, not for improper care, but for not keeping proper records of the exams. The University of Wisconsin, during its own internal investigation, identified an additional 15 doctors who might have participated in the street corner examinations. The Medical Examining Board could potentially investigate those doctors as well. Its next meeting is scheduled for February 15.

The Medical Examining Board issued reprimands to seven doctors over the incident in February 2011 where they were handing out sick notes to protesters so they wouldn’t get in trouble for skipping work. The MacIver News Service caught the incident on video and broke the story, which was quickly picked up by media outlets across the country.

State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) reacted with what he called “extreme displeasure” at the light punishment handed out to doctors.

“It is important that people have confidence in the integrity of their doctors,” Grothman told MNSlast year. “If a medical provider provides phony excuses for friends and political allies, how do we know these same doctors are not making up fraudulent excuses for cases involving workers compensation, personal injury claims, or falsely prescribing prescription drugs?”

The doctors reprimanded by the MEB, and who issued fake sick notes to anyone who wanted one, with only a cursory question and answer ‘session’ are:

Adam H. Balin
Mark B. Beamsley
Hannah M. Keevil
Bernard F. Micke
Kathleen A. Oriel
James H. Shropshire
Louis A. Sanner

Ronni L. Hayon and Patrick A. McKenna had received administrative warnings and were involved in the same incident.

The MacIver News Service broke this story and has video evidence of many of the ‘examinations’ that show the brevity of the interactions and the questions asked. Dr. Sanner even chastized our reporter for violations of patient privacy laws by taping the exams which took place in front of tens of thousands of people on a public sidewalk across from the Wisconsin State Capitol.

These fraudulent esick notes were not without financial damage to employers, Grothman has noted. Further, many school boards and taxpayers, who perhaps had to pay for substitute teachers or parents who were forced to pay for daycare or miss work when schools were needlessly closed the Senator said.

“I would have expected at least a month’s loss of license for so brazenly making up excuses for people who wanted a day off,” said Grothman.  “It is also disappointing the University of Wisconsin has not independently suspended doctors under their purview.  This will only perpetuate a stereotype that the UW is just concerned about keeping their well-paid employees getting a paycheck and the Medical Examining Board is more concerned about protecting the paychecks of unethical and unscrupulous doctors than maintaining integrity in the medical profession.”

The Medical Examining Board is currently made up of 12 members, only three of which are not members of the medical community.

Grothman is the author of Senate Bill 420, introduced last week, which increases the number of public members on the board from three to five, and requires that three of the public members of the board be representatives of private sector businesses having at least 100 employees.

“It is clear the Good Old Boy Network is too prevalent on the Medical Examining Board and the State Legislature should act to include more private citizens who will express greater concern for fundamental ethics in medicine and restore the public’s confidence in this state licensing board,” said Grothman after the Board issued the reprimands last year. “Perhaps two new members that are employers who have to suffer the consequences of doctors who frivolously approve sick claims will help provide some semblance of balance to the Board.”

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[Madison, Wisc...] Citizen volunteers are entering signatures from recall petitions into a massive, searchable database at the rate of 2.7 every second–hoping to uncover any evidence of fraud. However, all that work could go to waste if the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board gets its way.

On Wednesday, GAB staff told the Board it was decided internally that it will not accept any evidence of fraud from individuals or third-party groups. Only the official election campaigns of those officials being recalled may participate in reviewing the hundreds of thousands of signatures on the petitions.

Verify the Recall's Brown

Yet, groups like Verify the Recall, which has over 13,000 volunteers working to verify the signatures, are not allowed to coordinate their activities with political campaigns, since it could violate their non-profit tax status.

Verify the Recall, however, is not throwing in the towel. The independent effort, a project of two Wisconsin Tea Party groups, is working on a court challenge to the GAB’s decision, demanding that citizens be allowed to participate in the review process.

“The whole concept of recall is for citizens to hold their government accountable, and that’s what we’re doing too,” Ross Brown, Verify the Recall organizer, told the MacIver News Service on Wednesday. “The truth is the truth. It doesn’t matter where it comes from.”

In addition to Governor Walker, the Lt. Governor and four Republican Senators are also being recalled. The total cost of these elections could exceed $18 million. So far Verify the Recall has reviewed all the senator recall petitions, and believes it has found enough evidence to prevent at least one of the elections.

Brown feels confident his group will be able to force the GAB to accept the evidence it’s found.

“We’ve done our homework prior to getting to this point,” Brown said. “We are moving full steam ahead.”

Based on public reports, citizens not affiliated with either the recall organization or those targeted for recall this spring have found scores of problems with the petitions, but Wiscosnin’s elections watchdogs have ruled they will not consider any of their evidence.

The Verify the Recall project had three goals:

• To conduct a comprehensive review of recall petition data

• To uphold the integrity of election processes

• To publicly present all findings

On Tuesday, the Government Accountability Board ruled that the only evidence of fraud they will consider must be contained in the challenges offered by Governor Scott Walker or the four Republican state senators against whom recall petitions were filed last month. The GAB will not investigate or consider independently submitted evidence of fraud.

“Staff believes the Board should only rely on information that is developed by the staff in its petition reveiw, submitted by the officeholders in a challenge or the petitioners in response to determine the sufficiencey of recall petitions,” wrote GAB Executive Director and General Counsel Kevin Kennedy in a memo to GAB members Tuesday.

The GAB discussion on the petition review criteria and process focused on their minimum statutory requirements.

The organizers of Verify the Recall say they are prepared to go to court to see to it that the GAB does more.

[Madison, Wisc...] Citizens not affiliated with either the recall organizations or the office holders targeted for recall this spring have found scores of problems with the petitions, but Wisconsin’s elections watchdogs have decided they will not consider any of their evidence.

GAB Meeting Feb 7, 2012

GAB Director and General Counsel Kevin Kennedy said there is no process in place for accepting information from outside groups and individuals. Governor Scott Walker and the four Republican state senators against whom recall petitions were filed last month are the only parties that can contest the validity of signatures, according to Kennedy.

The GAB will not investigate or consider independently-submitted evidence of recall petition fraud. This includes circumstances wherein individuals might notify the board that their own name and forged signature were submitted.

According to the GAB, anyone concerned that their signature was fraudulently included on a recall petition, therefore, must notify not the GAB, but rather the target of the recall. In addition, they must do so by the challenge deadline if they want that signature reviewed  and ultimately, possibly, struck.

“Staff believes the Board should only rely on information that is developed by the staff in its petition review, submitted by the officeholders in a challenge or the petitioners in response to determine the sufficiency of recall petitions,” wrote GAB Executive Director and General Counsel Kevin Kennedy in a memo to GAB members Tuesday.

The GAB discussion on the petition review criteria and process focused on their minimum statutory requirements. However nothing in state statutes prohibits the GAB from considering independently-gathered evidence of fraud.

“Given the unprecedented nature of these recall efforts it would be improper to change procedures in the midst of our review,” Kennedy wrote.

The four Republican state senators have until Thursday to challenge signatures. Governor Walker’s challenges are due Feb. 27 and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch has until March 5 since she received copies of the petitions seeking her recall a week after Walker.

The GAB has until March 19 to verify all of the petitions.

MacIver News’ Bill Osmulski has more in this video report:

[Madison, Wisc...] A dozen doctors from Wisconsin and around the country contacted the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing to express their disappointment in the doctors accused of writing fake sick notes to protesters on February 18, 2011 at the Capitol, according to documents obtained by the MacIver News Service.

Some of the doctors expressed concern, others outrage, and some even filed formal complaints against the sick note doctors. In general, the doctors felt the incident reflected poorly on the entire medical profession.

“If the above is true, then it is unprofessional and unethical,” wrote Dr. Ronald Long. “Certainly it is a fraud against the citizens and medical board of Wisconsin.”

The documents were turned over to MNS in response to an open records request.

The controversy surrounding doctors handing out fake sick notes to protesters skipping work during the February 2011 protests erupted after a MacIver News Service report, which documented the incident. The Wisconsin Medical Examining Board eventually identified seven of the doctors and issued them reprimands.

Many of the doctors who complained to the board before the judgment, suggested far more severe punishments. Some even called for criminal charges.

“I believe this physician’s [Shropeshire] medical license should be revoked,” wrote Dr. Susan Torhorst.

“This is a mockery of medicine, and a complete fraud.  There is no ‘sickness’ here, and such behavior by trusted professionals in your state is completely unacceptable and illegal,” wrote Dr. Paul Maguire.

“If culpable, the man [Dr. Shropshire] should have his license suspended and rehabilitated as to the appropriate purpose of his privilege,” wrote Dr. Scott Sweeney.

“While all people, including physicians, are entitled to our own political and other opinions, there is clearly a line drawn when it comes to utilizing the priviledges of licensure in the manner exhibited by Dr. Shropshire,” wrote Dr. Stewart Eads Jr.  “Specifically, in the State of Wisconsin, this unprofessional conduct is expressly prohibited by Wisconsin law under ‘Administrative Code Med 10.02(2)(m)’ which unambiguously prohibits ‘Knowingly making any false statement, written or oral, in practicing under any license, with fraudulent intent.’”

Six of the seven sick note doctors were affiliated with the University of Wisconsin. The University said it decided to discipline the doctors, but they are appealing it. UW won’t release any other information about the incident until the appeals process is over. However, a retired professor with the Medical college was happy to share his thoughts with the Medical Examining Board.

Dr. Jeffrey Jones, retired Professor of Medicine at the UW Medical School, listed three specific points about the incident. 1. “The so-called patient-physician interaction and care which occurred was well below any reasonable community standard of care.” 2. “The incident makes a mockery of a licensed physician’s role as a neutral judge of biological facts, a role which is important to the well being of the public.” 3. “The physicians have faculty appointments with the University of Wisconsin Medical School, and provide a very poor model for physicians in training.”

“These physicians have disgraced the Medical profession in general and the UW Medical School in particular. The black eye given to the University on the national stage is well deserved,” wrote Dr. Andre Thebert. “Providing cover for protesters by handing out phony medical excuses is fraud, pure and simple.”

A doctor from the Medical College of Virginia wrote directly to two of the doctors.

“If this report is not true, such a vicious allegation would be an excellent ‘teachable moment’ to set before your students as an example of how ‘activism’ by professionals charged with the highest levels of professional conduct can be misinterpreted to the detriment of the profession as a whole,” wrote Dr. Raleigh Powell, Medical College of Virginia. “If the activities in the article are indeed true I would hope that you recognize by now the unethical nature of this activity and not only cease and desist but also apologize for the insult to the profession that such a lapse of judgement [sic] represents.”

The Medical Examining Board reprimanded only seven doctors in connection with the incident, first reported by the MacIver News Service in February 2011, wherein doctors were handing out sick notes to protesters who had skipped work and needed an excuse. The University of Wisconsin said it identified 22 doctors who might have taken part. The Wisconsin State Journal reported a committee of the board plans to decide this month whether to investigate the additional doctors.

To date, no one from the Medical Examining Board has requested a copy of the MNS footage of the incident.

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There is a reason that WTMJ’s Charlie Sykes is one of Wisconsin’s most popular radio talk show hosts.  A successful talk show host gathers the information and presents it in a way that is both entertaining and informative to the listener. In A Nation of Moochers:  America’s Addiction To Getting Something For Nothing, Sykes brings his radio host’s skill to writing an indictment of the present state of American culture.

This is not a cheerful book. Dorothy does not click her heels together three times to return to Kansas, nor will wishful thinking suddenly return us to the days of Calvin Coolidge. The assessment of our culture is bleak.

It is the culture, not just our economic situation. While the book is a dismal narrative of statistics detailing the economic impact, the net result of the great expansion of the modern welfare state under both Republicans and Democrats has been to create a culture of dependency, a nation of moochers.

Who are the moochers? As Richard Nixon would have said, we are all moochers now. Moocherism is bipartisan, even nonpartisan, and reaches into every socioeconomic strata.

From Hollywood movie moguls demanding subsidies to pay for movie star contracts to homeowners demanding bailouts for mortgages they could never afford. From free breakfast programs in schools from affluent neighborhoods to Archer Daniels Midland seeking ethanol subsidies. From state employees expecting taxpayers to pay for lavish retirement and health benefits, to middle class college students applying for food stamps. As Walt Kelly’s Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Our lust for Other People’s Money is only limited by our relative “suckage.”

Competition shifts from the marketplace to lobbying the government for financial boons. My favorite example from Sykes’ book was the decision by Disney to pursue $200 million in government subsidies to promote tourism. If there is any corporation in America that seems to thrive under capitalism, it would be Disney. Yet as we saw recently, the President of the United States made the pilgrimage to Disneyworld to promote tourism.

Ironically, it was President Obama who single-handedly damaged tourism in Las Vegas when he called for corporations to stop holding conventions there. The trouble with crony capitalism is that you never know when you’ll cease to be the favored crony.

Sykes walks us through the bailout of AIG to show how turning corporations into moochers, deeming them “too big to fail,” is ultimately corrupting to the political process. On all sides of the negotiations concerning the failure were representatives and former representatives of politically connected Goldman Sachs. Conflicts of interests were swirling in the room, and AIG’s bailout broke new ground by placing the full risk on the taxpayers. Goldman Sachs took away $13 billion.

The justification for the bailouts was a yawning financial abyss that impended if the government did not take immediate action to stabilize the markets. It’s an appeal that even reaches conservatives. However, had conservatives in Washington known of the cost culturally, would they have reluctantly agreed to the bailouts? Had they been able to envision the bankruptcy lawyers advertising, “the big banks got their bailouts, now get yours,” would the possible financial breakdown been more endurable? We may never know, but the nation is paying the cultural costs of those bailouts now.

But what is a corporation, or a state, or even an individual, supposed to do? If the federal government is collecting from all of us with one hand, borrowing money with the other, and “making it rain” with a third, should we be surprised when everyone starts buying buckets to collect? Should we be shocked when the ethos of our age changes from, “Ask not what your country can do for you,” to, “Where’s mine?”

From there we are set on the road to ruin, despotism, and even “serfdom” in Hayek’s phrase.

It isn’t hard to predict the course we are headed. The financial ruins of Greece are just ahead. We can point to other historical economic calamities as our future, such as Latin America in the 1970s. Further back in time, and we can see the political corrosion of dependency, as when Julius Caesar bought the masses to ensure his popularity. He was ultimately stopped, but by then it was too late for the Republic.

It’s impossible to read A Nation of Moochers without seeing the context of our times. Indeed, Sykes does not shy from engaging current controversies. The battles with Wisconsin’s government employee unions are featured prominently in, “The Moocher Empire Strikes Back.” Sykes puts Wisconsin’s struggle into perspective by reminding us that other states do not allow public employees to collectively bargain at all. Sykes quotes columnist Jeff Jacoby, “democracy, fundamental rights, and freedom were doing just fine in all of them.”

Sykes asks early in the book if the nation is at a tipping point. Can we bring the country back from one of patronage to one of entrepreneurship? Is it too late to stop the mooching? After a dip in the dystopian pond of Ayn Rand (mercifully brief), Sykes says the challenge is to “step away from the trough.”

”…the revolution against Moocherism requires redefining our expectations of what others owe to us and what we owe to ourselves. Put bluntly, we need to restore some of the stigma to mooching,” he writes.

The unanswered question is whether Sykes’ prescription is a little like the doctor telling the patient dying of lung cancer to give up smoking. We may learn this year if the tipping point has already passed us by.

[Madison, Wisc...] The top official at the Government Accountability Board says the GAB  decided not to buy software to transfer handwritten recall petitions into a searchable database, because it’s too expensive.  However, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported more than two weeks ago that the state already bought the software for $100,000.

The Wisconsin Eye public affairs network asked GAB executive director Kevin Kennedy Wednesday about the decision not to create a searchable database that would be available to the public.  Kennedy said they didn’t have the manpower or the money.

“The type of software you would need to convert these PDF files is very expensive,” Kennedy said. “When we do our duplicate review we might have a searchable database but it will be limited only to names.”

So, did they spend money on software that can create a database from scanned handwritten documents?

On January 21, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the GAB will be “relying on newly purchased software that can convert handwritten names into entries in six searchable databases.”

Do they have the software, or not? Are they using it, or not?  If the software can read the printed names and signatures, why can’t it convert the addresses as well?

Why has the GAB chosen not to put  a searchable database online?

Do they have any internal work product that would be useful to independent efforts to validate the signatures?

The MacIver News Service contacted the GAB on Thursday. It has not yet received a response.

[Madison, Wisc…] The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board has not posted scanned copies of the Governor Walker recall petitions online despite promises to the citizens of Wisconsin that they would do so.

GAB staff delivered copies of the scans to the Governor’s campaign late last week. The campaign, with the assistance of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, began reviewing the petitions at satellite offices across the state this weekend.

Once they scanned documents, they were going to make them public, having issued an alert to all media earlier in the day. The revelation was the top of many radio broadcasts Monday.

Such a public disclosure would have allowed the volunteers at the independent VerifytheRecall.com to also begin their effort.

But early this evening the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported GAB staff was going back on their promise, citing alleged privacy concerns by some who signed the public documents.

This is the latest development in a series of back and forth decisions by the GAB that promises more legal challenges ahead.

And it could thwart a massive effort by Tea Party groups to conduct an independent review of the petitions.

“Never before have regular citizens organized in this way to this scale in a nonpartisan sense to uphold the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections,” said Ross Brown,  Founder and President of the Tea Party Group, We the People of the Republic and co-organizer of the Verify The Recall effort before the GAB’s surprise announcement was made. “Our volunteers are anxious to start and committed to the effort.”

Brown said approximately 87 percent of the more than 11,000 volunteers who signed up at his website are from Wisconsin, although they do have volunteers from all but one of the 50 states.

“Verify the Recall has written a new play in the citizens’ playbook as to how we can preserve our clean and honest elections,” Brown said.

With Monday night’s revelation that the GAB was refusing to comply with their earlier public pronouncements, the Verify the Recall process could be in jeopardy.

As previously reported, the GAB had originally intended to only provide a cursory review of the signatures, having interpreted the statutes to put more of the verification onus on the recall targets. They had no intention of putting the signatures online.

In the days after the Senate petitions were placed online, social media sites and talk radio were filled with claims of problems with the petitions.

In late December, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) received a memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Council, which explained the GAB was proactively choosing not to create a database and was not prohibited from doing so.

“The statutes do not impose explicit barriers to the creation of a GAB database that contains the names and addresses of individuals who sign recall petitions or to public availability of the database,” said Katie Bender-Olson, Staff Attorney with the Wisconsin Legislative Council in a memo to the Speaker “To the contrary, the statute enumerating the powers and duties of GAB may support the agency’s authority to create a recall signature database and make it accessible to the public.”

“The A in GAB stands for accountability,” said Speaker Fitzgerald at the time “I would hope this memo encourages them to provide the public with a nonpartisan source of important data that could help root out possible duplicate signatures and fraud.”

The memo continued, “There do not appear to be any specific statutory obstacles to the creation or availability of such a database,” Bender-Olson wrote. “Further, the GAB itself appears to believe that the creation of a recall signature database and the public availability of recall petition signature information are permissible.”

State Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Stephan Thompson had earlier filed suit against the GAB requiring more aggressive verification procedures by the GAB. Waukesha Circuit Court Judge Mac Davis ruled this month that the GAB needed to check for duplicates and obvious fake names.

In the wake of Judge Davis’ ruling, and negative publicity surrounding their own comments regarding the potential validity of signatures of Mickey Mouse and Hitler, the GAB decided to scan the petitions, begin a more vigorous review and place the scanned copies of all petitions online.

On Monday morning they announced the signatures would be available later in the day. As the day went on, the information remained absent from their website.

In addition to the recruiting volunteers to data enter signatures, Brown’s group created a ‘no sign’ list, for which individuals could sign up to be notified if their names fraudulently appeared on the Walker recall petitions.

“Over 50,000 Wisconsinites have protected their name and address against fraudulent petition use by signing up for our “No Sign Registration List,” Brown told MacIver News Service.  “Individuals have also submitted the names of their deceased family members and underage children on this list. Verify the Recall will notify anyone who signs up for this list if their name and/or address is found anywhere on a recall petition.”

Without access to the petitions to create a searchable database, the ‘No sign’ list project would also not be able to be completed.

The MacIver News Service will have more on this story as it develops.

___

Recall petitions were to be posted online at the GAB Website.

Verify the Recall, the project of We The People of the Republic and the Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty can be found online here.

[Madison, Wisc…] Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker delivered his annual State of the State address Wednesday night before a polarized state legislature and with a potential recall looming.

“When I addressed you in the chamber last January, Wisconsin had suffered through three years of 150,000 of our fellow citizens losing their jobs,” Walker said. “The unemployment rate was 7.5%. And after years of tax increases and budget tricks, Wisconsin faced one of the largest budget deficits in the country.”

Walker boasted about the progress made in the last year.

“Tonight I’m happy to report that after three years of losing 150,000 jobs Wisconsin actually added thousands of new jobs in 2011,” said Walker. “New business formations are up by over two percent and our unemployment rate is down from a year ago. In fact, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is much better than our neighbors to the south in Illinois.”

The governor outlined three priorities for his Administration

• Helping the people of Wisconsin create more jobs
• Keeping a balanced budget
• Improving education for our kids by working together

“Last year, we passed some of the most aggressive pro-jobs legislation in the country,” Walker said. “And we did it with the help from lawmakers in both parties because these aren’t Republican or Democrat jobs, they’re Wisconsin jobs.”

Walker used the occasion to again push for passage of a bill to modernize Wisconsin’s mining laws and regulations.

“There is another tremendous opportunity for job growth,” he said. “We can pass legislation that will streamline the process for safe and environmentally sound mining. The proposed project in northwestern Wisconsin could provide at least 700 jobs at the mine and thousands across the state.”

Walker’s optimistic tone was belied by the fact that Big Labor and the Democratic party attempted to recall six Republican senators in 2011. They failed to gain the senate majority, defeating only two of them.

In 2012, four GOP Senators, the Lt. Governor and the Governor himself may be facing recall elections, depending on the certification of signatures pending before the Government Accountability Board.

Walker’s speech ignored the pending elections, although his speech highlighted past success as much as it laid out a vision of the future.

“[F]rugality in government leads to freedom and prosperity for our people,” Walker said, quoting from the Wisconsin Constitution. “I believe our founders had it right.”

Walker went on to promote his ‘brown bag’ frugality.

“Think about it, when I spoke here last January, Wiscosnin faced a $3.6 billion deficit,” Walker said. “In the past, state government took more than a billion dollars away from building safe roads and bridges, illegally raided the fund to support malpractice victims and ignored a payment to Minnesota for tax reciprocity. And one-time federal stimulus money was used for ongoing costs—all of thse practices left us with a more than $3 billion hole to fill last year.”

Walker then drew distinctions between the approach Wisconsin took with those of other states who also faced budget crunches.

“Some, like Illinois, raised taxes, but that only made matters worse,” Walekr said. “Other states used massive layoffs to balance their budgets; we avoided that in Wisconsin.”

He continued, “Some states cut core services like Medicaid. But in Wisconsin, we added some $1.2 billion to Medicaid and our reforms allow us to expand FamilyCare (our long-term care program for seniors) all across the state.

Walker did not ignore the controversial changes to public labor union bargaining that has spurred and financed the recall efforts.

“Just as important as saving money, our reforms help government work well in places where it does have a legitimate role, like education,” he said. “For example, before our reforms, school districts often had to buy their helath insurance from one company which cost them millions of dollars.”

Since the passage of ACT 10, several districts have been able to save money by putting their health insurance out for competitive bidding.

“[O]ur reforms now allow local school districts to staff based on merit and pay based on performance,” said the Governor. “That means we can put the best and brightest in our classrooms, and we can keep them there.”

The governor told of a superintendent of a small school district in Wisconsin who praised his labor reforms and told him “now I get to go back to my office and focus on curriculum instead of grievances.”

Governor Walker then made a direct appeal to Wisconsin’s public employees.

“Tonight, I want to again thank the many teachers and public servants across the state of Wisconsin,” he said. “We appreciate your hard work serving the public. And we are glad that Wisconsin avoided the massive layoffs of government employees experienced in other states.”

Walker used the final quarter of his speech to highlight three education reform efforts that, after a year of discussion and consensus building, will be in the hands of the legislature this spring.

He promoted his Read to Lead, school and school district accountability plans.

“[State School Superintendent] Dr. Evers and I have been working with a diverse group of individuals to develop our plan to let parents, teachers and communities know which schools are performing well so that we can replicate their success,” Walker said. “And we do need to know which schools are failing,” so we can help them.

Whether or not the legislature is able to pass these and other measures like the mining bill in such a caustic atmosphere poisoned by the threat of ongoing recall elections remains to be seen.

One early test, the State Assembly is scheduled to take up the mining proposal on Thursday.

“In just one year, Republicans fixed a $3 billion deficit, cut new debt in half, held the line on taxes and improved our business climate in nearly every ranking,” said State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau). “On the other hand, the Democrats spent the last year protesting, recalling and playing politics with our business climate.”

Fitzgerald continued to express pessimistic tone.

“They know that recalls are bad for Wisconsin, but they’re pushing them anyway. For the Democrats, the state of our state won’t ever be good enough unless they’re in the driver’s seat,” said Fitzgerald. “But Wisconsin needs jobs, not politics.”

Full text of remarks, as prepared for delivery: SOSText

Ed: We will update this story to include more reactions in the hours ahead.

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[Waukesha, Wisc...] Despite the media attention it received, less than two dozen people contacted Waukesha School Board to complain about a member’s appearance in a political ad, the MacIver News Service has learned

Only 22 people contacted the Waukesha School Board and District about a board member’s appearance in a Governor Walker ad, and many of them were not Waukesha residents according to information gleaned from an open records request filed by the MacIver News Service.

The ad featured a woman named “Karin,” who was identified as a “School Board Member.” She talked about how changes to collective bargaining helped her district balance its budget.

Gov. Walker Television Commercial

Critics later discovered the person in the ad was Karin Rajnicek, a member of the Waukesha School Board. Some of her fellow board members publicly revealed their displeasure with Rajnicek’s participation in the Walker campaign.

On November 29, the school board’s policy committee discussed the ad. The committee consists of Rajnicek and her fellow board members Ellen Langill, and Barbara Brzenk.

Langill demanded a public apology from Rajnicek for breaking a Waukesha School Board policy (Number 8300) that states board members may not represent the school board without permission. Rajnicek did not apologize.

At the time of that meeting, the district had received ten to 12 complaints.  (Two complaints did not include any identifying information or date). Only four were from Waukesha residents, and three of them were former teachers or education professionals. One of the complaints was from a lawyer in San Francisco.

“You’re a joke.  Do you feel better now that you got paid OFF a hefty, hefty sum to appear in a bogus, misinformation campaign ad for a sociopath, totally irresponsible, environmentally-decimating governor who’s about to be recalled?”  Dana Hanaman, the San Francisco attorney wrote. “Soon YOU won’t have any clean water to drink or air to breathe, and your children WILL be dumber than rocks and without any jobs. BEWARE. Just remember…what comes around, goes around.”

Rajnicek notes she was not compensated to appear in the commercial.

A person named Jay Mielke wrote, “You are a WALKER TOOL.”

Patty Barrett, a Waukesha resident, wrote “as a newly elected board member, I believe you had no business presenting yourself as such an expert on the financial situation of our district.”

Eileen Potts Dawson, from Madison, wrote, “It feels like a betrayal for your board to remain silent if there are some of you who know that what she states in the ad does not reflect what has happened.”

“School board members are suppose to be impartial and work for the school district,” Amy Bedessem, from Pardeeville, wrote the superintendent’s office. “How have the cuts helped your school? Why is she still on this board? Her ad is misleading and is creating a bad name for Waukesha Schools. Please do something about this woman.”

In an interview with the MacIver News Service, Rajnicek noted that nowhere in the ad was she identified as speaking for the district and that in all subsequent media releases from the Walker campaign, it was to be made clear that she was offering her personal opinion only.

After the November 29 meeting and the subsequent media attention it received, the District only received emails from another ten people about the ad and seven of them supported Rajnicek. Six of the emails were from Waukesha residents; of those, four supported Rajnicek and two criticized her.

Robert Kohl, Waukesha resident, wrote “As a citizen and a taxpayer of Waukesha school district, I will not tolerate the constant drumbeat of harassment that seems to greet anyone who supports Gov. Walker.”

Chad Vendette, Waukesha resident, wrote “They may think you do not speak for them, but I can assure you Ms. Rajnicek, you DO speak for us, the Taxpayers of Waukesha County.”

Kurt Burie, another Waukesha resident, wrote “Based on your attempt to admonish Mrs. Rajnicek for her support of Gov. Walker, I will assume that you are against the collective bargaining reforms so I will not be voting for you in the next election.”

Of all the 22 people who contacted the district about the ad ,only ten were from Waukesha. Fifteen of the letters were critical of Rajnicek, seven of those were from teachers/educators.

In November the Waukesha Patch reported “Langill and Brzenk said after the meeting that they, along with other board members, have received calls, letters and emails about Rajnicek’s appearance in the video.”

Langill did not produce any evidence that she was contacted by anyone about the ad, in spite of the legal implications of the open records request. That may not be surprising because, unlike most of her fellow board members, her email address is not listed on the district’s website.  She did not return a phone call from the MNS seeking to clarify her comments.

We will update this story as events warrant.

The transcript of the ad:

Karin, School Board Member:  We were worried when the state budget was going to mean less money for our school district, and we have 25 schools.  But Governor Walker gave us options that reduced our biggest costs so that we could put more money back into our classrooms.”

Gov. Walker:  ”I’m committed to working together to create more jobs, to improve our schools, and to protect our seniors.  You know, Wisconsin’s best days are yet to come.  It won’t happen overnight, but we are on our way.”

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