Wisconsin

With the June 5th recall elections less than a month away these are some of the top news stories out of the State of Wisconsin related to the recall.

A Walker Top Donor Has a Problem Paying Taxes

Last week, a video surfaced of Governor Scott Walker speaking with a major donor in January 2011, just weeks before Walker introduced his "budget repair bill" stripping collective bargaining rights from most public workers. Publicly Walker justified the measure by saying the state was "broke" and there was no other choice. The video shows Walker telling Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks a different story. She asks him how to create a "red state," and Walker explains his plan to "divide and conquer" unions. Hendricks is one of Walker's biggest contributors, writing him a single check for $500,000. She is also the owner of ABC Supply Company. This weekend, the tax experts at The Institute for Wisconsin's Future took a closer look at the company Hendricks owns. According to the IWF, "Hendricks, whom Forbes magazine says is worth $2.8 billion, heads Beloit-based ABC Supply Company, which the magazine calls 'the nation's largest roofing, window and siding wholesale distributor' with annual sales approaching $5 billion. ABC Supply may be a huge money-maker for Hendricks, but the Wisconsin corporate income tax returns she files claim the company makes not a penny in taxable profit." Tax data from more recent years was not available.

Attempts to make Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) more business-friendly by Governor Scott Walker's administration, has landed the agency in a scandal over the handling of the discipline of a suspected polluter. The Wisconsin State Journal broke a story May 6 that exposed a decision by Walker appointee DNR Executive Assistant Scott Gunderson to handle a complaint internally against Herr Environmental Inc., a waste hauler, rather than send the complaint to the Attorney General for prosecution, helping the company skirt what could have been a much heftier punishment. Wisconsin Rep. Joel Kleefisch was also implicated in the effort to get the polluters off the hook.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) not only allows corporations and special interests to hand state legislators "model bills," but also provides a vehicle for ALEC's corporate members to buy influence with legislators through gifts of flights, hotel rooms, and other perks denominated as "ALEC scholarships," according to information obtained through open records requests.

The headlines in Wisconsin are all about the $25 million dollar man -- Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Walker's campaign committee has raised an eye-popping $25 million for the recall, $13 million since January 2012 when close to 1 million signatures were filed with the Wisconsin elections board triggering a recall election. Walker spent a huge sum $5 million on direct mail, rivaling the $4.5 million spent on TV. The direct mail allows him to build a national data base of funders to tap for the recall.