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Politifact on Walker: "No Movement So Far on Promise to Add 10,000 Businesses"

During Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's 2010 campaign, he made two related promises. One was to bring 250,000 new jobs to Wisconsin by the end of his term, and the other was to create 10,000 new businesses in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel took a look at the number. Politifact found that "the numbers have gone backwards." One year into Walker's term there were 9,485 fewer businesses. As of April the numbers had improved slightly, but Wisconsin was still down 4,338 businesses from when Walker took office. The paper goes on to say that on the campaign trail Walker has been using numbers that only represent newly registered businesses, not taking into account businesses that have failed or ceased to operate. "In sum, Walker has made no movement so far on his promise to add 10,000 businesses."

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.

PART ONE: New documents show that Koch Industries had a seat on the controversial "Public Safety and Elections Task Force" of the American Legislative Exchange Council as of at least 2011. (Part two of this special report detailing the extent of the gun agenda over the past two decades is available here.)

ALEC announced it was dropping that task force in the wake of the controversy over the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin and so-called "Stand Your Ground" (SYG) laws. However, the co-leader of that task force, Rep. Jerry Madden (R-TX), revealed ALEC's announcement to be a PR maneuver when he reassured The Christian Post that his task force's work would continue through other ALEC task forces.

Video was obtained and released by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel less than a month before the June 5th recall election for Wisconsin governor that shows newly elected Governor Scott Walker in a frank conversation with one of his biggest supporters.