Letter to the editor

Budget remains unbalanced under Walker

Walker has been bragging how he balanced the state’s budget. Well, it turns out the budget isn’t balanced after all. There’s a big hole in the budget, a hole that’s $143 million wide. So now the governor is desperate to fill that hole any way he can and last week he found a partial solution. But first, more bragging.

On Thursday, Feb. 9 Walker boasted that he and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen had secured $140 million in relief for Wisconsin residents who were harmed by unfair mortgage practices. In fact, it was the Obama administration who had gone to bat against the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers over foreclosure abuses winning $25 billion in concessions from the big banks. Walker claimed Wisconsin’s portion and took a bow, expecting us to applaud.

A principle aim of the $25 billion financial settlement between the government and the banks is to help people who lost their homes through improper foreclosures and to give a boost to the nation’s housing market. People who are struggling to make their monthly payments can get help, chiefly by reducing the amount of principal on their mortgages. Homeowners who are current on their payments but owe more than their homes are worth will be able to refinance their mortgages.

But wait! The governor wants a piece of the pie to patch up his unbalanced budget. Walker has announced that he plans to use $25 million of Wisconsin’s $140 million share of the national mortgage settlement to help plug the hole in the state budget. Troubled homeowners will get the leftovers while the governor snatches that money to finance his $2.3 billion tax giveaway to millionaires and billionaires.

Harlen Menk
Ellsworth