Fact-checking Walker, Evers
Republican Gov. Scott Walker is facing a Democratic challenger, state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, in Tuesday’s election. Here is a selection of fact checks on the gubernatorial candidates:
Tony Evers
Democrat, state schools superintendent Statements by Evers
Education: Says Walker “cut $800 million from our schools.” Mostly False.
Education: Says he “raised graduation rates to nearly 90 percent.” Half True.
Corrections: Says “Under Scott Walker, the Department of Corrections has only 18 people tracking 25,000 sex offenders” and “there are nearly 3,000 sex offenders that are unaccounted for.” Mostly False.
Health care: Says Walker supports “a health care plan that would gut protections for pre-existing conditions.” Mostly True.
College: “Since Scott Walker has been our governor, we’ve gone from 50 percent state funding” for the University of Wisconsin System “to 15 percent.” False.
Polls: “I’m the first Democrat to ever lead Scott Walker in an election year.” False.
Foxconn: Says Wisconsin “could compel” Foxconn to install solar panels that would power 33,000 homes. Mostly False.
Education: Says that despite a recent increase in school funding, Walker “has taken over a billion dollars from the public schools.” Mostly False.
Education: “Special education categorical aid” from the state “hasn’t been raised in over a decade.” Mostly True.
Jobs: “Job creation fell by 70 percent in Wisconsin in 2016” under Walker. Mostly True.
Attacks on Evers
Prison population: “A number of Democrats running for governor want
to cut the prison population by 50 percent” and “that would require the release of thousands of violent felons.” (Evers was listed as favoring this as a goal.) Half True.
Porn case: State Republican Party says Evers “didn’t revoke the license of a teacher caught spreading pornography and commenting on the bodies of middle-school girls.” Half True.
Education: “By law, Democrats gave the superintendent of public instruction, back in 2009, the ability to take over failing schools … The current superintendent (Evers) has failed to do that.” False.
Porn case: State GOP says Evers “allowed a middle-school teacher found guilty of spreading pornographic material at school to keep teaching students.” Mostly False.
Scott Walker
Republican, incumbent governor
‘Illegal aliens’: Says Evers wants to give in-state tuition and driver’s licenses to “illegal aliens.” Mostly True.
Taxes: Says Evers will “raise the gas tax by as much as a dollar a gallon.” Mostly False.
Taxes: Says Evers will “raise property taxes, raise income taxes and raise gas taxes by as much as a dollar a gallon.” Half True.
Taxes: Says “Tony Evers says that tax dollars should pay for the abortions just like they pay for tonsillectomies.” Mostly True.
Education: Says he made “a record investment in schools.” Mostly False.
Education: “By law, Democrats gave the superintendent of public instruction, back in 2009, the ability to take over failing schools. … The current superintendent has failed to do that.” False.
Taxes: “Property and income taxes will be lower in 2018 than they were in 2010.” Mostly True.
Employment: “Our bold reforms have Wisconsin’s unemployment rate down to an all-time LOW of 2.9 percent, and the number of people working at an all-time HIGH!” Half True.
Transportation: “We invested” in our transportation system “$24 billion over eight years. That’s $3 billion more than what former Governor Jim Doyle spent on transportation over the same period of time.” Mostly False.
Foxconn: Says Foxconn didn’t keep a promise to build a plant in Pennsylvania because “Pennsylvania changed governors.” Mostly False.
Business: “We took Wisconsin from the Bottom 10 for business to the Top 10.” Mostly False.
Foxconn: “Foxconn is bringing 13,000 high-tech jobs to Wisconsin.” Half True.
Taxes: Tax cuts approved and those proposed in his state budget “will exceed $8 billion by the time the budget is done.” True.
Taxes: “Property taxes are lower right now than they were” in December 2010 on a median-valued home in Wisconsin. Mostly True.
Education: “We are investing more money into education than ever before in the history of Wisconsin.” Mostly False.
Economy: “Wisconsin’s economy is in the best shape it’s been since 2000.” Half True.