Walker’s Bipartisan Waste Fraud and Abuse Commission Will Save $300 Million Per Year

Wauwatosa – Scott Walker, Milwaukee County executive and candidate for governor, announced another Brown Bag Idea today at a Brown Bag Lunch event at LaMacchia Enterprises in Bayside. 

Walker’s proposal calls for a bipartisan, joint-governmental commission to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in state spending programs and recommend solutions.  The 7-person commission will be comprised of a private sector chairman, an at-large private sector member, and the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Administration - all appointed by the governor.  There will also be one Republican and one Democrat from each house of the legislature appointed by the respective party leader in each house.

 

“Wisconsinites are sick and tired of having their tax dollars squandered,” said Walker.  “Governor Doyle has allowed waste, fraud, and abuse to run rampant in his administration. I will charge this bipartisan commission with going through the budget line by line to identify waste, fraud, and abuse that might otherwise have gone undetected for years. By also taking advantage of savings that have already been publicly identified such as $22.5 million per year in Wisconsin Shares fraud and $66 million per year in excessive overtime, we can save at least $300 million per year. As governor, I will make sure taxpayers get value from their hard-earned tax dollar so government can take as few of them as possible.”

 

Scott’s plan to create a waste, fraud, and abuse commission is the most recent of his “Brown Bag Ideas” - policy proposals to cut spending and lower taxes that follow his “Brown Bag Guide to Government”:

 

•       Don’t spend more than you have.

•       Smaller government is better government.

•       People create jobs, not government.

 

Recently, Walker outlined his Brown Bag Idea to save $180 million a year through pension savings, and announced that as governor, he would voluntarily contribute to his own government pension.  He also announced his plan to save $284 million per year by permanently eliminating 4,000 vacant state positions.  Walker would also allow school districts and local governments to buy in to the state healthcare program to save school districts up to $68 million and local governments up to $242 million per year.

 

Scott Walker was elected Milwaukee County executive on a wave of reform, after a pension scandal revealed government workers were walking away with millions in taxpayer money.  Since then, he has introduced eight consecutive budgets without a tax levy increase from the previous year, cut the debt by 10%, reduced the workforce by 20%, and had an $8.9 million surplus in his most recent budget.

 

Scott Walker packs his own lunch to save money in his family budget and still drives a 1998 Saturn with over 100,000 miles on it.  As Milwaukee County executive, Walker has given $370,000 of his personal salary to the taxpayers over eight years, voluntarily reduced his own pension benefit, and in his most recent budget successfully worked on a bipartisan proposal that asked county employees to contribute to their government financed healthcare plans, saving millions for the taxpayers.

 

Scott and his wife Tonette live in Wauwatosa with their two sons, Matt and Alex.

 

·      Unemployment benefits fraud soars in 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 6, 2010.

o   $17.7 million per year in fraud

o   $33.4 million in non-fraud overpayments per year

·      ‘Massive’ fraud in Food Shares program, Racine Journal Times, May 22, 2010.

o   No dollar figure estimate is provided.

·      Millions down the drain, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 14, 2009

o   $13.7 million in overpayments

·      State audit finds nearly $20 million in fraud, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 12, 2009.

·      State to pay more for voter database, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 6, 2006.

·      Payroll project’s cost was higher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 3, 2007.

o   $2.1 million overrun

·      Legislative Audit Bureau Reports

o   Child Care Regulation - $22.5 million

o   State Employee Overtime - $66 million per year