Barrett Highlights Jobs Contrast

Press Release

Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett today highlighted the vast difference between his record of working with the private sector to create, attract and retain jobs, and Scott Walker's record of failure in economic development.

Standing before the County-owned Park East corridor in downtown Milwaukee, a barren and desolate tract of land that Scott Walker has failed to develop to create jobs, Tom outlined the clear contrast between his record and his vision, and Scott Walker's.

"Scott Walker is running around the state claiming he is going to create jobs, but the people of Wisconsin need to look no further than the rubble piles in the Park East to see Walker's true record on job creation," Tom said. "Walker's history is an embarrassing collection of failure, disappointment and inaction. Wisconsin workers and families simply can't trust Scott Walker to create jobs."

Tom Barrett has made working with the private sector to create jobs and grow the economy a central focus of his Administration. He co-founded and currently co-chairs the M-7 regional economic development group that has saved and attracted 2,000 jobs to Wisconsin in the past year. He has played an integral role in the transformation of the Menomonee Valley from industrial wasteland to thriving commercial sector that now supports nearly 4,000 jobs. He has worked with companies like Direct Supply, Bucyrus and others to expand operations and grow jobs. And despite Scott Walker's failure to spark any job-creating development in the Park East, the City of Milwaukee under Tom Barrett's leadership has triggered successes in the Park East like the new Manpower headquarters, the Flatiron and the Aloft.

Scott Walker, on the other hand, has consistently turned his back on economic development:

* Scott Walker eliminated The Economic and Community Development Division at the County, as well as the economic development director position, in 2009. He proposed doing this in October 2008 -- as the national economy was imploding.

* According to Biztimes.com: "County government has played virtually no role in the attraction of economic development and jobs in recent years." Scott Walker is Milwaukee County Executive.

* In the worst economic crisis in generations, with families across Milwaukee County and Wisconsin worried about jobs and the economy, Scott Walker is just now getting around to doing something about economic development at the County -- just before the gubernatorial election. Nearly ten months after proposing a new economic development effort to replace the one he shut down, a plan funded by federal recovery dollars he claims to oppose, Walker finally nominated someone to run the office.

* Biztimes.com also reports that the new economic development director "…does not have a county government phone number yet. Keep in mind, the guy has been on the job since August, and he apparently does not have a phone."

* Walker also has dismissed the Milwaukee 7 regional economic development group that has saved and attracted 2,000 jobs to Wisconsin in the past year alone as "putting lipstick on a pig."

* In response to Tom's comprehensive 67-page plan to create jobs, a specific vision to get Wisconsin working, Scott Walker has released a childish gimmick that clearly shows Walker thinks it's ok to mock real, detailed plans to create jobs when 180,000 Wisconsinites have lost their jobs in the worst economic crisis in generations.

"Time and time again, Scott Walker has shown he will say or do anything to try to get elected, and his wild claims on jobs are no exception," Tom said. "Anyone can pluck numbers out of thin air and make grandiose promises, but Walker can't run from his record of failure. Wisconsin workers and families just can't trust Scott Walker to create jobs or grow Wisconsin's economy."

Barrett for Wisconsin has also released a new wed ad the compares Tom Barrett's work to transform the Menomonee Valley to Scott Walker's failure to redevelop the Park East. Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSekXVvUrVY.

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