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Slap Fight of the Day: Wikileaks vs Pernicious G

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Amory Blaine5/19/2014 9:04:55 pm PDT

Gov. Scott Walker’s business claim doesn’t hold up to scrutiny

Walker’s count includes hundreds of nonprofit organizations such as Scout troops, youth athletic leagues and condo associations. It also includes thousands of limited-liability companies that often are set up by real estate investors simply as holding companies for property. Walker’s count, according to PolitiFact, includes out-of-state companies that register in Wisconsin because they might one day want to do business here. And the governor’s list includes start-ups that are barely organized.

That’s not what you’d think, to hear the governor tell it. Walker has suggested that all of the new entities he has recently cited are producing jobs or soon will be. As PolitiFact noted, Walker told a Door County business group in April: “On average — some will do more, some will do less — but if in the next year or so they each add up to 10 new employees, you add that to the more than 100,000 new jobs we’ve created and you see we surpass 250,000 new jobs.”

Walker’s goal, of course, is to deflect attention from his most high-profile campaign promise: The governor promised that Wisconsin companies would create 250,000 net new jobs during his first term. The latest scorecard shows 105,800 jobs have been created, and even the governor’s most ardent supporters realize that he won’t be able to fulfill his promise by the end of his term in January.