Walker's austerity hasn't done anything for Wisconsin.

This is a little bit dated. Walker came into office assumed the Governor's office January 3, 2011. His performance to bring the economy back to Wisconsin is nonexistent.

Today, the graph in regard to North Dakota would be very different. 

I went to Wisconsin's unemployment page to check it's unemployment rate. Dig this (click here)

September 4, 2012
By Michael Morrison

This is a follow (click here) up to an earlier post evaluating my favorite adopted state’s progress in recovering from the recession. To answer this question I turned to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia which produces a monthly “coincident index” for each of the 50 states, combining four state-level indicators to summarize current economic conditions in a single statistic. The four state-level indicators are 1) nonfarm payroll employment, 2) average hours worked in manufacturing, 3) the unemployment rate and 4) wage and salary disbursements deflated by the consumer price index.
Using coincident indexes I produced the following graph summarizing economic trends in the U.S. versus Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa from January, 2007, to July, 2012....

In 2014, (click here) union members accounted for 11.7 percent of wage and salary workers in Wisconsin compared with 12.3 percent in 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.  Regional Commissioner Charlene Peiffer noted that the union membership rate for the state was at its peak in 1989, when it averaged 20.9 percent, and at its low point in 2012 at 11.2 percent. Nationwide, union members accounted for 11.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers in 2014, down 0.2 percentage point from 2013. Since 1989, when comparable state data became available, Wisconsin union membership rates have exceeded the U.S. average in all years except 2012....

These are average wages for the different regions of the USA. The pale blue area is the actual wage and the purple area are benefits. 

The Midwest is not the highest paid region of the USA. As a matter of fact it is ranked fourth in the country out of five. 

According to the Census ACS 1-year survey (click here), the median household income for Wisconsin was $51,467 in 2013, the latest figures available. Compared to the median US household income, Wisconsin median household income is $783 lower. 2014 Census ACS data (including 2014 Wisconsin household income numbers) will be released in September of 2015. Wisconsin median family income and per capita income for Wisconsin are shown further down. 

The chart below is the chart that bothers me the most when it comes to Walker's austerity. The chart can be found at the link in the paragraph above. The real median household income trend is DOWN, not up.

Not only is the average Wisconsin household losing real income kindly note the trend began in 2008 with the global economic collapse. Before that, with unions intact, the economy was humming. But, even after Walker took office in 2011, the trend continued to drop. Austerity.

Basically, Walker's current economy is cruising because of the work of previous Governors. The decrease in real income will continue a downward trend because of the austerity and anti-worker laws. That means as time goes by and household incomes drop any state budget problems will continue. Austerity dictates that government continues to shrink with the fall in treasury income due to the falling income of the taxpayers. The falling income of taxpayers means businesses have less demand for goods and services, while poverty increases. This is the "Austerity Spiral."

Considering Walker is a Republican Darling it is obvious why they don't believe in government or government jobs; their practices cause it to shrink so why not simply state it is "Smaller Government" everyone needs. So, while austerity is robbing the workers of their income and a shrinking economy, Republicans state Smaller Government is necessary and best. It appears as though they know what they are doing when in fact they don't.

Smaller government size means less income is needed by the state treasury so they cut taxes. "Read my lips, no new taxes." Grover Norquist. The question is why are tax cuts always promised? Tax cuts are a symptom of a failing economy. What was the first thing the President and the Democratic Congress of 2009 did to provide an immediate uptick to a failing economy? 

The much maligned Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided a tax refund AND a cut in SSI taxes. That provided a glut of money initially of which many Americans could use to pay bills, but, the SSI cut continued for some time to continue to infuse money into the economy. Government jobs were maintained and paid at their wage of 2009. The money was flowing back into the economy and it started to turn around with less and less job losses until the first month when jobs began to be recorded on the positive side of the graph. 

Austerity, lowering pay rates and shrinking government only causes economic contraction. The poverty rates increase. It becomes a slow march to mediocre income for more and more of the populous. That is exactly what this shows about the Wisconsin economy, it is shrinking when the rest of the country is growing. 

The Wisconsin legislature are meek and have no loyalty to the people. This is the Scott Walker Wisconsin. More and more legislative sheep are watching the Wisconsin economy slowly go over the cliff.

March 6, 2015
By Brian Mahoney

...Wisconsin’s right-to-work bill (click here) passed the State Assembly Friday 62-35 along party lines, and now heads to Gov. Walker, who has said he’ll sign it Monday. With this action, right to work — which allows workers not to pay dues to a union that bargains collectively on their behalf — is progressing through the states more swiftly than at any time since the 1950s. And where once such measures were confined largely to the South and West, they‘re now taking root in Midwestern union strongholds like Indiana and Michigan, which passed right-to-work laws in 2012....