Mary Burke Releases Jobs Creation Plan

Mary Burke, the sole Democratic candidate for governor, has released a jobs creation plan that doesn’t commit to a specific number of jobs to be created over the next four years.

At a forum in Milwaukee, Burke compared her new 40-page jobs plan to the four-page plan Gov. Scott Walker released four years ago.

“I brought here not only my own plan, but I brought Governor Walker’s plan from 2010,” said Burke. “This is four pages. I’ve seen eighth-grade term papers that frankly have more work put into them.”

Burke says her 40 pages include recommending the state provide more investment help for companies, more efforts to create industry clusters like the freshwater effort in Milwaukee, and additional development of workplace skills through the state’s education system. Burke wants 670,000 more educational degree holders by 2025.

When it comes to actual job growth, instead of the 250,000 jobs target Walker promised, Burke wants Wisconsin to be in the top 10 states for percentage job growth

“If to be in the top 10, you’re growing at 3 percent or two-and-a-half percent? That’s the goal,” said Burke, who added that she also wants those jobs to pay well.

The state Republican Party says Burke oversaw some of the biggest jobs and business losses to hit Wisconsin when she was former Gov. Jim Doyle’s commerce secretary, and that the state can’t afford to go back to these failed policies. Burke says that when she left the Doyle administration, unemployment was below 5 percent.