What Will Mary Burke Do?

I'm a Democrat, and I'd like to learn more about what Mary Burke will do to create jobs in Wisconsin. Her campaign web site headlines “Solving Problems, Not Picking Fights,” and it says several interesting things including:

·         As Governor, Burke will put her private sector experience into action to hold the line on taxes and spending, and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent effectively.

·         As governor, Mary will grow our economy and create jobs by strengthening our core industries like agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, forest products and technology.

·         During her tenure as Secretary of Commerce she focused on attracting new businesses to Wisconsin and helping entrepreneurs and small businesses to start up and grow.

These are admirable goals, but they don't tell me what Ms. Burke would actually do. If you think about it, you will see that our current governor also supports these goals, but his policies have not been very effective in promoting them. So, I'd like to know what Ms. Burke would do that is different from what Mr. Walker has done.

She seems to be saying what Mitt Romney said in his presidential campaign: "I have been successful in business. So, you can trust me to create jobs." In the end, people didn’t believe Mitt Romney, and I want to know more before I decide to believe in Mary Burke.

Running a business is very different from running a state. A business has a clear goal, which is to make money for its shareholders, but a state governor has to mediate among the competing goals of different interest groups. A business can distinguish easily between costs and benefits. For a business, profit is a benefit, and everything else is a cost, but a state governor has no such automatic clarity. Are improved highways a cost or a benefit? Is increased aid to schools a cost or a benefit? Is improved environmental protection a cost or a benefit?  The answer to each of these question depends on the perspective and interests of the person answering.

Governor Walker resolves this complexity by adopting the goals of business as the goals of our state. For him, anything that increases the profits of businesses is a benefit, and everything else is a cost.  As an approach to creating jobs, this approach has some appeal, but it has not proven to be very effective in practice, and it has had high costs in other areas like education and environmental protection.

Mary Burke seems to be saying that her goals match those of Scott Walker, but she will be better at attaining them than he has been.  I hope that she has more to say than that, and I look forward to hearing her proposals. How will she promote job creation?  How will she support education? How will she protect our environment? How will she “hold the line on taxes” while also finding ways to pay for important state programs? My support for her candidacy hinges on her answers to these questions. Our state deserves more than a kinder, gentler Scott Walker.