Walker-led WI economy stalled, unattractive, report finds

[Updated from 10/29] Well, if as Republican Gov. Scott Walker did with ideological and partisan-power retaining motivations  - - you slash the state's cornerstone UW system budget and attack its historic mission - - the very attributes which drew students and faculty to the state - - and you  neglect and degrade the state's urban centers, and Wisconsin's environmental legacy and desperately-needed and ignored transportation alternatives which attract young millennials and families and entrepreneurs - - and you intentionally diminish women's right to choose, and unfettered voting, and honest public policy approaches to clean air, fresh water and climate change - - then of course your economy and state image will stall and decay as people look elsewhere while rejecting the unappealing product you put out every day as a matter of policy and intent, a new comprehensive report confirms.

With relatively few college-educated people moving here and an economy that is generating large numbers of lower-skill jobs, Wisconsin faces a challenging future, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Extension and UW – Madison argue in a new report.

The state’s workforce has a smaller share of people with a bachelor’s or advanced degree than that of any of its neighbors, and Wisconsin’s in-migration of such adults is among the lowest in the nation, say researchers Tessa Conroy, Matt Kures and Steven Deller.

“From the perspective of developing an educated labor force that supports both innovation and entrepreneurship,” they write in a paper published earlier this month, “the metrics presented in this report are troubling.”

As I have observed often on this blog - - one two examples from May, 2015, linked here:

A couple of days, when analyzing policies of Walkerite Republicans that make Wisconsin unattractive, I'd written:

It would not surprise me if Wisconsin's population gain slows or plateaus as a result of these punitive, small-minded and overtly hostile GOP programs, guaranteeing Wisconsin's long-term status as a low-wage, slow-to-no-new job growth entrepreneurial and lifestyle backwater.

Not to mention earlier posts: 

How much evidence do you need to grasp the damage our 'Midwestern nice" presidential poseur-in-chief has added to Wisconsin's stalled economy through punitive, trickle-down fiscal 'planning' - - damage he heaped on top of a national recession recovery that is bypassing the state on his watch?

Report: Wisconsin worst in nation on 

shrinking middle-class

And we remember the steaming pant load which GOP leaders offered some gullible media even earlier:

The economic prediction of state legislator Robin Vos, now Assembly Speaker, who spoke with certainty in April 2012 about the coming boom in Wisconsin once Scott Walker nailed down the recall win:

Once June 5 hits and Gov. Scott Walker is securely re-elected, “our economy is going to take off like a rocket,” state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Monday during a meeting with The Journal Times Editorial Board.

What you/we/he are left with is a low-wage, slow-growth, atrophied, fossilized and corporately-polluted backwater which Republicans can more easily dominate through gerrymandering, voter ID and off-year election 'successes' - - a Wisconsin turned partisan red with its electoral college votes more reliably in the GOP camp, but which remains 

pessimistically blue in mood and outlook.

Updated: After all, Walker pledged during his ill-fated run for the Presidency to "wreak havoc" in Washington, DC - - and we all knew we were living through the trial run.

With the predicable, intentional and long-term consequences.