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On Thursday, June 9th, at 10:30 am outside of the Fluno Center, housing rights advocates, labor and community members affected by Scott Walker and Paul Ryan’s budget attacks will protest outside of the Fluno Center where both candidates are speaking at a conference sponsored by the Wisconsin Bankers Association and the Wisconsin Realtors Association. Other sponsors of the conference, titled, New Partnerships: Government & Real Estate, include University of Wisconsin Center for Real Estate, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, and State of Wisconsin Department of Commerce.
“Housing is a human right. Instead of a budget that meets the needs of our community, who are suffering the most in this hard economy, Walker and Ryan and their corporate backers are attacking those who are most vulnerable,” said 19 year old Alisha Muhammad who is currently homeless.
Walker and Ryan have taken massive campaign contributions from the banking and real estate industries. Walker being heavily supported by two lead conference sponsors: the Wisconsin Realtors Association and Wisconsin Bankers Association during his Gubernatorial campaign. How is Walker paying back these supporters? He’s proposed half a billion dollars in tax breaks for corporations including tax loopholes that allow banks to write off debt for 20 years to come. At the same time Walker is raising taxes on seniors and the poor through eliminating the Homestead Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. At the federal level Banks have received trillions in bailout money yet are foreclosing on homeowners at record high levels. Ryan’s budget proposal further forces people into homelessness by leading the charge to eliminate access to affordable housing.
“If people thought the farming crisis of the 1970’s was bad, it’s worse now. Farmers are being foreclosed on left and right and bankers are profiting off the poverty of rural communities and being aided and abetted by people like Walker and Ryan,” stated John Peck of Family Farm Defenders. “This is a corporate land grab by the banks who are in cahoots with politicians here and nationally.”
“Walker and Ryan are making bad choices, not hard choices. We need a budget that prevents foreclosures and provides housing for those who need it instead of giving bailouts and tax giveaways a pay back to banker supporters.” said Samantha Jordan of the People’s Rights Campaign, “ Ryan and Walker’s budgets are fiscally irresponsible, killing jobs and our communities. Banks and the realty industry caused this crisis and they need to pay their fair share.”
