Scott Walker Says $144,423 Isn't "Real Money"

You heard that right. Your hard-earned tax dollars pay Scott Walker's $144,423 per year salary and his healthcare and pension benefits. But he doesn't think $144,423 is "real money."

At a March 12th event sponsored by right-wing talk radio hack Charlie Sykes, Scott Walker talked about being able to make some "real money" if he lost the recall and went back to the private sector.

Listen to the audio over here at Daily Kos.

Scott Walker's $144,423 salary is nearly three times the median household income in Wisconsin. Add in his annual $9,604 in taxpayer-funded pension contributions and $17,688 in taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits and Walker's total compensation package balloons to $171,715.

But it really  doesn't stop there.

As the governor, Walker also enjoys a 2010 Chevy Suburban, purchased by the Department of Administration for $40,225, as well as the use of the Executive Residence. The Governor's mansion, with its 13 bathrooms, seven bedrooms, seven fireplaces and seven garden areas, comes at a taxpayer-funded cost of approximately $262,500 per year. The cost for the mansion includes a residence director, a chef, a gardener, a housekeeper, waitstaff and a “laundress and flower arranger.”

So listen up Wisconsinites. Your money pays for Scott Walker to have a flower arranger. But apparently that's not good enough for him. 

P.S. - The average high school graduate in Wisconsin makes between $36,000 - $46,000 per year. 

Transcript:

"And if we fail to win, it will take us down the path we see, failing, people like the people in Illinois, down in Springfield, and I for one don't want that. Not because this job is that important to me, 'cuz frankly my wife in some ways would love it if I'd go back to the private sector and make some real money."