Gov. Walker in La Crosse area again talking child tax rebate

With families in tow behind him, Governor Scott Walker spoke to media at the Shopko in Onalaska last Friday afternoon to tout his child tax rebate.

It’s the fourth time this year Walker’s come to La Crosse to talk about the $100-per-child rebate. Walker stopped at Farm and Fleet a month ago. In April, he surrounded himself with kids at Kohls in Onalaska.

During Friday’s press conference, Walker said over 450,000 households have already claimed the credit. Back in May, he said 200,000 were signed up. Now, there are apparently about 200,000 households still eligible. The deadline to sign up is July 2. Sign up here.

Any legal guardian with a child under 18 in 2017 that was living at home is eligible. There are no other restrictions, such as income. 

Back in January, Walker stopped at the La Crosse Airport, holding a Spider-Man backpack, and promoted the child tax credit idea.

At that time he said of the $100, “What parents tell me overwhelmingly, is they’re already making plans for how they would spend that — on school supplies, backpacks, on paper and crayons, and pens and pencils, on new shoes and clothing, and other things along the way.”

The rebate, along with a sales tax holiday for the first week of August, haven’t come without controversy — who gets it, could it have been used for other things, is it the governor simply buying votes?

Checks should arrive before the election for governor this fall, which critics say is no coincidence. Walker denies the connection.

Lawmakers question whether the $122 million state budget surplus could have been better utilized — say, for fixing roads.

“Would have preferred to see it either be more broadly applicable to middle-income people or else be used for things like fixing our roads, fixing lead pipes across the state, clearing the backlogs of rape test kids at our attorney general’s office, expanding rural broadband,” Onalaska state rep. Steve Doyle told WIZM back in May.

Walker said this was the best option.