Frederica Freyberg:

That was Madison School Board member and former Trek Bicycle executive Mary Burke. She made her candidacy to challenge Governor Walker official in this YouTube video announcement earlier this week. Her entrance into the race was expected, and that explains possibly why republican politicos were quick on the draw to cast doubt on her candidacy, including claims that Burke is a runaway taxer and spender. Our colleagues at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put those claims to the Politifact test this week. Greg Borowski is the paper’s Politifact editor. He’s in Milwaukee. Thanks for being here.

Greg Borowski:

No problem. Glad to do it.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the Republican Party of Wisconsin declares that Mary Burke has proven on the Madison School Board that she supports raising taxes and spending. This appears to be a perfect kind of one-two punch with the GOP’s introduction of property tax relief just yesterday. But how solid is that claim that her votes on the school board show that she’s all about taxing and spending more?

Greg Borowski:

Yeah, the first thing to remember is these are three votes that they’re looking at, because it’s not a very deep and detailed record of say, someone who’s passed the budget for a decade. We found when we looked at it was, in one case she did vote for the budget, and in the most recent case she voted against the budget, although hedged a little bit on saying maybe a little bit of a property tax increase, but not as big in the budget. So when we looked at it, we found that to be a half-true rating, which means it’s partially accurate, but is missing important information.

Frederica Freyberg:

So going in a little bit more nuanced in her first budget vote on the Madison School Board, she did approve an increase in both the size of the budget and in the tax levy that that would represent, right?

Greg Borowski:

Correct, and what we looked at in evaluating the item was mostly the property tax portion of the budget, because that’s what the board has the most control over. If they have extra students, say their state aid may go up just by virtue of having more students in the district.

Frederica Freyberg:

So then in her second vote, and I’m wondering whether or not the first one gets kind of vaguely canceled out by her no vote in the next year’s budget that would have raised the property tax 4.5%. She voted no on that.

Greg Borowski:

Correct, she was the one member of the board who voted no. As we noted in the item, she had kind of a qualifier to it in that her public statements at the time were that, you know, maybe it should be open to an increase, just not as large as what was proposed in the budget. So, as I said before, it’s a pretty slim record in terms of where she’s had a chance to vote on taxes, but from what we could see based on her record, we rated that as a half-true statement from the Republican Party.

Frederica Freyberg:

So when we started, you said there were three votes. I’ve only talked about two. What was the third?

Greg Borowski:

The first budget there was a preliminary vote and then a second vote to pass it and the most recent one, there’s only been the preliminary vote so far in terms of where they are at in the budget process.

Frederica Freyberg:

So presumably even though her tenure on the Madison School Board has not been long, and there wasn’t kind of a lot to kind of focus on in terms of that GOP statement, now that she’s in, there are going to be a lot more of these kinds of things that the other side is going to focus on against her, and presumably she’s going to be starting to say some things about the other side that will be grist for you guys.

Greg Borowski:

Right, this was her first introduction to the Truth-o-meter this week, and we will be getting more statements now that she’s into the race officially. We’ve been talking what kind of a slower political year it’s been, so we’re ready for 2014, and this is a good start for us.

Frederica Freyberg:

You mean you guys are kind of missing what we’ve seen in the most recent past?

Greg Borowski:

I wouldn’t say missing, as much as it’s a lot easier to find statements when there’s so many more things being made. You know, once the TV ads and things start, that’s when our readers really turn to us even more looking for guidance and to help them sift through what they’re hearing.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what kinds of things are you working on right now that we can look forward to?

Greg Borowski:

Well, we’ve got an interesting one for Sunday. Representative Paul Ryan’s– It’s a Flip-o-meter, which is our way to look at whether a politician has changed his or her position on an issue. It’s looking at his views on Syria, and the line that, you know, President Obama had situated and whether Representative Ryan’s been consistent on that point.

Frederica Freyberg:

When will we be seeing that?

Greg Borowski:

Well, it will be posted on Sunday morning. But for your viewers we rated it a half flip, but you’ll have to tune in and see why. It wasn’t quite a full flop, but he did change his position on it in the course of the last few months.

Frederica Freyberg:

A half flip means you’re either landing kind of on your back or your stomach, doesn’t it?

Greg Borowski:

Yeah, it’s not a recommended move, say, if you’re in a gymnastics event or something, but it does show where there’s been some inconsistency rather than a complete reversal on a position.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right, Greg Borowski, from Politifact Wisconsin, thank you very much.

Greg Borowski:

You’re quite welcome.