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Month: April 2019

End Wisconsin’s Stewardship Program

by Owen | 2120, 30 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 6 Comments

I’m very happy to see my state senator’s name affixed to this statement.

To the detriment of Wisconsinites, the stewardship program has accumulated far too much land, has incurred staggering debt, and has resulted in decreased funds for vital state needs. Currently, the DNR has either purchased or protected 1.8 million acres of land and the debt currently owed is $795 million. To put the land acquisition in perspective, that is more acreage than the entire state of Rhode Island or Delaware. Moreover, when land is owned by the state, it cannot be developed and is not on the tax rolls, impacting the ability of local communities to generate revenue. The program, in its current form, has run its course. The days of responsible borrowing are long gone.

It is incumbent upon the legislature and the budget writing committee to reform this program, to lower the risk to taxpayers, and to fund our top priorities. In 2015, lawmakers recognized the growing concern and required the DNR to sell 10,000 acres of land as a partial solution to rising costs. While a step in the right direction, further efforts are still needed to combat the excessive debt currently being incurred. The spending is so extreme that Wisconsin taxpayers are currently paying over a half a million dollars in interest every week on debt accumulated from the stewardship fund.

According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the stewardship fund, since its creation, has cost Wisconsinites approximately $871 million. Should our colleagues propose to reauthorize the program for an additional 10 years in this budget, the program would need to borrow an additional $332 million, an estimate that does not include interest. In total, with borrowed interest, taxpayers would be on the
hook for $533 million. To make matters worse, that figure does not include the current $795 million in existing stewardship debt.

To be clear, if reauthorized, stewardship costs will soar to $1.329 billion dollars. In a budget in which Wisconsin needs significant investment in our roads, we need to seriously evaluate how we prioritize our spending. We must ask ourselves when enough is enough.

Supreme Court Dismisses Lawsuit Against Firearms Classifieds Site

by Owen | 2007, 30 Apr 1919 | Law | 0 Comments

Good ruling

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging a firearms website that enabled a man to illegally purchase the pistol he used in a mass shooting at a suburban Milwaukee spa six years ago is liable in the killings, ruling that federal law grants the site operators immunity.

The court ruled 5-1 that the federal Communications Decency Act protects Armslist LLC, a firearms classifieds website. The act absolves website operators of any liability resulting from posting third-party content.

School spending doesn’t help grades

by Owen | 0716, 30 Apr 1919 | Education, Politics - Wisconsin | 1 Comment

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. I’m not crazy about the title they gave it. My working title was, “Politicians Agree that Wasting Taxpayer Money Helps their Electoral Prospects.” I admit… that’s a bit verbose. Anyway, here’s a piece to encourage you to go pick up a copy:

Speaker Robin Vos agreed with Gov. Tony Evers that Wisconsin’s government schools need an increase in spending in the next state budget. Now they are just arguing over the amount. The push for more and more spending on government schools is being fueled by two myths. The first myth is that more spending will result in better education. The second myth is that we are not spending enough already. Let us debunk those myths.

Wisconsin taxpayers have been increasing spending on public education for decades with little to show for it. According to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Education, Wisconsin’s government schools spent an average of $3,224 per student in the 1982-1983 school year. By last year, that number had grown to $13,505 per student, or, accounting for inflation, $5,190 in 1982 dollars. That is a 61 percent increase in per-pupil spending in normalized dollars.

With that generous increase in spending, the people should expect a solid increase in educational outcomes, right? Wrong. There isn’t any longitudinal performance data for Wisconsin that stretches back that far. More recent data shows that ACT and standardized test scores have remained stubbornly static in Wisconsin.But countless studies have shown that America’s educational performance has remained static or declined over that time period. Subjectively, few people would attempt to argue that a 2018 graduate received an education that is 61% better than a 1983 graduate. Spending more money has not resulted in a better education.

Yet despite all of the additional spending, our government schools have perpetuated a myth that they are underfunded. That is difficult to believe when they continue to waste so much money. For example, Wisconsin’s government schools allow exceedingly high teacher absenteeism.

The Wisconsin DPI tracks student absenteeism and classifies students who miss ten or more days of school as “high risk.” The federal Department of Education tracks how many teachers are absent for 10 or more days per school year. The most recent data show a lot of high-risk teachers in Washington County. The percentage of teachers who were absent for more than 10 days during the school year was 21.7% in West Bend, 18.5% in Slinger, 28.1% in Germantown, and a whopping 30.8% in Kewaskum. These percentages of chronic absenteeism are stunning given that there are only about 187 annual work days for teachers compared to 260 for most other professions.

According to a study by the Thomas Fordham Institute, teachers in traditional public schools in America are almost three times more likely to be chronically absent as teachers in charter schools, and teachers in unionized charter schools are twice as likely to be chronically absent as their non-unionized charters. Act 10 allowed for school boards to address chronic absenteeism by taking everything off of the union bargaining table except pay, but almost no school districts have taken any action to tackle teacher absenteeism.

Evers Appoints Campaign Supporters to UW Regents

by Owen | 2041, 29 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 5 Comments

Par for the course.

The appointments include Karen Walsh, of Madison, and Edmund Manydeeds III, of Eau Claire, both of whom will serve seven-year terms that begin May 2 and run through 2026. Evers also announced the appointment of a UW-La Crosse student.

Walsh spent more than 20 years working at UW-Madison. She and her husband donated $10 million to the UW School of Medicine and Public Health in 2015 to increase the size of the UW Hospital emergency facility. She currently serves as the director of a local family foundation dedicated to advancing human and animal health and welfare.

Campaign finance records show Walsh donated about $14,000 to Evers’ gubernatorial campaign, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Manydeeds previously served a term on the board from April 2010 through May 2017 under an appointment by former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

Manydeeds donated $1,500 to Evers’ gubernatorial campaign, records show.

Wisconsin Won Amazon Facility Over Michigan and Ohio

by Owen | 2029, 29 Apr 1919 | Economy | 10 Comments

Cool

Amazon.com picked Oak Creek for a nearly 2.2 million-square-foot fulfillment center over similar projects it considered doing in Michigan and Ohio, according to state documents and a source involved in the project.

The new facility, announced last year, is described as Amazon’s flagship Wisconsin facility and will ship around 1 million packages per day. The company’s Kiva branded robots will operate throughout the building, which will house around 25 million items, according to state documents.

The project is eligible for $7.5 million in state tax credits from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Those credits are in addition to the $10.3 million previously awarded to Amazon for its facilities in Kenosha.

The company was deciding between Wisconsin and Michigan for the investment, according to a WEDC staff review for the new credits. A source involved with the project said Amazon was also considering Ohio for an investment, but noted the company is often simultaneously considering investments in multiple locations.

Wisconsin AG Might Revoke Some Concealed Carry Licenses

by Owen | 0822, 29 Apr 1919 | Crime, Firearms, Politics - Wisconsin | 2 Comments

Here is an interesting case.

MADISON – Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul could revoke a small number of concealed weapons licenses because of a recent state Supreme Court decision regarding those who have had their criminal records expunged.

The Department of Justice that Kaul oversees has been issuing concealed weapons licenses for years to people who have had their records expunged of felony and misdemeanor convictions.

But the Supreme Court in an unrelated case in December ruled that expunging a record “does not invalidate the conviction.” In light of that, Kaul has determined he cannot issue weapons licenses to those who have expunged records.

He alerted lawmakers to the issue in March and sent a follow-up letter Friday asking them to take up legislation to address it. If they do not, he wrote that he would have to review individual licenses to determine which ones should be revoked.

“Without legislative action, concealed carry licenses must be revoked from individuals with an expunged felony conviction,” he wrote in Friday’s letter.

As the law goes, I think that Kaul is right. By the letter of the law, those licenses would need to be revoked. But then, what does “expunge” really mean? Is the conviction gone or not? Then again, why do we even have a process of expungement? The crime happened… you can’t erase reality, in which case, do we ever want people who commit felonies from getting a concealed carry license? Or should this right be treated like other rights? In Wisconsin, felons can vote after they complete their punishment. Should their right to carry concealed be restored? Tricky questions.

Perhaps we should get rid of expungement and go to Constitutional Carry and let reality prevail.

Madison Schools Skirt Around Open Meetings Law

by Owen | 2106, 28 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 11 Comments

Tricky, tricky…

Individually or in pairs, Madison School Board members spend hours each year in private “board briefings” with Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham, discussing matters soon to come before the full board for votes that must be held in public.

Cheatham instituted the briefings after she was hired in 2013, and district administrators and some board members defend the practice.

But recent guidance from the state attorney general’s office cautions that such small, private gatherings of public officials risk running afoul of the state open meetings law, a current board member and attorney called them “on the line” legally, and a former board member stopped participating in them because he believes the public and board members should be able to hear policy discussions involving members and administrators.

Evers Plan Would Stifle Open Enrollment

by Owen | 1138, 28 Apr 1919 | Education, Politics - Wisconsin | 4 Comments

Things like this would be solved if we had a 100% voucher system where all of the money follows the child every time. We are spending money to educate kids, right? It’s not just to feed the bureaucracy, is it?

Under current law, the transfer amount will increase if there are increases in K-12 aid. This is a win-win because the resident district can count the pupil under the revenue limit and the non-resident district receives additional revenue for a student who only marginally increases their costs.

But the governor’s proposal takes away these automatic increases (known as indexing) to the open enrollment program. By removing this indexing, open enrollment nonresident districts will not receive the same increase in funding as other K-12 schools will under Evers’ budget. According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB), districts will forgo about $158 per student in new revenue for the 2019-20 school year, and a staggering $595 per student in the 2020-21 school year.

This is important because school districts in Wisconsin have a choice about whether or not to allow a student to participate in open enrollment. Both the resident district and the nonresident district must approve a student transfer.

Because additional students bring additional costs, it is vital that the financial incentive exists for the receiving districts to take on the burden of an additional student. The table below shows the top 10 largest net receiving open enrollment districts in the state, based on the most recent year of data from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, and the estimated revenue they would lose out on in each of the next two years under the governors’ plan.

Woman Killed at Synagogue Stepped Between Killer and Rabbi

by Owen | 1053, 28 Apr 1919 | Crime | 2 Comments

I’m going to choose to remember her name instead of the killer’s.

(CNN)When a gunman opened fire in a synagogue in California, killing one and injuring three others, Lori Kaye jumped between the shooter and the rabbi.

Kaye, 60, was shot at the synagogue and died at a nearby hospital. In addition to Kaye, at least three others were wounded in the shooting Saturday at Congregation Chabad in Poway, north of San Diego.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, 57, had been shot in the hand when Kaye stepped between him and the gunman. The rabbi suffered what looked like defensive wounds to both of his index fingers, a doctor at the Palomar Medical Center said.

Sri Lankan Authorities Try to Root Out Rot

by Owen | 1559, 27 Apr 1919 | Crime, Foreign Affairs | 5 Comments

It’s not over

Militants linked to Easter suicide bombings opened fire and set off explosives during a raid by Sri Lankan security forces on a house in the country’s east, leaving behind a grisly discovery Saturday: 15 bodies, including six children.

The gun battle that began Friday night and the carnage that followed come amid widespread fear of more attacks as officials hunt for militants with explosives believed to still be at large after the coordinated bombings of churches and luxury hotels that killed more than 250 people last weekend.

Raids and police curfews have shut down areas of eastern Sri Lanka, and Catholic leaders have canceled Sunday Masses indefinitely. Officials also urged Muslims to stay home for prayers in an extraordinary call by the clergy to curtail worship.

It’s a shame that violent Muslims are denying Catholics their right to worship in peace.

Kamala Harris Owns a Gun and It Should Disqualify Her for Liberals

by Owen | 2113, 26 Apr 1919 | Firearms, Politics | 16 Comments

So says this guy.

When it comes to gun ownership in America, presidential aspirant Kamala Harris has shot herself in the foot.

At a time when Democrats are toughening their positions on gun control and seeking to make it a core issue in the 2020 campaign, the California senator has conceded that her personal relationship with guns is unique among the major Democratic presidential contenders. She owns a handgun, a campaign aide told CNN.

This under-publicized revelation comes as Harris is getting a lot of ink for being tough about guns. Her words are fine, but for a progressive like me, they are undermined by that handgun. And I can’t be the only one who is disturbed.

Speaker Vos Agrees with School Funding Increase

by Owen | 0833, 26 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 6 Comments

Arrrrggghhhh….

One of the biggest parts of the proposed budget covers education. Evers is proposing a large increase in spending for education, to the tune of about $1.4 billion, including roughly $600 million on special education.

Vos called the increase in education spending a “laudable goal” and believes there is some room for compromise.

“That is a huge increase,” Vos said. “I worry that if we only funded special ed or all the K4 education, you might not have enough money for the university system, raises for public employees, corrections, so I am confident we are going to do an increase for public schools, I just don’t know if we can do it at the level Gov. Evers proposed.”

So we are back to deciding HOW MUCH to increase government spending instead of even thinking about REDUCING spending. To throw more money into the education system that has declining enrollment without, at the very least, insisting on better outcomes for our children is just pure waste. It does nothing to help kids or the state, but it makes politicians feel good about themselves. In fact, it hurts the state by continuing to increase our cost of government and encourage people and families to relocate to states that are more affordable.

C’mon, Vos… Evers’ voters didn’t elect your majority caucus. Dance with who brung you.

Lawmakers Propose Making Cash Tips Tax Exempt

by Owen | 2154, 25 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 3 Comments

Um… ok?

Madison, WI – Representative Cody Horlacher (R-Mukwonago) and Senator André Jacque (RDePere) introduced legislation relating to an income tax exemption for cash tips paid to an employee.

Currently in Wisconsin, tipped employees make up the majority of the workforce in various service industries throughout the state. Many of these employees are high school students, young adults working their way through college, and parents from single-income homes. Under this bill, cash tips received by an employee would be exempt from state income tax. This would represent a great benefit to hard working folks across Wisconsin’s robust tourism, restaurant, and tavern industries while providing businesses that use a tip structure a hiring incentive to recruit employees on the basis that they get to keep more of their own hard earned money.

I’m all for reducing taxes where we can, but this seems nonsensical. That’s legitimate income… the majority of some folks’ income… why should it be exempt? If I convince my employer to pay me in cash, can I be exempt?

Teaching Office Life

by Owen | 2123, 24 Apr 1919 | Culture, Economy, Education | 0 Comments

Not a bad thought.

If you’ve spent much time working with recent graduates – people who have just finished university without much work experience – you’ve probably witnessed your share of odd office behaviour.

For instance, the new grad who shows up dressed for a night of clubbing, or the entry level worker who doesn’t realise the CEO in a Fortune 500 company doesn’t want his opinion about their new brand strategy, or the new grad who takes all her calls on speakerphone without noticing the colleagues glaring in her direction.

We’ve all heard the stereotypes about entry-level workers who think they should get a corner office or have their own assistant right off the bat – but in my experience, those are outliers.

Of course, we’ve all been there at the start of our own careers … because we don’t do a very good job of teaching students and recent graduates how to navigate office life. We teach them other things – how to write a research paper or analyse a poem or conduct a lab experiment – but we don’t have many formalised mechanisms for teaching the sort of skills that will have a huge impact on how to succeed in your first few years of work: skills most of us think of as just how to be in an office.

Part of the problem is that the people who could do the teaching work in academia and don’t have much, if any, recent experience of industry

Instead, we just throw young people in and expect them to figure it out … which of course leads to plenty of professional faux pas along the way, some of them only mildly embarrassing but some quite embarrassing indeed.

We’ve all heard the stereotypes about entry-level workers who think they should get a corner office or have their own assistant right off the bat – but in my experience, those are outliers. What’s much more common are young workers who haven’t fully processed that they’re adults now and don’t need to ask for permission to go to lunch, or to leave a meeting to use the bathroom, or who feel awkward calling their older colleagues by their first names, or are afraid of asking questions because they think they’re already supposed to have all the answers.

Bill to Keep Lottery Winners Secret

by Owen | 1149, 24 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 2 Comments

I disagree with this bill.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Rep. Gary Tauchen announced the bill Tuesday, about 40 minutes after Manuel Franco of West Allis appeared a Madison news conference to reveal he had won a $768 million Powerball jackpot, the third largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history.

Current state law doesn’t allow lottery winners to remain anonymous. Tauchen said in a news release announcing the bill that lottery winners often become targets of fraud, abuse and harassment.

Franco said at his news conference that he felt a sense of paranoia after he realized he won. He says he thought somebody was behind him every day and he kept the winning ticket in a safe.

We are talking about a government agency handing out gobs of money. Transparency is required to protect against fraud, corruption, and abuse.

Trump Tax Cuts Put More Money in State Coffers

by Owen | 1147, 24 Apr 1919 | Politics | 1 Comment

States – including Wisconsin – don’t have a revenue problem. They have a spending problem.

State governments are collecting more in tax revenues than their pre-recession peak, thanks to both a booming economy and the 2017 Republican tax cuts, according to a new report.

Forty-one states are now bringing in more revenue than their pre-recession highs, according to data from the Pew Charitable Trust’s Fiscal 50 project. All told, the states collectively brought in 13 percent more revenue in the third quarter of 2018 than they did during the pre-recession peak.

Most of the nine states that have yet to rebound are energy-producing states that have seen revenues drop as global commodity prices fall.

The stretch of revenue growth is one of the strongest in recent memory, said Justin Theal, a researcher at the Pew Charitable Trusts who co-authored the report.

Evers Vows to Let People Kill Babies

by Owen | 1145, 24 Apr 1919 | Culture, Politics - Wisconsin | 13 Comments

What a monstrously immoral man.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) promised to veto a “born alive” abortion bill if the GOP-backed legislation makes it to his desk.

The bill, introduced last week, hasn’t yet been voted on in any relevant legislative committees. Still, Evers told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelthat he would veto the bill, citing existing protections and criminal penalties under Wisconsin state law.

“I think those protections already exist,” Evers told the newspaper. “We have all sorts of issues to deal with in the state of Wisconsin and to pass a bill that is redundant seems to be not a productive use of time. And clearly I ran on the belief — and I still believe — that women should be able to make choices about their health care. But this deals with a specific issue that’s already been resolved.”

That’s a BS excuse. If the law would be redundant, as he claims, then what’s the harm in signing it? The truth is that Planned Parenthood and the abortion fascists are pushing to have infanticide legal and Evers supports it too.

Washington County needs an executive

by Owen | 0649, 24 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News yesterday.

The Washington County Board of Supervisors is considering changing the structure of county government to create a county executive instead of the current county administrator structure. The County Board should move swiftly to enact this change in time for the voters of Washington County to elect their first county executive next April.

Wisconsin allows for three forms of county government that have progressively more powerful executive functions. The first form has a very weak administrative coordinator. In this form of government, the county board appoints a coordinator who has very limited power, but is responsible for coordinating and executing the orders from the board. The coordinator does not appoint department heads and does not have any independent budget authority. Thirty three Wisconsin counties use this structure.

The second form has a stronger executive function held by county administrator. The county board still appoints the county administrator, but the administrator has the authority to prepare and present a budget, appoint and remove department heads with confirmation from the county board, and coordinate departments. This is the form of government that Washington County uses along with 28 other counties.

The third form of county government empowers an elected county executive with responsibility for the executive functions of government. In this form, all of the voters in the county elect a single executive. As such, the county executive cannot be removed by the county board. Only the governor can remove a county executive for cause. The county executive has all of the powers and responsibilities of a county administrator, but also has the power to veto county board actions and remove department heads without board confirmation. Eleven, mostly more urban, Wisconsin counties have a county executive including neighboring Fond du Lac, Waukesha, and Milwaukee counties.

The main benefit for Washington County of switching to a county executive form of government is that is gives the electors a single person who represents the entire county. That person would be able to set a vision and direction for the county, as well as be held responsible for the overall performance of county government.

In the current form of Washington County’s government, there are 26 supervisors (still way too many) who each represent a few thousand citizens. They elect a county chairperson, other board officers, and appoint the county administrator. Each county board supervisor is elected to represent the interests of his or her constituents — as it should be. Nobody on the board represents the entire county.

Similarly, if the citizens are dissatisfied with the direction of county government, it is extremely difficult to make their will known across a slate of 26 board supervisors. To enact a change in direction, at least 14 new people must run and win across the county to build a new majority on the County Board. And if the County Board passes something outrageous, there is not any veto check on their action like there is at the state and federal levels of government.

By having a county executive, Washington County would have a single person who would represent the entire county’s interests with businesses, state government, and other interests. The citizens of the county would also have a single person to take their grievances to when a county department fails them. It would make county government more nimble and more responsive to the citizens and external interests.

The down side of having a county executive is that the legislative part of county government, the Board of Supervisors, would have to cede some of their current power over executive functions. This is a small price to pay for the benefits a county executive would bring to the county.

Our nation has a long history of having three separate, distinct branches of government that balance and check each other. Washington County has reached a level of population, complexity, and maturity that make this the right time to create an independent executive branch.

Foxconn Called First, Evers Alleges

by Owen | 2059, 23 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 1 Comment

If true, why didn’t he mention it last week when he started saying he wanted to reopen the contract? He’s flailing and betting that Foxconn wouldn’t see it in their best interests to contradict him in public.

An executive for electronics maker Foxconn first suggested revisiting the company’s $3 billion state incentive deal to reflect the company’s “evolving project” in Wisconsin, according to a letter written and released Tuesday by Gov. Tony Evers.

Republican Lawmaker from Pewaukee Proposes Pissing Away Taxpayer Money

by Owen | 0744, 23 Apr 1919 | Politics - Wisconsin | 12 Comments

State Representative Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) has proposed a list of things in an effort to out-Democrat the Democrats on Earth Day. Let’s take a brief look at this idiocy.

“Renewable Energy Rebates – This proposal will ensure every Wisconsin resident who wants to purchase renewable energy can do so without any upfront cost, and the rebate will help make it affordable.

Taxpayers already subsidize way too much of this and have been doing so for years. It’s a huge waste that is rife with fraud.

“Clean Energy Corridors – This proposal will make the most of our Volkswagen settlement funds by providing matching grants to businesses along major thoroughfares connecting Wisconsin to our surrounding states.

He wants to create charging stations along Wisconsin’s highways. Not only is it not the role of the state government to provide charging stations for the owners of electric vehicles (does the state run gas stations?), it would rob the private sector and entrepreneurs of the opportunity to capitalize on this technological development.

“Solar & Wind Education & Training Grant program – Solar and wind energy installation is one of the fastest growing industries in our economy. This program will help bolster this developing workforce by providing grants to companies to train workers in these skilled and technical fields.”

If this is truly one of the fastest growing industries, why do the taxpayers need to subsidize the training of workers for it?

“Commitment to Wisconsin Stewardship – Assembly Republicans are committed to protecting our hunting and fishing heritage by supporting our state parks and public lands for future generations.

I hate the Stewardship Fund. Always have. The government already owns way too much land. Taking that much land off of the tax rolls increases taxes for the rest of us while also creating ongoing expense for us taxpayers.

“Recycling Electronics Initiative – We are focused on the problem of electronics disposal. By finding a way to increase the recycling of electronics, we can mitigate the impact these products and pollutants have on the environment.”

This isn’t the role of government.

Taken as a package, every one of these initiatives involves the transfer of taxpayer money to some private person or enterprise – with government bureaucrats deciding who gets paid. Which companies will build the charging stations? Whose land will the Stewardship Fund buy? Which companies get money to train workers? You get the idea. If the programs are run ethically, it gives government a lot of power to pick winners and losers. If they are run like a normal government programs, they will be riddled with corruption, graft, and waste.

I’d like my Republicans to behave like Republicans, please.

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