No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for October 24th, 2007

So much for the political advantage

by @ 21:15. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

In case you missed it below, or elsewhere around the Cheddarsphere, the spin is that this is a political win for the Pubbies. I hate to rain on that parade, but there’s a slight problem with that; namely, a no-new-taxes pledge from Americans for Tax Reform 24 Assemblymen signed. Here are the RepubicRATs who flat-out lied to their constituents when they signed that pledge:

– Donald Friske
– Eugene Hahn
– Jake Hines
– Terry Musser
– Scott Suder – Forgot originally
– Jeff Wood

For those counting along at home, or inside the Square, that’s more than the Pubbie margin in the Assembly. Further, it wasn’t necessary for any of those five six to break their word publicly; Mike Huebsch still had a 5 6 5-vote margin to work with.

Message to the wise; it’s not 1988 anymore. It’s a lot harder to bury duplicity; just ask former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle or former State Senate Republican Leader Mary Panzer.

Oh, and the recall window is now open.

Revisions/extensions (10:48 pm 10/24/2007) – Made a correction to the vote margin; Huebsch had even more room. Also added a reference the state Pubbies should have had burned into their collective memories.

R&E part 2 (12:06 am 10/25/2007) – I shouldn’t try this while watching the World Series and participating in a couple of open threads; I forgot Scott Suder. That also brings the vote margin back to where it was. Thanks, Jenny.

The budget – inside the Square view

by @ 20:19. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

I had the pleasure to talk with a couple of Republican Senate staffers today (don’t bother asking which ones; it was more of a “background” talk), and they’re actually pretty stoked about the budget. You know my views, but in the interest of fairness, and to explain both Fraley’s and Kevin’s optimism, I’ll go through the highlights:

– They’re pleased they got the most-odious of the taxes out, namely the combined reporting, the hospital tax, and the gas tax. Considering the original new-tax-increase estimates were $1.74 billion (at least officially), that’s an accomplishment.

– Healthy and Depopulated Wisconsin and KRM, a pair of Senate ‘Rat priorities, got shot down. While most of us, me included, figured and probably still figure H&DW was nothing more than a negotiating ploy, the reaction of the Senate ‘Rats is, in a word, priceless.

– Oh, and how about that reaction? It wasn’t yet official when we talked, but Robson’s gone. It’s odd when there’s a mid-term purge, especially when the side undergoing said purge can say it got most of what it wanted.

– Speaking of the Senate, all of the Senate Pubbies stuck together in voting against the budget. To be honest, nobody saw that coming.

– They see some political possibilities for 2008 and 2010, based mainly on the version that first went through the Assembly. After a review of the vote that I only got to after the conversation, I’m not nearly as optimistic.

Petulant Senate ‘Rats

by @ 19:23. Filed under Taxes.

I first saw the rumblings on a putsch in the Senate ‘Rat leadership over at Kevin Fischer’s place late last night, but it was a bit late to expound on it. I’ve been out all day, and it’s come to fruition. Russ Decker is now your State Senate Majority Leader.

Considering that they got over 75% of the additional taxes they wanted going into negotiations and better than 57% of the additional spending they voted for (less H&DW), despite being cut out of the negotiations, I was right when I said they wanted it all. Guess they forgot that the governor makes all the rules when it comes to the budget. I wonder whether they’ll try to knife him in 2010.

“Brilliant” negotiating Huebsch, part deux

by @ 1:12. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

It might just be the time of the night, but the more I think about the “Grand Compromise”, the more I realize those of us who don’t want to be #1 in taxation got rolled. First, let’s go back to the spending numbers, and assume that Healthy and Depopulated Wisconsin was never a serious proposal. Throwing that up against what was passed last night, Robson got 76.3% of her her $1,000,000,000 tax increase and 68.5% of difference in the increase in state-funds spending (the amount that comes directly from our pockets versus what comes from that plus what comes from the federal trough) between her plan and the sop thrown to us in southeast Wisconsin.

What’s worse is something that GOP 1st District vice-chair Bob Geason dug up (H/T – Recess Supervisor). Remember that total spending “reduction” from Doyle’s original budget? When all the bonding gets put into the spending equation, all but $345,091,300 of difference between the original and the Grand Compromise disappears. It’s way too late to come up with the bonding numbers from the three intermediate proposals, but the total bond-and-spend number in the original budget was $60,346,104,400. However, if memory serves, it’s safe to say say that the final bond-and-spend number of $59,998,013,100 is closer to Doyle’s original proposal and probably the H&DW-less Senate proposal than the Assembly “sop”.

Revisions/extensions (7:06 am 10/24/2007) – I took the time to make a quick run-through of both the Senate and Assembly plans for bonding. Adding the Senate-approved bonding to the Senate H&DW-less plan made that plan’s bond-and-spend number $61,292,741,000 (with H&DW, it would have been $68,892,741,000), and adding the Assembly-approved bonding to the Assembly’s “sop” plan made that plan’s bond-and-spend number $59,036,762,500. In short, Doyle got 73.4% of the difference in the total spending-and-bonding between his original plan and the Assembly plan, and Robson got 57.4% of the total spending-and-bonding between her plan and the Assembly plan, at least if you take out H&DW. Disgusting.

As Wile E. Coyote would say, “Brilliance! Sheer, unadulterated brillance!”

Revisions/extensions part 2 (7:07 pm 10/24/2007) – The tax increases were recalculated after I left for Madison early this morning.

Eggs on the road

by @ 0:05. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Partly because I need to put some more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but mostly because these are some good events, I’ll be at the following:

– Center-Right Coalition meeting 10/24/2007, 9 am, Madison Club (5 E Wilson St. in Madison) – Guest-speaker will be Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

– Gathering of Eagles in Chicago, 1 pm, Federal Plaza (Dearborn and Adams in Chicago).

Be there or be somewhere, though I prefer you be there.

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