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 June 12th, 2009

RTA madness expanded, explained – and revised

by @ 16:55. Filed under Choo-choos, Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

Revisions/extensions (4:55 pm 6/12/2009) – I’ve moved this post (originally published 4:28 pm 6/11/2009) to the top. The summary from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau is in (pages 38-42), and things get worse. I’ll clear up the original post a bit, and explain below.

WisPolitics’ Budget Blog reports that a rather sweeping amendment to the various Regional “Transit” Authorities contained in the Daughter-of-Necrobudget has been made by Assembly Democrats:

  • The Fox River Valley RTA in the governor’s budget has been restored, including the 0.5% sales tax.
  • The Chippewa River Valley also gets an RTA, with an unknown funding source a 0.5% sales tax.
  • In a reversal of the usual car-taxes-to-transit subsidy, Dane County, and only Dane County, will get to use its 0.5% RTA sales tax to repair roads.
  • At the insistence of the Federal Transit Administration, the KRM taxing authority’s responsibility is expanded to include Racine’s and Kenosha’s bus systems, paid for by a $1 car-rental tax in the cities of Racine and Kenosha (which makes the total KRM RTA car-rental tax initially $17 in Racine and Kenosha; it is unknown whether, like the larger car-rental tax, this will be auto-indexed for inflation) an additional $2 car-rental tax in Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha Counties, raising the total tax to $18 per car-rental transaction. Of note, the bus systems only get the tax money if the cities raise funding of their transit systems (i.e. raise local taxes) by that amount.
  • The new sales tax the Milwaukee County Board gets to levy for their Regional Transit Taxing Authority drops from 1.00% to 0.65%, but instead of also funding parks, cultural, and emergency medical services programs, 23% of the new tax (or 0.15% on the bottom line) will go to “offsetting police and fire costs in communities in Milwaukee County”. If you believe that will go anyplace other than the City of Milwaukee, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

So, why all the changes, and why now? Apparently, despite being close to $2,000,000,000,000 in the red for the 2010 budget, the federal government has enough money to reward those who grow government and raise taxes by creating RTAs by September.

Yes, that’s right. Much like the demand by the Assembly Democrats to the cities of Racine and Kenosha to raise local taxes so that they get a pittance of an amount from a state-imposed tax increase, the federal government is demanding local tax increases and increased amounts and levels of government to get a pittance of an amount from the already-overtapped federal Treasury.

Begin expanded explanation. Regarding the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (the rebadged KRM Authority):

  • The car-rental tax is increased from $16 per transaction to $18 per transaction, indexed for inflation.
  • The city of Racine’s bus system would get $1 of that, and the city of Kenosha’s bus system would get $1 of that, only if each city “generates new funds to match the vehicle rental tax revenues”.
  • No other community in either Racine County or Kenosha County gets a stop on the choo-choo unless they provide a “sustainable funding mechanism” of an unspecified amount to contribute to their county seat’s existing bus system.
  • Instead of empowering the Milwaukee County and Racine County executives to make appointments, it depowers the Kenosha County Executive and gives the Kenosha County board chair that seat’s appointment power.
  • The SERTA will become the sole clearinghouse of grants made to the FTA by all three counties.
  • Pedro Colon gets a KRM stop at Lincoln Ave. and Bay St. to go along with his previously-porked-in National Ave. stop.

Regarding the Milwaukee Transit Taxing Authority:

  • Delete the “Regional” from the name.
  • The 0.15% sales tax imposed for “police and fire protection” will be split based on the number of officers and firefighters (i.e. almost all the money’s going to the city).
  • Specify that the MTA would be a tax-exempt entity.
  • No word on whether the 15% requirement to the city of Milwaukee to run the mini-choo-choo is still in.

Regarding the Chippewa Valley Transit Authority:

  • Eau Claire County would be first, pending both county board and voter approval.
  • Any municipality that has any presence in Eau Claire County would automatically be part of this.
  • If it is established, Chippewa County could join the same way (county board and voter approval), with the decision to either join or leave binding on all municipalities in Chippewa County.
  • Membership, with 4-year terms, would be set by each member county, with no more than 17 total and including three members appointed by each county member’s county executive and approved by the county board (one of which would be an initial 2-year term, then 4-year terms after that), a member appointed by the mayor of each member county’s largest city and approved by that city’s common council (an initial 2-year term, then 4-year terms after that) and a member appointed by the governor.
  • The funding source would be a 0.5% sales tax.

Once again, the screwing gets deeper. Maybe I should hire Moron Pundit to put together a way-NSFW graphic.

Revisions/extensions (9:12 am 6/14/2009) – I have to thank Lance Burri for the Rule 2 boost.

A junker of an idea

by @ 10:10. Filed under Politics - National.

The Detroit News reports that the House and Senate leadership have agreed on a $1 billion plan to get older cars off the roads, to be stuffed inside the $106 billion war supplemental (off-topic, I thought there wasn’t going to be “war supplementals” in the ObamiNation). The major details are the same as the version that passed the House on Tuesday:

  • Those who trade in a vehicle made after 1983 that has a combined (new) EPA mileage rating of less than 18 mpg can get $3,500 in a government voucher if the new passenger car has a combined EPA mileage rating of at least 22 mpg and is at least 4 mpg greater than the previous vehicle’s combined (new) EPA mileage rating, or the new light truck has a combined EPA mileage rating of at least 18 mpg and is at least 2 mpg greater than the previous vehicle’s combined (new) EPA mileage rating.
  • That amount increases to $4,500 if the new passenger car’s combined EPA mileage rating is at least 10 mpg greater than the previous vehicle’s combined (new) EPA mileage rating or if the new light trick’s combined EPA mileage rating is at least 5 mpg greater than the previous vehicle’s combined (new) EPA mileage rating.
  • Since the old car will be crushed or shredded, that voucher will take the place of any trade-in value.

Exit question part 1 – how long before this becomes mandatory, with the only eligible cars made by either UAW Motors or Government Motors? Exit question part 2 – will this be any more successful than the “gun buyback” programs?

Revisions/extensions (9:08 am 6/14/2009) – I somehow missed the requirement that the old vehicle can’t have higher than a combined 18 mpg.

Czar-mania

by @ 8:54. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Jim Lynch decided to award me the title of Omlete Czar as part of the Czar Craze coming out of the ObamiNation Administration. He’s got a few of my friends as other Czars:

– Czar of all Czars – Jack Bauer
– Babes Czar – Wyatt Earp
– Tango Czarina – Fausta Wertz
– Jedi Czar – The Jawa Report
– Moron Czar – Ace
– Pirate Czarrrr and Beach Czar – William Teach

A couple more for the good of the order:

Humor czar – Christian Schneider
Beer czar – Jib
Rule 5 czar – Robert Stacy McCain
Links and Despair Czar – Allahpundit
Czar of Trogs – Lance Burri
Czarina of TV appearances – Mary Katharine Ham

Now, do I give Flight Czar to Asian Badger or Dave?

It’s the final countdown

by @ 7:38. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Today is the last day most TV stations will be broadcasting analog signals. Let’s celebrate with some one-hit wonder…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_IKcMl_a9A[/youtube]

Tim Cuprisin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a list of what will be happening today:

  • Channels 18 (WVTV), 24 (WCGV), and 30 (WVCY) previously shut down their analog broadcasts.
  • At 9 am, Channels 10 (WMVS), 36 (WMVT) and 49 (WBME) will shut down analog broadcasts.
  • Also at 9 am, Channel 63 (WYTU-LP) will cease Telemundo broadcasting and begin simulcasting the CBS and local programming carried by Weigel corporate sister Channel 58 (WDJT) in analog. Because the mandatory digital conversion does not affect low-power stations, The Business Journal of Milwaukee previously reported that Channels 63 and 41 (WMLW-CA, also owned by Weigel) will continue to broadcast an analog signal after today.
  • At 11:30 am, Channel 6 (WITI) will bring back Albert the Alleycat and the playing of the national anthem one more time as part of a special signoff of its analog signal. They then wil run a loop of digital transition information for the next two weeks, with audio still available at 87.7 MHz on the FM dial for those two weeks.
  • At noon, Channel 12 (WISN) will shut down the analog signal.
  • Also at noon, Channel 4 (WTMJ) will run a 2-hour loop of digital transition information, with analog signal shutdown at 2 pm.
  • At 11:59 pm, Channels 55 (WPXE) and 58 will shut down their analog signals. That does not affect the simulcast of Channel 58’s signal on Channel 63.

For those of you who have every TV/VCR/DVR hooked up to ATSC tuners (either built-in or converter box), cable, satellite or AT&T’s U-verse, or watch nothing but low-power TV, you’re golden. If you still have at least one TV, VCR or DVR that isn’t and don’t like or can’t get the very-limited choices low-power TV offers, you’re about to be SOL.

Revisions/extensions (8:20 am 6/12/2009, with Part 2 at 8:28 am 6/12/2009) – A couple of housekeeping notes based on the fact that the FCC has ordered the abandonment Channels 52-69 so that they can be auctioned off for other telecommunications services:

  • WVTV will be returning to physical channel 18 from its pre-transition digital physical channel 61 at 9 am. That means that those of you who get WVTV via antenna will need to rescan.
  • Channel 63 (about to become the analog version of WDJT) will soon vacate that channel. Weigel does have a construction permit on file with the FCC to move the analog signal to Channel 49 (about to be vacated by WBME), with the same coverage as the current Channel 63 signal.
  • WMLW has a application in to the FCC to assume physical channel 24 for its analog signal as physical channel 41 has been assigned to digital stations in Green Bay and Rockford, and WCGV will remain on physical channel 25.

R&E part 3 (10:40 am 6/12/2009) – The loss of the analog Telemundo signal did not affect either the Time Warner carriage of Telemundo (on cable channel 27), its broadcast as a low-power digital station on physical channel 17, or its simulcast on WBME’s digital signal at virtual subchannel 49.4 (physical subchannel 48.4).

Relating to Weigel, and specifically WMLW, while it does have a low-powered digital signal at channel 13, the return to the frequency by Grand Rapids’ WZZM after its pre-transition relocation to channel 39 means that prior plans to make the digital signal full-powered had to be set aside, and it will continue to be available on WDJT’s digital signal at virtual subchannel 58.2 (physical subchannel 46.2).

Also, WMKE-CA, which operates on Channel 7, runs America One programming, and is essentially available only in the northern 2/3rds of Milwaukee County (and notably, not in Oak Creek), apparently will continue to broadcast its analog signal. The parent company does not have any plans to construct a digital tower.

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