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 the 'Politics – Wisconsin' Category

July 2, 2009

Attention outstate Wisconsin residents

by @ 9:45. Filed under Envirowhackos, Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – The Lake-Dwelling Paul)

The Lakeland Times reports that the Department of Natural Resources (or as Dad29 aptly calls the agency, “Damn Near Russia”) has submitted the final draft of its rewrite to administrative rule NR115, the “Shoreland Protection Program”, to the Legislature, triggering the 30-day review process before it has the full force of law. For those of you city-slickers who don’t know what this will do to Wisconsin, let’s compare what the DNR is about to do to the current version of NR115:

  • Big item #1 – instead of merely applying to unincorporated areas (i.e. townships) of Wisconsin, it will also apply to those areas annexed by a city or village after May 7, 1982, or incorporated as a city or village after April 30, 1994.
  • Big item #2 – it creates a fresh limitation of a 15% impervious surface limit (including rooftops, i.e. structures, and driveways) without stormwater mitigation and a 30% impervious surface limit with mitigation. That applies to both riparian (shoreline) and nonriparian properties within 1,000 feet of the high-water mark (i.e. shore) of lakes and within 300 feet of the shore of rivers. Routine maintenance of structures, as well as in-kind replacement of walkways, driveways and patios on lots which are in noncompliance, would be allowed.
  • Instead of the boat hoists, piers, and boathouses currently allowed to be constructed within 75 feet of shore, some gazebos/decks/patios/screen houses, fishing rafts only on the Wolf and Wisconsin Rivers, small-diameter antennas, walkways, stairways and rail systems for pedestrian access to the shore, ultility structures that cannot be placed elsewhere can be constructed. While one section of the new rules does allow boathouses without plumbing and entirely above the high-water line, another prohibits all boathouses above the high-water line.
  • Within 35 feet of shore, instead of allowing up to 30 feet out of every 100 feet, regardless of lot lines, to generally be cleared of vegetation, the lesser of 30% of the shore frontage or 200 feet per parcel can generally be cleared. That clearance is now called “access and viewing corridors”.
  • Instead of allowing counties, at their discretion, to prohibit alteration/addition/repair of existing nonconforming buidings within 75 feet of shore if the cost is more than 50% of the assessed value of the structure, it allows alteration/addition/repair of existing nonconforming “principal structures” regardless of cost as long as they are at least 35 feet from shore, no expansion towards the shore happens, and the new impervious-surface limit is not exceeded. If any portion of an expansion is within 75 feet of shore, a mitigation plan would be required. Nonconforming “temporary” structures may be orderd to be removed.
  • It also creates a new requirement for the replacement or relocation of a nonconforming “principle structure”, which includes a mitigation plan to be in place, a requriement that the new/relocated structure be no closer to shore than the structure to be replaced, and the removal of all other nonconforming structures.

It isn’t quite the complete fallow prairie shoreline they wanted, but it’s a big step in the wrong direction. Given the Democrats control both houses of the Legislature, and the DNR has been trying to get this done for a decade, we’re going to be stuck with it for a while.

July 1, 2009

100% energy-independent Wisconsin (on “green” energy, no less)?

by @ 21:26. Filed under Energy, Politics - Wisconsin.

I hate to dump all over Mark Neumann’s idea that Wisconsin could, with “green, renewable” energy, be 100% energy independent in a generation, but I’m afraid I must. First, I must state that I admire what he did with the “green” home his company built.

There are two primary sources of energy, electricity and fuel. I could not find specifically how much electricity Wisconsin uses, but American Transmission Company, which serves the eastern 2/3rds of the state, most of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the Rockford, Illinois area, delivered a total of 68,162,000 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2008, with a peak 1-hour load of 11,794 megawatts. Meanwhile, in 2007 (the last year figures were available), the consumption of “green power” in Wisconsin, including power produced outside the state, was 197,145 megawatt-hours, with a peak 1-hour capacity of just under 106 megawatts. Granted, that doesn’t include hydroelectric (which is 100% tapped), and it doesn’t include projects built since 2007, but somehow I doubt there’s anywhere close to either 50,000,000 megawatt-hours/year or a reliable peak capacity of anywhere near 9,000 megawatts in “green” power. Those requirements just go up exponentially if plug-in electric cars ever hit Wisconsin.

Second, there’s fuel. I will necessarily be overly simplistic because of a similar lack of reliable information, but that’s balanced by the fact that, unless synthetic fuels somehow can be made with the resources in Wisconsin, we will never be 100% fuel-independent. In 2007, Wisconsin drivers used about 2,950,000,000 gallons of fuel. I don’t know what the splits between gasoline and diesel were, so I will assume that it was all gasoline. Further, I’ll assume that 7% of that fuel was ethanol. That leaves 2,743,500 gallons of gasoline used. In a generation, I would expect, between fuel efficiency increases and population increases, that to be reduced by about 25%, or about 2,000,000 gallons of gasoline.

If that is replaced by ethanol, given the inefficiencies of it versus gasoline, we’re looking at 2,500,000 gallons of ethanol that would need to be produced to make every part of E85 that can be produced in Wisconsin actually produced in Wisconsin. Assuming all of that is produced from corn (which the outstate farmers would love), about 7,620,000 acres would need to be given over to ethanol production. Given there were just over 15,000,000 acres of farmland in 2007, divided between crops and livestock, where exactly is all that corn going to be grown?

I do note that using switchgrass to make ethanol uses half the land. Still, that’s over a quarter of the farmland. What farm products do we give up exporting? Wheat? Corn? Milk?

There is another alternative; hydrogen-powered fuel cells. Provided there is sufficient electricity to split water into its component hydrogen and oxygen, it would seem that Wisconsin, with Lake Michigan on the east, Lake Superior on the northwest, the Mississippi River on the southwest, and innumerable lakes and rivers, would be a prime source for hydrogen. However, there’s two bits of bad news. First, it takes a lot of energy to split water, and Wisconsin doesn’t exactly have a surplus of that, especially “green” energy. Second, does anybody believe for a second that the enviromentalists will let that water be used for energy on anything approaching a mass scale?

Revisions/extensions (9:32 pm 7/1/2009) – I originally forgot to take into account that E85 still is 15% gasoline. The affected numbers have been corrected.

Everything you need to know about the DPW and business in WI

by @ 16:56. Filed under Business, Politics - Wisconsin.

Earlier today, WisBusiness ran a story on the state budget which featured the following about and from Sen. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield):

In a letter to constituents on his website, he labeled the spending plan “nothing short of a job killing, taxpayer harming, disaster of a budget, complete with billions of dollars in new taxes and fees” that will force companies to leave Wisconsin.

He wrote of a recent meeting with a Milwaukee-area business attorney who specifically mentioned “Doyle’s budget” as the reason why two executives he knows are making plans to move their firms to the Texas, which Kanavas said has a much friendlier business climate.

“People have to take a long hard look at the policies being pursued in Madison and realize they just don’t work,” he wrote.

“Our state is going to experience a net out-migration of producers and a net in-migration of people who are more dependent on government. We are killing our economy and our future.

“If we don’t change and change soon, I may bump into my lawyer friend again, but it just might be in Texas,” he said.

In response, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin issued this inane press release (via WisPolitics):

CONTACT: Jason A. Stephany, 608-260-2405, jasons@wisdems.org

MADISON – Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate today released the following statement in response to reports that Senator Ted Kanavas’ may soon move to Texas.

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

Meanwhile, Briggs & Stratton announced today that it is closing its Watertown and Jefferson facilities, moving the headquarters from Jefferson to Wauwatosa and moving the production at both facilities to facilities in the Southeast. That will result in 530 jobs departing Wisconsin, with only 90-100 workers being offered positions out of state.

Not only is the DPW happy with driving jobs out of Wisconsin, but their leadership team has a serious lack of reading comprehension.

Neumann officially a candidate

by @ 12:56. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Former Representative Mark Neumann has filed his campaign registration papers that makes him a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor last year. His reason for getting in, as told to WTMJ-AM’s Charlie Sykes – “10 years (have) gone by. I’ve gone back to the private sector. We build a bunch of different businesses. I’m on the front line in the business world, and I understand that when government passes new rules and regulations and raises taxes, that it is very anti-business. We’ve seen 133,000 jobs leave the state of Wisconsin in the last 12 months alone. That’s the reason for getting in.” In an interview with WISN-AM’s Jay Weber, he made the case that it is “very important” that those who govern have private-sector experience.

Neumann also touted his experience as part of the Congress that created the first “balanced” budget in my lifetime. He said that he can’t see how to fix things nationally, as the feds have put things too far out of whack.

While Neumann has not yet made detailed platform positions, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story linked above notes that the overriding theme is to make Wisconsin globally competitive. The main item that is known at this point is that Neumann would propose budgets that would limit yearly spending growth to 1% below inflation, with tax cuts following when state revenues begin rising again.

Another item where Neumann would be expected to be a leader is education. He is co-chairman of HOPE Christian Schools, which has 3 private choice schools in Milwaukee and a public charter school in Phoenix. He and Weber had a rather lengthy discussion on that near the end of their interview.

There is a rather significant problem that Weber found in his interview with Neumann – ethanol, specifically Neumann’s support for it. He said that’s part of the “global” environmental package, and specifically that it is part of making Wisconsin energy-independent with “clean, renewable” energy.

Flashback – my short interview with Neumann at the RPW Convention two months ago.

June 29, 2009

What hath the DemoBudget wrought?

by @ 11:10. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Brett Healy, president of the MacIver Institute, takes a look at some items slipped into the DemoBudget, including items I have missed:

  • Eliminate the requirement that, in any single fiscal year, revenues exceed expenditures, specifically for FY2011 (the second year of the budget).
  • The rest of us, most of whom have already paid for our recycling bins, get to buy the fine folks of the Town of Wrightstown their recycling bins.
  • Likely because of the criticism of the DemoBudget heaped by the various members of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a provision added by Sheridan and Decker that will allow the micro-targeted Shepard Express be the state “newspaper of record” in Milwaukee County. The last I checked, the Tuesday paid circulation of the Journal Sentinel, the lowest day for the daily, far outstripped the weekly free circulation of the Express. There’s no word on how those in Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, Ozaukee or Washington Counties, or those not on the East Side of Milwaukee, will get the few state notices that are still required to appear in a newspaper, but because most of those areas are Republican, Sheridan and Decker probably don’t give a <expletive deleted>.
  • A requirement, first added by the Senate, that the Department of Commerce fill the area develpment manager position in western Wisconsin by October. While speculation is that it was to secure Rep. Jeff Wood’s (Alcohol-Chippewa Falls) vote for the budget, I doubt it as Wood abandoned his supposed “fiscal conservative” values to vote for the first Assembly version, which did not contain this.
  • A $600,000 giveaway from the Public Service Commission to the Citizens’ Utility Board. As Brett put it, “Let’s give a group state taxpayer dollars so they can turnaround and sue state government. That makes a whole lot of sense.”

Gov. Doyle will conduct the final act later today with the signing and issuance of his line-item vetoes. If memory serves, while the Legislature can reverse a veto with 2/3rds votes, it has not done so in over two decades.

June 27, 2009

Guest column – Reince Priebus’ “Stop Digging”

by @ 16:57. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Reince Priebus submitted the following guest column to outlets statewide this morning. Since, judging by the time it hit my comm-box, it arrived too late to make Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I’ll run it:

Over the past few months, it’s been no secret that Wisconsin’s budget is in a mess. A record deficit and a slowing economy surely haven’t made the task of setting a new two-year spending plan any easier.

But just because the task was difficult doesn’t mean fixing the problem was impossible. Wisconsin legislators, and, in particular Governor Doyle and the Democratic leadership members who control both houses, would have done well to follow a simple, guiding principle.

When you’re in a hole, stop digging.

Family budgets and small business budgets work based on this rule every day. When times are tough, we cut back. Families certainly can’t tax the neighbors down the street when they want to spend money on something new, but state government can. Just look at the new state budget.

The new budget, approved by both houses of the legislature late last week, contains $4 billion in new spending, $2.1 billion in new taxes and fees on everyday expenses such as telephone service or garbage disposal, and $1.5 billion in property tax hikes. Democratic leaders attempted to balance the books by borrowing $2.9 billion, but even employing this questionable method of funding new spending leaves the state with an unsolved $2.3 billion structural deficit.

In total, in the five months since Wisconsin Democrats have held the Governor’s office, the state Assembly, and the state Senate, they’ve raised taxes in Wisconsin by $5 billion dollars. That’s almost $1000 for every Wisconsinite.

These tax increases are presumably an attempt to solve the budget mess, but the Democrats are overlooking one important detail. An increasing and excessive tax burden forces business out of the state at a time Wisconsin is bleeding jobs. Not only do higher taxes hurt families, they’re dampening the chances for the type of economic recovery that will put Wisconsin workers back on the job and our state’s finances back on track.

It’s not just Republicans that have been pointing out the disastrous effects that anti-business provisions can have on a budget. Chief Executive Magazine ranked Wisconsin a disappointing 43rd in the nation in its annual ranking of “The Best States to Do Business In.” And don’t expect the ranking to get better anytime soon. The new budget hikes taxes on investments, making businesses are even less likely to grow here in Wisconsin.

Equally as disturbing as the tax increases and new spending contained in the new state budget are the policy items that have no place being tucked in to a spending plan, as they have nothing to do with balancing the books. These non-fiscal policy items have the potential to wreck havoc on an already sour economy, and the new budget contains many such items.

For instance, auto insurance minimum coverage changes mean insurance rates are going up due to the new budget, driving up both costs and the number of uninsured. Take a look at your auto insurance premiums now. They are estimated to increase by up to 40 percent under the budget approved on a partisan vote by legislative Democrats.

The auto insurance changes are only one example out of almost one hundred non-fiscal policy changes currently included in the budget bill. It’s almost impossible to know the entirety of the impact each of the changes will have on our economy, but initial reactions from business owners across the state are marked with concern.

Unless lawmakers get serious about creating more jobs, cutting back on bloated state spending, and recognizing that increasing taxes on families and businesses hurts our economy, the budget mess could become a full-blown disaster.

As we await the Governor’s vetoes and signature on the budget bill, it’s already almost inevitable that the Wisconsin legislature will be forced to reconvene within a year to address a revenue shortfall when it becomes sorely apparent that taxing businesses out of the state means good-paying jobs and taxable revenue sources are leaving with them.

At this juncture, taxpayers should be calling the Governor to convey an important message. Ask the Governor to remove non-fiscal policy items that plague the budget bill. Tell the Governor you don’t think taxing families and businesses in the state will turn the economy around.

Most importantly, taxpayers should tell the Governor to stop digging. Wisconsin’s budget hole is due, in part, to creative funding transfers the Governor has made with his veto pen in the past. Wisconsin’s budget is bad enough.

June 26, 2009

RPW chair Reince Priebus on DemoBudget

by @ 19:26. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

The following just came in the comm-box from the Republican Party of Wisconsin:

RPW Chairman Reince Priebus Statement on Final State Budget Passage

MADISON – Following Legislative passage of a spending plan that increases spending by nearly $4 billion, increases taxes and fees by $2.1 billion, increases property taxes by $1.5 billion, and leaves Wisconsin with a $2.2 billion deficit, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Reince Priebus issued the following statement:

“Wisconsin’s budget mess is now a full-blown disaster. Taxes are going up, spending is going up, borrowing is going up…and Wisconsin jobs are going down as a result of it.

As he considers vetoes to this disastrous budget, the least Governor Doyle can do is stop digging Wisconsin’s budget hole deeper.

Wisconsin just can’t afford another one of Governor Doyle’s signature funding transfers as a result of the veto pen. Taxpayers have simply had enough.”

Something tells me that what comes out from under Doyle’s veto pen will be even worse.

On to the final act of the DemoBudget

by @ 19:07. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

I still haven’t seen a clean-text version of what just passed the Assembly 51-46, but it goes on to Gov. Jim Doyle for the biennial sign-and-hack. Democrats Bob Ziegelbauer and Peggy Krusik joined all the Republicans in opposition, while former “fiscal conservative” Jeff Wood once again betrayed his former positions and joined his Democrat friends in supporting it.

My previous summary is back here. I’ll be adding odious items to this post.

Hot view Friday – Rebecca Kleefisch and the Capitol view of Necrobudget

by @ 8:12. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Charlie Sykes)

Rebecca Kleefisch, late of WISN-TV, took a camera to the state Capitol yesterday, asked various Legislators what the most wasteful thing in the budget is, and posted the results on YouTube.

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

She managed to get both my Assemblyman, Mark Honadel (R-South Milwaukee, who noted that the budget creates more government that will never go away), and my Senator, Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee, and I’ll get to his item momentarily). I personally like the item from Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) – “It starts on line one of page 1 and ends on line 7 of page 1903.”

I have a follow-up for Plale -if you thought the $10 million to create a UW system nursing school it didn’t want was wasteful, why did you vote for it?

Revisions/extensions (9:00 am 6/26/2009) – After a review of the version of the Comparative Summary of Recommendations that includes the Conference Committee version of the budget, I guess wasting $3,006,000 on advance planning for a “potential” new building for UW-Madison’s School of Nursing and mandating a school of nursing for UW-Stevens Point is, in fact, quite all right by Plale.

The penultimate budget is in the pipeline

by @ 0:42. Filed under Choo-choos, Politics - Milwaukee County, Politics - Oak Creek, Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

Revisions and extensions part 13 (7:09 pm 6/26/2009) – Since the DemoBudget has passed the Assembly 51-46, and we’re now at the final act of the biennial sign-and-hack from Gov. Jim Doyle, I’ll be updating a fresh post rather than this one.

Revisions and extensions part 4 (12:42 am 6/26/2009) – Moved up to the top (originally posted 6/25/2009 at 10:58 pm) with the 17-15 Senate passage (despite no bill text available). The most-vulnerable Dem Senator, Jim Sullivan, was again allowed to vote “no”. Start packing your bags.

R&E part 5 (12:59 am 6/26/2009) – Finally found the amendment text, which modifies the Senate version (as amended by a pair of amendments). Sorry I don’t have a clean-text version.

I have to thank Kevin Fischer, Sen. Mary Lazich’s (R-New Berlin) aide, for pointing me to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s comparison between the Assembly changes, Senate changes, and Conference Committee’s changes to the Joint Finance Committee Daughter-of-Necrobudget. This will be the version that Jim “Chainsaw” Doyle (WEAC/HoChunk-For Sale) will take his veto pen to because under state law, it cannot be amended by the full Legislature. Of course, as of 10:47 pm, WisPolitics’ budget blog doesn’t have the full text of the final substitute to AB75 (the budget bill), but apparently the 24-hour clock started ticking about 8:15 pm.

I haven’t done a hard analysis yet, but it just keeps on getting worse. From Sen. Lazich:

  • Total spending is up $4,000,000,000, or 6%.
  • The state-level/RTA-level increases in taxes are $2,100,000,000.
  • Total property taxes will go up $1,500,000,000, with the median home property taxes going up $90 at the end of this year and $130 at the end of 2010.
  • Borrowing increases by $2,900,000,000.
  • The structural deficit (how far in the hole the FY2012-2013 budget will start) is $2,300,000,000.

In case you missed the math, the total 2-year tax increase will be $3,600,000,000. There’s also a few kickers (straight to the nuts delivered with steel-toed boots) I want to get out there tonight:

  • The statutory general fund reserve will be halved to $65,000,000 for the duration of the budget. That is necessary because the FY2011 “net balance”, with that change, would be $149,100. No, that is not a misprint – that is less than the salary of the average full-tenured UW professor.
  • Drop the current 60% exemption on long-term capital gains to 30%, except for certain farm property/equipment. That represents a 2-year $242,500,000 tax increase from current law and a $72,300,000 tax increase from the Joint Finance Committee/governor version of the budget.
  • The KRM/SERTA Assembly provisions pretty much are final, except that it wouldn’t be the sole clearinghouse for federal grant money for the transit companies/authorities in southeast Wisconsin. To resummarize:
    • The car-rental tax in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties would go up from the current $2 collected by the soon-to-be-replaced Regional Transit Taxing Authority (the one that used $450,000 of its $500,000 tax take to lobby for higher taxes) to $18, $2 higher than the JFC/Senate version.
    • The Racine bus system and Kenosha bus system would each get $1/car rental from that only if the host city matched the funds. Rep. Robin Vos (R-Racine) told me earlier this evening that the only acceptable method would be a $10/car wheel tax.
    • Any other community in either Racine County or Kenosha County that wants a stop on the KRM would need to dedicate a “sustainable funding mechanism” to their respective county seat’s bus system. I failed to ask Rep. Vos what that definition was, but I suspect that it would also be a $10/car wheel tax.
  • The “prevailing wage” provisions would apply to both SERTA and the Milwaukee Transit Taxing Authority (the former was added by the Senate, the latter by the conference committee).
  • Speaking of the Milwaukee Transit Taxing Authority, the Assembly 0.65% sales tax plan is adopted, with Lee Holloway getting a third person on the board.
  • The Chippewa Valley and Chequamegon Bay (Bayfield/Ashland Counties, which I somehow missed in the Senate version) RTAs live on, but the Fox Valley RTA is dead.
  • Sen. Jeff Plale’s last-ditch attempt to get the state to pay for 75% of a I-94/Drexel Interchange instead of the usual 50% (since Franklin and Northwestern Mutual reneged on verbal agreements to pay for 25% and Oak Creek will not pay the full 50% local cost) is out, which means no I-94/Drexel Interchange.

There’s a lot more, but I’m too tired to keep going.

Revisions/extensions (11:15 pm 6/25/2009) – I decided to add the major points of the KRM tax to this post.

R&E parts 2 and 3 (12:36 am 6/26/2009 and 12:37 am 6/26/2009) – Good news/bad news on the illegal alien front – the illegal-alien drivers’ licenses are out, but the illegal-alien in-state tuition is still in.

Also, despite the continued lack of the actual bill over at WisPolitics, the Senate has taken this up, mostly because Alan Lassee (R-De Pere) is absent attending to his ill wife, and thus two Dems can safely vote “no” lost track of the math.

R&E parts 6 (8:26 am 6/26/2009) and 7 (8:31 am 6/26/2009) – Jo Egelhoff (who gave me entirely too much credit) found that card-check union organizing for UW research assistants is in the budget. AFSCME and SEIU bought this government, and the Dems, specifically Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan and Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, who snuck it in in conference, are bound and determined to give them their moneys’ worth.

Meanwhile, Christian Schneider found that the chiropractors got another leg up on regular doctors. Any bets on the donation splits from them in the 2010 election cycle?

R&E part 8 (9:03 am 6/26/2009) – As noted above, the mandate for a UW-Stevens Point school of nursing and the requirement to spend just over $3 million for advance planning for a new UW-Madison school of nursing building, slated for construction in the FY2012-2013 budget, is in there. Paging East Side Plale.

R&E part 9 (2:34 pm 6/26/2009) – Brett Healy over at the MacIver Institute lists the dirty dozen items in this version of the budget. Items I haven’t listed yet:

  • Use $3,333,400 in general revenues to provide “engineering services” in Milwaukee, made out of whole cloth by Decker and Sheridan.
  • Rob $1,800,000 from five Milwaukee-area school districts, Oconomowoc, Mequon-Thiensville, Fox Point-Bayside and Nicolet, and give that to the Madison school district, again created out of whole cloth by Decker and Sheridan.
  • Full-speed death of the Qualified Economic Offer, same as Doyle’s, the Senate’s, and WEAC’s wishes (once again, the purchaser of this government gets what it bought).
  • Again out of whole cloth by Decker and Sheridan, extend in-state tuition benefits in the UW system to all foreign nationals, not just the illegal aliens I noted earlier. Supposedly said foreign nationals will need to swear that they either applied to become permanent residents or that they will once and if they become eligible to do so.
  • Make sure the portions of state government that get shut down as the result of either the hiring freeze or a furlough stays shut down, just as the Senate and AFSCME ordered (again, the purchaser of this government gets what it bought).
  • Again out of whole cloth by Decker and Sheridan, move up the start date of the new $0.75/line/month 911 fee from the later of 10/1 or 3 months after the budget is signed to 9/1, for an additional $5,000,000.
  • Again out of whole cloth by Decker and Sheridan, redirect $9,200,000 of a $37,000,000 raid from the Petroleum Inspection Fund (funded by a $0.02/gallon tax on gas and diesel) from the transportation fund to the general fund.

I can only wonder just how much more will be found after the 24-hour circuit breaker the Assembly has gets reset. In fact, I’m surprised that in their rush to remake the entirety of state government into a secretive chamber of lawmakers lawgivers, the Democrats didn’t get rid of that circuit breaker.

R&E part 10 (3:22 pm 6/26/2009) – While mandatory auto insurance, first put in by the Senate, as well as the highest minimums in the country, first put in by Doyle, is part of this, Recess Supervisor found a pair of stinkers added in out of whole cloth by Decker and Sheridan at the insistence of Pedro Colon and the Legislative Black Caucus – new insurees can’t be put into a high-risk category because they never had insurance before, and insurance companies can’t assign risk based on where a vehicle is kept. That’s right, those of you upstate and in the burbs get to subsidize the accident- and theft-prone in the hearts of Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine. Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette) has more on this, including the fact that the soon-to-be-law Wisconsin ban on area-based risk will be the the only one of its kind in the nation, and that other states (like Michigan) rejected it. Once again, Michigan beats us.

R&E part 11 (yes, we are that far, and there’s still time before the Assembly rubber-stamps this, 4:58 pm 6/26/2009) – Cathy Stepp found a stinker of an item from the Assembly version that popped back in – the allowance of the Department of Commerce to promulgate the initial rules for the new construction contractor registration program as “emergency rules without the finding of an emergency”, with the rule lasting . Using the emergency rules power under s. 227.24 of the state statues means no prior consideration for small business as provided by s. 227.114, no review regarding its effect on housing as provided by s. 227.115, no economic impact report as provided by s. 227.137, no advance copies provided to the Legislative Council staff as provided by s. 227.15, no prior hearings or notice thereof as provided by s. 227.16, 227.17 and 227.18, no prior legislative review as provided by s. 227.19, and no time to prepare for its implementation between its publication in the official state newspaper (or state website as provided by other provisions in the budget) and the first day of the following month as provided by s. 227.21.

There’s more agencies that get to implement “emergency rules” without the finding of an emergency, including the Department of Revenue’s new requirement to impose a 1% tax withholding on independent contractors (originally in the Assembly version).

R&E part 12 (5:03 pm 6/26/2009) – Greg Bump, who has been the on-the-scene man, reports that, after agreeing to waive the 24-hour rule, the Assembly will begin their rubber-stamping process at 5:30. He also posted the request from the little piggies known as the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities to Doyle to use his veto pen to eliminate the 7/1/2011 sunset of the $0.75/line police/fire protection tax (formerly known as the 911 tax) and eliminate the loosening of fireworks laws. I’m shocked, SHOCKED to see the spenders squealing for the continuation of a brand-new tax.

As an aside, I will be creating a fresh post when the Assembly does rubber-stamp what Kevin Binversie has freshly deemed the DemoBudget. Very apt name, don’t you think?

June 25, 2009

Yet another loss to Michigan

by @ 23:48. Tags:
Filed under Business, Politics - Wisconsin.

The Janesville Gazette reports that General Government Motors will be retooling its Orion, Michigan plant, which currently builds the Chevrolet Malibu and was slated to close later this year, to build its next-generation Chevrolet subcompact. The Orion plant beat out the already-shuttered Janesville plant, which built the Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban (and GMC sisters), as well as the soon-to-be-closed Spring Hill, Tennesse plant, which makes the Chevrolet Traverse after being retooled away from the Saturn compact line.

Since there was no way that Government Motors would spare jobs in a Republican-leaning state, the race was really between Wisconsin and Michigan. When the business climate in Wisconsin is so bad that even a government-run operation won’t locate here, one has to wonder why we’re about to make it even worse.

Revisions/extensions (9:22 am 6/26/2009) – The Detroit News reports (H/T – FoxPolitics) that Orion offered GM a 100% tax break on new equipment and machinery for 25 years (up from a 50% tax break on same in an earlier offer) as well as a 50% tax break if it expanded the plant. Somehow, I doubt that it isn’t better than Jim Doyle’s offer (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

R&E part 2 (9:33 am 6/26/2009) – The folks who run the NewsHub Twitter stream just let me know they’re still working on trying to find out what Wisconsin’s offer was.

A couple things to keep in mind; the Janesville plant is already a shell – GM auctioned off pretty much everything that could be unbolted, including items that would have been useful in building subcompacts. While the cost of stripping out the unnecessary tooling has already been borne, the fact that they will be starting with nothing more than a shell of a building has to also be taken into account.

Speaking of the shell of the building, the Janesville plant is the oldest facility recently used by GM, opening in 1919. The Orion Assembly facility opened at the end of 1983. The ages of the facilities also comes into play, especially since energy costs are about to go through the roof nationwide.

Leah Vukmir to challenge Jim Sullivan

by @ 23:30. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

I was neglectful in getting this onto the blog, but I had live coverage of this morning’s announcement on the Twitter stream. Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) will be challenging Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) in the 2010 election. Since there was too much traffic in front of Gilles Frozen Custard to use the digital voice recorder, I’ll repost the press release:

Vukmir Announces Candidacy for 5th Senate District

District deserves a Senator focused on creating jobs and rebuilding our economy

(Wauwatosa,WI)…Citing a need for a Senator who better reflects the priorities of the people of the 5th Senate District, State Representative Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) today announced her candidacy for the State Senate.

“Wisconsin has lost 130,000 jobs in the last year. We need a Senator who cares about getting people back to work instead of figuring out how to squeeze more tax revenue from our families and employers,” Vukmir said. “This campaign isn’t about me. It’s about the people of the 5th Senate District getting the representation they deserve.”

Standing before a crowd of supporters gathered at Gilles Frozen Custard in Wauwatosa, Vukmir touted her record of supporting private sector job creation, tax relief, education reform, and health care reform.

“The 400 Harley Davidson workers laid off in April needed a senator who understands that higher taxes kill jobs,” Vukmir said. “When the economy soured, some politicians in Madison were concerned only with how to raise enough tax revenue to fund their spending addiction. My priority has been, and will always be, creating jobs and providing core services in the most efficient way possible.”

A Registered Nurse and Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Leah Vukmir was first elected to the State Assembly in 2002 and has been reelected three times. In 2008, she received 62% of the vote. In the current session, Vukmir is the Ranking Member on the Assembly Committee on Health and Health Care Reform. She is recognized by her colleagues as a leading advocate for taxpayers. Vukmir holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Marquette University and a Master of Science in Nursing from UW-Madison. The 5th Senate District is comprised of portions of the cities of Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, West Allis and Brookfield and the villages of West Milwaukee and Elm Grove.

I did ask Rep. Vukmir on possible replacements for her in the Assembly, and she said there were several good candidates.

I wholeheartely endorse Vukmir for the 5th State Senate District.

June 19, 2009

Sam’s the man

by @ 16:38. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

I’ve been so busy (or at least out of it) lately that I missed this announcement from Sam Hagedorn, the man behind YoSAMite Says and all-around good guy:

Today I filed my papers to become a candidate for the Wisconsin Assembly – 12th District. This is the seat currently held by Rep. Fred Kessler.

I’m running on who I am – a conservative.

I think the state government should lower taxes. How? Well first by looking for duplicate services and eliminating them. Those who receive money should be held to the highest standards and if they don’t meet those standards, they should stop getting the funds.

This budget and previous one’s have been put together behind closed doors. Our legislators need to be held accountable, especially when deciding on how to administer money. No budget should be voted on until the citizens of the state have a say in it. We need a daylight budget process.

I also believe that education is priority. The state should encourage the best in schools, no matter if it is a public, private, charter, choice, virtual school or home schooling. What matters is the education received.

In this economy and really at all times, job creation is important. Private industry provides the best avenue for job growth and entrepreneurship. The state should not stand in the way. Less government allows for more freedom to grow in all areas of life including the business climate.

I’ll have more on my website within a couple of weeks.

For those who don’t know the districts, the 12th covers most of the far northwest side of Milwaukee and the very-far northwest part of Wauwatosa.

Good luck, Sam. The bad news is that, other than Kathy Carpenter, the Cheddarsphere has not had any success in elections.

June 17, 2009

RTA Madness – Senate edition

by @ 22:04. Filed under Choo-choos, Politics - Milwaukee County, Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

The Senate passed their own version of Daughter-of-Necrobudget on a virtual-party-line vote (Jim Sullivan, the target of a recall, was allowed to vote no along with every Republican). Others will cover the rest of the changes, but since I’m a laser on the RTAs, I’ll distill the differences between the Assembly version and the Senate version (thanks again to Greg Bump over at WisPolitics for doing the dirty work):

  • The Chippewa and Fox Valley RTAs are out.
  • The provision to allow Dane County to use its sales tax to fund roads is also out.
  • The Southeast RTA is once again solely focused on the choo-choo, with all funding to the existing Racine and Kenosha buses (i.e. the additional $2 car-rental tax to make the total $18) as well as the requirement of Racine’s and Kenosha’s suburbs to fund the bus systems to get a KRM stop out.
  • The Milwaukee County Transit Authority gets the “Regional” title back, with the sales tax bumped up to 1.0% and the “parks, culture and (county) emergency medical services” joining transit in the 85% (no percentage specified for each category) not allocated to municipal police, fire and EMS (allocated on a per-capita basis).

On to conference, where I expect nothing less than the worst of all worlds.

Four-Blocking the relationship between government and smokers

by @ 8:56. Filed under Health, Politics - National, Politics - Wisconsin.

Tom McMahon does it again:

There’s already a spirited discussion in the Four-Block World comments, so join it.

Rainy Read Wednesday – Christian Schneider’s “McCallum’s Last Laugh”

by @ 8:50. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Christian Schneider, who besides me is the charter member of the Scott McCallum Fan Club, wonders how the state budget situation would be different had Scott McCallum beat Jim Doyle back in 2002:

During his brief tenure, McCallum proposed a number of items that, had they passed, would have made the current recession infinitely easier to deal with. In his initial budget, in which he faced a $600 million deficit, McCallum proposed capping general fund spending to the same rate that tax revenues increase during a biennium….

In the same budget, McCallum proposed depositing 50% of any unintended revenues into a budget stabilization fund, in the event tax receipts fell short in the future….

Perhaps most importantly, McCallum made real cuts to real ongoing state programs – a decision which may have cost him his governorship. In the 2002 budget repair bill, McCallum proposed phasing out the state’s Shared Revenue program, in which the state sends $1 billion per year to local governments.

Related to that, Christian introduces us to Doyle’s new best friend – Rosy Scenario. I guess the difference in acceptable-to-Craps tax assumptions between exiting a mild recession (5% from McCallum, which is the 20-year-average) and in the midst of a devastating one is less than 0.5 percentage points.

June 15, 2009

The very few who will not see a tax increase in WisTAXsin

by @ 9:08. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

If you meet ALL of the following conditions, you might not see a tax increase courtesy the Daughter-of-Necrobudget:

  • You must make less than $300,000 per year in reported income
  • None of your earnings can be from capital gains
  • You must not drive
  • You must not smoke (unless you shop at an Indian reservation tobacco store)
  • You must not drink
  • You must not get sick enough to enter a hospital or urgent care center
  • You must not purchase over-the-counter drugs
  • You must not buy downloaded software, songs or videos
  • You must not shop in Milwaukee County, Calumet County, Winnebago County, Outagamie County, Eau Claire County, Chippewa County, or the urbanized portion of Dane County
  • You must not shop at a business or buy from a business that has operations both within and outside of Wisconsin
  • You must not own a business
  • You must not rent a vehicle in Milwaukee County, Racine County or Kenosha County
  • You must not own any real estate
  • You must not own a phone

If you can claim all of the above, you just might not see a tax increase. There might be some dope dealers and users that meet all this, but the rest of us will be seeing a tax increase.

Revisions/extensions (4:54 pm 6/15/2009) – Fred decided to add to the list some over at the MacIver Institute. In addition to those who rent real estate…

  • You must not operate a power boat.
  • You must not operate any small engines requiring gas for operation.

I’m sure there’s more restrictions on who doesn’t get their taxes raised.

June 12, 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.

June 10, 2009

Wednesday Hot Read – Christian Schneider’s “Willy Wonka Explains the Wisconsin State Budget”

by @ 13:18. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Christian Schneider reaches into the Dennis York bag of blogging to explain the Daughter-of-Necrobudget:

Yesterday, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau released their summary of the state budget as rushed through by the Joint Finance Committee last week. It’s a long and complicated document, so we here at WPRI have enlisted some help in explaining many of the big themes included the budget.

As it happens, most of what legislative Democrats passed can be explained by eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka, star of the 1971 children’s classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Here are some famous quotes from the movie, and how they shed light on the budget currently before the Legislature. Cuddle up with your favorite little Oompa Loompa and read along:

Anyone who can work “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” quotes into a very serious look at what the Assembly will be working on instead of the majority making a pilgrimage to The Won is a genius.

The final budget plunge to begin tomorrow

by @ 13:06. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) Tweeted the news that the Assembly will be in session at 10 am tomorrow to take up the 1,903-page Daughter-of-Necrobudget as well as a scheme to shift $261 million in Porkulus money around to allow the current budget to close $70 million in the black (via WisPolitics). Originally, they were supposed to take it up today, but that was postponed after the rank-and-file Democrats started to balk at what their leaders in the Joint Finance Committee put together.

Speculation had been that, since they didn’t have enough votes to ram the Daughter-of-Necrobudget through today, they wouldn’t take it up until next week so they could join the pilgrimage to President Obama in Green Bay tomorrow (via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). The fact that they’re passing up the first post-inauguration visit is not good news.

June 8, 2009

Monday Hot Read – Charlie Sykes’ “So What Are They Thinking?”

by @ 7:13. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

Charlie Sykes asks what Doyle and the Democratic Legislature are thinking with the Daughter-of-Necrobudget (© Kevin Binversie) that came out of the Joint Finance Committee on mostly party-line 12-4 votes:

Here’s the most interesting political question of the year: why do Jim Doyle and the Democrats think they can get away with this budget?

The package rolling toward final approval is a grotesque fiscal, economic and political monster that not even a mother could love. Besides a few notable payoffs to favored special interests like the trial lawyers and the teachers union, it is a collection of uglies: massive tax and fee increases during a recession; slashes in law enforcement while releasing hundreds of felons from prison; gutting welfare reform; and tens of millions of dollars of pork, all cooked up behind closed doors and voted on in the middle of the night….

There is, in short, no lip stick glossy enough for this pig. So what could Doyle be thinking here?

Charlie, after listing a few of the horrid things in the Daughter-of-Necrobudget that I didn’t include in the excerpt, has a few possible answers to the question. The simple answer is, because they can.

One of the longer answers that Charlie didn’t have time to mention is the “overload” theory. Even if the Democrats get ousted in 2010 (or sooner; there are recall efforts being organized against both Doyle and Sen. Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa), they figure that, with so much garbage being tossed up, there’s no way the Republicans will be able to mop everything up and restore the pre-bloated size of government.

May 27, 2009

We’ll know the rest of the sausage tomorrow

by @ 22:41. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

WisPoliitcs is reporting that the Dems in the Joint Finance Committee have figured out every other way they’re going to screw the taxpay…er, fudge the numbers in the FY2010-FY2011 budget. Since they don’t want to miss last call while waiting for the Joint Fiscal Bureau to draw up the motions, instead of delaying the start of tonight’s session another 3 hours, they’re supposedly going to show up at the crack of noon to ram it home.

As Asian Badger would say, grab the K-Y.

Revisions/extensions (10:57 pm 5/27/2009) – Speaking of the K-Y, this “compromise” on the elimination of the QEO from WEAC which purports to delay the elimination for a year, isn’t exactly passing the smell test. What I believe will happen is that it will be written in such a way that Doyle can line-item out the delay, while leaving items friendly to WEAC and unfriendly to taxpayers intact.

May 26, 2009

BOHICA – cell-phone edition

by @ 23:53. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

Kelly William Cobb over at Americans for Tax Reform put up a post outlining just how bad Doyle and the Spendocrats have it for the money of cell-phone users:

  • First, they raided the $20 million left over in the now-sunsetted E911 fund. That’s right; instead of you getting that $20 million overpayment to upgrade the 911 system to allow the dispatchers to find you if you call them on a cell phone, they’re going to spend it.
  • Then, they created a fresh $0.75/line/month tax on both cell phones and landlines to supposedly fund another upgrade to the 911 system. That would replace an existing $0.16/line/month charge on landlines.
  • For the first time, the Universal Service Fund fee of $0.56/line/month will apply to cell phones, to the tune of about $18.8 million/year.

All told, that’s roughly $100 million per year in new cell-phone taxes according to ATR. But wait, it gets worse. First, Rep. Kevin Petersen (R-Waupaca) reports that the Joint Finance Committee raided $11.2 million of the USF fund for public libraries.

Second, forget about that “next-gen” E911 system – Doyle wants to raid that to directly pay for police and fire.

I could bring up what Doyle said in 2003 (again), but like any ‘Rat, he doesn’t care about lying.

Revisions/extensions (12:15 am 5/27/2009) – The Wisconsin State Journal reports (H/T – The MacIver Institute) that the 911 fund diversion would make Wisconsin ineligible for federal grants to help pay for that “next-gen” 911 system, and that including the cell-phone charge as part of that diversion would violate federal law.

Also, since the 911 fund would replace the current $0.16/line/month charge on landlines, that diversion would cause a $7 million local tax increase.

R&E part 2 (10:50 pm 5/27/2009) – I probably should have done this while temporarily at the keyboard this afternoon, but thanks for the link-love, Americans for Tax Reform. Oh well, better late than never.

Meanwhile, WisPolitics is reporting that the rest of the Necro-budget (© Kevin Binversie) will be passed by the Joint Finance Committee tomorrow. Since Democrats control the entire process, what comes out of the JFC is likely what will plop onto Jim Doyle’s desk.

One note; since the Wisconsin line-item veto is still one of the most-powerful in the country, and because Doyle has no respect for the Wisconsin Constitution, it is vital to not only pay attention to the JFC votes, but to the actual verbiage used. Just one item I’m keeping an eye on – the proposed “compromise” from WEAC (the largest teachers’ union) that would delay the elmination of the QEO (the prohibition of work stoppages by teachers as long as a district offered a 3.86% annual total compensation increase) by a year.

NML wants to soak you so it doesn’t have to pay

by @ 10:51. Filed under Choo-choos, Idiotorial of the Day, Politics - Milwaukee, Politics - Milwaukee County, Politics - Oak Creek, Politics - Wisconsin.

(H/T – Patrick McIlheran via Dad29)

Edward Zore, CEO of Northwestern Mutual Life, had perhaps the dumbest letter ever published in yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Let’s start by fisking said letter:

I am writing to express my support for the creation of a three-county Regional Transit Authority and a viable, dedicated funding source for transit and Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail. As CEO of a major business in Milwaukee County, I know dedicated funding for transit is critical to the future success of my business.

The local business community in Milwaukee is solidly behind the current RTA’s recommendations to shift funding for transit to a dedicated sales tax. Many opponents of this transit proposal argue that shifting transit from the property tax to a sales tax is anti-business or will drive business away. That is categorically untrue.

As one of the commenters over at P-Mac’s place said, I wonder if Zore’s attitude would change if insurance premiums on NML policies were subject to that sales tax. Dad29 notes that businesses like NML pay a lot in property tax, but don’t exactly pay a lot in sales tax.

A quick point or two of order – while there is a 3-county transit authority in the state budget being worked ov…er, on now (and indeed, there is a nascient 3-county RTA now), its sole purpose will be the KRM, and its major funding source would be a massive increase in the car-rental tax (from $2/rental to $16/rental). There also is in that budget a Milwaukee County-only RTA, which would be funded by a 17+% increase in the sales tax (from 5.6%-5.85% to 6.6%-6.85%).

What that sales tax will kill is retail businesses, especially those near the county borders and those specializing in high-cost items. It doesn’t take all that much for someone living in, say, Wauwatosa to go to Brookfield for a fine four-star dinner or a camera and spend less money.

Let’s continue…

Northwestern Mutual has two major offices in Milwaukee County and employs a significant number of residents of Wauwatosa. Our current transit system is so inadequate and obsolete that my employees cannot get from our downtown office to our Franklin location on the Milwaukee County Transit System. The lack of available transit in this region has a much greater impact on my company than a shift in how we pay for transit.

P-Mac points out that the beautiful and recently-expanded Franklin campus is 1 1/2 miles away from the nearest bus stop (Route 27), and well past the point where the sidewalks on 27th St. ends (1 mile, to be exact).

I do have a point of order – there was, for a while, a limited-schedule extension of Route 27, Route 227, that went past the NML Franlkin campus to the Franklin Industrial Park south of Ryan Rd. between 46th St. and 60th St. However, that route was cancelled due to low ridership. Guess not many NML workers rode the bus out to Franklin.

Let’s continue…

Of the top 50 most populated U.S. cities or regions, only seven do not have or are not developing rail transit. Wisconsin is already behind other regions in this regard, and without a stable bus transit system – much less improved transit and commuter rail links connecting Milwaukee to other regions – southeastern Wisconsin will be left behind as the state’s talent pool is attracted to other developing regions. Those remaining in Wisconsin cannot get to their jobs.

STOP THE TAPE!!! Just how are enough NML employees making it out to Franklin for not one, but two good-sized office buildings if one can’t take a bus, train, or sidewalk there? I believe I forgot to mention that there are enough NML employees getting there by car that they built a parking ramp.

As for a commuter train, the closest point of approach for the westernmost rail line, which is used by AMTRAK, is just under 1 1/2 miles. The closest AMTRAK station is 4 1/2 miles away. The closest the KRM, which would be on the easternmost rail line, would get is 4 1/2 miles, with the station being roughly 5 miles away. Further, neither AMTRAK nor the proposed KRM serves (or would serve) Wauwatosa.

P-Mac also hacks away at the idea that light rail would work. Anybody care to guess how much it would take to run a light rail line between Wauwatosa, the downtown Milwaukee NML campus (because we can’t expect NML employees to be bothered by transferring to the streetcar) and the Franklin NML campus?

May 23, 2009

Adding fuel to the barbecue funeral pyre

by @ 18:54. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

While everybody else has been getting charcoal and propane for the unofficial start for summer, the Dems on the Joint Finance Committee have been busy working on the budget deficit. Of course, by work, I mean reward their campaign contributors and raid the few funds that have even a pittance of cash.

Greg Bump has been keeping track over at WisPolitics’ Budget Blog. The short version is that criminals (via in-state tuition for illegal aliens, the decriminalization of driving after revokation, and the non-felony welfare fraud), unions (via “prevailing wage” requirements for most public works projects), and homosexuals (via both a sex-neutral domestic partner benefit package for state workers and a homosexual-specific domestic partner registry) are the big winners, while the Attorney General’s office, municipalities, counties, and those who use health care are big losers.

I also recommend reading Rep. Robin Vos’ (R-Racine) Twitter stream.

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