The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute

George Lightbourn Commentary: Barrett Needs to Choose Between MPS and the Governor's Mansion

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 08:15:37 -0600

Tom Barrett is a politician, but he has never impressed me as a media-hog. He seemed to almost shy away from the cameras after his run-in with a thug outside the State Fair. So he must be bemused to find himself as the leading man on Wisconsin’s political and policy stage. He has the president pressing him to run for governor. He is also at the center of the most significant educational reform in the history of Milwaukee. Am I the only one who sees the significant link between his flirtation with the governor’s race and his move to support a mayoral takeover of Milwaukee Public Schools?

Barrett says the takeover is not about him. It is. A mayoral takeover is not some abstract concept. It is about flesh-and-blood characters. It is about Barrett, just as it was about Bloomberg in New York and Daley in Chicago when they took over failing school systems there. It is about a mayor assuming accountability.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Wisconsin's Own W

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:28:44 -0500

Mike Tate, Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, must have choked on his arugula last Wednesday when Governor Doyle told the world he was having second thoughts about retiring. Did anyone hear support for our governor’s second thoughts? No. Doyle’s decision not to run has sunk in with both pale and dark blue Democrats be they union organizers or limousine liberals. It took them about five minutes to realize the damage Doyle had done to the Democratic brand in Wisconsin.

True, Doyle never lost an election. Also true, however, is that he never had coattails and frankly, never saw himself as the standard bearer for the party. He is a politician whose passion seems to be looking out for number one. Whereas Tommy Thompson was known for trumpeting, "Isn’t it great to be a Republican," Doyle never returned the favor for Democrats.

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Mike Nichols Commentary: How to Court an Independent Voter

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:23:31 -0500

They’ve been called everything from uninformed to uninspired to famously fickle. Ideologues on both the left and the right think of them as the wafflers and the Sybils of Wisconsin politics. Dave Obey, the Democratic congressman, suggested last year they are just plain dumb. Or at least disinterested.

"Independents are by their very nature the people who have the least depth and exposure to what the candidates are doing and saying," Obey opined back in February of 2008. "That’s why they’re independents."

Actually, we now know, that’s not why at all.

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WPRI Report: The Case for Term Limits in Wisconsin - By Christian Schneider

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:21:46 -0500

Each year, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute conducts a citizen survey that gauges the public’s feelings towards their elected officials. In December 2007, only 10% of the individuals polled said they thought state elected officials represent the interests of the voters. By contrast, 85% said elected officials take care of either "their own interests" or "special interests" first.

Perhaps it is this deep distrust in their state legislators that compels large majorities of Wisconsinites to favor placing term limits on their elected officials. According to the WPRI poll, 72% of respondents favored term limits, while only 22% opposed them. There was no demographic group in the state that did not strongly favor some sort of term limits on Wisconsin elected officials.

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: Jim Doyle - Want to Get Away?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:20:23 -0500

A topic of this winter’s political hot stove league: could Jim Doyle have survived his summer and fall of discontent?

By the time the governor pulled the plug on his re-election and jetted off on yet another foreign trade mission, his poll numbers were already subterranean. He carried the considerable baggage of higher taxes and fees, prisoner releases, insurance mandates, ongoing budget deficits and unpopular decisions on domestic partnerships, concealed carry and voter ID.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Wisconsin's Own "Public Option"

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:13:52 -0500

It’s a given that both sides of the health care debate feel that they have the high road when it comes to compassion. But the goal shouldn’t be to confuse mere action with progress. Lawmakers would be best to heed Robert Frost’s admonition that it is more important to "do good well."

At the center of the debate is the idea of a "public option:" a government-run health program that liberals say would merely compete with private plans for customers.

Conservatives counter that historically, when a generous government plan is instituted, private businesses tend to scale back or even drop their health plans, so their employees can save them money by going on the public plan. As a result, taxpayer funded health programs grow much faster than originally anticipated, quickly driving governments into the red.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Wanted - Wisconsin Strongman

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:58:57 -0500

For reasons clear only to himself, Jim Doyle waited until the waning hours of his governorship to put his mark on state government. Now he’s hastily knitting together his version of a strong executive: one that dominates state finance (the last budget is all his whether he claims it or not), one that seeks to change the governance of Milwaukee schools for the first time since statehood and one that resists sharing power over the Department of Natural Resources.

In Doyle’s quest for a strong executive, I’m squarely with him; better late than never. Remember, the bed that the current governor makes will be the bed that the next governor will have to lie in.

Like it or not, Wisconsin is in decline. We’d like to believe the bucolic picture of Wisconsin we grew up with, one where agriculture dominates the economy, where our schools are the envy of the nation and where people are clamoring to live. That picture no longer exists.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Dear Mr. Axelrod:

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:27:16 -0500

Following is an open letter to White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod and his wife Susan. Mr. Axelrod has been a strong advocate of President Obama’s plan to implement a government run health care plan paid for with federal tax dollars.

The Axelrods were recently featured in a Newsweek article discussing their battle to find an acceptable treatment for their daughter’s chronic condition.

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Axelrod,

Thank you for sharing the story of your family’s struggle with Epilepsy in the April 20th edition of Newsweek, "The Mystery of Epilepsy. Why We Must Find a Cure," and for dedicating time and energy to educating the public and public policy makers about this very serious and dangerous condition.
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Mike Nichols Commentary: Exactly Why Do We Elect the State Treasurer, Anyway?

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:25:24 -0500

I heard someone tell the tale this week of how George Smathers ran his campaign against U.S. Sen. Claude Pepper in Florida in 1950.

"Do you know that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless extrovert?" Time magazine quoted Smathers as saying during the race. "Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York. Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper, before his marriage, habitually practiced celibacy."

Smathers, of course, won.

The story, in slightly truncated form, was recounted Wednesday by Ralph Adam Fine, one of the judges presiding over the disciplinary case filed against Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. Fine was trying to elicit some reaction from lawyers on what exactly can be considered a falsity during a campaign, what is merely misleading and what is simply a truth that people misinterpret.

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David Dodenhoff, Ph.D. Commentary: Welfare in Wisconsin: Still Not a Bad Deal

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:02:26 -0500

If you think everything is bigger in Texas, you’ve never been on welfare. Here, a family of three qualifies for a maximum monthly benefit of $250. Add a few hundred dollars per month for food stamps, and you’re still below the $673 in cash assistance that the same family would receive through Wisconsin Works, or W-2.

How can this be? Under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, states are allowed to define "temporary," "assistance," and "needy" more or less as they see fit. This has resulted in significant differences among states.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Why We Should Be Queasy About a State Takeover of MPS

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:00:25 -0500

When I first learned that Governor Doyle and Mayor Barrett were thinking of a mayoral takeover of MPS I couldn’t bring myself to elation. Yes, MPS needs a thorough shakeup, but are these the fellows to do it? After nearly eight years in office, the governor and mayor are just now awakening to the crisis in MPS.

Here is what is at the root of my misgiving:

1. Their motivation seems not to be reform but money. America is suddenly awash in federal stimulus money including barrels of money for schools. It is this money that finally got the attention of the governor and the mayor, not the dismal performance of MPS. Otherwise they would have taken up the cause of reform years ago. Nothing else has really changed.

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: OPK, OPM - Other People's Kids, Other People's Money

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 14:58:16 -0500

With her 7,600 square-foot mansion, complete with indoor basketball court and swimming pool, Latasha Jackson has become the public face of fraud and waste in Wisconsin’s program of subsidized day care, known as Wisconsin Shares. According to the Journal-Sentinel, Jackson raked in nearly $3 million in taxpayer cash since she got into the day care business in 1999.

But a more appropriate symbol of the system’s dysfunction may be Carolyn Lockett.

In late July, Lockett was sentenced to a year in the Milwaukee House of Correction for forgetting to take a four month old baby out of a day care van. The child, Seiaires McHenry died while sitting in an SUV parked outside the Kuddle Kare Day Kare. A few weeks earlier, another day care worker, Precious Marney, was sentenced to prison for leaving another 4-month old to die in a day care van in Milwaukee’s central city.

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Mike Nichols Commentary: Tom Barrett Perfect the Art of the Sharp-Edged Watermelon

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:54:41 -0500

I asked John Norquist this week how come he never ran for governor. I asked because back when I covered City Hall in Milwaukee, back before Tom Barrett was the occupant mulling over a bid for higher office, there was always talk of John Norquist running for governor.

Norquist had a tremendous talent for not answering questions. But he answered this one.

Iowa.

It was Norquist, he reminded me this week, who famously said that, without Milwaukee, Wisconsin would be Iowa.
It was a great line for a mayor of Wisconsin’s biggest city, so trenchant that five years after he left office and moved to Chicago, lots of Wisconsinites still remember it - and not just Milwaukeeans. Lots of outstate residents (where there really are a lot of silos) would never forget it either -which was Norquist’s problem.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Mercury Marine - Where Was Our Governor?

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:32:08 -0500

We form impressions of people by watching them and observing what they do. The longer we watch them, the better we feel we know them. Some people we like and some we do not.

How do they carry themselves? What do they look like? What do they say and how do they say it? Our impression tells us whether or not they are our kind of people. This explains Wisconsin’s love affair with Brett Favre, Gorman Thomas, and in politics, Tommy Thompson.

For a career politician Tommy had an innate ability to connect with all kinds of people. They didn’t need a subscription to the Financial Times to feel that Tommy had a handle on the economy and he’d make smart decisions for Wisconsin workers. He was a guy who swam in deep political waters who people continued to see as one of us.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Governor Doyle's Successors: Who Got the Gravy?

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:19:29 -0500

So by now, you’ve heard the big news of the weekend. I hit my first career home run in my softball league, and the new season of Mad Men started.

Oh, and there’s the other minor news - apparently, Wisconsin will have a new governor in 2010. (Yawn.)

For months, political observers had been wondering whether Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle was going to run for a third term. It now appears that he is not. As much as Republicans hate to hear it, Doyle will go down as one of the most successful politicians in state history, at least from an electoral perspective. He went 5 for 5 in statewide races, and never lost an election for anything at any time.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: For Much of Government, Elections Don't Really Matter

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:23:21 -0500

We have all heard the mantra about how elections matter, especially since last November. Well it is true that for many high visibility issues such as health care, taxes or public borrowing, elections truly do make a difference. However for most government programs, elections really make very little difference.

For hundreds of programs within the bowels of the state and federal agencies the wheels of government churn on without a hint of slowing down, speeding up or changing direction. The electorate would be astonished to learn that most of that enormous enterprise called government falls into this category.

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Mike Nichols Commentary: Does Pedro Colon Drink?

Wed, 5 Aug 2009 09:37:21 -0500

By January of 2011, Wisconsin cops will be required to collect data on drivers they pull over so that somebody somewhere can use it to determine precisely how racist they are.

Or, to use the more recent euphemism, how "stupid: they are.
That is not a reference to - or a shot at - the vernacular of our president. President Obama, of course, said he regretted suggesting Cambridge police officers who arrested Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr."acted stupidly," and I believe him. And anyway, the president had both the professor and Sgt. James Crowley over for a beer and that was a smart thing. Even smarter, he made Joe Biden drink the non-alcoholic stuff because, as everyone knows, the last thing Joe Biden needs to get him blathering is alcohol.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The Power of the Pen - and Why Property Taxes Might Not Be So Bad

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:01:05 -0500

See that pen on your desk? Right over there, by the stapler.
As it turns out, that pen is one of the most powerful instruments you can own. The U.S Constitution was written with a pen. Lincoln freed the slaves with a pen. Most importantly, some girl in middle school probably broke your heart when she used a pen to check the "NO" box in response to your sweaty "Do you like me?" query.

In fact, while Wisconsin state government-related interest groups spend millions of dollars on lobbyists to influence lawmakers, that pen on your desk is the most influential implement in state government. It is the entire reason we structure our Wisconsin state and local governments in the manner we do.

Wisconsin residents pay all kinds of taxes. They pay income taxes (which are usually automatically deducted from their paycheck) or sales taxes (which are automatically added to their purchase), or corporate taxes (which are passed through in the form of higher prices.) Yet with all the billions of dollars in taxes Wisconsin citizens pay, one particular levy stands alone in its repugnance. It is the property tax.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Tony Evers' Moment of Truth

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:05:11 -0500

Dear Tony,

Congratulations on your election as Wisconsin’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. Ever since your election I have been reassuring my more conservative colleagues - skeptics all - that Tony Evers is up to the task of reforming education. "Sure he had the support of WEAC but the Tony Evers I’ve known and watched will be his own man," I told them.

So it was no surprise that waiting for me Saturday morning was an email from a doubter. "Obama and Duncan have $4.3 billion burning a hole in their pocket for states that are serious about reforming education. Wisconsin isn’t one of them. Let’s see what your Tony Evers does now."

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WPRI Report: Stopping the Revolving Door: Reform of Community Corrections in Wisconsin - By Kate Mize, J.D.

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:38:56 -0500

Like many states, Wisconsin is about to reduce its prison population through an early-release initiative as part of a strategy to address a state budget shortfall. While the details of the early-release plan are being finalized, it is expected that up to 3,000 inmates will be released from prison. Wisconsin currently houses 22,212 inmates in its state prisons. In addition, there are 71,407 offenders on either probation or parole. Unless changes are made in Wisconsin’s approach to probation and parole, it is likely that recidivism will offset any long-term savings.

Wisconsin’s criminal justice system is marked by a pronounced cycle of crime followed by incarceration followed by parole followed by repeated crime. Several statistics provide evidence of the revolving-door nature of the criminal justice system. In Wisconsin, 38.2% of offenders released from incarceration are convicted of a fresh crime within three years. Many of the offenders being incarcerated are on parole. In Wisconsin, approximately 25% of prison admissions were for offenders under active community corrections supervision at the time of their current offense. While the public likes to think that parole leads to rehabilitation, only 46% of the offenders leaving parole in Wisconsin in 2007 did so due to successful completion of their parole.

Read the Full Study:

James Wigderson Commentary: State Limits on Virtual Schools Prompt Outcry

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:23:23 -0500

For parents like Deana Sheppard and Kathleen Seipel, the uncertainty is excruciating as they try to plan for school this fall. They have children on the waiting list for the state’s 14 virtual schools. Will they get in...or not?

That waiting list is the product of the new enrollment cap of 5,250 online students, insisted upon by Gov. Jim Doyle, as part of the political compromise engineered by the Legislature last year. The compromise kept the publicly run online schools open after the state’s largest teachers union won a lawsuit challenging state funding of the virtual schools.

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Sunny Schubert Commentary: What Were We Talking About, Again?

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:50:40 -0500

Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin! Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle, can’t the liberals talk about anything else?
I have lots of liberal friends - living in Madison, I’d be awfully lonely if I didn’t! - and they are consumed by the mystery of Sarah Palin.

It’s like Ann Coulter put it: "People who hate her guts feel she's really let them down by resigning - She's like the ex-girlfriend they're SO over, never want to see again, have already forgotten about -- really, it's O-ver -- but they just can't stop talking about her."

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WI Magazine: Wisconsin Flunks its Economics Test During the Doyle years, the state failed to create new jobs while descending to Alabama-level wages - By Thomas Hefty and John Torinus, Jr.

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:08:59 -0500

Our state motto is "Forward," but Wisconsin is falling behind in the economic race to create jobs and raise family incomes.

As we’ll show here, Wisconsin is lagging its own economic performance of the 1990s and losing ground to other states - especially to other upper Midwest states like Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. It is even failing to meet its own goals - established in 1997 with much fanfare by a blue ribbon commission - for ramping up the state economy.

Although our political and media leaders ignore these failings, Wisconsin residents intuitively understand how our economic anemia has sapped their incomes and diminished their opportunities.

Since 2005, Wisconsin has experienced growing out-migration. Our citizens have voted with their feet, moving to states where they foresee a better future.

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WI Magazine: Summit Meeting: GOP hopefuls meet for first time, critique Jim Doyle’s tenure, make their cases to be governor - By Charles J. Sykes and Marc Eisen

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:07:04 -0500

Scott Walker got in first; Mark Neumann just made it official.

Walker, a former Republican legislator who has been elected county executive three times in heavily Democratic Milwaukee County announced earlier this year that he is running for governor in 2010. Neumann, who served two terms in Congress (from 1995 to 1999) and has since run a successful home building business, The Neumann Companies, jumped into the race on July 1.

Incumbent Jim Doyle has been elected twice, but in mid-June a national Democratic pollster reported that Doyle’s approval rating had fallen to 34%, even in a sample of voters who gave high marks to other Democrats, including President Obama. Not surprisingly, the 2010 contest is expected to be one of the most hotly contested in the country, and Republicans now appear poised to have a lively primary contest among two widely known conservatives.

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WI Magazine: Walker vs. Neumann? A primary battle would likely strengthen - not weaken - the GOP’s chances - By Kenneth R. Lamke

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:05:25 -0500

The prospect of a primary contest between Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and former Congressman Mark Neumann for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010 greatly enhances the GOP’s chances of defeating Gov. Jim Doyle next year.

At least the historical record of the past 45 years of Wisconsin elections leads to that conclusion.

Each of the six times that incumbent governors or U.S. senators were defeated since 1962 occurred when the nominee of the out party emerged from a contested primary rather than having the nomination handed to him by running unopposed in the primary.

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WI Magazine: MATC's Reality Moment. Last fall, the tech board happily endorsed super-sized staff salaries and benefits. Will the recession end the party? - By Mike Nichols

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:04:01 -0500

Casually convening in their boardroom late on the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008, the Milwaukee Area Technical College board appeared blissfully unconcerned with all that was amiss in the outside world.

Earlier that week, Lehman Brothers had stunned Wall Street by declaring the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history; then the federal government had bailed out insurance behemoth AIG and engineered a fire sale of Merrill Lynch. The stock market was gyrating wildly.

MATC budget officials had known since spring that the economy was deteriorating. Now, it was imploding. Credit markets were seizing up. Pension funds were plummeting.

Many Americans were both flummoxed and fearful - but not the MATC board as it gathered at 4:30 p.m. for one of the most important meetings in years. And one that would last less than four minutes.

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WI Magazine: Party of One. Conservative Democrat Bob Ziegelbauer scores a breakthrough on health care, but finds few allies - By Sunny Schubert

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:01:57 -0500

Most days state Rep. Bob Ziegelbauer (D-Manitowoc) finds himself shunned by fellow Democrats and treated like a freak of nature by Republicans.

Which is just fine by him.

"I guess I don’t feel a real affinity for either group," says the 57-year-old lawmaker. "I’m carving out my own spot, my own little island but there’s a nice little breeze on my island," he adds with a laugh.

But he will not abandon his independent stance, which admirers call "principled" and detractors dismiss as "his way or the highway."

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WI Magazine: GenNext GOP: Dubbed a future leader, Paul Ryan already shapes the Washington debate - By Stephen F. Hayes

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:12 -0500

Shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 27, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan walked into a private room at Charlie Palmer’s steakhouse - an upscale restaurant one block from the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

It was exactly one week since Barack Obama had been inaugurated, and some of the country’s most influential political journalists had turned out to hear Ryan. The political director for ABC News, CNN’s vice president for Washington programming, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, the executive producer for NBC’s "Meet the Press" - about a dozen in all.

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WI Magazine: Bring on the Stats Nerds: State government needs a good dose of sabermetrics - By Christian Schneider

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:58:29 -0500

"The Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun is the best young hitter in the major leagues."

Utter such a sentiment among casual baseball fans, and you’re likely to get some nods of agreement. Braun, after all, had the second most home runs in baseball history after two seasons, ahead of legends like Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Babe Ruth.

Make a claim to Braun’s greatness over at the Baseball Prospectus website, however, and you may need to put on a helmet to absorb the punishment you’ll likely take.

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WI Magazine: Under Fire: How Should Conservatives Respond to a Hostile Liberal Takeover? - By Richard Esenberg

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:56:02 -0500

In 1964, historian Richard Hofstadter described what he called the "the paranoid style" in American politics "an affliction most often associated with the right." It consisted, in his view, of "angry minds" indulged in "heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy." The politically paranoid believe themselves to be faced with "totally evil and totally unappeasable" opponents who must "be totally eliminated."

Hofstadter conceded that the paranoia he thought he could see was not limited to the right, and perhaps he can be excused from the assumption that it is conservatives who most often demonize the other. No one had heard of the netroots. Michael Moore was 10 years old. Howard Dean was still prepping at St. George’s.

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WI Magazine: Racine Dispatch: Railroaded! Commuter train boosters pull a fast one on the public - by Deb Jordahl

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:54:27 -0500

Never give up; three simple words that have become the battle cry of commuter rail enthusiasts here in southeastern Wisconsin. And while there’s nothing simple about constructing, maintaining and operating commuter rail, its child’s play compared to selling a weary public on the virtues of building a new system on our dime and in our backyard.

Pro-rail forces have been trying for decades to convince us that we need commuter rail. Their plan has undergone more cosmetic surgery than Joan Rivers. The latest makeover calls for a 33-mile system running from Milwaukee through Racine to Kenosha and connecting with the Illinois METRA system to downtown Chicago. The planners dream of 14 workday roundtrips and start-up costs - pick a number! - of supposedly $198 million. Frustrated but never defeated, our community leaders know that the general public simply cannot be trusted to make the right decision when it comes to this investment in mass betterment.

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WI Magazine: Madison Dispatch: ‘Diversity’ takes an odd turn: Vietnam-born alder targets crime, gets blasted from the left - By David Blaska

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:52:21 -0500

Madison’s infamous liberalism is so doctrinaire that the only member of a racial minority on the 20-member Madison Common Council can be accused of racism most foul.

Her accuser is former four-term alder Brenda Konkel, she of the blond hair and pink politics. Konkel told her 750 "friends" on Facebook that Ald. Thuy Pham-Remmele, a refugee from Vietnam, a retired educator, and the first Asian-American elected to the council, is "racist." Pham-Remmele’s sin? Speaking about the city’s growing crime and deteriorating quality-of-life issues frankly, without tap-dancing to the peculiar metronome of PC-speak.

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WI Magazine: Editor's Note - Big Ideas... And the Epic Disconnect - By Charles J. Sykes

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:51:00 -0500

The job-killing tax and fee increases in the new state budget were bad enough. But even worse was the epic disconnect between what was happening in Madison and the economy in the rest of the state.

The $3 billion tax hike will hit an economy that has already shed more than 133,000 jobs (almost all of them in the private sector) in the last year. The state’s job loss was the biggest in more than a half a century, but Gov. Doyle prepared to sign a budget that raised taxes on virtually every aspect of the state’s economy, especially business.

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WI Magazine: Letters to the Editor

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:49:31 -0500

The New Look, William Allen White, and St. Marcus

George Lightbourn Commentary: This Will Raise the Hair on the Back of Your Neck

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 09:31:47 -0500

In the course of any week there is an avalanche of studies that cross my desk. A few are important, most are predictable. Last month I came across two reports that should be required reading for governors, legislators, parents and voters of every stripe. Both of these well-documented, finely crafted studies should raise the hair on the back of your neck. They did mine.

The first study was authored by McKinsey and Company, the global management consulting outfit that has built a large practice examining education systems around the globe. This particular study looked at the how the achievement gaps in U.S. schools are affecting America’s economic well-being. It begins with the ominous declaration that, "The extent to which a society utilizes its human potential is among the chief determinants of its prosperity." The analysts at McKinsey note that there are enormous shortfalls in academic achievement which impose heavy consequences on America’s quality of life.

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Dale Kooyenga Commentary: We Tried This Before, and it Didn't Work

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 09:53:11 -0500

As the US implements the transformation of General Motors into "Government Motors," and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) raise government investment and entanglement in the private sector to historic new levels, the question on everyone’s mind is "will it work?" Oddly enough, clues to the answer of that question may come from an unexpected place: Iraq.

Several months ago I completed my one year tour of duty in Iraq. Although trained as a Military Intelligence Officer, I was quickly reassigned and appointed as the 4th Infantry Division’s Economic Officer in Charge. My primary responsibility was to create jobs and assess the overall business climate in Baghdad.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: America's Newest Pastime - Blissful Ignorance

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:20:43 -0500

Bonds. Sosa. McGwire. A-Rod. Manny. Clemens. All names that just years ago were exalted as American heroes, each having re-written baseball’s record books. Now every one wallows in shame, having been exposed as a cheater.

In doing so, each one of these players has stolen something. They’ve stolen records from our most revered heroes like Hank Aaron. They’ve stolen millions of dollars, having been paid enormous contracts based on numbers they didn’t earn. And they’ve stolen championship rings from other, more deserving players.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: America’s New Economic Model: All the Style and Power of a Yugo

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:45:58 -0500

I recall as a young boy anxiously awaiting the time every autumn when America’s car companies unveiled their new models. That was an era when style ruled the automotive world; a bold new design could literally make or break a car company.

Now Washington has unveiled a new model for America, an economic model. This new model, a bold departure from our old economic model, is not getting rave reviews. Let’s examine why that is.
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Nathaniel Inglis Steinfeld Commentary: The Wisconsin Budget Process: a Newcomer’s Story

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:19:47 -0500

After working for the federal government in Washington, DC for two years, I was excited to move back to the Midwest. Returning to study public policy and law, I specifically came to learn more about state’s rights from the practical, decent state of Wisconsin. This past year I kept a close eye on state news, even more so as the biennial budget process began. How does Wisconsin make the biennial budget? What does the final budget look like?

The Legislative Reference Bureau seems like a better place to start than the federal level Schoolhouse Rock tutorial. The process of creating the Wisconsin budget is fairly simple - it follows the general legislative process, except in this case the process begins with the Governor.

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Steven Pigeon Commentary: What is Doyle's "Middle Class?"

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:49:46 -0500

Throughout the Wisconsin State budget process Governor Doyle and Democrat members of the State Assembly and Senate have insisted that their various budget proposals will not harm Wisconsin’s middle class. With no consistent definition of what it means to be "middle class," we can use the state budget to help us learn who is in Governor Doyle’s middle class by discovering who is not harmed by the Wisconsin state budget.

To be in Governor Doyle’s middle class you have to make less than $225,000 as an individual or $300,000 as a couple. If you make more than this you are obviously a member of Wisconsin’s "rich" and Doyle has created a new tax bracket just for people like you. Capital gains and property taxes are also raised in the State Budget but this, according to Wisconsin Democrats, will not impact the middle class.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: McCallum's Last Laugh

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:55:29 -0500

They called him a nitwit. A moron. A boob. A lightweight. And that was just his supporters.

Seven years ago, Scott McCallum walked out of the Capitol a defeated man. After serving 14 years as Tommy Thompson’s Lieutenant Governor, McCallum finally got his chance to run the state as Governor for two years, beginning in 2000. During his brief tenure, he presided over a mild recession that forced him to make choices which euthanized his chances at re-election. What McCallum did to fix the deficit, however, provides a stark contrast to the current administration’s budgeting practices, and serves as a warning to future politicians that back up their words with action.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Separating Wisconsin Democrats From Obama

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:13:42 -0500

The state budget being assembled in Madison is revealing some serious flaws in Wisconsin Democrats - flaws that, in the minds of most people, will separate them from President Obama. It won’t take long for people to figure out that the only thing these Madison politicians share with the President is the D behind their name.

It is interesting that the President has chosen today to come to Wisconsin for a town meeting. President Obama has a unique ability to articulate a vision, a plan. Much to the chagrin of conservatives, this master politician has shown the ability to transcend politics. Like Reagan, Obama gives the public, especially the coveted coven of independents, a sense that he is working from a core set of principles. Most would say that he is a man of character.

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: Just What Are They Thinking?

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 17:35:28 -0500

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.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Government's Billion Dollar Word

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 07:42:30 -0500

In the world of linguistics, words actually mean things. In many cases, tacking one qualifying word on to another can completely change the meaning of the original word being used. For instance, everyone enjoys a juicy apple. But one would be hard pressed to find someone that enjoys a "horse apple" in the same way. We often associate "wind" with a cool, gentle breeze. But if someone "breaks wind," it’s liable to clear out your dinner party. If someone offers you "water," they might think you’re thirsty. If someone offers you "waterboarding," then you should immediately begin digging a getaway tunnel.

Even state government has its own language that often employs such qualifiers to its own benefit. Under the Wisconsin Constitution, the state may not run a "deficit," meaning the books have to be balanced on a cash-in, cash-out basis. Yet the state continually runs a "structural deficit," meaning its government merely pushes off much of its spending into future fiscal years, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab down the road. In the case of the 2009-2011 budget, Governor Doyle’s acceptance of the word "structural" is worth about a billion and a half dollars to the taxpayer.

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Mike Nichols Commentary: Pedro Colón made some startling accusations this week.

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:43:01 -0500

Pedro Colón made some startling accusations this week.

I didn’t see it reported anywhere, but he did.

During a Joint Finance Committee discussion of whether to make police collect data on the race of people they pull over, the state representative essentially accused a broad array of suburban cops of being racists, of closing off their communities and even locking people up for five days for simply having a beer.

"It doesn’t happen in Milwaukee to tell you the truth," said the Milwaukee Democrat of minorities being singled out by police. "This may be revealing but most officers in Milwaukee have gotten over it. You just don’t make stupid stops. And you know it seems to exist primarily in the suburbs, I mean at least to the Latino community. I don’t know how it is in the African-American community but all the guys complain. It’s all Greenfield, Greendale, you know, the northern suburbs. And you can bet that you are going to be stopped. And that’s just the way it is, this unwritten rule. After a certain hour nobody gets to come in. We all know what the rule is. We all know these guys are getting stopped. And God forbid that they might have a beer on the way there because then they are going to be in prison or jail for five days."

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Annette Talis Commentary: Meet the Have Nots: John and Elizabeth Edwards

Thu, 21 May 2009 18:49:35 -0500

Why is anyone surprised or confused by the latest twist in John and Elizabeth Edwards’ public life? Weren’t we all assigned F. Scott Fitzgerald in high school? Why didn’t we expect them to make a few bucks selling intimate details of their marriage? Money has been central to the Edwardses’ definition of the good life in America - their American Dream. To the Edwardses, it now seems, resilience means coming out ahead on the financial balance sheet at the expense of just about any other measure of success.

Edwards didn’t need to be poor to fight for the poor, but describing a large group of Americans as "have nots" in the face of his own personal and ethical impoverishment now exposes his politics as patronizing and exploitive. Donning blue jeans and work shirt to portray his 12-month, life-of-leisure tan as the rough-hewn complexion of a working man, Edwards never really fit his own story.

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WPRI Report: Value Added Testing: Improving State Testing and Teacher Compensation in Wisconsin by Mark C. Schug Ph.D. and M. Scott Niederjohn Ph.D.

Mon, 18 May 2009 08:39:51 -0500

This is the second of two reports on Wisconsin’s state testing program published by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. The first report, "Mandated K-12 Testing in Wisconsin: A System in Need of Reform" detailed that Wisconsin’s current testing requirement has been a target of national criticism. That report recommended that Wisconsin’s testing regime be replaced or significantly modified.

This companion report, "Value-Added Testing: Improving State Testing and Teacher Compensation in Wisconsin" describes what improvements should be made in student testing. New developments in testing have emerged and are now coming into widespread use across the nation. These new testing approaches not only could serve as a basis for changing state-required tests, but they could also pave the way to improvements in how Wisconsin’s teachers are compensated. These changes would have important implications for the teaching profession.

Read the Full Report

George Lightbourn Commentary: Naivete and the State Budget

Thu, 14 May 2009 11:54:48 -0500

In the six years since the last recession, WPRI has published a series of studies that have put the state budget process under a microscope. Over the years we have identified several structural flaws that have been eating away at the state’s fiscal foundation. We have also stepped up to the plate and offered a series of specific recommendations as to what should be done to strengthen the budget process.

We’re pretty sure that not one of our recommendations has been adopted. We’re told that we’re naïve; that the Governor and Legislature are too politically astute to administer the medicine we prescribe.

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Ben Artz Commentary: Milwaukee's Poor Performance

Mon, 11 May 2009 10:13:58 -0500

Private employment is a good indicator of how a local economy is performing. It provides an indication of business growth and confidence in a particular geographic area, forming strong expectations that drive future economic success.

Unfortunately, Milwaukee’s private employment growth is dismal and is one of the worst among the nation’s 50 biggest cities. According to a recent report by UW-Milwaukee’s Center for Economic Development that uses public data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Milwaukee’s private employment has been precipitously declining since 2000. In fact, Milwaukee has lost 10%, or roughly 27,000 private sector jobs, and is ranked 47th out of the 50 biggest cities and 17th out of the 20 biggest "frost belt" cities. For this reason Milwaukee is considered as having one of the worst economies in the Midwest and as such, the entire country.

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WPRI Podcast: Doyle Eases W-2 Burden - for State, Not Clients, with David Dodenhoff, Ph.D.

Thu, 7 May 2009 11:16:48 -0500

Fifteen years ago, Wisconsin had welfare, and everyone hated it. It was essentially a giant check-writing machine. Something for nothing. A dead end.

When Wisconsin Works, or W-2, replaced welfare in the mid-1990s, it was hailed as a social policy revolution. But now, a mere decade and a half later, Gov. Jim Doyle has quietly launched a counterrevolution. His proposals for reforming W-2 constitute a step back in time, back toward the era of welfare.

Read and Listen Here

Christian Schneider Commentary: Cross Your Fingers and Root For the Worst?

Mon, 4 May 2009 13:51:58 -0500

It was exactly at 1:11 PM on the afternoon of April 5, 2002 that State Senator Rod Moen wrote his own political obituary. On the floor of the Senate, Moen had offered an amendment to the 2002 budget adjustment bill that would have allowed a company in his district, Ashley Furniture, to fill in 13 acres of adjacent wetlands in order to expand their plant. Despite Moen’s own party controlling the Senate, his amendment failed, capping off what some considered a half-hearted effort on his part to keep jobs in his district. (A bill granting the wetlands exemption had passed the full Assembly nearly six months earlier, and Moen was never able to get it to the floor of the Senate.)

Fed up with state environmental regulation, Ashley announced on June 29th that it would be expanding in Ecru, Mississippi - costing Western Wisconsin 500 jobs. On July 3rd, the budget adjustment bill passed, with Moen’s provision included. But it was too little, too late. Moen’s provision was irrelevant, as the decision to move had already been made.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: America’s Original Environmentalist: Aunt Edna Marie

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:50:08 -0500

Green is no longer just a mixture of blue and yellow. Green has come to define huge swatches of America’s policy and political landscape.

They never really say it, but the people behind America’s green movement would have us believe that we have sinned. Our extravagant consumption and unrelenting devotion to self-interest has led to a day of reckoning. The air in our major cities is befouled and "the scientific community" has discovered that we are jeopardizing the entire planet.

With the zeal of a revivalist preacher they tell us that our cars are too big, our houses are too warm in the winter and too cool in the summer. They’ve made us aware that very time we turn on a light switch we cause more crud to belch out of some distant smokestack.
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WPRI Report: Mandated K-12 Testing in Wisconsin: A System in Need of Reform. by Mark C. Schug, Ph.D. and M. Scott Niederjohn, Ph.D.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:23:27 -0500

The purpose of state standards and state-mandated testing is to increase academic achievement. Does Wisconsin’s elaborate system of testing advance this goal? From every quarter the answer is a clear no. That is the consensus of independent, third-party evaluators. Wisconsin’s massive testing program has come under fire from the U.S. Department of Education which said that Wisconsin testing failed to adequately evaluate the content laid out in the state’s own standards. Further, a joint report issued by the independent Fordham Institute and the Northwest Evaluation Association performed a detailed evaluation of testing in every state and ranked Wisconsin 42nd in the nation. The Fordham Institute gave Wisconsin’s testing a grade of "D-minus."

Perhaps even more troublesome is that many Wisconsin school districts find the testing system inadequate. Over 68% of Wisconsin school districts that responded to a survey said they purchase additional testing to do what the state testing is supposed to do. These districts are well ahead of the state in understanding the importance of timely, rigorous testing.

Read the Report...

Mike Nichols Commentary: Democrats and Pension Perks

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:02:16 -0500

People used to collect stamps in their spare time. Or coins. Grow tomatoes, maybe. I have three kids so my hobbies are cleaning up stuff, overcooking hamburgers, yelling a lot, coaching soccer, helping with spelling homework and trying hard to avoid the math.

Oh, I also spend a lot of time being a chump because - although I figure I put in at least three hours and ten minutes per day doing these things - I don’t get paid and I don’t receive a pension. That is why I think I’ll apply immediately for a job as a janitor or cafeteria worker or teachers’ aide in one of Wisconsin’s public schools.

These jobs are sweet gigs because right now such folks only have to work 600 hours a year (an average of three hours and ten minutes per day for 190 days) to qualify for a taxpayer-financed pension. Not, apparently however, sweet enough.

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: Doyle Guts a HOG

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:34:43 -0500

Who will be Jim Doyle’s Kimberly Clark?

During the 1980s, Kimberly Clark’s CEO Darwin Smith moved Kimberly-Clark’s worldwide headquarters to Texas because of Wisconsin’s hostile business climate. Smith’s complaints and the company’s dramatic departure focused attention on then-Governor Tony Earl’s decision to raise taxes during a recession and precipitated Earl’s defeat in 1986.

Flash forward two and half decades: Doyle is pushing massive tax increases during a recession, but despite complaints from the business community, it has yet to come up rallying point, a face, or a company that symbolizes the current crisis.

Maybe it will be Harley Davidson.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The Power of "Hello"

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:10:38 -0500

Working in a drug store in high school wasn’t ideal, but it was a job. All my friends worked at cooler places at the mall - Orange Julius, the Gap, etc. I was stuck dealing with old ladies who needed my advice on what kind of enema to use (I told them that I preferred Fleet) and stocking the birth control aisle, wondering what apocalyptic chain of events would have to occur for me to actually need one of these mysterious products.

Despite my overall distaste for the job, my boss at the pharmacy taught me something important that I have carried throughout my life:

If you say hello to the customers, they’re much less likely to rob you.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: The Puzzling Politics of School Choice

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:27:24 -0500

I don’t think it would be possible to make things any more confusing for Milwaukee parents. Their children have become political pawns in a political chess match and it will surprise no one to learn that this group of poor, minority parents is being treated quite shabbily.

The politics that these people are caught up in is being run out of the State Capitol. Governor Doyle went out of his way to tuck a decidedly non-fiscal item into his budget that stands to affect all school choice children. Specifically, he added a long list of regulatory requirements that the schools participating in the Milwaukee’s school choice program would have to follow. Governor Doyle’s list of regulations is torn directly out of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association play book. After all, MTEA worked hard to deliver a totally Democrat state government and they expect a pay off for their effort. And to the glee of MTEA, Governor Doyle delivered.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Please Hold Your Applause Until the End

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 08:26:51 -0500

Legend has it that way back in 2005, under the leadership of Governor Jim Doyle, the state of Wisconsin could save $200 million, through efficiencies in state contracting - for everything from prison food and travel to consolidation of the state’s email service. Four years later, the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota--- working together to find efficiencies in the same areas ---hope to save $10 million each. Now Governor Doyle only needs to find 500 more ways to save $10 million and he’ll eliminate his $5 billion budget deficit.

Of course, there’s always a bit of a chasm between legend and truth. In the legend of the Doyle ACE initiative, we’ll never know just how wide the chasm is since Doyle dropped the program like a hot potato amid allegations of corruption, agency in-fighting, cost over-runs and one failed computer project after another.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Governor on a Wire: Jim Doyle's Balancing Act

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 11:35:45 -0500

It happens on pretty much a weekly basis now. I get my mutual fund statements in the mail, and stare at them, wondering whether it would be more painful to read them or to use them to give myself papercuts on my eyeballs. My investment statements have gotten so indecent, they’re starting to send them to me wrapped in a discreet paper bag, so my children can’t see them.

If you do venture into a private room and crack one open, your mutual fund’s annual report will say something like this:

"While the fund continued to meet its income objectives for the year, we are disappointed by its total return, which marks the worst fiscal year in its 21-year history. The depth of the recent financial crisis and a recession which will most likely linger throughout the coming year has made this market environment the most challenging in a generation. Our primary goal is to continue growing income for our shareholders. While our projections for the coming fiscal year have given us confidence, we strongly caution that this past year’s growth of income is unlikely to continue, and should not be expected in the future."

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Wisconsin's Transformational Governor

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 10:29:13 -0500

Our president fancies himself a transformational president and it’s hard to argue with that. His is a transformational calling that goes well beyond race and politics. His is a transformational calling that will change the face of America: health care, energy, finance, politics. And to the chagrin conservatives, he is changing things.

At the heart of Obama’s transformational government is, well, government. It is a government that decides, a government that decrees, a government that seeks to define the quality of life for all Americans.

Obama has laid out a steep agenda, one that will require help from all quarters. Not only will he need a compliant Congress, he will need the active support from governors, since his ground game will be executed by state government.

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Steven Pigeon Commentary: Wisconsin Dream House

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:26:29 -0500

My fiancé and I have recently decided to take advantage of the current buyers market and purchase our first home. During this process we described to each other what our dream house would be. Realizing that this "dream house" of ours was not affordable we created a smaller list of more affordable features and began our hunt. After hearing about some of the details in Governor Doyle’s budget - realized that Wisconsin is quickly becoming a "Dream House" for many. A place that you wish to live, but simply can not afford.

It is estimated that between the budget repair bill and the proposed budget that the State will increase taxes by $3 billion. These increases would take $3 billion out of the private sector and send a message to businesses and individuals across the country that Wisconsin’s state government sees them as a revenue source and not as an asset.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Observing the Law of Rule

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:01:06 -0500

The summer of my twelfth year, my father dictated to me my summer job: I was going to have to paint the picket fence around our backyard. I had never painted anything before, so I punished him by peppering him with inane questions. "Where do I start?" "What size brush should I use?" And so on. "I don’t care how you do it - just get it done!" he snapped. At least that’s what I think he said, as my ears were ringing from the accompanying smack upside my head.

As it turns out, state law very much follows "dad law." When the legislature passes a law and the governor signs it, it constitutes a directive - "paint the fence." But in many cases, it leaves the minute details up to the state department that will be carrying out the broad new law - "just get it done." Departments accomplish the "I don’t care how you do it" part by passing "rules," which reside comfortably in legal purgatory, somewhere between real laws and complete anarchy.

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Marc Eisen Commentary: As Newspapers Decline, New Voices Rise

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:28:04 -0500

Okay, so you’ve read my story on the increasingly perilous state of Wisconsin’s 32 daily newspapers, published in the newly launched WI Magazine.

Lacking the space in the dead-tree version, let me cite a few news-and-opinion alternatives popping up as newspapers decline.

Jeff Mayers, who launched WisPolitics.com in June 2000, is recognized as the state’s online trailblazer. The former Wisconsin State Journal statehouse reporter has carved out a profitable niche serving political insiders with both paid and free services. With a staff of eight, Mayers’ has created related sites called WisOpinion.com, WisBusiness.com and IowaPolitics.com.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: That Damned Smiley Face

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:22:17 -0500

This might be no big deal. Then again...

I’ve had little interaction with Mark Pocan, but my impression of him is generally positive. For most of his legislative career he played the amiable back-bencher, a lefty with whom even some Taft Republicans could work.

Now Mark Pocan has bided his time, has been re-elected five times, and has been active in the Democratic takeover of the Assembly. According to Capitol protocol, Pocan has paid his dues and has thus been rewarded with an appointment to co-chair the Joint Committee on Finance.

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WI Magazine: Editor's Note - Welcome to Our New Digs - By Charles J. Sykes

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:22:14 -0500

Wisconsin Interest first appeared 17 years ago, back in 1992, as the flagship publication of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

That first issue featured articles by former Education Secretary Bill Bennett, author Dinesh D'Souza, Professor John Dilulio, Milwaukee's then-mayor John Norquist and, as it turned out, me. Over the years we covered politics, education, welfare reform, crime, government spending, the media, gambling, heath care, the judiciary and the economy.

But, as you may have noticed, the time has come for a change.

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WI Magazine: Letters to the Editor

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:21:29 -0500

WI Magazine: A Hard Winter, But Spring Brings Hope - By Kenneth R. Lamke

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:19:50 -0500

Milwaukee Dispatch

Besides snow and cold, bad economic news got dumped on Milwaukee almost daily this past winter. Corporate revenue losses and job cuts piled up like dirty snow piles.
Smaller economic flurries also depressed the winter mood. Locally owned Heinemann's Restaurants abruptly shut down after 86 years in business. The Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops chain announced it would close after 82 years. The 16-year-old Hal Leonard Jazz Series at the Pabst Theater ended. The Milwaukee Art Museum, including its high-profile Calatrava wing, said it would open only six days a week this year, not seven. And, at the other end of the culture scale, the Potawatomi Bingo Casino shut down a casual restaurant that had opened only six months earlier.
More little cuts to the culture of Milwaukee, broadly defined, appeared certain to occur throughout 2009.

True, these smaller closings are not the end of the world. The end of the world actually occurred in 1965, when the Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta.

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WI Magazine: Can the GOP Strike Again? - By Deb Jordahl

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:18:29 -0500

State Capitol Dispatch

Wisconsin Republicans found solace in November's election results. Despite a Democratic tsunami that gave Barack Obama a whopping 13% percentage-point lead in Wisconsin, Assembly Republicans held their losses to five seats, while their Senate colleagues nearly gained one.

That means Republicans only need to pick up four seats in the Assembly and two seats in the Senate to reclaim majority control in 2010.

While a GOP victory is clearly within striking distance, striking is not the Grand Old Party's strong suit, and since there's no such thing as a bloodless coup in politics, this deficiency represents a serious liability.

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WI Magazine: Have Voters Grown Weary of Kathleen Falk? - By David Blaska

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:16:56 -0500

Dane County Dispatch

In many respects, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk's run for re-election this spring is not so much against conservative Nancy Mistele but the ghost of a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student.

Kathleen FalkBrittany Zimmermann, who was engaged to be married and was studying to be a doctor, was stabbed and strangled in her locked apartment on April 2, in the middle of the day, only six blocks from Falk's office, the Madison Police Department and Falk's 911 emergency communications center.

The 911 Center bungled Zimmermann's plea for help, failed to call her back and sent police on a wild goose chase by misidentifying the source of the dropped call.

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WI Magazine: Doyle Fires Warning Shot at Walker - by Aaron Rodriguez

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:14:51 -0500

Gubernatorial Politics Dispatch:

With the 2010 election season approaching, Gov. Jim Doyle made a sharp preemptive strike against a potential challenger, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. Doyle's secretary of Health Services, Karen Timberlake, announced in February that the state will assume direct control of Milwaukee County's public assistance programs because, she said, Walker's administration has demonstrated a sustained inability to successfully provide services to its poor customers.

If this were true, why didn't the state step up earlier to offer help? Instead of teaming up with Walker to improve the supposedly impaired services, Doyle demonstrated just how politically dangerous it would be for Walker to develop a gubernatorial itch.

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WI Magazine: Who Cares About Voter Fraud? Milwaukee police uncovered a problem, but politicians chose to ignore it - by John Fund

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:13:27 -0500

In February 2008, the Milwaukee Police Department's Special Investigation Unit released a stunning report that should silence skeptics who say vote fraud is not an issue in Wisconsin. The investigators found after an 18-month probe that in 2004 there had been an "illegal organized attempt to influence the outcome of an election in the state of Wisconsin."

Among the problems cited were ineligible voters casting ballots, felons not only voting but working at the polls, transient college students casting improper votes, and homeless voters possibly voting more than once. The report said the problem was compounded by incompetence resulting from abysmal record-keeping and inadequately trained poll workers.

One investigator, after examining Milwaukee's election system, was quoted as saying: "I know I voted in the election, but I can't be certain it counted."

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WI Magazine: Miracle at St. Marcus: On the Frontlines of reform with writer Sunny Schubert

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:11:48 -0500

Henry Tyson shows how urban education can succeed in the right setting.

"I never wanted to be involved in helping the poor. My mother was born in Africa and was always very sympathetic toward the poor and people of other races. But the whole inner-city thing came about during my senior year at Northwestern," says the superintendent of Milwaukee's St. Marcus School.

"I was majoring in Russian, so in the summer of my junior year, I went to Russia. I absolutely hated it - just hated it. So when I got back to school, I realized I had a problem figuring out what to do next," he remembers.

About that time, he was having a discussion with a black friend, "and she basically told me I didn't have a clue what it was like in the inner city. She challenged me to do an ‘Urban Plunge,' which is a program where you spend a week in an inner-city neighborhood.

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WI Magazine: MPS' Parental Enticement Program Spent Freely, Widely But, oh, the questionable expenditures. Now some are banned - By Mike Nichols

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:10:25 -0500

Tax dollars intended to help parents improve their children's academic achievement have for years routinely been spent by Milwaukee public schools on everything from roller skating to bowling to water-park field trips, an investigation by Wisconsin Interest has found.

Thousands of dollars were also spent on fast food, DJs, prizes, gift certificates and other goodies and giveaways. One school spent $556 in parental-involvement money to buy 250 pumpkins. Another spent $686 for a Milwaukee Bucks "Family Night."

Even when a clear academic purpose is evident, there are often questions about excess. Two schools, according to invoice descriptions, spent more than $17,000 to rent hotel and banquet-hall space for student recognition ceremonies.

Research, as well as common sense, has long shown that having engaged and informed parents is one of the most important ways to increase a child's success in school - and in life. Recognizing that, the federal government has funneled "parental involvement" tax dollars to many school districts across the country.

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WI Magazine: What's the Matter With Wisconsin? Begin with disturbing parallels to a classic political screed castigating the anti-business politics of Kansas in 1896 - By Charles J. Sykes

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:08:58 -0500

Last December, the Brookings Institution released a study showing that Wisconsin experienced a net loss of 20,000 people to other states in the last four years. From 2000 to 2004, Wisconsin gained residents from other states; but from 2004 to 2008, Wisconsinites voted with their feet, and the pace of their departure is accelerating.

According to the Census Bureau, Wisconsin is growing at a rate slower than 37 other states. If there had been a high brick wall and not a soul had been admitted or permitted to leave in the last four years, Wisconsin would be tens of thousands of souls better off. In those years, millions of people have been added to the national population, yet instead of gaining a share of this, Wisconsin has apparently been a plague spot, and in the very garden of the world, has lost population.

Not only has she lost population, but Wisconsin has also lost money. Every month in every community sees someone who has a little money pack up and leave the state. This has been going on for years. Money has drained out all that time.

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WI Magazine: Paperless Future? Overtaken by the Web and battered by the recession, Wisconsin's 32 dailies are in a world of hurt - By Marc Eisen

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:07:23 -0500

If you're a deep-pocketed business executive in a flourishing industry, you gather at the richly appointed Fluno Center on the UW-Madison campus for your deep-thought conferences. More modest enterprises and nonprofits send their execs to the UW's shop-worn Pyle Center for their soul-searching. This, of course, was the proper setting for a worried group of newspaper executives on March 28, 2008.

The good news was that they weren't squirreled away in a dining room at Denny's out on the Interstate. Given the parlous state of newspaper economics, this might have made more sense. Their papers might have split the cost of the $5.99 "Grand Slam" breakfast special.

"We're in a time of decline," Stephen Gray of the American Press Institute told the 60 or 70 people present. "It's a time of fear, depression, even despair." Yes, fear, depression, even despair. Nobody was shocked by Gray's words, because everybody knew they were true.

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WI Magazine: Why Conservatives Like Me Are So... Negative - By Christian Schneider

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:05:55 -0500

Wisconsin is in the midst of a health-care crisis. A health-care crisis so serious, in fact, that state government needs to swoop in and seize control of the health insurance system in a way no state has done in the history of our nation.

Luckily for us, this health-care crisis apparently exists nowhere else in the country, which means nobody in any other state would even be tempted to move to Wisconsin to take advantage of the "free" health care offered by Wisconsin's taxpayers.

Such is the logic of Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, who has vowed to re-introduce the $15.2 billion government-run "Healthy Wisconsin" plan this session. In responding to a recent Wisconsin Policy Research Institute report that an estimated 142,000 sick people would indeed move to our state to take advantage of free health care, Decker took a shot at WPRI, saying the institute likes to criticize ideas, but they "never come up with any suggestions."

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Ben Artz Commentary: Has Government Forgotten About The Future?

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:38:15 -0500

The economy has fallen off a cliff. The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet, proclaims this bad news after a rare bad year for his company and a similar year for his personal wealth. Just a week earlier President Obama suggested that we not pay attention to plunging stock prices as they tend to fluctuate wildly and have no real consequence for those who look for long-term gains.

Though they disagree on the significance of the stock market, both Mr. Buffet and President Obama have something in common; they are attempting to look beyond the current crisis into the future.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Thanks a Lot, Governor Doyle

Thu, 5 Mar 2009 11:15:38 -0600

It’s tough to be optimistic about the future of our economy these days. This is especially true for free-market conservatives who feel like they’re watching a head-on collision in slow motion and are helpless to stop it. Yet as the economy nose dives and unemployment reaches record levels in Wisconsin, Governor Doyle remains firmly committed to a course of increased taxes and regulations, which is certain to make a bad situation worse.

Governor Doyle says his new budget protects middle class taxpayers and stands up for the people who earn regular paychecks. But even if you believe the Governor is simply righting the ship by making business pay its fair share, a closer reading of the budget, which is littered with increased taxes and fees on working stiffs and punctuated with assaults on their personal freedom, is enough to drive anyone to drink.

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Aaron Rodriguez Commentary: Fighting for the Soul of the Hispanic Community

Mon, 2 Mar 2009 09:36:52 -0600

The GOP has failed the Hispanic community in a number of politically important ways. They have refused to reach out to Hispanics at a grassroots level - a failure that began to surface in the southwestern states during the 2008 election. They have not punctuated the premise that Hispanics and conservatives share many of the same moral precepts - a component vital for a genuine and lasting alliance. And they have failed to address the fabricated image of being the party of and for the rich. If Republicans expect to capture more of the Hispanic vote in future elections, they need to take these problems seriously and resolve them quickly.

According to the 2003 U.S. Census Bureau, the national median income level for Hispanic households was $34,241, about $15,000 less than non-Hispanic households; 21% of Hispanic households fell below poverty level, which was twice the level of non-Hispanic whites; and the uninsured rate for Hispanics was at 32%, about three times the level of non-Hispanic whites. These statistics suggest that the Hispanic community continues to be an underprivileged demographic, a fact that has been exploited by the Democrat Party for decades.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: I Know, I Know - If You Want a Friend, Get a Dog

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:34:29 -0600

Yes I understand, politics is rough and tumble. Again and again I’m told that, "It ain’t beanbag."

Those who are drawn to politics these days seem to be those who just love a good scrap. They’re winners and nothing can make them happier than seeing the other side stumble. Every thought, every hallway conversation, every budget amendment, every bill is an opportunity, not only for them to stretch their policy legs, but also to kick the other fellow in the shins.

I was reminded of this yesterday watching a typical exchange in the Capitol. First, for some mysterious reason Mark Pocan published a letter accusing the Taxpayers Alliance of somehow being a front for business or conservatives or some such shady entities.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: An Apology From the Distant Past

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:48:22 -0600

Dear Person in the Future:

Greetings from the year 2009. As a gesture of goodwill, there are some things we need to discuss.

First, congratulations on the Brewers winning their 3rd World Series in a row, beating the Prince Fielder-led Yankees in seven games. A big atta-boy to Keanu Reeves for winning his first Oscar, playing a gay washed up ex-wrestler who ages backwards. It certainly was the role of a lifetime. I understand that, due to a federal mandate, General Motors is close to developing a car that runs on sunshine and dreams - here’s hoping the technology works out for you. And it’s nice to see that the prophecy is true: everyone actually does eat Dippin’ Dots.

The main purpose of this letter, however, is to issue an apology. Certainly, people in the future are still talking about the economic downturn of 2009, and the effect it had on the state’s finances. Believe it or not, when the economy went bad in 2009, we actually cared more about how government was hurting than how regular people were coping with losing their jobs. (Then again, the most famous woman in America in 2009 was a crazy Angelina Jolie look-a-like who had octuplets, so that might explain some things.)

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Ben Artz Commentary: "Buy American" Will Bury America

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:27:41 -0600

World trade has been demonized in America in the last two decades as manufacturing and simple service jobs have gone overseas to cheaper shores. It is not surprising then that the new congress is signing into law a step toward protectionist trade doctrine. The "Buy American" provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is the first, and hopefully last, hint of protectionism we see from this new government.

The support for trade restrictions of any kind stems from the prevention of cheaper or possibly even better imports from crowding out domestic industry products and their corresponding jobs. This of course is a political cost of the largest magnitude. Thus the support for restricting imports is even stronger in a recessionary economy that is already shedding jobs in large numbers. The same ideology was used during the Great Depression in June of 1930 when the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was signed into law.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: No Manufacturers Needed

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:59:14 -0600

We don’t need no stinkin’ manufacturers in Wisconsin, and we’re getting pretty good at making them disappear.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), of the 66,300 jobs lost in Wisconsin last year, 26,500 came from the manufacturing sector. That’s nearly 40 percent of all jobs lost, even though manufacturing represents only 20 percent of the workforce. Since 2000, Wisconsin has lost 121,000 of these family-supporting jobs with an average wage of $46,000 a year. That’s like taking all the people in Appleton and La Crosse and stripping away their jobs, their benefits and their futures.

But don’t worry. We’ve got hospitals, utilities, road builders, public schools, the University of Wisconsin System, and plenty of other public employers.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The Forgotten Cheesehead

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 12:23:19 -0600

On Inauguration Day 2009, two old Harvard Law Review editors stood up in front of the U.S. Capitol and raised their right hands. When President-Elect Barack Obama and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts attempted to recite the Oath of Office, they both mixed up their words, unintentionally issuing a binding presidential edict that everyone in America was entitled to a free medium fries at Burger King. (They later re-did the oath the proper way, making Obama officially the President, but leaving Americans fry-less; a questionable trade-off.)

While many constitutional scholars huddled around the issue about whether Roberts and Obama had to re-take the oath, I was more interested in another aspect of their convergence on the podium together: Who has the better job?

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Steven Pigeon Commentary: Obama Moves From "Yes We Can" to "No End in Sight"

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 09:30:34 -0600

Often in difficult times, the American people look to their President for reassurance and guidance. Think for instance of Franklin Roosevelt declaring that the "Only Thing We have to Fear is Fear Itself," Ronald Reagan talking to the nation after the Challenger explosion, or Gerald Ford declaring the United State’s "Long National Nightmare is Over," and most recently, George W Bush addressing the nation after September 11th, 2001. All of these words resulted in a calmer, reassured America and made the country think that though things are tough, that everything will be okay.

Having only studied recessions in a classroom, and never truly experiencing one, I was hoping that our new President would be able to offer great words and sentiment that could calm my fears about my employment, retirement savings, and a potential decrease in future income possibilities. President Obama’s relative gloomy inaugural address in addition to his regular references to the "continuing disaster" that the United States economy is in, clearly tells the American people that President Obama is shirking his "Cheerleader in Chief" responsibilities and is instead is becoming a "Dictator of Doom."

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Stimulus and Politics 101

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 12:51:33 -0600

It is a fact of life in modern-day politics that companies with government contracts tend to participate fully in our political process. In other words, they write checks.

Companies write checks to PACs and make soft money contributions. Their executives and senior managers write checks to candidates. More often than not, their spouses write checks too.

There is nothing necessarily nefarious about all of this political participation. These companies and the people who run them are exercising their Constitutional rights and almost always do so within the rules, which frustrates the good government types who regularly conduct modern-day snipe hunts attempting to link contracts to contributions.

But, it is also an axiom among political fundraisers that government contractors are fertile ground for potential contributors.

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REPORT: The State Budget Deficit: A Self-Inflicted Wound

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 12:29:07 -0600

On November 20th of 2008, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle settled into his seat at a packed Capitol press conference he called to deliver the bad news. Due to the slumping economy, Governor Doyle told the press, Wisconsin faced a $5.4 billion shortfall over the next two fiscal years. In outlining his plan to fix the imbalance, Governor Doyle forcefully stated:

"We have to balance the budget. We are not the federal government. When we are in difficult financial circumstances, we can’t just say, ‘well, that’s alright, let’s just spend more money here, or let’s spend more money there.’ We don’t have that option."

Yet an analysis of state budgeting practices over the past decade shows something much different. In setting the budget for the past several biennia, governors and legislators of both parties have employed several strategies that have allowed the state to spend more money than it takes in. When faced with balancing the budget or spending more taxpayer money, the Governor and Legislature virtually always side with spending as much as possible, leaving future government officials to address any shortfalls.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Turning Green Into Gold

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:21:55 -0600

It is becoming clear that global warming legislation is more about preserving government programs than it is about saving the environment. If you don’t believe me, just ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A few weeks ago, Pelosi told Capitol reporters, that climate change legislation was not likely to happen in the coming year. "I'm not sure this year, because I don't know if we'll be ready." But this week the Speaker is singing a different tune, and if you spin the record backwards, you can actually hear Pelosi chanting, "Show me the money."

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David Dodenhoff, Ph.D. Commentary: God Bless Scott Walker, But...

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:34:04 -0600

Getting a state or local politician to refuse federal money is about as easy as getting a raccoon to put down a fish carcass. Recently, though, Milwaukee County executive Scott Walker said "no" to economic stimulus dollars from Washington, D.C. Why? Because those dollars come with strings attached - a local financial contribution in the short run, and the likelihood of complete state/local financial responsibility in the long run. Walker believes that a period of fiscal crisis is exactly the wrong time for Milwaukee County to take on additional financial responsibilities.

He is right, of course, but that won’t stop political opponents from charging that Scott Walker turned his back on millions of "free" federal dollars when Milwaukee County residents were suffering mightily. Thus, Walker has knowingly taken a political risk for no other reason than that it was the right thing to do. This is rare behavior indeed - behavior that deserves recognition and respect.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Spend Less Taxpayer Money, Get Healthier

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:23:21 -0600

Every year in the United States, various levels of government spend trillions of dollars to help treat illnesses. Our government is adept at spending money on the back end to ameliorate the effects of disease. But what if government spending itself was to blame for much of the sickness?

Take, for example, the federal government’s farm subsidy policies, which pump billions of dollars into the production of certain crops - most notably, corn. Between 1995 and 2006, taxpayers have shelled out $56.1 billion in corn subsidies. That’s nearly three times as much as the next two closest subsidies, wheat and cotton. Between 1995 and 2006, Wisconsin farmers have collected $2.4 billion in corn subsidies.

These subsidies have profound effects in many areas, from the environment to our health. Corn subsidies make it profitable for farmers to plant crops in areas that may previously not have been profitable, which encourages the clearing of forest land and natural habitat for farming. The total planted area of corn, at 93.6 million acres, is up 19 percent from last year, to the highest level since 1944.

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Annette Talis Commentary: Wisconsin's Pet Goat: School Finance Reform

Thu, 8 Jan 2009 13:14:55 -0600

Most of us have seen the 2001 footage showing the commander in chief crouched on a small elementary school chair to while the nation was under attack. That day many soccer moms who cast their top-of-the-ticket ballots for better schools were transformed into security moms.

Matt Miller’s article advocating a nationalized education system, "A Modest Proposal to Fix the Schools: First, Kill All the School Boards," published in The Atlantic early last year, gave fits to a few people at the National School Boards Association but largely went unnoticed among its target audience in Washington, D.C. Public education was no longer at the top of the national agenda.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: The Dodgy Thinking Behind the State Budget Bailout

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 12:49:37 -0600

The drama about to be played out in the Wisconsin budget is a small subplot of a larger drama being played out across the country. The story line in this drama is that state government is a blameless victim, caught in a nasty economic cycle. But is that the case?

As contemporary Americans, we have become far too comfortable living beyond our means. It will take time to adjust to our new reality, one defined by limitation and sacrifice.

Of course we should have paid attention to those who were telling us that our prosperity was illegitimate, a mirage. From top to bottom, our economy had an insatiable appetite for spending. Only now are we facing the reality of just how far beyond our means we have been living. We bought more house than we could afford, our car of choice was an SUV when we should have been driving a nice sedan and Silicon Valley has had to work overtime to keep up with our demand for smaller, speedier and trendier technology.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Caroline Kennedy - She's No Russ Feingold

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:25:26 -0600

For the past week, the parlors up and down the Atlantic coast from Washington to the Hamptons have been abuzz with the prospect of Senator Caroline Kennedy. This now middle-aged woman, who represents a link to the nation’s past, has seemingly floated down on gossamer wings to hover above the mud puddle of contemporary American politics.

Were my mother alive, the prospect of seeing JFK’s daughter in public office would put a bounce in her step and a smile on her Irish Catholic face. And there are millions of Americans who, like my mother, need little more than her direct link to Camelot to justify their support for Caroline.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Felons for Thee, Not for Me

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:27:59 -0600

Poor Rod Blagojevich. First, he gets pinched by the feds, and now - after he politely declined an offer to resign his governorship - Illinois legislators are beginning their own investigation into whether he should be impeached. Apparently, the legislature is trying to shake the impression that Illinois is to political corruption what Florida is to flamingoes.

Of course, defending Blagojevich is like defending rabies. However, while we all have a pretty good idea that he was trying to auction off Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, he hasn’t yet been convicted of anything. But that hasn’t slowed the calls for his ouster from legislators looking for political cover. It’s gotten so bad, some Illinois legislators could improve their image by getting their picture taken with George Bush.

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Benjamin Artz Commentary: Milwaukee's Decline Into Regulatory Oblivion

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:01:08 -0600

The industrial revolution showed that entrepreneurial ability and the pursuit of profits were the driving force behind economic growth. Indeed, at that time other areas of the world were as equally advanced as Europe and North America but did not believe as strongly in the protection of private property and profits, and therefore were left behind for the last few centuries. History proves that strict regulatory environments hamper economic growth because entrepreneurial talent is not allowed to fully explore profit-maximization through the most efficient use of available resources.

Oddly enough, strict regulation may not only come from a centralized government or monarchy. In fact, Milwaukee recently demonstrated this in the November election. Rather than let entrepreneurs decide how best to allocate their resources and maximize profits, Milwaukee decided to let voters give it a shot. Somehow the city decided that voters could do a better job running businesses than the owners and when given the chance, they voted in favor of nine extra days of leisure without sacrificing wages. Thus Milwaukee is now a stricter regulatory environment.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: First Fix the State Budget

Mon, 8 Dec 2008 08:38:15 -0600

"Scott McCallum has been spending too much time with his friend Rosy Scenario. That is exactly the kind of wishful thinking and dishonest budgeting that got us into a $2.8 billion hole to begin with." Candidate Jim Doyle in 2001

"Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it." George Sanatayana

It is too bad for Governor Doyle and too bad for Wisconsin that he did not heed this wisdom of Santayana.

The $2.8 billion deficit facing Governor Doyle when he came into office in 2002 has now grown to $5.4 billion. This is a frightening number for all of us. This state budget deficit amounts to $900 for every person in Wisconsin.

Some would have us believe that this deficit is fixable. It is not, at least not without stinging all of Wisconsin with higher taxes and service cuts.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Outsourcing State Government

Wed, 3 Dec 2008 10:50:58 -0600

In the 2008 presidential election, the economy featured prominently among the issues debated by the two candidates. The collapse of the housing sector interjected itself into the campaign, and swung the electorate solidly in favor of eventual winner Barack Obama. Obama was able to sell his message on the economy more ably than John McCain, capably reassuring American workers that their jobs were safe.

One of Obama’s primary economic talking points dealt with the outsourcing of American jobs, and what could be done to prevent it. One of the cornerstones of his economic plan was repealing "tax breaks" to "companies that shipped our jobs overseas." Naturally, workers who already fear for their jobs want to do everything to make sure that job stays on American soil – and in an economy in collapse, that message resonates even more strongly.

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WPRI Poll: Wisconsin Residents Overwhelmingly Oppose Raising Taxes on Businesses

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:32:07 -0600

Wisconsin residents oppose raising taxes on business profits by a range of 73% opposing it while only 19% supported raising taxes. These are among the key findings about statewide policy issues from the most recent survey of 600 Wisconsin residents conducted by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. and Diversified Research between November 9 and 10, 2008.

Geographically, the most support for raising taxes came from LaCrosse where 33% of the respondents supported it and Madison where 25% were in agreement. Among Republicans only 10% favored raising taxes on businesses, while 25% of Democrats agreed. Ideologically, 31% of Liberals said they would favor raising taxes on businesses, only 9% of Conservatives agreed with that.

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WPRI Poll: Wisconsin Residents Continue to be Concerned About the Growing Costs of Health Care and Prescription Drugs

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:38:38 -0600

Controlling health care and prescription drug costs continues to be a major concern of Wisconsin residents in terms of the problem that most needs attention from state government. They favor major reforms to the existing health care system but there is very little support for the idea of a state-run insurance system. Wisconsin residents believe that if a government-run health insurance system were set up in Wisconsin, out-of-state people would definitely immigrate to Wisconsin to enroll in the system.

These are among the key findings about statewide policy issues from the most recent survey of 600 Wisconsin residents conducted by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. and Diversified Research between November 9 and 10, 2008.

In our most recent poll 24% of Wisconsin residents identified "Controlling Health Care and Prescription Drug Costs" as the most important issue that needs attention from Wisconsin state government.The health care issue closely trailed improving the state’s economy by just four percentage points.

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: A Natural Disaster?

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:01:23 -0600

As we head into the consequential New Year, let us ponder for a moment State Senator Bob Jauch (D-Poplar).

For the first time in more than two decades, Democrats now control all the levers of state government, which means that it falls to them to single-handedly solve the state’s massive (and ever-growing) budget hole. There will no bipartisan compromise, no wrangling between a Republican assembly and a Democratic Senate; no deadlocks on Joint Finance; no games of political chicken.

All of the spending - and taxing - decisions will be made by Democrats. Like Bob Jauch.

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WPRI Poll: Opinions About Public Education are Similar to 20 Years Ago

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:30:33 -0600

There are some issues that seemingly never change. Twenty years ago 49% of Wisconsin residents thought they had received a better education in elementary and secondary schools than students today. In 2008, 47% of Wisconsin residents had the same view. Twenty years ago 70% of our residents rated their local schools as excellent or very good. Today, 69% rated their local schools as excellent or good.

Twenty years ago 76% of our residents supported merit pay for teachers; today 77% of our residents support merit pay for teachers. Twenty years ago 58% of our residents thought that discipline in our public schools was too lenient; today 60% hold this view.

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WPRI Poll: Wisconsin Residents are Heavily Invested in the Stock Market

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:28:28 -0600

82% of Wisconsin residents are now invested in the stock market through mutual funds, individual stocks or pension plans. In addition, 71% of our residents now believe that the stock market has a great deal of effect on the United States economy. They also believe that the stock market is a risky investment.

These are among the key findings about statewide policy issues from the most recent survey of 600 Wisconsin residents conducted by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. and Diversified Research between November 9 and 10, 2008.

Investment in the stock market continues to grow among Wisconsin residents. In our most recent survey 82% said that they personally or jointly with a spouse have money invested either in mutual funds, individual stocks or pension plans. This is the highest number since we began asking this question in 1971. It has risen from 77% when last asked in 2006. Investment seems to be spread across all demographic groups, but there are some exceptions. The least number of investors would be found in LaCrosse where 69% said they had investments and the City of Milwaukee where 68% said they were invested. The highest areas would be Southeast Wisconsin and Green Bay where 87% of respondents said they were invested in the stock market. Of younger residents (between 18 and 24), 63% said they had investments, while 71% of our senior citizens (65 and older) also had investments.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Let's Keep Wisconsin Workers Working

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:35:38 -0600

There is a simple way to keep thousands of Wisconsin men and women working without adding a dime to the state budget.

These are dark times for many businesses with the construction industry particularly hard hit. Tight credit and cautious developers have combined to halt numerous private building projects. More than five thousand workers have been sent home to wait until things improve. For them this promises to be an anxious holiday season.

At the same time that Wisconsin’s construction industry is suffering, state government continues to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to buy land. This year alone the Governor has given the DNR the green light to borrow $60 million for land buys under the Stewardship program. Created in 1989, the Stewardship program preserves millions of acres of environmentally sensitive lands. DNR now owns 1.4 million acres or 4% of all the land in Wisconsin.

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WPRI Poll: Wisconsin Residents Very Concerned About State's Economy

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:15:33 -0600

Jobs and the economy are the number one concerns in Wisconsin. Residents continue to be disillusioned with the integrity of their state government and political leaders. Wisconsin residents now view the issue of jobs and unemployment as the single biggest problem that state government should be dealing with. In fact their views of the problem of jobs is the highest number we have seen in all the polling we have published going back to January 1988. 31% of Wisconsin residents now believe that unemployment is the single biggest problem in the state. An additional 17% of Wisconsin residents view economic issues as the largest problem facing the state. Combined it means that 48% of Wisconsin residents view jobs, unemployment and the economy as the most critical issues in the state at this time.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Democrats in Wisconsin: Not Going Anywhere?

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:36:45 -0600

Since the November 4th electoral beatdown received by Wisconsin Republicans, state GOP party leaders have been scrambling to offer ways to fix the party. Some say the party has lost its way and needs to be more conservative. Others say the party needs to move to the center to gain new members. My suggestion to adopt a giant lobster with sunglasses as the new party mascot has been largely ignored.

Even if the party were somehow able to get together on a plan of action, the uphill climb is likely more substantial than anyone realizes. If conservatives sit around and wait for the Obama backlash to sweep them into office in 2010, they'll soon be able to hold their state convention in a minivan in Osseo.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Return Justice Abrahamson

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:02:07 -0600

After careful consideration, I have decided to throw my support behind Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson in her bid for reelection.

I can find no compelling argument against giving Justice Abrahamson a fourth ten year term on the court, and I commend her for rejecting those who suggest that a 74 year old incumbent with 30 years of distinguished service should retire instead of committing to serve on the court well into her 80s. I also applaud the Chief Justice for thumbing her nose at the conspiracy theorists who say she’ll retire early into her fourth term, giving Governor Doyle the opportunity to appoint another liberal Justice to the court. Those skeptics do not know the Justice Abrahamson we know.

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James H. Miller Commentary: Recalibrating the Politics of the Midwest

Thu, 6 Nov 2008 15:57:03 -0600

For years we thought the institution with the biggest Big Ten problem was Time Warner. Tuesday night changed all that. In an extraordinary display Barack Obama carried every Big Ten state. All eight of them, even Indiana. The margins in some of the states were truly astounding. These results open up an issue that few in the media have bothered to discuss. How do Republicans come back nationally and especially in the Big Ten? Obama’s victory may change the demographics so that many of the old political formulas become obsolete. In this election, after decades of predictions, young people, Blacks and Latinos came out in large numbers and they overwhelmingly voted for the Democrats. In the Presidential race it was two-to-one. This is not a good sign for aging white Republican politicians.

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Ben Artz Commentary: In Defense of the Free Market

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 13:22:14 -0600

In troubling times, people generally feel the need to appeal to a higher authority for help, guidance and support. Students ask their teachers for mercy when they fail an exam. Children often ask their parents for assistance when they make mistakes. In the same way, America is turning to its parent, the government, for the help it needs to get out of this mess. America needs new guidelines and rules to abide by in order to stay out of trouble. After all, rules are essential to grow healthy and responsible children as well as economies. But too many rules can stunt the growth of a free market economy. All the free market needs is a little guidance and it will still be the best way to allocate resources.

The free market, unhindered by government intervention in most cases, is still the best way to organize production and trade resources. In free markets buyers and sellers interact with each other, efficiently exchanging information about the value of resources to each other. In this way goods and services are sold to those who value them the most while being produced by firms that can do so in the most efficient way.

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Steven Pigeon Commentary: Milwaukee: "Spreading it Around"

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:01:14 -0500

With Wisconsin’s presidential race having been conceded to Senator Obama and his desire to distribute "Joe the Plumber’s" income, Wisconsin’s implicit approval of this economic arrangement has provided the green light for local communities to seek measures that will spread their community’s own income. Specifically, Milwaukee residents will have two opportunities to spread income around on the November 4th ballot.

The first opportunity is to vote in favor of a measure that would mandate City of Milwaukee employers provide 9 paid sick days to full-time employees. The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) has been the most vocal opponent to the ballot measure, bluntly stating that the mandate would be a job killer for the City of Milwaukee. The mandate would also provide businesses an incentive not to expand, or establish a presence in the City of Milwaukee.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Don't Mistake the Medicine for the Disease

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:44:16 -0500

Billion is the new million. Just when we were almost able to wrap our brain around how much a million dollars is, the federal government shifted gears and began tossing around billion. In Washington, a billion dollars used to be a big deal, but no more. Now it’s the norm. The danger is that the federal "illion" lexicon stands to convert serious issues into fantasy.

Take for example, the fact that the federal government closed last year with a $455 billion deficit. Next year we’re told to expect the deficit to be somewhere "close to $700 billion." I personally have no idea what might be close to that fantastic thing, that $700 billion. It’s so large. Maybe there’s someone at Princeton or at NASA who can understand it. It must be like a quark or a black hole.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Having a Gay Time in Milwaukee

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:53:06 -0500

When the new census figures are released, Milwaukee elected officials must cover their eyes. Once a vibrant, populous city, Milwaukee has been hemorrhaging residents for the past decade, as more and more citizens head for the suburbs, taking their jobs and wealth with them. This leaves lower income residents in the city to pick up an increasing share of the double digit tax increases foisted on them annually by barely competent elected officials.

Yet many cities are finding urban revitalization in an unexpected area. Specifically, they are counting on the Love that Dare Not Speak its Name to provide a spark.

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David Dodenhoff, Ph.D. Commentary: Sarah Palin, Tommy Thompson, and the Unexpected Greatness

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:44:23 -0500

Ronald Reagan was a movie star. Barack Obama is a rock star. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, may end up being a shooting star. But if that happens, it won’t be - at least it shouldn’t be - a result of the essential ordinariness of her mind and her education.

I haven’t made a systematic study of this subject, but there seems to be little correlation between IQ, schooling, and executive success. Some of our smartest presidents - Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton, for example - will be remembered in large part for a single, massive, protracted exercise in poor judgment (Vietnam, Watergate, and Monica Lewinsky, respectively).

Similarly, presidents with sheepskins from elite institutions - George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, John F. Kennedy, and Herbert Hoover, come to mind - sometimes have presidencies that make you wonder, "Did that guy cheat on his SATs?"

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: A Double Tsunami

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:40:00 -0500

Brace yourself.

Wisconsin is facing a double tsunami: one fiscal, one political. And we’re not really prepared for either.

The fiscal tsunami warnings went out this went when Governor Doyle said that the weakening economy could blow a $3 billion hole in a state budget already held together with spit, twine and smoke and mirrors.

(Recall that just in May, the state "closed" its $527 million budget deficit by a series of fiscal gimmicks including borrowing more money for transportation.)

Senator Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) was quick to grasp for an historical analogy. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jauch "compared the new budget crisis to 1983, when a recession caused a major drop in state tax collections."

"Then," recalled the paper, "former Democratic Gov. Tony Earl and legislators were forced to raise the sales tax from 4 cents on every dollar to 5 cents."

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Time for a Change - Not the One You Might Think

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:56:39 -0500

I wonder if they get it. While America has been carpet bombed with bad economic news - credit markets have ceased operating, the stock market is in free-fall, commodities are inexplicably down - most of Wisconsin’s elected leaders have been working the campaign trail. I wonder if they understand the profound change we are undergoing.

Banks are gone, huge insurers have come to government hat-in-hand and some icons of American business are teetering on the brink of their very existence. I cannot recall any time when the nation felt such consternation. The Clinton people had it right in 1991 when they declared, "It’s the economy, stupid." We might not admit it but the economy and the American psyche are one. Those of us with economic security sleep the sleep of angels while those without economic security toss and turn. We should expect a spike in the number of households with the lights on at 3 A.M.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Wisconsin's Bogus Invisible Hand

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 20:33:18 -0500

When Congress voted last week to "bail out" the country’s large investment firms, most representatives had to hold their nose before the vote, and immediately fled the Capitol to avoid detection. Finding a congressperson willing to defend the bill was as likely as finding a Chicago Cub with a World Series ring. But the bill passed, despite the average American’s hesitance to spend their tax dollars to prop up companies that made such terrible business decisions.

Yet here in Wisconsin, on a much smaller scale, we bail companies out on almost a daily basis. Through grants issued by the state Department of Commerce, a select few businesses get taxpayer cash in the name of "economic development" or "worker training." But, in fact, there’s little that’s worse for commerce in this state than the Department of Commerce. For businesses with a sound business model, we reward them with our expendable income. In Wisconsin, for businesses with an unsuccessful business model, we reward them with our tax dollars.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Which Deadly Sin Did Us In?

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 14:13:33 -0500

The general consensus is that greedy Wall Street lenders and speculators combined with lax regulatory oversight, created the perfect storm and caused the mortgage meltdown. While greed certainly was a factor, several other deadly sins were clearly at play.

Greed: The desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual.

John McCain said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were prime culprits in creating the crisis as their greedy executives walked away with millions in bonuses after falsifying accounting reports to overstate earnings and underestimate risks. McCain to his credit, tried more than once to rein in the organizations.

Barack Obama blamed the greedy speculators and Washington lobbyists, "who bought their way into our government." Obama failed to mention the $126,000 in campaign contributions he received from Fannie Mae over the last three years.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: A Very Sad Scandal

Fri, 3 Oct 2008 09:20:39 -0500

Since 1984 I have been following issues in and around Milwaukee Public Schools. That means that, since 1984 I have been searching for who is responsible for the pitiful state of education in Milwaukee. At long last I found the culprit; it is the Milwaukee School Board. That board has proven itself to be self-serving, insular and overtly political.

Their high crime is that this body, entrusted to care for Milwaukee’s children, has been caught stealing money that should have been put into the classrooms of schools throughout the city.

Like the scandals that brought down huge corporations, from Enron to Fannie Mae, the evidence of the crime was assembled by accountants. Last week the WPRI released a report, authored by Christian Schneider, showing that the MPS board has racked up $2.2 billion of unfunded liabilities to pay the health care cost of retired employees.

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David Dodenhoff, Ph.D. Commentary: Hey, Wisconsin - Get Off the Fence

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:42:45 -0500

I live in Texas. Barack Obama’s odds of winning this state are about the same as my odds of marrying Elizabeth Hurley. Or Madeleine Albright. Pretty slim either way. So, if I want to see where the real electoral action is happening, I look elsewhere. I look to places like Wisconsin.

This year, yet again, Wisconsin finds itself in the category of "battleground state." This means that the Badger State could go for either Barack Obama or John McCain.

Knowing this, I have to ask my Wisconsin friends a couple of questions:

1) really?;

2) no, seriously?

It’s not that I think John McCain is anything special. It’s just that I see Barack Obama as almost all downside. For starters, it’s obvious - to me, at least - that Sen. Obama is still figuring out his basic positions and principles on major foreign policy issues.

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REPORT: Government Retiree Health Benefits: Wisconsin's Ticking Time Bomb

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:17:49 -0500

In recent months, local governments across Southeastern Wisconsin have found themselves the subject of criticism on several fronts for the improper use of taxpayer money. An investigative series by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel concluded Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) wasted over $100 million on the Neighborhood Schools Initiative, which intended to build new classrooms in hopes of luring inner city school children to stay close to home for school. A Milwaukee television station uncovered the fact that Milwaukee County was handing out millions of dollars in flood relief money to residents that had no flood damage. In 2003, Milwaukee County famously ousted their county executive after it was found he was directing millions of dollars worth of pension and retirement benefits to his cronies.

Yet despite these very public embarrassments, local governments in Wisconsin face a far greater threat – one that threatens to make these fiscal missteps look like ripples in the pond that will eventually drown their respective budgets.

According to local government annual finance reports, 27 local governments in Wisconsin are saddled with a combined $6 billion unfunded liability to pay for “Other Postemployment Benefits” (OPEB). Often times, as part of their employment packages, local governments offer to pay health benefits for retired employees. Until now, local governments paid what they owed on a year-to-year basis. But new accounting rules require local governments to divulge the level of their long-term benefit liability. And in some cases, the local government OPEB liabilities are stunning – in some cases, dwarfing the government’s total annual budget.

According to our review, the state’s largest total unfunded OPEB liabilities are concentrated in Southeast Wisconsin, headed up by MPS at $2.2 billion. Milwaukee County currently carries a $1.5 billion OPEB liability, with the City of Milwaukee at $806.3 million. The next five highest liabilities all hail from the Southeast: The City of Racine ($314.8 million), Racine County ($253 million), the Kenosha School District ($241.6 million), the Waukesha School District ($195 million), and the Racine Unified School District ($105.7 million).

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The GAB's Slimy Underbelly

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:22:06 -0500

Nearly a decade ago, British provocateur David Icke took a trip to Canada. As he swiped his passport through the scanner at the Vancouver airport, the words "WATCH FOR" appeared on the screen. Security quickly whisked him away to a holding cell.

Icke, a former English football player and BBC sports correspondent, had his career take a remarkable turn in 1991, when he declared himself to be the Son of God on a British talk show. Later, he wrote that he believed the Earth was secretly controlled by an extraterrestrial race of reptiles which, if they consume enough human blood, will enable them to take a human form. In his 1999 book, "The Biggest Secret: The Book that Will Change the World," Icke exposed George H.W. Bush and Hillary Clinton as members of this reptilian ruling class.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Fiscal Meltdown on Wall Street and Pinckney Street

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:33:58 -0500

As this is being written the details are beginning to emerge about the demise of Lehman Bros. and the acquisition of Merrill Lynch for pennies on the dollar. One lesson to take from the downfall of these once vital, invincible financial houses is how fast the balance sheet can deteriorate. And the balance sheets reveal a story of imprudent decision after imprudent decision layered higher than a royal wedding cake.

A series of questionable financial decisions and a rapidly sinking balance sheet - that same phenomenon is happening in Wisconsin government. State finances are precarious, to say the least, and stand to come crashing down just like those venerable Wall Street investment banks. However, the meltdown of Wisconsin state government will actually have more of an impact on most of us. You see, the meltdown of Wisconsin will force a rapid defunding of programs that affect the poor and the young who depend on a helping hand from government. It will also affect every unit of government that receives financial assistance from Madison. And surely our financial meltdown will cause increased taxes, probably at a time when people can least afford it.

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Steven Pigeon Commentary: Presidential Six Shooters

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:33:17 -0500

"If I had any confidence in the President at all I would not be as worried as I am. There are missile explosions in Afghanistan, this better stop pretty soon or otherwise our cowboy president will start shooting off his six shooters."

I wrote these words the evening of September 11th 2001 in a journal I was keeping while studying abroad in Edinburgh Scotland. In reviewing my entire journal entry for that evening it contains the thoughts of a naïve 20 year old who failed to understand the complexity of international affairs and the amount of hate that is placed towards the United States.

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James H. Miller Commentary: McCain Lives

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 08:03:49 -0500

John McCain has a real shot at being elected President. Who would have ever thought? One result from the Republican convention, besides the obvious success of Sarah Palin, is that McCain’s campaign is absolutely at the top of their game. Consider this metamorphosis. Last year John McCain’s campaign was in shambles; he had fired almost the entire staff; was on the verge of a fiscal meltdown; and had almost no shot at the Republican nomination. In fact, McCain’s ascendancy was based more on luck than skill. He was, in a real sense, the last man standing as the potential front-runners simply fell off the cliff. But today his comeback is sparked by a campaign staff that has given him a real shot at winning this election. The one issue his campaign clearly understands, and has become their entire focus, is that if this election is about the economy and George Bush, John McCain loses. They must make this election about Barack Obama and his credentials.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The GOP's Trojan Horse

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 20:02:02 -0500

Recent years in America have seen a languid national Republican Party, which has been struggling to recruit members, formulate a salient message, and win elections. As the war in Iraq has drawn on and the government has grown exponentially in size, voters have avoided the Republican Party like Michael Moore avoids exercise. In winning the party’s nomination for the presidency, Senator John McCain had showed sparks of inspiration, but has largely been wearing the concrete boots of the Bush/Cheney administration.

That may have all changed on Wednesday night, as the Republicans introduced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to the world. Palin’s speech netted 38 million viewers – just as many as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention six days earlier – a speech that many hailed as the most anticipated in history.

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David Dodenhoff, Ph.D. Commentary: Brett Favre and the Manly Virtues

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:30:45 -0500

So, did you hear about Brett Favre changing his mind about retirement? I’m kidding. Of course you heard. You’ve probably heard so much about it, in fact, that you’re ready to move on. I’m almost ready, too, but not quite.

Truth be told, I’m interested in this more as a personal story than a sports story. That is, I’m interested in what it says about Brett Favre as a man more than I’m interested in the implications for Favre as a player, or the Packers or Jets as teams.

Now, before I write what I’m about to write, let me acknowledge a few things. Brett Favre is incredibly talented and incredibly tough. He deserves his status as a Packer legend. He is handsome, funny, and charming. He wears Wranglers, just like a normal guy.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: A Letter to Biddy Martin

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:33:02 -0500

Dear Chancellor Martin,

Welcome to Wisconsin. You have been offered an opportunity to take on one of the most prestigious positions in all of Wisconsin. In many other venues the chancellor of a large land grant institution is just another CEO dotting the landscape. In Wisconsin, we think the UW-Madison is something special.

The job of chancellor offers numerous rewards, none of which has anything to do with salary or housing. I suspect you sought out this job because of its enormous potential to impact the human condition. The campus you will head has buildings full of faculty and students who have solved or will solve the nastier problems facing us today. We are never surprised by the world-changing improvements made in medicine, physics, business, engineering, sociology, etc. right here in Wisconsin.

The job of Chancellor also offers its share of frustrations. You will undoubtedly grow weary of the constant demands of fund-raising. Worse, you will have to deal with governors and legislators who will be suspicious of your motives and who operate in a world dominated by the need to stand for office every two or four years. That can become messy.

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: A Tale of Two Agencies

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:11:53 -0500

"It's as if Milwaukee, Wis., had reverted to a state of lethal chaos."

In December 2006, Time magazine painted a horrific picture of a city on the brink of dissolution.

"A Special Olympian is killed for his wallet as he waits for a bus. An 11-year-old girl is gang-raped by as many as 19 men. A woman is strangled, her body found burning in a city-owned garbage cart. Twenty-eight people are shot, four fatally, over a holiday weekend."

While other cities had already experienced a rise in violent crime, Time reported: "Few places have suffered more than Milwaukee..." The numbers were dramatic. In 2005, Milwaukee saw the country's worst rise in murders jump in homicides--up 40%, to 121.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The Fonz Statue: Are Happy Days Here Again?

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:37:29 -0500

On Tuesday of this week, Wisconsin will finally close a shameful chapter in its history by paying tribute to one of our most enduring public figures. We are finally celebrating a Wisconsin resident who put us on the national map - someone who made Milwaukee a fashionable place. Set aside, for a moment, the fact that he remained enthusiastic about high school girls well into his 30’s - the man could start a jukebox with his fist. And thus, we honor The Fonz with his own statue for making Milwaukee "cool" for over a decade.

The Wisconsin landscape is replete with statues. Abraham Lincoln casts a watchful eye over the UW-Madison campus from his perch on Bascom Hill. (Presumably, watching modern students emancipate shots of Jose Cuervo from State Street bar drink specials.) Hans Christian Heg, the highest-ranking Wisconsin soldier killed in the Civil War, was honored in 1926 with a statue outside the Wisconsin Capitol. Certainly more recognizable to Wisconsin residents is Vince Lombardi, immortalized by a statue outside Lambeau Field. Jean Nicolet, credited as being the first white man to set foot in Northeast Wisconsin, is memorialized with a statue in Red Banks. (It is also rumored that after settling near Green Bay, Nicolet was the first man to call for Ted Thompson to be s-canned for running Brett Favre out of town.)

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Questions for People in the Brown Shoes

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:48:13 -0500

Dear Legislative candidate,

Let’s face it; the State Legislature has become the brown shoes of state politics. As the presidential campaign continues to suck nearly all of the oxygen out of the room, you hardy souls have your hands full getting we voters to turn our heads your way, if only for a fleeting moment.

So more often than not, you are reduced to trying to imprint some slogan on our subconscious - "Oh him, isn’t he the one in the turtleneck who wants to lower the gas tax?"

You’d have to agree, we should know a whole lot more about you. After all, you will be spending plenty of time representing us in Madison and might even have a good deal to say about the condition of our roads and the way our schools are financed, among other things.

While we don’t know much about you, we know plenty about the people we have been electing. We know that they’re not very good at passing budgets on time but are quite adept at increasing the state’s debt. We also know that our government runs better when we have intelligent, thoughtful people running it, people who are able to think for themselves and stand by their ideals. We’re pretty sure you fit that description, so you probably won’t mind taking a few minutes away from knocking on doors to answer a few questions.

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Poll: Barack Obama Leads John McCain in the Presidential Race

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 08:20:27 -0500

Senator Barack Obama holds a 44% to 38% lead in Wisconsin over Senator John McCain in the presidential race. Senator Obama leads the race primarily because of a combination of the most important issues on the minds of voters and the impact of President Bush and the voter’s view about the direction of the country. The two issues that voters felt personally were most important to them were the economy and creating jobs (24%), and dealing with the war in Iraq (12%). On these issues Senator Obama had large leads. On the economy, Obama led Senator McCain by a 62% to 20% margin. On dealing with the war in Iraq his lead was 66% to 22%. Another issue that was frequently mentioned was improving education, where Senator Obama’s lead was 73% to 10%.

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Poll: Wisconsin Residents Back the Green Bay Packers - Not Brett Favre

Wed, 6 Aug 2008 08:17:36 -0500

In the ongoing clash between Brett Favre and Green Bay Packer management, the Wisconsin public clearly favors Packer management. By a 60% to 16% margin Wisconsin residents believe that General Manager Ted Thompson and Coach Mike McCarthy are more concerned than Brett Favre and his supporters about the long term future of the Green Bay Packers. In addition, Brett Favre, who over the last several years was by far the most popular individual in the state of Wisconsin, has seen a sharp decline in his favorability among Wisconsin residents. These are key findings of a survey of Wisconsin residents who expect to vote in the November election. The survey was conducted by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute on August 3 and August 4, 2008.

The support for Thompson and McCarthy ran through every major section of the state. In fact, the strongest support came from the City of Milwaukee where 75% of the residents supported them while only 3% favored Favre. In the Green Bay area, Thompson and McCarthy enjoyed 71% support while Favre and his supporters were at only 15%.

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Ben Artz Commentary: Higher Taxes are Inevitable

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 10:10:37 -0500

McCain wants to keep Bush’s tax cuts in place while Obama wants to decrease taxes for most but increase taxes for the wealthy. It seems that both candidates are conveniently forgetting the inevitable tide toward higher taxes in the not-so-distant future. Federal government spending made up 5.9% of GDP in 2000 and has risen to over 7% since. Although relatively small by historical standards, the size of the central government will most certainly continue to rise in the coming years for several reasons. And as Federal spending increases, so must taxes.

In the wake of bank and housing bail-outs, tax payers should pay close attention to how large the governmental assistance gets. After all, tax dollars will pay for the excessive sub-prime loans and reckless lending practices that are partly to blame for the current economic turmoil. Furthermore, it is possible the bail-outs are not over as it is not certain the credit crisis has hit bottom yet. Regardless, the government will no doubt spend resources on more financial regulation, further increasing the burden on tax payers.

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James H. Miller Commentary: History Says...Obama

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:15:30 -0500

Could recent Presidential elections provide some insight into the potential winner this November? The election that has an eerie similarity to this year is 1952 - an extremely unpopular sitting President is not on the ballot, the Democratic Party is involved in a very unpopular war in Korea and the economy is in bad shape. The opposing Republicans run a super candidate in Dwight Eisenhower and win in a landslide.

In 1960, the country, beginning to tire of a cold war and a weaker economy, goes in another direction - a young telegenic John Kennedy becomes the second sitting Senator to be elected President in a very, very close race decided by the state of Illinois.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Where Are We Going?

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:01:45 -0500

Those of us raised in Wisconsin know all about the Up North myth. In grade school we overheard fellow students tell of cabins and lunkers and lures. We heard cousins talk about the lakes - there musta been a million of ‘em - and our parents wistfully tell us that someday we’d all pack into the Chevy and just go. Of course they were all talking about Up North, the land of blue skies and clear lakes.

Yep, those of us raised in Wisconsin couldn’t wait to get to that bucolic place, the place with the tent, the campfire, blackened weenies and golden marshmallows. We just love, love, love the outdoors. After all, it’s why we live here, isn’t it?

Apparently not, at least not as much as the Up North myth would have us believe. An article in last week’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted a recent decline in tourism - down 15%-20% for some businesses. Some of the decline can be blamed on soaring gas prices and a general economic malaise. True, our friends and neighbors are more careful with a dollar this summer, yet the decline in state tourism could also be a reflection of the ultimate demise of the Up North myth.

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REPORT: Wisconsin's Minimum Markup Law: Mandated Pain at the Pump - By Christian Schneider

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:14:41 -0500

In the summer of 2008, politicians are scrambling to cobble together plans to hold gas prices down. Tax the oil companies more, some say. Others propose more domestic drilling. Yet despite their disparate solutions, they all recognize that people are fed up with paying over $4.00 a gallon for gas.

But what if it is actually the government keeping gas prices high? What if Wisconsin state government had a law on the books that legally prevented customers from getting a good deal on motor fuel? In fact, that is exactly what Wisconsin’s minimum markup law accomplishes.

In 1939, Wisconsin passed the minimum markup law - or as it formally known, the Unfair Sales Act - which purported to help keep small businesses afloat during the Great Depression. The Act required retailers to mark up their products a certain percentage over their wholesale price. In theory, this was supposed to keep large retailers from undercutting the prices of smaller "mom and pop" stores, which could drive the smaller stores out of business (commonly referred to as "predatory pricing.")

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Is Obama the Hero We "Need?"

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:54:33 -0500

In recent years, the superhero movie genre has undergone a revival. Previously, movies featuring comic book heroes could be counted on for nothing more than some good action and bad tights. But that has all changed. Now the Hulk is a sensitive hero with father issues. Spiderman wrestles with the weight of his own conscience. Iron Man ends up accomplishing the formidable task of saving both the world and Robert Downey Jr.’s drug dealer from bankruptcy. Even a movie like Unbreakable, which doesn’t reveal itself as a superhero movie until late in the film, features superhuman characters with real world problems.

This weekend saw the release of the granddaddy of them all, "The Dark Knight." The second Christian Bale Batman movie has been hailed in some circles as the greatest superhero movie ever made. And while it features people wearing clown makeup blowing stuff up, there are actually some valuable real world lessons interwoven through the script.

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David Dodenhoff, Ph.D. Commentary: A Peek Inside the Conservative Research Factory

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:10:32 -0500

I have been doing think tank work long enough (12 years) to see many of the same scenes play out over and over again. A common one runs roughly as follows:

1. Ostensibly conservative think tank releases study with findings that support ostensibly conservative position on Issue X.

2. Critics say, "What did you think they were going to say? They’re conservatives."

3. Study author says, "Rather than throwing labels around, why don’t we debate the merits of the study?"

4. No such debate takes place, as media outlets have moved on to a story about a confused but plucky family of ducks that has taken up residence in a local public pool.

5. Study author finds a quiet corner in a poorly-lit bar, sips vodka tonics, shakes his fist and shouts frustrated imprecations at no one in particular.

As one who has played the role of the frustrated, vodka-drinking study author many times, let me tell you a few reasons why this predictable sequence of events frustrates me so.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: A Good Day for a Bad Attitude

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:12:22 -0500

I admit it, I have a bad attitude. When I looked in the mirror this morning I saw a guy with a seven day beard who simply doesn’t give a s_ _ _ _.

What brought on this most unbecoming malaise? I can sum it up in one word - vacation. You see, I’m just back from a week away, a week spent with m y brother and sisters and their husbands and wives. Every year for longer than I care to recall, we’ve spent a week together in the summer overlooking the lake (never actually venturing into the water) drinking a bit too much beer, smoking cigars and discussing life.

For those six glorious days we all pay keen attention to the weather forecast, something I never do the rest of the year. As a group we elevate the weather forecast to a place of reverence because golfing is so weather dependent and besides, the evening cocktail hour is so much better when conducted outdoors.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: The Narcissist From Hope

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:29:28 -0500

Sporting a bright pink shirt and beige suit, and resembling an "albino on Spring Break," former U.S. President Bill Clinton took a few moments out of his discussion about Nelson Mandela’s experience as a prisoner of war to assert that all former POW’s are ticking time bombs ready to explode without notice.

"It’s just like if you know anybody who’s ever been a POW for any length of time, you will see you go along for months or maybe even years, and then something will happen and it will trigger all those bad dreams and they will come back, and it may not last 30 seconds," he said.

Clinton added this qualification:

"Every living soul on the planet has some, often highly justified anger. Everybody," Clinton said. "This is a universal lesson that all of us have to keep struggling with in our lives."

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Standing Up For Your Right to Dry

Tue, 8 Jul 2008 10:48:37 -0500

For centuries, all men have really wanted is the opportunity to have some woman look at their underwear. We have devised myriad strategies (jobs, cars, combovers, breath fresheners) in hopes of creating just the right moment for a lovely lady to gaze at our drawers. Fortunately for the men of the world, having people look at your tighty-whiteys could now actually save the planet.

Everyone these days is "going green." Television stations turn off the lights for 30 seconds to convince you that somehow they're being environmentally responsible. Companies throw the "green" tag on things like cleaning products and bottled water, despite their questionable environmental value. However, some businesses have seen millions of dollars in savings by "going green." A young professionals' group in Milwaukee lists a green way of life as one of the top reasons young people would be attracted to a city.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Epic Systems Should Be WMC's Biggest Fan

Tue, 1 Jul 2008 07:31:20 -0500

In an otherwise slow news period, last week Epic Systems, the medical software company, announced that they would no longer do business with companies associated with WMC (Wisconsin’s business organization). It seems that the medical software company didn’t cotton to WMC orchestrating the election of Michael Gableman to the State Supreme Court.

For months Paul Soglin and a few others have been looking for companies to break ranks with WMC. Epic is their poster child. It must have been an easy sale given that Soglin is a former Epic employee.

Still, there is an element of chutzpah in Epic’s move that some WMC members couldn’t help but savor. Here was this esoteric software company flexing its economic muscle, just as companies have done through history.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Handicapping the State Legislature

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:37:40 -0500

Wouldn't it be great if life were a lot more like golf? We'd all benefit from the thrill of competition, we'd learn good sportsmanship, and we'd all get to enjoy the great outdoors on a daily basis. (In my case, I get to enjoy nature more than most, as I'm usually hitting out of a bird's nest.) And best yet, if you're a terrible golfer, you get a "handicap," which levels the playing field by letting you shave strokes off your final score.

(Perhaps most importantly, any situation where it's acceptable to wear plaid pants in public is okay in my book.)

The whole concept of making things fair by allowing for a handicap would be welcome in real life. All your friends would be uglier than you, so you'd look better by comparison. People would only be allowed to talk about books you have read, so you could dazzle them with your insight. You could walk right into your new job, declare yourself a substandard worker, and thus be allowed to do half the work of your colleagues. (One of the ironclad rules of the workplace - never do anything well the first time, because if you do, you'll get stuck doing it forever.)

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David Dodenhoff Commentary: No More Driving While Uneducated

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:26:38 -0500

In a recent report for WPRI (“Moving the Milwaukee Economy Forward”), George Lightbourn and Sammis White noted that Milwaukee’s economic future depends in part on increasing the percentage of high school graduates in the local labor pool. A high school diploma doesn’t open nearly as many doors as a college degree or specialized training, but it has become an entry-level requirement for many jobs. More workers with diplomas means better job prospects for them and greater growth opportunities for employers. This is true not just in Milwaukee, but throughout Wisconsin.

The question is, how can we persuade more Wisconsin youngsters to finish high school? Lightbourn and White acknowledge that "the answer to that question has proven to be very elusive."

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: Environmentalists Jump the Shark

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:39:25 -0500

Some environmentalists are blaming the recent tomato salmonella scare on global climate change.

If this keeps up, global warming will also undoubtedly be blamed for male pattern baldness, gingivitis, navel lint, erectile dysfunction, your uncle’s hemorrhoids, and boring public radio.

Has environmentalism finally "jumped the shark?" Or at least the Al Gore version of Greenism?

This week, the enviros found themselves the butt of jokes and potentially on the wrong side of a red-hot political issue: drilling.

All of this comes as a rude surprise to a movement that has been used to be treated with deference, with its every proclamation and nostrum regarded with solemn respect and acquiescence? We need new low-flush toilets to save the planet? Of course. Replace our light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs? Certainly. Blame climate change for the plight of polar bears? They had the pictures!

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REPORT: Will Healthy Wisconsin Bust the State Budget? - By George Lightbourn and Christian Schneider

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:46:44 -0500

Wisconsin is home to the broadest health care reform proposed anywhere in America. The initiative, dubbed "Healthy Wisconsin" was introduced two times by Democratic leadership in the Wisconsin State Senate during the current legislative session. While unsuccessful to date, they have vowed to bring it back in 2009, when there is a real possibility that Democrats could control both houses of the Legislature. Wisconsin Democrats have explicitly made Healthy Wisconsin the key campaign issue in their attempt to gain full control of the Wisconsin Legislature.We are told by the plan’s advocates that Healthy Wisconsin is simply insurance reform. "We didn’t want it where it was a government-run type of system," said Senator Erpenbach, the chief sponsor. "We wanted to keep it in the private sector."

However, as this report details, Healthy Wisconsin would turn every aspect of the health care system over to state government. Government involvement in health care would not only be likely, it would be required. As with every other aspect of the state budget, the Legislature will have to set the level of payroll tax that supports the plan and establish a global budget for the plan. Further, given that the tax will be by far the largest levied by state government, and that spending on Healthy Wisconsin will exceed the entirety of the state’s general fund budget, it is inevitable that health care finance and spending will be prominent political and campaign issues.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Tim Russert: A Credit to His Profession

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:35:06 -0500

He wasn’t pretty or puffed up. He was a regular guy you couldn’t help but like; so much so, that even my normal (non-political) friends and associates were stunned and saddened by his death.

Tim Russert understood, as any professional political operative or journalist should, that the story must never be about him. Russert was a voracious reader who researched his topics and guests more thoroughly than anyone in the business, but he didn’t talk down to or shout over his guests. He gave them ample time to answer questions and he carefully listened to their responses instead of merely waiting for his next turn to talk. And because Russert was always prepared, he was able to separate the story from the spin.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Wisconsin's Third Party Animals - By Christian Schneider

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:33:58 -0500

On the evening of November 5, 2002, the election results began to roll in. A rainy election day had come to wash away the grime from an often-brutal gubernatorial race in Wisconsin, which had seen the candidates refer to each other as "crooked" and "absolutely disreputable." Incumbent Republican Governor Scott McCallum, who had been in office scarcely two years, faced a strong challenge from long-time Democratic Attorney General Jim Doyle. The race was a crucial turning point for Wisconsin, as it represented the first time in sixteen years iconic Governor Tommy Thompson was not on the ballot.

Merely a year earlier, Republican officials could only have dreamed about Doyle pulling a paltry 45% of the vote on election night. McCallum had suffered in Thompson’s shadow after Tommy had left to be Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush Administration. McCallum, saddled with a large budget deficit, sought to cut spending to local governments to make up the difference. Naturally, local officials, many of them Republicans, appeared all too willing to defenestrate McCallum in favor of the Democrat.

Yet on election night, Doyle’s poor showing did little to cheer up the GOP faithful. While the Democrat had fallen well short of the magic 50% mark, McCallum had pulled in a woeful 41%, losing to Doyle by nearly 66,000 votes. For the first time in sixteen years, Wisconsin would be led by a Democrat - and a long time bitter Thompson foe, at that.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Bad Justice: Don't Blame the Voters for the Ugly Election for the High Court - By Charles J. Sykes

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:31:56 -0500

No sooner had the votes been counted and liberal Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler ousted from the state’s high court than the outrage began.

Bad voters!

Governor Jim Doyle, who had appointed Butler to the high court declared the result a "tragedy," while liberals and their allies in the media immediately embraced voter suppression on a massive scale. Upset by the results, state Representative Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee) proposed the elimination of elections for justice altogether and the state’s largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, embraced his call for disenfranchisement.

"After two campaigns in two years marked by sleazy ads, empty rhetoric and issues often hardly related to the actual work of the court," the paper editorialized, it was time to strip the voters of their say in the selection of judges.

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The Wisconsin Interest: The New WEAC - By George Lightbourn

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:42:42 -0500

Fear the Rottweiler. That toughest of junkyard dogs has been bred to protect, trained to attack. He is a vicious mélange of teeth and sinew that needs little reason to attack. It is what he does.

Such is the image built up around WEAC—the Wisconsin Education Association Council – the rough, tough teachers union that has had its way with governors and legislators. To pick a fight with WEAC is to invite a bloody nose.

But, while few people realize it, that image has faded as surely as a sepia photograph. The junkyard dog image of WEAC is a dated caricature from a bygone day. The reality is quite different. The reality is that the WEAC of today bears little likeness to the WEAC of the past. The reality is that WEAC retains little of the confrontational union that ran the show in the halls of the Capitol in Madison and in school board rooms throughout Wisconsin. The reality is that the WEAC of today looks much less a Rottweiler and much more a Poodle as it pads comfortably among the elites in and around Wisconsin government.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Political Speculators Looking Into the Crystal Ball - By Jeff Mayers

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:40:59 -0500

Another election year. More rampant speculation in the capital city.

While the dust settled on the nasty state Supreme Court race in Spring 2008, the energy among state operatives shifted to the fall elections that will determine partisan control of the state Senate and Assembly, whether Democrat Steve Kagen of Appleton will remain the U.S. representative for the Green Bay area 8th Congressional District, and whether Wisconsin Republicans can break a presidential losing streak stretching back to 1988.

No race for governor or attorney general. Little real competition in the other congressional races. No U.S. Senate race as Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold are firmly and safely in the middle of their six-year terms.

So the big race in the fall of 2008 is the presidential contest. The speculation centered in mid-April on how it would affect those legislative races down the ballot, and perhaps how it would affect the statehouse's most powerful politician, Governor Jim Doyle. On the minds of many insiders: If Barack Obama wins the presidency, will Doyle follow in the footsteps of Democrat Patrick Lucey (1977) and Republican Tommy Thompson (2001) - getting offered, and taking, a job in the new administration, shaking up the status quo?

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The Wisconsin Interest: New MPS Teachers Speak Out on Their Training - By Mark C. Schug and Scott Niederjohn

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:39:13 -0500

When leaders in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and other Wisconsin school districts set about hiring new teachers, where should they look to find the candidates who are most likely to do a good job of improving their students’ academic learning? There are several possibilities. In Wisconsin alone, 32 colleges and universities, public and private, offer training programs leading to initial certification for teaching in the state’s kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) schools. These programs are alike in many ways, since all of them must meet the state’s program-approval standards, but they are by no means identical. They vary in their stated goals, admission standards, curricular emphases, course requirements, and in the profiles of the faculty members who design and conduct the programs. It seems plausible, therefore, that the various programs also would differ in their effectiveness - some outperforming others in producing teachers who know how to improve students’ academic achievement. To the extent that they differ in this respect, it also would seem plausible that school districts would take account of the differences, striving to hire graduates from those programs known for their strong, positive training effects.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Lowering the Bar: How Wisconsin's Biggest Organization for Lawyers is Ruining Their Public Image - By Deb Jordahl

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:36:41 -0500

What’s wrong with lawyer jokes? Lawyers don’t think they’re funny and no one else thinks they’re jokes.

This sentiment was recently echoed by Attorney Douglas Kammer, a candidate for president of the Wisconsin State Bar Association. In a statement to fellow Bar members in March 2008 Kammer wrote:

The bar has lost sight of its mission. In a cloud of vague gabble about the "public interest" the Bar has become an embarrassment to its members.

Decent, honest lawyers are guilty by association. Is the bar going to solve this problem? Not in a pig’s eye! The Bar doesn’t have the will or the tools to even address the issue. Rather they sit in their inverted shot-glass in Madison and aggrandize the other insiders in the club while discussing how to protect the public from - you guessed it - lawyers.

It is a little known fact that Wisconsin lawyers, unlike any other group of professionals except public school teachers, are compelled by state law to pay dues to an association. Kammer is campaigning on a platform to make membership in the State Bar voluntary because he believes it will force the Bar to be more responsive to its members. He cites the fact that the voluntary Bar in Illinois has a 70% participation rate and provides a variety of impressive member services to support his theory.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Finding Funds for Expanding Milwaukee’s Convention Center and Bradley Center - By Mark L. Kass

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:34:02 -0500

If you build it, they will come.

That has long been the rallying cry of proponents of expanding Milwaukee’s convention center, who have been pushing for such a project since the $184 million facility opened in 1998.

But the stark reality is that little progress has been made in the last decade towards Milwaukee getting a bigger convention center. Anytime the project is pushed, it is stalled by a lack support, funding, and political will.

There has also been a significant slowdown in the convention business since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, failed merger talks between the Wisconsin Center District, which oversees the Midwest Airlines Center and the nearby Bradley Center, and the unwillingness of politicians in Madison to push for the additional taxes necessary to make the project a financial reality.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Janesville's Second Line

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:53:36 -0500

Leave it to New Orleans to concoct its own eccentric funeral tradition. Most notable to outsiders is the second line; the parade back from the cemetery full of lively music and dancing.

The Midwest has its own peculiar funeral tradition which was on display in Janesville last week when General Motors announce the demise of the car assembly plant. The Midwestern version of the second line is decidedly angrier than its New Orleans counterpart.

At the Janesville funeral, it was easy to spot those in the first line, those directly affected by the death. They were the men and women with faces unable to disguise the shock of the closing.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: How Jim Doyle Can Save Wisconsin's Republican Party

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 06:34:49 -0500

With the state weary from a long, drawn-out war overseas, one of Wisconsin’s political parties was taking a beating at the polls. The party’s national elected officials had gone to war seven years previously, and voters were demonstrating their displeasure at the ballot box. The party, which had strayed significantly from its traditional values, was a mere afterthought in Wisconsin government, and appeared to be sinking even lower.

Then Jim Doyle showed up to save it. Not the current governor, the other one.

The year was 1948, and Democrats in Wisconsin were foundering. German voters, who had traditionally been Democrats, had fled the party due in large part to Woodrow Wilson’s declaration of war on Germany in 1918. (At the time, many of Wisconsin’s Germans were still foreign born, and had ties to the homeland.) While German Americans in Wisconsin were very much in favor of U.S. involvement in World War II, the war reinforced their desire to stay away from the Democratic Party. The Progressive Party in Wisconsin was nearly extinct, and many of its members were returning to the Republican Party, from whence they came in 1934.

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James H. Miller Commentary: The Texas Two-Step

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 08:24:01 -0500

A phone call is made. Supposedly, a young woman reports that she is an underage teen bride being held against her will at a Mormon compound in Texas. Texas’ child protective services moves immediately. This is a compound of polygamist whites operating in a commune separated from the rest of Texas society. Could bureaucrats be given a better target? They find a local judge who allows them to take all the children away from their parents. It seems to be a tremendous victory for the bureaucrats.

Then things begin to unravel. The so-called underage girl can’t be found. Questions begin to be raised about why all 400 children were removed if this was a case of teenage sexual abuse. Half of the children were under the age of five. If it is about sexual abuse of women, why were the boys taken?

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REPORT: Moving the Milwaukee Economy Forward - By George Lightbourn and Sammis White, Ph.D.

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 08:25:00 -0500

The authors of this report have studied and written about Milwaukee’s economy for a number of years. In this analysis you will find encouragement from many positive steps that already have been taken by business and political leaders to rejuvenate the economy. However, the report also lays bare the deficiencies that still present challenges for the Milwaukee economy.

Milwaukee’s economy is definitely moving in the right direction. However, the region needs to pick up the pace. Efforts to grow Milwaukee’s economy can be likened to a foot race in which Milwaukee entered the race well behind other entrants; it is in the race, but it is still not moving as fast as other contestants. Milwaukee is behind, and each day it is falling further behind in the race toward prosperity.

There has simply not been enough action. To date, the revitalization of Milwaukee’s economy has been marked by caution on a massive scale. Other urban areas have been willing to adopt an economic development strategy, lock arms, and drive through an action plan. Milwaukee has been unwilling to place a bet on a particular strategic direction.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: It Really Isn't Lying - Exactly

Mon, 2 Jun 2008 07:42:26 -0500

We can't put our finger on when it happened, but somewhere along the line our state government developed an allergy to the truth. The allergy must be serious because we’ve looked everywhere and we simply cannot find it.

It seems that our leaders have been spinning an alternate version of the truth for so long that their spin seems almost real. There are a few who still know that prattle is just that – prattle, but their ranks are thinning. Increasing are ranks of those who can understand that our former President actually believed that he did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

For those who need a periodic fix of the truth, here are a few things you won’t hear in the Capitol:

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Ben Artz Commentary: Graduation Rates: MPS vs. Choice

Thu, 29 May 2008 07:46:15 -0500

There is no doubt it is in the interest of every citizen to care about the public school system. Not only do millions of tax dollars funnel into public schools every year but more importantly, graduates create a more stable, functional and successful society. It is for this reason Milwaukee decided to improve its public school system by implementing the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program years ago. This is simply a program that provides a subsidy per student that goes to the school each student chooses to attend. Thus good schools theoretically get more students and therefore more funding while bad schools lose funding and eventually shut down. Basically vouchers create competition among schools, where in the end only the strong schools survive.

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David Dodenhoff Commentary: What Healthy Wisconsin Should Cost (And Almost Certainly Won't)

Thu, 22 May 2008 07:38:34 -0500

Not long ago, I was reading an online exchange between a male dating guru and one of his acolytes. The acolyte described the woman of his dreams: young, athletic, smart, beautiful, Packer fan, etc. The guru assured the acolyte that such women existed, and that he could help the acolyte meet them. The guru also, however, added this discouraging note: "When you meet a woman like that and make clear that you’re interested, the first thing she’s going to ask is, 'What, exactly, do you bring to the table?'"

I have the same question when it comes to Healthy Wisconsin. The state intends to provide universal health care coverage - secure, affordable, high-quality coverage. It sounds like the health care equivalent of the dream girl. Naturally, it’s got me wondering: what, exactly, are Wisconsinites bringing to the table?

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Grand Old Patriarchy: Whither the Republican Women?

Mon, 19 May 2008 07:44:28 -0500

This one’s for the ladies.

On September 10th of 2002, I was in my car on the way to the Peggy Rosenzweig for Senate victory party. Rosenzweig, a moderate Republican incumbent who had spent 20 years in the Legislature, was being challenged in a primary by the more conservative Tom Reynolds, who had previously run for Congress several times. I called ahead to one of her campaign staffers to see how the party was going. "Turn around," he said. "We just lost."

The early 2000s were good to GOP women. In 2002, the majority of Republican state senators in Wisconsin were female. In January of 2003, Mary Panzer became the state’s first female majority leader. Margaret Farrow became the state’s first female Lieutenant Governor in 2001. In 2002, 12 women held Assembly seats. Yet Rosenzweig’s loss was a harbinger of things to come.

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: This Could Have Been Wisconsin

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:51:52 -0500

On Thursday, California’s Supreme Court issued a sweeping ruling legalizing gay marriage in the state. The court’s Chief Justice Ron George declared that "... limiting the designation of marriage to a union 'between a man and a woman' is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute."

The 4-3 ruling invalidated a state law declaring that only marriages between men and women could be legally recognized. That law, known as Proposition 22, had been passed with a 61% majority in 2000. In its ruling the court trumped the electorate, a point singled out by one of the dissenters, Justice Carol Corrigan who wrote:

"In my view, Californians should allow our gay and lesbian neighbors to call their unions marriages. But I, and this court, must acknowledge that a majority of Californians hold a different view, and have explicitly said so by their vote. This court can overrule a vote of the people only if the Constitution compels us to do so. Here, the Constitution does not."

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Fixing the Budget: This is a Test

Tue, 13 May 2008 07:16:33 -0500

It’s now official: both John McCain and Hillary Clinton have been caught with their demagoguery showing. Of course it wasn’t official until the New York Times called it and last week the nation’s paper of record called it.

McCain, the Republican standard bearer and Clinton, the Democratic spear chucker, thought it would be good to, well, you know, give people some money. Exactly how much money, we can’t say since they wanted to pass it out in the form of a gas tax holiday. The more we drive, the more we get.

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REPORT: Why Milwaukee Health Care Costs are High: What to Do About It, By Linda Gorman, PhD.

Thu, 8 May 2008 21:54:26 -0500

The Milwaukee health care market is plagued with unusually high costs. As a result, the cost of health care and health insurance is affecting the bottom line for both businesses and families. The cost of health care is one of the more unattractive elements facing those choosing to live and work in Milwaukee.

How high are Milwaukee’s costs? A GAO estimate pegged Milwaukee health care cost at 27% above the average paid for federal employees around the country. Mercer Health and Benefits found Milwaukee health care costs to be 39% above other areas in the Midwest. A Mercer/Foster Higgins survey placed Milwaukee’s costs at 55% above other Midwest metro areas. Even in the market for individual insurance, coverage is costly. Assurant Inc., a Milwaukee-based insurer, has posted prices for Milwaukee purchasers that exceed what would be expected for this market. By any definition, Milwaukee is an expensive health care market.

Why are costs are so high? This report shows that it has nothing to do with the demographics or even the health risks presented by the population. It is also instructive that the costs associated with the uninsured population have little to do with Milwaukee’s elevated health care costs.

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Steven Pigeon Commentary: Unleashing Wisconsin's Frugality

Thu, 8 May 2008 10:56:48 -0500

Wisconsinites have a reputation of being frugal. Some, like myself, take great pride in this earned reputation. However, for many Wisconsinites frugality has become a necessity in an effort to avoid an increasing tax burden that is being placed upon them by local governments. This is especially the case in Milwaukee.

Recently, Milwaukee Major Tom Barrett has expressed a desire to permanently extend a tax imposed on cell phones, which was used to successfully update 911 call center technologies. This $0.43 monthly tax is set to expire November 30th. It is not the minimal cost of the tax that is upsetting. It is upsetting that local officials are seeking to ignore the original intent of the legislation and extend a tax indefinitely and spend the money for purposes beyond that of the 911 call center. Similarly, there have been rumblings that the Miller Park stadium tax will be extended after the stadium paid off in order to supplement local government spending.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Public Libraries - No Longer Just For the Literate

Mon, 5 May 2008 09:40:31 -0500

Throughout history, government has recognized several important classes of individuals who need help. As American citizens, we approve of a portion of our tax dollars going to help the truly needy. Currently, these groups can be broken up into the following categories:

1. The Poor;
2. The Disabled;
3. The Elderly;
4. People who haven’t seen "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle."

Yes, your tax dollars are going to help those poor souls who are dangerously under-entertained, by subsidizing your neighborhood Free Blockbuster, commonly known as the public library.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Wisconsin State Bar History is Repeating Itself

Thu, 1 May 2008 11:55:28 -0500

It is a little known fact that Wisconsin lawyers, unlike any other group of professionals except public school teachers, are compelled by state law to pay dues to an association.

The Wisconsin bar became mandatory in 1956 and was briefly abolished in 1988 as the result of a lawsuit brought by Attorney Steven Levine of the Public Service Commission. Federal Judge Barbara Crabb entered a declaratory judgment abolishing the mandatory bar. Crabb’s ruling was then reversed on appeal and bar leadership successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to reinstate the mandatory bar in 1992.

Levine returned to the spotlight again in 2005 when he became the first self-nominating candidate in Bar history to be elected President. Levine’s campaign promised to explore a return to the voluntary bar, but the Board of Governors refused to even place discussion of the mandatory bar on the Board’s agenda.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: A Lesson on the American Dream

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:09:15 -0500

OK, we get it. And more of us are getting it every day. We know that if we are to succeed, it will be due mostly to our own guile and initiative.

We know that if we have to depend on government to make things better, we are only setting ourselves up for disappointment. The reality of the bootstraps economy, once only espoused by libertarians and conservatives, has begun seeping in as the new reality for all Americans.

That is why I read with such interest a book that a friend recently gave me. Scratch Beginnings, as distinctive a book as I’ve read in awhile, is the story of a quest to find out whether the American Dream is still alive.

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Charles J. Sykes Commentary: Portrait of a Boondoggle

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:51:53 -0500

From the beginning, critics sniped that spending $42 million in taxpayer dollars for the "Milwaukee Theater" would be a colossal waste of money. Critics argued that Milwaukee already had enough entertainment venues (The Marcus Center, the Pabst Theater, the Riverside ) and predicted that the new theater - the brainchild of Milwaukee Center District Board Chairman Frank Gimbel -- would be a costly, duplicative white elephant.

They had no idea.

A quick look at the Milwaukee Theater’s 2008 schedule reveals a vast wasteland of empty seats and darkened houses, a boondoggle of astounding proportions, even by Milwaukee ’s free-spending standards. (We are, after all, the home of the multi-billion dollar Deep Tunnel.)

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The Good Ol' Days of Mudslinging

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:02:56 -0500

Coming off another statewide campaign in which candidates and their supporters criticized each other bitterly, the usual calls for reforming our campaign finance system are underway. These "negative" attacks are so disturbing to editorial boards, the state’s two largest papers have actually proposed doing away with Supreme Court elections altogether. Apparently, the best way to protect the peoples’ interest is to make sure they have no say in who governs them.

Yet for all the people that think these races are too "negative," it is instructive to go back and take a historical look at negativity in campaigning. In David Mark’s excellent book "Going Dirty: The Art of Negative Campaigning," he details some of the most important races in American History, and the level of animus and dirty campaigning in each.

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James H. Miller Commentary: Appointing Judges a Supremely Bad Idea

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:01:38 -0500

The last year and a half has been a political horror show for liberal elites in Wisconsin. Given the nature of the Bush presidency it seems almost impossible that Republicans could stumble onto the one issue on which they can still win elections - crime. For the left it has been a stunning revelation. A year ago it was Annette Ziegler, then in November, against all odds during a Democratic tsunami, Republican J.B. Van Hollen was elected Attorney General. And now the Wisconsin Supreme Court has gone to the right. The angst and the rage are hardly unexpected. Now, faced with an inability to win judicial elections, the left, aided by the media, has decided to do everything they can to change the rules.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Where Have You Gone, Bob LaFollette?

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:15:23 -0500

It had been a few years since I had heard about Raymond Scheppach, the Executive Director of the National Governors Association. Then last week he wrote an important article published recently by Stateline.org. In the article he set the bar high for governors across the country facing recession-induced budget shortfalls. The non-partisan Scheppach wrote that governors should use this exercise in belt tightening to implement efficiency and restructuring to make government better.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The Government Accountability Board: Growing Like a Weed

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:36:43 -0500

In an effort to strengthen the state’s abysmal record in enforcing election law, the Legislature last year implemented a new board to review campaign activities. The new Government Accountability Board was set up to enforce elections laws and to handle campaign finance reports.

Yet since the new board was implemented, the GAB has seemingly had trouble with the very laws it was intended to enforce. Just this week, the Board had to remove two members who violated the State Constitution by serving on the Board before their terms as judges had expired (even though they had resigned their positions.)

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Ben Artz Commentary: The Wisconsin Wind Turbine Controversy

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 09:49:59 -0500

"Good neighbors don’t host 400 foot wind turbines."

Signs like these are littered across northeast Wisconsin, the windiest part of the state. Residents there are using peer pressure to prevent their neighbors from leasing small plots of land to energy companies who want to erect large wind turbines for generating electricity. These wind turbines have been popping up all over northeast Wisconsin as energy companies strive to meet Wisconsin’s relatively recent renewable energy legislation. By 2015, Wisconsin utility companies are to generate at least 10% of electricity from renewable resources such as water, wood, ethanol and wind. In 2005 the state reached 4.5%, well below the national average of 6.1% at that time. With Wisconsin having to import electricity to meet its energy demands, the generating capacity of wind is starting to be considered as a viable renewable resource.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Supreme Court Plants another Sloppy Wet Kiss on State Trial Bar

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:24:23 -0500

Friday, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court delivered another blow to Wisconsin business and industry. In yet another far reaching 4-3 decision, allegedly written to protect Wisconsin consumers, the court has guaranteed higher costs for business and consumers and higher fees for trial attorneys.

In Stuart v. Weisflog, the court determined that ANY business entity or person providing a home improvement could be sued for twice the amount of damages caused by simple negligence on the part of contractor. Prior to the case, litigants could be awarded double the amount of damages and court costs for damage caused by contractor misrepresentation. Simple contractor negligence did not allow for double damages.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: The Wisconsin Legislature's Putrid Present

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:37:08 -0500

My wife and I used to have a great family dog. He was loving, loyal, and always happy to see me when I came home from work. However, on the rare occasion, he would sneak into the basement and have an "accident." When he did so, he would run and hide behind the couch, knowing how little his rectal gift would be appreciated.

Eerily, my dog’s behavior mirrors the Wisconsin State Legislature’s attempts to pass a budget repair bill to fill in a $652 million hole this biennium. Put simply, the Legislature is pooping in our basement, and looking for a couch to hide behind.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: A Valentine Note from Eliot Spitzer to Jim Doyle

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:16:45 -0500

On February 14, Governor Doyle sat in his downtown Madison office knowing he was faced with a looming budget deficit. This challenge was enough to make even the seasoned, two-term governor tense.

Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. on a day usually set aside for flowers and candy, an unusually relaxed Eliot Spitzer slid into a chair before the House Financial Services Committee. The message the soon-to-be former Governor Spitzer delivered that day was meant, not only for the committee, but for investment bankers and government leaders across America. In effect, he was passing a Valentine note directly to Governor Doyle.

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REPORT: The Economic Impact of Immigration on Green Bay, By David Dodenhoff, Ph.D.

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:36:11 -0500

"Immigration" - these days, few words in American political discourse can incite passions the way this one can. As recently as five years ago, though, immigration was an arcane issue discussed chiefly among a small community of academics, think tank researchers, and government officials. It was never a particularly important subject among American voters, nor to the mainstream media. Because of this, discussions of immigration policy took place largely outside the spotlight of public scrutiny.

Things began to change in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Those attacks revealed how simple it was for enemies of the United States to enter the country legally—to live, work, and travel within the U.S. without fear of apprehension, let alone deportation; and to plan and carry out acts of mass murder with minimal interference.

The government investigations that followed the 9/11 attacks revealed a permissive, and in some ways highly dysfunctional, federal system for regulating immigration. That system was failing—not just at stopping national security threats, but also at the basic function of protecting the country’s borders. Thus, the conversation about immigration soon expanded from national security issues to issues of economic security. What were the costs and consequences of the tide of immigrants, legal and illegal, surging across the country’s southern border? Did anyone know? Even more important, could the government do anything about it?

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Ben Artz Commentary: Riding Out the Oil Bubble

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:34:07 -0500

The United States economy has experienced two massive asset bubbles in recent memory. The first was the dot-com bubble that fueled a seemingly endless economic expansion and filled people’s pockets with money. The second was the housing boom that gave home-owners huge unrealized gains in property values, providing investors with a large amount of equity of which to borrow against. Both of these bubbles felt great when we were in their midst, but hurt immensely when they popped and sent the economy into a tailspin. We suffered a mild recession after the first one and are suffering at least a very weak economy after the second. Believe it or not, we seem to be in the middle of another bubble; but unlike the prior two, this one hurts almost everyone and will aid the same number if it ever bursts.

You may have guessed that I am of course referring to oil. The price for a barrel of oil recently topped $100 when only six years ago its price was a mere $25. There are many good economic reasons for why the price has increased in the past decade, yet there is only one that can explain why it has gone this far. We are in the middle of an asset bubble much like the dot-com stock price bubble and the housing valuation bubble the economy is still suffering from.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Hate George W? You Should Be a Conservative

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:46:16 -0500

There’s an old saying: Republicans get elected saying big government doesn’t work, then go about proving it.

In recent years, America has become a breeding ground for liberals. The Left has used their universal distaste for George W. Bush to recruit new footsoldiers all over America. They've been voting in Democratic primaries at twice the rate of the GOP primaries. They deride the President as a smirking, right-wing buffoon. And that’s probably what it says on his fan mail.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Healthy Wisconsin: A Dog That Just Won't Hunt

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:28:03 -0500

Following through on a promise, the Senate Democrats last week reintroduced their health care plan dubbed Healthy Wisconsin. The plan extends coverage to everyone in Wisconsin, as well as anyone who is thinking of relocating to Wisconsin, and passes the cost along to taxpayers through an impressive, upward spiraling payroll tax.

We are told that if we were fortunate enough to see Healthy Wisconsin enacted, we would have it just as good in Wisconsin as they have in several other nations. One of the countries often cited is New Zealand. You see in New Zealand everyone is covered for a fraction of what health care costs in the U.S.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Electing Judges: Save Us From the Horrors of Democracy

Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:57:48 -0600

The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court.., the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.

- Abraham Lincoln, 1st Inaugural Address

Wisconsin government has been infected by a poisonous presence. Apparently, this corrosive phenomenon is so dangerous, it has prompted one of the largest newspapers in the state to call for a constitutional amendment to eradicate it. And what exactly is so damaging to our democracy?

Well...democracy, actually.

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REPORT: Preparing Effective Teachers for the Milwaukee Public Schools: How Good a Job do Wisconsin Schools of Education Do?

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 06:51:31 -0600

When leaders in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and other Wisconsin school districts set about hiring new teachers, where should they look to find the candidates most likely to do a good job of improving their students’ academic learning? There are several possibilities. In Wisconsin alone 32 colleges and universities, public and private, offer training programs leading to initial certification for teaching in the state’s Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) schools. These programs are alike in many ways, since all of them must meet the state’s program-approval standards, but they are by no means identical. They vary in their stated goals, admission standards, curricular emphases, course requirements, and in the profiles of the faculty members who design and conduct the programs. It seems plausible, therefore, that the various programs also would differ in their effectiveness - some outperforming others in producing teachers who know how to improve students’ academic achievement. To the extent that they differ in this respect, it also would seem plausible that school districts would take account of the differences, striving to hire graduates from those programs known for their strong, positive training effects.

After all, the stakes are high. It matters a great deal who gets hired to teach, especially in large urban school districts like the MPS, which are struggling to improve graduation rates and achievement levels. Notwithstanding the influence of homes and neighborhoods, teacher quality has a powerful effect on students’ academic achievement.

Unfortunately, school districts to date have had no reliable basis for making well-informed judgments about the effectiveness of the many teacher training programs whose graduates they might consider for employment. This study addresses this problem, with special reference to the staffing needs of large urban school districts such as MPS.
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James H. Miller Commentary: The Polling Follies

Mon, 3 Mar 2008 09:41:13 -0600

The day before the Wisconsin primary a number of polls suggested that Hillary Clinton was closing ground fast. One poll showed Hillary Clinton had assumed a 49% to 43% lead. The next day Barack Obama absolutely hammered Hillary Clinton. Obama won by 17 points, which meant that the poll that had showed him losing by 6 points was off by an astonishing 23 points. In this political year the media and the pundits continuously blame pollsters for having bad numbers. The criticisms started after New Hampshire and continued into the results on Super Tuesday. The pollsters answered with the difficulty of polling the primaries, the problem of cell phones, and the fact that turnout figures were hard to predict in a primary election.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Finally, a Politician With the Guts to be For Hope

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:39:09 -0600

Here’s what we know about Barack Obama: He wants change, and he wants hope. The only question seems to be in what order.

Both of these promises are somewhat perplexing. How is being for "change" really a serious position in a presidential campaign? News reports actually refer to some voters as "change" voters - as in, "Barack Obama is winning the ‘change’ voters two to one over Hillary Clinton." One would think merely voting for a new Commander in Chief qualifies one as a "change" voter. There’s probably one guy sitting at home in Nebraska that goes to the polls hoping his vote will keep things exactly the way they are. So when they say Obama is winning the "change" voters, they’re basically saying he’s leading among voters who don’t go into the booth and accidentally vote for George W. Bush.

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The Wisconsin Interest: A Conservative Campus Pushback? Don't Look Now, But there are Conservatives on those Campuses - By Charles J. Sykes

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:34:15 -0600

Conservatives dominate the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s student government.

If you’re surprised to read that, imagine the surprise of UWM’s ever-so politically correct administrators, who now quite unexpectedly find themselves facing a conservative student pushback on issues ranging from free speech to the allocation of millions of dollars in student fees.

The result is a new dynamic on campuses like Milwaukee for students and academics alike. For decades, the leftist sympathies of the student body were simply taken for granted and university administrators became accustomed to treating non-radical student groups as virtually invisible. That’s getting harder.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Making Wisconsin the Health Care Migration Capital - By Rick Esenberg

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:33:03 -0600

There is a school of thought about American federalism holding that the states ought to be the laboratories of democracy. Each state can try its own unique solutions to policy problems and, through this state-by-state experimentation, we will learn what works. Let fifty flowers bloom!

A problem may arise when these "experiments" benefit one part of the population at the expense of another. Because states can’t seal their borders, there is nothing that prevents attracting those who will benefit and chasing away those who will not. When I am handing out free pizza, I’m the most popular guy on the block. When I am collecting to pay the delivery guy, no one is happy to see me.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Milwaukee's Children Deserve a Chance to Be Better - By George Lightbourn

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:32:58 -0600

Janice huddled in the front seat of the car, as close to the passenger window as she could. She made no eye contact with the man driving. They were headed to the address she had given him, the latest address that Janice and her family had called home. This was not home in the Currier and Ives sense. But it was a place Janice could identify when the form required a home address.

Mr. Hamilton, the man behind the wheel, was the principal at Janice’s school. As soon as he got word of the problem Janice had in the classroom he acted. Janice had suffered an asthma attack so severe she had vomited, most of which now clung to her school uniform. Mr. Hamilton knew she needed to get cleaned up because he knew how careful Janice and her sister were about their appearance. Being clean and looking good were important to the sisters and so it was important to this inner-city principal. "These kids have enough working against them," he said, explaining why he thought it so important to take action.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Wisconsin's "Subprime" Budget Planning - By Christian Schneider

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:31:54 -0600

The recession of 2001 exposed a dark secret in the way Wisconsin plans for economic downturns. It doesn’t. Wisconsin is near the bottom in the nation in setting aside money for fiscal emergencies, which makes budgeting during a recession a fiscal high-wire act.

Nearly every state in the U.S. sets aside a portion of their budget in a “rainy day” fund, or mandates a minimum balance to protect themselves from economic downturns. Wisconsin is near the bottom in the nation in both.

As demonstrated in this report, even a mild recession, as was seen in 2001, would cause a budget imbalance of up to $1.4 billion in the Wisconsin’s current biennial budget. Furthermore, the lack of state planning for such a downturn serves as a recipe for more damaging tax increases and detrimental fiscal maneuvers. It appears that despite the pain caused by the last recession, Wisconsin state government has learned nothing. Wisconsin’s budget planning is clearly far from ideal; to use a term which has recently become familiar, it can be fairly characterized as "subprime."

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The Wisconsin Interest: Wisconsin's Schools: Only Pretty Good - By Sunny Schubert

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:30:24 -0600

When it comes to K-12 education, it’s good to be from Wisconsin.

What’s not to love about Wisconsin public schools? Year after year, Badger students post either the highest or the second-highest ACT scores in the nation. We’ve got National Merit Scholars out the wazoo. Governor James Doyle constantly touts the strength of our K-12 school system in trying to lure businesses here: Sure, our taxes may be high, but look what you’re getting for your money!

Milwaukee? Oh yah hey, the Milwaukee public schools are a problem, but the rest of the state is doing just fine. Public opinion polls consistently show that while state residents are worried about what’s going on in other schools and districts, they rate the schools their kids attend as good to excellent.

Except they’re not.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Health Care Reform in Wisconsin: How We Got Here, What We Should and Shouldn't Do - By Leah Vukmir

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:29:07 -0600

Health care reform is an issue on the minds of most Americans. Everyone agrees the rising cost of health care is creating access problems for many Americans. Divergence of opinion arises when deciding how best to solve these problems. Should government step in and completely take over the funding and delivery of health care, or should we free the current health care system from the shackles of government regulations and mandates in order to create a competitive market in an industry that, to date, has not been allowed to operate freely? If we are to be serious about comprehensive health care reform, we must do two things: 1. Understand the historical context and role government has played in the rising cost of health care, and 2. Craft solutions addressing the root problems that have created the call for reform. Above all, we must strive to protect the quality of health care we have come to know in our state. Any health care reform that jeopardizes quality will be detrimental not only to Wisconsin’s citizens but to the economic viability of our state.

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The Wisconsin Interest: Young Republicans: Are There Any Left? - By Steven R. Pigeon

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:28:29 -0600

After the 2006 Wisconsin gubernatorial election, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute’s James Miller asked the simple question, "Who Chose Wisconsin’s Governor?" Miller concluded that it was senior citizens who should be given the credit of reelecting Jim Doyle governor.

Though younger voters (those between the ages of 18-29) were heralded for a high turnout and passionate opposition to the Wisconsin constitutional amendment prohibiting homosexual marriage, ultimately it was the senior citizens that made the difference. This was despite the fact that 191,489 more young voters voted, compared to the 2002 Wisconsin gubernatorial election. This represented a 109% increase in the young voter turnout and 40% of voters in that age bracket.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Rigging the Game Again

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:43:59 -0600

You don’t have to be a lawyer to know when you’re being swindled by one. That’s one benefit of having studied team Doyle’s take no prisoners approach to the acquisition and maintenance of power.

Some of us were knocked back a few feet in the fall of 2006 when we learned that Doyle’s Attorney Mike Maistelman had plotted with State Election Board members to set up Mark Green. When Maistelman stepped in, the State Elections Board was about to vote on a bogus complaint that questioned the transfer of more than $467,000 from Green’s congressional campaign fund to his gubernatorial campaign fund. The transfer of money was approved by the board just 18 months earlier and the SEB approved a similar transfer for Democrat Tom Barrett in 2001.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: By the People... Or To the People

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:40:59 -0600

While most eyes were focused on the tinsel of the presidential primary, the editors of papers throughout Wisconsin found space to tell of the gash the worsening economy has left in the state budget. Bob Lang, the stoic head of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, informed the Legislature and the Governor that the current shortfall stands at $652 million and could get much worse. Unspoken in Lang’s letter was an ominous message; the $652 shortfall will happen even without a recession. If the economy goes into recession, there will be no maybes; the budget picture will get much worse.

Just two weeks previous, Lang had set the deficit at $300 - $400 million. Just a few months ago in the fall when the budget passed the Legislature, everyone was feeling pretty chipper and expected tax receipts to roll into the treasury. What a difference a few months or even a few weeks can mean. As someone who had a front row seat the last time the state budget felt the sting of an economic slowdown, I have to say that this current script seems eerily familiar.

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David Dodenhoff Commentary: What Arizona Thinks of Wisconsin

Thu, 7 Feb 2008 13:48:38 -0600

Though Arizona is my home, I have spent considerable time in Wisconsin. In my first year out of graduate school in 1996, I lived in the Badger State, splitting my time between Madison and Milwaukee. Since then, I have visited Wisconsin many times, both for work and for pleasure.

The Wisconsinites I have met over the years know only a few things about Arizona: the Grand Canyon is big, the Cardinals are bad, and “you must be stealing water from some other state.” The reverse is not true, however. Wisconsin has made a distinct impression on the minds of Arizonans.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: The Presidential Primary: Of Warm Milk and Pillow Talk

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 09:06:52 -0600

In a couple of weeks the traveling medicine show that we call the presidential primary will set up camp in Wisconsin. There is broad agreement that this is one of the most interesting, dynamic races in decades.

What will we be looking for in that one candidate who prevails, not only in the primary, but on into the summer and the fall? Do they need to be right on policy? Do they need to possess velvet lips? How about gender, race, religion, age, what will we look for in that one person to lead the free world?

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Jim Miller Commentary: Our Next President May Not Be in the Race Yet

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:10:13 -0600

Most political pundits thought that after the Super Tuesday primaries next week we would know the identities of the Democratic and Republican nominees for President. That now seems unlikely. One party, or possibly both, may not have a final candidate until this summer’s conventions. It will make for terrific theater and great sport for anyone involved in the political business.

However, the one complication lost in all the recent talk about primary delegates continues to be Mike Bloomberg, the mayor of New York.

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Charlie Sykes Commentary: Who is the Real Enemy Here?

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:04:47 -0600

Some of Milwaukee’s top CEOs are coming under fire from a local business journalist who suggests that their pointed criticism of Milwaukee’s business climate is undermining the area’s marketing efforts.

"Is Milwaukee's biggest enemy its own CEOs?" asked Steve Jagler, the editor of the Small Business Times, who suggested that the business leaders were providing aid and comfort to Denver, in its effort to woo Miller to Colorado.

The five CEOs had participated in a panel discussion titled, "Global Wooing," sponsored by the Public Policy Forum. Their criticism were blunt, specific, and echoed similar comments made by business executives (and brushed off by political leaders) for years.

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Deb Jordahl Commentary: Virtual School Families Should Go to the Mattresses

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:02:29 -0600

Winston Churchill said, "Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it."

If the families and supporters of Wisconsin’s Virtual Academy study the history of school choice, they will follow Sonny Corleone’s lead and go directly to the mattresses.

Last week more than a thousand WIVA students and parents traveled to Madison to save their school after the teacher’s union and State School Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster sued to have WIVA shut down, kicking three thousand kids from all over the state head-on to the curb. According to the State’s attorney, this remedy was appropriate because the school, which is staffed by certified public school teachers and union members, relied too heavily on parent volunteers to help educate students.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: Of Big Deficits and Short Memories: Welcome to the State Budget

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:00:24 -0600

As it increasingly appears that we have a recession in our future, I am not comforted by our Governor’s insistence that things are just fine. Last week the WPRI published a fine piece done by Christian Schneider that posed the question; how well could the state budget absorb a recession?

The answer is that a recession will blow a $4.2 billion hole in the budget. Schneider’s analysis was based on modeling a rather mild recession, about the magnitude of the downturn we experienced in 2001. You will recall that the 2001 recession so mild that it was over before the economists had actually pronounced it a recession.

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REPORT: Wisconsin's "Subprime" Budget Planning

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:22:55 -0600

In late 2000, Wisconsin state government started to get some bad news. With the economy softening, tax revenues to the state were dropping. Yet there were still bills to pay.

The recession of 2001 exposed a dark secret in the way Wisconsin plans for economic downturns. It doesn’t. Wisconsin is near the bottom in the nation in setting aside money for fiscal emergencies, which makes budgeting during a recession a fiscal high-wire act.

Nearly every state in the U.S. sets aside a portion of their budget in a "rainy day" fund, or mandates a minimum balance to protect themselves from economic downturns. Wisconsin is near the bottom in the nation in both.

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Ben Artz Commentary: Poverty and Inequality

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:20:29 -0600

The economy is always at the core of presidential debates and campaigns. How can we reverse the Dollar’s slide? How can we keep jobs from going overseas? How can we make income in the US more equal across classes? The last question refers to income inequality in America, which by strict standards has increased steadily for over three decades. Simply put, the rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer. However, it is not that simple.

The most commonly used metric to gauge whether a person is "poor" is called the poverty line. For instance, in 2005 a family of four was considered in poverty if their combined household income was less than $19,971. By this measure, the US Census Bureau estimates that roughly one-third of all children in the Milwaukee School District were living in poverty in 2005.

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Christian Schneider Commentary: Leveling the Presidential Playing Field

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:04:13 -0600

For as long as there have been political campaigns, there have been critics of how those campaigns are financed. Good government groups deride campaigns that raise and spend bucketloads of money, fearing those campaigns have a leg up over their challengers. The more a campaign spends, they argue, the better chance the candidate has at winning an election. Apparently they believe there exists a "magic candidate" who is being held out of office for lack of resources, and they decry the undue influence of money on choosing our elected officials.

Perhaps they should purchase a newspaper.

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George Lightbourn Commentary: The Straight Story: From Iowa to Wisconsin

Mon, 7 Jan 2008 13:04:00 -0600

The results of the Iowa caucus sent a shock wave through the political world and could wind up at the steps of the Capitol in Madison.

Leathered, battle-tested strategists are coping to understand the Obama phenomenon. This fellow from Illinois, whose only significant political accomplishment was backing into a vacant Senate seat, seems to be part Mick Jagger and part Syd Finch. No one quite seems to know what to make of the Senator with the smooth delivery and the rather large ears. He of the vague experience and even more obscure positions on issues has been gaining high marks on his political acumen from all corners including some of the more respected conservative voices.

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REPORT: Wisconsin Speaks 2007: A Survey of Public Opinion

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:28:11 -0600

We have been conducting public opinion surveys of Wisconsin residents since 1987. This survey was conducted on December 2 and December 3, 2007. There has already been a release of some of the major issues covered in this survey.
What makes this particular study so unusual is that for the fourth time we are publishing the unfiltered opinions of Wisconsin residents. Most surveys will ask people about issues. Few, if any, polls besides the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute’s will actually ask the classic survey question on an open-end basis to have respondents describe the most important issue facing Wisconsin. This type of question is asked at the beginning of a poll and is totally unfiltered by any other information. It gives a much more accurate picture of the views and feelings of the respondents.
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Christian Schneider Commentary: The Government Protection Racket

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:44:19 -0600

In the late nineteenth century, a cowboy rode into a water-drilling camp in Odessa, Texas. The cowboy immediately demanded some food from the cook, described as a "chinaman." The cook refused, so the cowboy shot him to death. The cowboy went on trial in San Angelo, but the judge freed him on the grounds that there were no laws on the books making it illegal to kill a Chinaman.

It was racial injustice that led Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which required that "citizens of every race and color ... [have] full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property." This new law was immediately followed by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbid states to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

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