Don't Back Up That Brinks Truck For Walker's Tax Cuts

Ever since Scott Walker gave his campaign speech disguised as a budget address, the right wing squawkers, blarghers and other propagandists have been faithfully been echoing the talking point that Walker put in an income tax cut in his 2011-13 budget.

But don't back up that Brinks armored truck to haul off your share of the wealth.* You won't even need your kid's piggy bank for it:

For example, a family of four with taxable income of $25,000 would see their state income tax bill go down by $6. At $50,000, the savings is $54; at $100,000 it’s $138; and at $200,000 the savings is $270.

"At first blush, the proposed tax cuts sound like they will help moderate-income families but the primary effect is to help the wealthy,” says Jon Peacock of the Wisconsin Budget Project.

Peacock notes that more than half of the projected $172 million in income tax cuts annually would go to the upper 20 percent of state residents.

“This just exacerbates the problem that the rich pay a much lower percent of their income for state and local taxes than lower-income Wisconsin families,” he says, noting a recent national report on that issue.

That really pales in comparison to what Walker did for his corporate sponsors in the current budget:

Actually, Walker’s 2011-2013 budget did use tax credits to target a specific group: factory owners and their investors. A domestic production tax credit that kicks in this year will deliver an estimated $360 million in tax savings to manufacturers over the next four years and some $130 million each year thereafter, according to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Considering that the median household income is about $50,000, that means most of us might save a buck a week. Hoard up those savings for a full month and you might, just might, be able to buy a gallon of gas. I say might, because under Walker's reign of economic terror, incomes keep dropping.

It should be pointed out that Walker's tax cuts are so lopsided it does next to nothing to help the poorest of the poor, who were punished for their poverty in Walker's first budget:

Last summer, the state Legislature reduced the amount of money low- income families can receive in tax credits by $56.2 million.

That places Wisconsin among only a handful of states that will effectively raise taxes on their poorest residents in 2012, according to a recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit think tank.

"At a time when low-wage workers are already struggling, this makes it that much more difficult (for them) to feed their families and pay their utility bills," said Jon Peacock with the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, an advocacy group that opposed the changes

Likewise, it offers no relief for the fees that Walker raised through the roof in the last budget and wants to rise even higher in this budget.

Another thing that the Walker apologists are touting his that Walker is proposing a freeze on property tax rates. That should scare the bejeebers out of you.

In Walker's current budget, he touted he cut property taxes. But like the majority of Wisconsinites, our property taxes had actually gone up. They would have probably gone up even higher, but Walker's policy of lowering our quality of life included lowering our property values.

Since my taxes went up by some 9% with Walker's tax cuts, I can't even imagine how much they'll go up with a freeze - 20%? 25%?

I wouldn't mind my taxes going up so much if we had something to show for it, like a decent education system, public safety, assistance for our neediest and most vulnerable citizens or even some creation.

Instead we have nothing to show but some of the most generous corporate welfare giveaway that do nothing to help our state.

But no one should be surprised. This is just a remake of his failures in his last budget, for which we didn't need that armored car either.


*Since Walker's make-believe surplus, which is actually a deficit he's not admitting too, which he is using for these tax cuts come from the money he took from public sector workers, isn't that socialism - forced sharing of the wealth?

Senator Chris Larson On The Plutocratic Power Grab

From Senator Chris Larson's weekly newsletter:

This past Friday, LRB 1340, legislation to force a reduction in the County Board’s budget to a maximum of 0.4% of the county tax levy, was circulated for co-sponsorship by anti-local control legislators. For Milwaukee County, that would mean an 85% cut to the Board’s budget, and after taking into account the legacy expense of Milwaukee County retirement costs, would leave no funds available for current staff or supervisors’ salaries.

The Milwaukee County Board is comprised of 18 supervisors, each representing between 50,000 and 55,000 neighbors, which is the same size as most State Assembly districts. Additionally, the County Board employs about 38 full-time staff members, including constituent service professionals, committee clerks, auditors, and budget analysts. Having a board and professional staff of that size allows supervisors to remain informed about county issues, be responsive to neighbors’ concerns, and provide legislative oversight of the county executive and sheriff.

Furthermore, the proposed cut raises fundamental issues about maintaining a system of checks and balances in local government, and whether the Wisconsin State Legislature should have the authority to intervene in what is clearly an issue of local control. Although groups supporting the severe budget restrictions argue that no other Wisconsin county has a supervisory board comparable to Milwaukee, we must also remember that no other county in our state has such an economically and ethnically diverse population of nearly 1 million people, or more than one-sixth of the state's total population. Additionally, the Milwaukee Supervisory Board oversees a $1 billion dollar budget, and is responsible for oversight of a regional airport, county zoo, and county-funded mental health complex.

Critics of the current full-time board have compared the current structure of 18 supervisors and an annual salary of about $50,000 to the salary and structure of the Board in 1970. What critics have failed to mention, however, is that the Board in 1970 had 25 members, who were each paid a salary of $68,000 (when adjusted for inflation).

There has also been a great deal of speculation regarding some odd provisions in this bill that may prevent the board from doing their job properly and usurps local control, including:

• Reducing term-limits from four years to two years
• Prohibiting the County from adding a referendum question to the April 2014 ballot
• Banning Milwaukee County Board Supervisors from speaking directly to county department heads, instead forcing them to go through the County Executive's Office
• Preventing Milwaukee County Board Supervisors from crafting policies, instead only allowing them to approve or reject policies by the Milwaukee County Executive
• Attaching a completely unrelated measure requiring the state to pay for erecting and maintaining a billboard on I-43

I agree with Chairwoman Dimitrijevic that this is an issue of local control and Milwaukee County, not the state, is responsible for conducting its own evaluation of how to reduce the cost of county government and increase efficiency, while still maintaining the Board’s authority and expertise for oversight of the county executive’s budget and the ongoing operational issues that the county routinely faces.

Despite what the propagandists and sockpuppets would have you believe, progressive people truly are against this horrible power grab and gross overreach.

Michrob/LitVo/ Vojens/ RoMI

One term assembly person Michelle Litjens, whose claim to fame was attending "tea parties" and complaining about the protestors in the Capitol:

Its almost to much! The guy with the blow horn is back outside the Capital. Don't these people have jobs or families or things to do?

— Michelle Litjens (@michellelitjens) May 17, 2011

After her one undistinguished term she decided NOT to run for re-election so she could focus on her family. 

First-term state Rep. Michelle Litjens, R-Vinland, announced Tuesday that she will not seek re-election for her seat in the 56th Assembly District."Faced with a decision to pour my heart into another campaign or focus my time on my teenagers and family, I decided family had to be my priority," Litjens said. "You only get a few short years with kids in high school and I don't want to miss watching them grow up."

Who knew that Robin Vos was her family?  

Walker Promises To Create Jobs? You Gotta Be Fracking Kidding!

On Wednesday, Scott Walker gave another one of his stump campaign speeches disguised as a budget address.  One of his campaign promises was that he was really going to get serious this time about creating jobs in the state, even though the last two years is more than ample proof that he either doesn't know what he's doing or he's simply lying.

Sadly ironic, he gave his false promise of more jobs on the same day that we learned the go ahead was given for the loss of 600 jobs with the closing of the Kewaunee power plant.

Not coincidentally, those 600 jobs being lost is a direct result of Walker's "business friendly environment." The business that he's being overly friendly with is fracking:

Daniel Stoddard, senior vice president of nuclear operations at Dominion, declined to provide details about the negotiations toward a possible sale of Kewaunee.

The prospect of increased regulations, while a concern, wasn’t the main factor in the decision to permanently close Kewaunee.

“Certainly anything that impacts cost or increases costs doesn’t help the situation by any means,” said Stoddard. “But I can’t say that’s the primary driver.”

The plant has become uneconomical because of low natural gas prices, and the boom in domestic natural gas production tied to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Those low natural gas prices have prompted other utilities to shift more of their power generation fleets to natural gas from coal.

And thanks to Walker and the other Republicans that have allowed Big Energy to have their way with our state and country, these jobs losses - not to mention the poisoning of our air and water - is not the only thing we have to be worried about.

And now that they have a grip on our state, not only are they not going to let go, but they refuse to stop trying to claim larger and larger areas for their exploitation.

Karoli at Crooks & Liars has a very clear break down of two reports that just came out that show that fracking could lead to a bursting bubble, like the housing bubble did five years ago, which will send the entire economy into another tailspin:

It is with Matt's book in mind that I read two reports released today about fracking and Wall Street by the Post Carbon Institute and the Energy Policy Forum.

DeSmogBlog boils it down:

Together, the reports conclude that the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") boom could lead to a "bubble burst" akin to the housing bubble burst of 2008.

While most media attention towards fracking has focused on the threats to drinking water and health in communities throughout North America and the world, there is an even larger threat looming. The fracking industry has the ability - paralleling the housing bubble burst that served as a precursor to the 2008 economic crisis - to tank the global economy.

Playing the role of Cassandra, the reports conclude that "the so-called shale revolution is nothing more than a bubble, driven by record levels of drilling, speculative lease & flip practices on the part of shale energy companies, fee-driven promotion by the same investment banks that fomented the housing bubble..." a summary details. "Geological and economic constraints – not to mention the very serious environmental and health impacts of drilling – mean that shale gas and shale oil (tight oil) are far from the solution to our energy woes."

I'm certain these reports will be dismissed as the left-wing answer to right-wing climate change deniers. Before naysayers do that, they should consider the sources behind the report.

Isn't that just special?

First Walker sends Milwaukee County into an economic downfall. Then he takes the state down the same path of failure as he tries to fool himself into thinking he has a chance to be president. But even before the reality that he won't ever make it to the White House sinks in, he's already helping in another attempt to bring the world's economy crashing down.

Not that he cares.  As long his campaign donors get theirs, and give him his kickback, he doesn't see the problem.

Solidarity Fish Fry, Week 20: It's Snow Joke

Just a friendly reminder that this is week 20 of the Solidarity Fish Fry this coming Friday.

The gentle eater will remember that the management of Serb Hall in Milwaukee has been trying to bust the union by harassing the union workers and practicing bad faith bargaining and prohibited practices.

Things have gotten slightly better now.  Between the pressure that the Milwaukee Area Labor Council has put on them, getting slapped around by the National Labor Relations Board and the solidarity we have been showing for our union brothers and sisters, management has started negotiating in good faith again.

Progress in the negotiations is slow, but it is there.

And most timely, another local restaurant which has been treating their workers poorly has also seen the light.  Meyer's Family Restaurant had been playing fast and loose with paying their workers, trying to rip them off.  They too found out that labor laws are there for a reason, and have agreed to pay the workers $116,000 in back wages.

The owner of the restaurant admitted the error in their ways:

“Food service workers often work long hours in physically demanding occupations. These workers deserve to be paid properly,” said Theresa Walls, director of the Wage and Hour Division’s Minneapolis District Office in a release. “The resolution of this case should remind employers that the department will not hesitate to investigate if they deny workers their rightful pay. We are committed to protecting the many vulnerable workers employed in the restaurant industry and will vigorously pursue violators to ensure compliance with the law.”

Owner Larry Meyer said the restaurant has already paid the back wages, implemented a system to monitor payroll for overtime hours and is now under full compliance with labor laws. He said the situation arose from paying some employees a salary, employees the U.S. Department of Labor classified as hourly employees.

“We were under a different impression of what the law is,” Meyer said. “Some of the skilled labor, we’d negotiate a weekly wage, or a salary. We were under the impression that was fine. It was not. You can’t salary anybody and everybody.

“We were surprised that we weren’t able to do a lot of the things we were doing. They were understanding of that. They didn’t come down too hard on us; there were no fines or penalties.

“I didn’t have any trouble with it. The law’s the law. I’ve been doing this 48 years. Sometimes my thinking is old schooled. I got an education.”

Time will tell if the management of Serb Hall will see the writing on the wall.

In the meantime, we will continue with our weekly show of solidarity.

And as the gentle eater is most likely aware, the forecasters are saying that we are about to get a few inches of snow Thursday night and into Friday.

After all that shoveling, one can work up an appetite, and the best way to cure that it a good ol' fish fry.

So go to Serb Hall, ask to be seated at a union server's table and enjoy. Don't forget to leave a big tip and make sure you write on the receipt that it's in support of the union.

So we'll see ya there this Friday, and that's snow joke. (Because the real joke was there last week.)

Team Walker Admits It's Not Working

Hours before Scott Walker gave his latest campaign speech (using a government-sponsored platform - doesn't this guy ever learn?!) his campaign sent out a fundraising email in Blinky Kleefisch's name (emphasis mine):

Friend,

Tonight, Governor Walker will speak directly to the citizens of Wisconsin and propose his continuing plans to keep our state moving forward. His address will stream live at www.walker.wi.gov beginning at 7:00PM CT and I encourage you listen to his plan of optimism, relativism and courage.

In 2011, Governor Walker courageously put forward a bold agenda packed with reforms which built a strong foundation for our state. With your support, he took on the special interest groups, enacted legislation that saved Wisconsin taxpayers over $1 billion and eliminated a $3.6 billion budget deficit left by his predecessor. He did all that without raising taxes on hardworking families and small businesses. Tonight, he will build upon that solid foundation.

The Governor and I are committed to job creation and economic prosperity for the state we love. In tonight’s Budget Address, he will lay out his plans to create a vibrant economic atmosphere in Wisconsin and encourage job creation and expansion. By focusing on core initiatives like education, workforce development, infrastructure and government reform, we can propel Wisconsin to the top of the list of best places to live, work and raise a family.

Thanks to your enduring support, Governor Walker and I have had many successes on behalf of the hardworking taxpayers throughout Wisconsin. I pray that support remains strong tonight as you hear him present his plans for a better Wisconsin in his budget address, and you continue to stand with us as we move Wisconsin forward.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Kleefisch
Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin

PS. Governor Walker and I have come a long way and have built a solid foundation for Wisconsin, but there’s still so much to do. Please watch tonight’s budget address, which will stream live at www.walker.wi.gov, and stand with us as we continue moving Wisconsin forward!

In the highlighted area, they admit that he has yet to create a "vibrant economic atmosphere," and that they have done nothing to create jobs.

And it's true. They have not done those things. Wisconsin has the second worst economic outlook in the nation and are the worst in the Midwest in almost every economic measure, including job growth.

Given this, would someone please explain to me why they are doubling down on the things they know aren't working?

Dennis Smith!

By Jeff Simpson

Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis G. Smith

Dennis Smith was appointed by Governor Scott Walker to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health Services on January 3, 2011. The agency is responsible for Wisconsin Medicaid programs which provide health care and long-term care services to more than 1 million enrollees, operates four mental health facilities, regulates state hospitals and coordinates the public health response for the state of Wisconsin.

In addition to his state and federal government service, Secretary Smith has worked as Managing Director of Medicaid Practice at Leavitt Partners, a partnership that advises clients in the practice areas of health, environment and trade. He was also a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C. think tank(term used loosely).
Smith has a Master's Degree in Public Administration from George Mason University and completed his undergraduate work at Illinois State University. Smith and his wife Laurel have four daughters.

Dennis Smith now is known for two things in his time in the Walker Administration. The first being he wants to destroy Medicaid (and with the help of Scott Walker he looks like he is going to be successful in that) and using Wisconsin taxpayer money to hire his high school crush and bring her to Madison.

It seems as though Mr. Smith, when interviewing for the position of chief legal counsel, interviewed a total of one candidate.    Working in the back yard of one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, Mr. Smith felt that no one in Wisconsin could possibly do the job as well as someone that he allegedly, once took to senior prom in high school.    Apparently she looked good enough in her dress that night that she did not need to be practicing law at the time nor have any working knowledge of WI.

Last August this all came to head, because while Dennis Smith was using our taxpayer dollars to bring his high school crush to Madison(using our taxpayer dollars to do so), it seems that her husband was not so excited about it.   Andrew Spear, allegedly came across some emails, confirming his suspicion that Smith and his wife were having an affair.

This led to a very ugly incident between the two, that was not covered very well in the media.  The one thing that consistently came out of this and was covered, was Dennis Smith's denial of the affair!
 
In a statement from Smith, he acknowledged a lifelong friendship with Mary Spear, and denied having an affair with her.

"I categorically and unequivocally deny that I have ever had a relationship with Mary Spear beyond friendship," Smith stated.

Smith was so adamant that he denied his affair, that he had to take some more WI  taxpayer money to hire a consultant and put a press release saying he really really didnt have an affair....honest!    Smith also pointed out that he will no longer have any public comments.  He was not kidding.

It seems that Mr. Spear has been trying to get the relevant phone/email records of Mr. Smith and Mrs. Spear that will prove that what he has to say about their affair is true.   After all the emails that Mr. Spear found are key in every version of the story.   Dennis Smith, who promised that he would not have any more comments, holds true to that even if it means breaking open records laws to do so!

However, Mr. Smith does not need to really comment anymore, as the motions filed in Dane County Branch 7 speak volumes.  In this motion we learn that allegedly:

1.  After the altercation at the storage shed, Mary drove Andrew home grabbed her computer and tried to leave.  Andrew stopped her from leaving, police were called and all the while she was very protective of her computer.

2.  Mary Spear admitted to the police that this whole altercation started when Andrew found the emails on her hard drive.

3.  The State has possession of all computers.

Then the next motion was filed and has even more interesting alleged claims: where Mr. Spear says that Mrs. Spear went into this panic when he threatened to tell Mrs. Smith!   We also find that Mrs. Spear told different people different versions of what happened in the storage shed. 


 The Spears had the ultimate tragedy happen to them a few years ago and that is something no one should have to live with.  I render no judgements on them and what happened in the storage shed.  That is for them and the courts of Wisconsin to sort out!

I do however hold serious concerns about Mr. Dennis Smith.   The person who heads the Department of Health Services and makes $122,568/yr,  the person who is in charge of hundreds of thousands of peoples healthcare in Wisconsin, should have better judgement then to get himself involved in the middle of a volatile marriage like the Spears.

Dennis Smith should also answer for why we as Wisconsin taxpayers, have to pay so much money to overcome his lapses in judgement.  Mr. Smith should also answer why he would only interview one person for such an important job with the state of WI!  Mr. Smith also needs to answer if he takes his job seriously and why he would get so involved in the life of someone who reports to him(irregardless if there was an affair).   if the court documents do get released and they show an affair, then Mr. Smith needs to explain that to the taxpayers of Wisconsin and Governor Walker will have to answer questions on his hiring practices and if Mr. Smith is fit to be in his position!  Governor Walker should also explain why he would be hiring people from the Heritage Foundation, does ideology trump competence?  

In the meantime, while we wait for the answers to come out for those questions, maybe Mr Smith can start out by answering this question.   If there was no affair, why would you communicate so much with Mrs. Spear via your state provided and owned blackberry and say this:

 in which Mary declared her love for Dennis and wondered if he was leaving her to which he responded " My dearest, I did not know that you had called. I am sorry you think I left you. Stupidly left my Blackberry at the office."

Stay tuned, this case will get very interesting!     

How The FCC Could Counter Citizens United

It is well known that since the Supreme Court of the United States' ruling in Citizens United, the corporations have been pouring money into almost every election in order to buy control of every corner of our country.

That is ever so apparent in the way Scott Walker and the Republicans are kowtowing to the likes of the Koch Brothers, the Bradley Foundation and anyone else with enough cash to buy their votes.

But this could all be stopped within 90 short days.

All it would take is for the Federal Communications Commission to develop a spine.

I say this based on this article written by Michael J. Copps, a former FCC Commissioner.  In said article, Copps points out how easy it would be for the FCC to expose this corruption, if they just had the gumption to do their jobs by enforcing a law that they've allowed to lay dormant for more than 20 years:

Fortunately, one major reform can be implemented immediately, without legislative action or a court order. All we need is for an independent agency, the Federal Communications Commission, to enforce a campaign finance disclosure requirement that is already on the books.

Section 317 of the Communications Act (47 USC § 317) requires on-air identification of the sponsors of all advertisements, political as well as commercial. Explaining the rules it wrote to implement the statute, the FCC stipulated years ago that political ads must “fully and fairly disclose the true identity of the person or persons, or corporation, committee, association or other unincorporated group, or other entity” paying for them. “Listeners are entitled to know by whom they are being persuaded,” the commission said.

“True identity” means just what it says. If a special interest group calling itself Citizens for Purple Mountain Majesties and Amber Waves of Grain is a front for a chemical company refusing to clean up a toxic dump or an energy company looking to buy friendships on Capitol Hill, the law says we as citizens need to know that.

As Copps correctly states, the special interests would scream bloody murder about anyone trying to do this.

But Copps also points out that the Citizens United ruling also supports the FCC's right and obligation to enforce this law:

More potentially good news: campaign finance reform may have an unlikely ally. Hidden away in the Supreme Court’s otherwise outrageous Citizens United decision, the source of so much damage to our political system, is this sentence, in effect backed by eight of the nine justices: “Disclosure is the less-restrictive alternative to more comprehensive speech regulations.” If the High Court itself is talking disclosure, isn’t it time to get on with the job?

Wouldn't that be something to see?!

I would love to see it in effect now.

I don't imagine that Patience Roggensack would have even survived the primary if all the ads running on her behalf had to have the disclosure that they were being paid for by groups like the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce or some other right wing group looking to keep the majority of the state supreme court under their thumb.

And don't think for a minute she doesn't know this as well. Why else would she have tried to conceal the $20,000 she got from all of the out of state school profiteers?

"Alternative Reporting" Offers Alternative To The Truth

As popular opinion keeps turning against the power grab being pulled off by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, his fellow plutocrats at the Greater Milwaukee Committee and State Representative Joe "Cab King" Sanfelippo, the supporters of this ill-advised and misbegotten stunt are getting more desperate in trying to defend it.

Sadly, I'm not referring to just the hired trolls either.

Bruce Murphy, who is now writing at the blog Urban Milwaukee, has been pushing credibility in an effort to persuade people to support this unsupportable move to usurp control of Milwaukee County and place in the hands of one man - Chris Abele.

Most recently, he has taken umbrage with an article written by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Steve Schultze, which takes a closer look at the power grab bill which was finally revealed by Sanfelippo after many false starts.

Murphy sniped that Schultze was misleading his readers by inaccurately reporting what is really in the bill, all but accusing Schultze of making it up out of whole cloth:

Schultze, for instance, claims the bill gives the executive “the authority to hire as many staff as he wishes for the county executive’s office.” Nonsense. The executive’s budget would have to be approved, as before, by the county board. “The most powerful control the board has is the power of the purse strings,” Sanfelippo notes. “What Schultze wrote is completely misleading.”

Schultze also wrote that the county exec “would gain power through authority for all contracts.” Also misleading. The exec can now approve any contract worth less than $50,000. The legislation would increase that to $100,000. For any contract worth $100,000 to $300,000, if just one board member objected, a full vote of the board would then be required to approve it. And for any contract of more than $300,000, board approval is automatically required.

Schultze writes that the board “also would lose its power to change terms of any proposed sale or lease of county property.” True, the board would not be able to renegotiate deals, but it would retain the power to set the parameters and policies for any sale or lease agreement, and the executive would have to follow those. Once a deal is negotiated within those parameters, the board would have the choice of approving the deal or not. “This forces the executive to work more closely with the board to make sure the deal gets approved,” Sanfelippo notes.

Dan Cody applauded Murphy's hit piece and offered a few kicks of his own:

For the record, I completely agree that the JS reporter in question suffers from the same problem most in his profession do: he can't burn his sources. It's true in sports reporting and political reporting and has been rearing it's head in local political reporting for years before this issue. That said, I find Steve to be a nice guy who works hard and have nothing against him.

What's become interesting to me about this whole issue is just how willing some third party groups are willing to make this their Waterloo.

The real problem here is that it is not Schultze who is doing the misleading. It is Murphy and Cody that are incorrect with their facts.

As I had pointed out in my coverage of the power grab bill, the bill was accompanied by a memorandum written by Anna Henning, a staff attorney with the Wisconsin Legislative Council. The lines that Murphy and Cody accuse Schultze of fabricating, or at least conflating, come directly from this memorandum.

To address the three issues that are in the above-cited section of Murphy's diatribe, let's look at the memo.

On the bottom of page 5 of the memo, Attorney Henning has this bullet point under "Additional Authorities of the Milwaukee County Executive":

Hire and supervise the number of employees that the County Executive reasonably believes are necessary to carry out the duties of the County Executive’s office.

So Schultze is right on the money with that one.

Right below this bullet point is footnote number 5 which reads:

The bill specifies that no contract with Milwaukee County is valid unless it is signed or countersigned by the Milwaukee County Executive.

Again, Schultze is true to the memo, Murphy's complaint is not.

As for the third issue that Murphy brings up, well, Abele is currently supposed to be following the policy set forth by the County Board, but just like his predecessor Scott Walker, Abele has simply refused to do so.

Abele refused to have his staff live in Milwaukee County, which is a requirement per county policy. Abele had proposed to give half a million taxpayer dollars away as bonuses, again in violation of county policy. Abele is trying to shut down the mental health complex on his own, which is against county policy.  The list could go on for a bit more too.

So while Murphy admits that Schultze is accurate on this account, he then makes a false statement himself regarding the county executive's need to "work with the board."

As the gentle reader can plainly see, Schultze is true to the memo, which was written by an independent lawyer, not a Teapublican politician with an ax to grind.

So, I guess, in a way, one could say that the pro-plutocratic power grab bloc is upset with Schultze's accuracy in his article.

But not because it is misleading.  Rather, they are upset because it accurately shows that this is nothing but an unjustified and unjustifiable power grab.

Abele's Trolls Attack!

I saw this on the Facebook page of Milwaukee County Supervisor Jason Haas and I wanted to share it with you:

A comment was posted on my blog a little while ago from an anonymous person who claimed to be a constituent. This person also claimed that I am unresponsive to constituents.

Curiously, this comment, which was anonymous, came from a server at the lobbying group Mueller Communications. That company is a hired gun in the "nuke the board" fight.

The IP address that the comment came from appears to have a physical location in Waukesha. As a Milwaukee County Supervisor, I do not have any constituents who live in Waukesha County.

If this person is indeed a constituent who has not gotten a response from me, I asked that they call my office, and their needs will be met, by me, immediately. The phone number is 278-4252.

In any case, we are still waiting to hear from this constituent who works at the lobbying firm and posted from the Waukesha IP address.

For full disclosure, I met two weeks ago with a person from Mueller, albeit on a different issue. So it's facetious to claim I don't respond. Even to lobbyists.

Troll attacks are nothing new. Neither is the fact that the trolls are habitually sloppy in their attacks. That's why they're called trolls.

But it is significant that Chris Abele and his fellow plutocrats at GMC are resorting to having their hired supporters resort to such tacky lines of attacks. It appears that all of Abele's appearances on talk radio is doing nothing to turn the rising tide of negativity coming from their power grab.

Hmmm. Americans are against tyranny. Who'd have thunk it?

County Board - 4, Abele - 0

The Milwaukee County Board has issued the following press release:

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors is pleased to announce the first round of listening sessions of the “OUR Milwaukee County” government reform discussion.

The word “OUR” of OUR Milwaukee County stands for “Outreach for Unified Reform.” The goals of the initiative are to discuss reform of Milwaukee County government locally and to create dialogue and listening sessions, inviting everyone whose daily lives are touched by Milwaukee County government.

Listening sessions currently scheduled include:

Tuesday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m.
Wilson Park Senior Center, Main Hall, 2601 W. Howard, Ave., Milwaukee
Supervisor Jason Haas

Thursday, March 14 at 6:30 p.m.
Wauwatosa Public Library, Firefly Room, 7635 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa
Supervisor James “Luigi” Schmitt

Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30 p.m.
North Shore Library, 6800 N. Port Washington Rd., Glendale
Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb, Sr.

Tuesday March 19 at 6:30 p.m.
Evangel Assembly of God, Chapel area, 9920 W. Good Hope Rd., Milwaukee
Supervisor Deanna Alexander

So the Board already has four public hearings scheduled.

Chris Abele has yet to schedule one. Although he does like going on talk radio* to tell people what they think.

That puts the Board up 4-0 on who's really on the people's side.

Considering that the same people he is running to now for support of his maleficent cause once inferred that he is a pedophile, I wonder just where his head is.

Right To Woe Comes To Wisconsin In Piecemeal Fashion

I got home and got inundated with emails and messages all pointing to the same press release jointly released by Senators Chris Larson and Julie Lassa and Representative Sandy Pasch:

A bill being rushed through the Republican-controlled State Legislature is an attack on private sector union bargaining rights, three legislators charged today.

The proposal, sponsored by State Senator Paul Farrow (R-Pewaukee) and Representative Ed Brooks (R-Reedsburg), would allow employers to reduce the hours of their union-represented employees without the union’s approval. Democratic legislators charged that the measure is the first blow in an effort to scale back private sector employee bargaining rights.

“Republicans began their war on bargaining rights with Act 10, and with this bill they have now turned their attention to private sector unions,” Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said. “This bill is a clear opening shot at undermining private sector unions.”

“This is the beginning of ‘divide and conquer’ part two,” said State Senator Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point). “The Farrow-Brooks bill says that private sector unions shouldn’t be able to negotiate for their members. It’s one more step toward their goal of ending the right of Wisconsin citizens to have their voice heard in the workplace.”

“Sen. Lassa and I have authored legislation that accomplish the essence of AB 15 and SB 26, without increasing the risk of lawsuits or undermining the ability of unions to represent the rights of their members,” said Assistant Assembly Democratic Leader Sandy Pasch (D – Shorewood). “I urge the Republican authors of this flawed legislation to slow down and work with us in a bipartisan manner to ensure that we avoid completely unnecessary conflict and delay in implementing a work-share program.”

Senate Bill 26 and its companion, Assembly Bill 15 were introduced on Friday and were scheduled for public hearings today. Hearing notices indicate that committee votes could come as soon as Thursday. “They’re rushing this bill through to keep it below the radar before members of private sector unions and the public have a chance to react,” Sen. Lassa said.

This bill, as described, will do more than affect the hours that the private sector workers will be allowed.

Having just been through this with Scott Walker's illegal furloughs, which he used to give Milwaukee County employees up to 26 furlough days, it can affect their other benefits, such as seniority, pension and health care coverage. This legislation is a bit more than the beginning of Right to Woe laws, it's actually a watered down version of it.

No wonder the cowards are trying to ram this through with as little attention as possible.

They know that this will make the people rise up again.

But something tells me that they have more than a bunch of pissed off people showing up at the Capitol. They will need to answer to their corporate masters when Labor shuts the state down.

Kristi Litella

Our favorite well paid tea party teacher , Kristi LaCroix, is at it again.   This time instead of showing up in Beloit pushing stale propaganda, she is sending out her "newsletter"* (* = news in this context, used VERY loosely).  


In her latest version of her "newsletter"* tells us the story of Jason David Barker, a special education teacher at La Crescent Montessori Academy.  Mr Barker was recently arrested and charged with molesting young girls.   This tragic story, gave "Kristi and the teapers"all the opening they needed.  First she copied someone's post named Tracie Ann(emphasis mine):

Yes, this TEACHER has a FELONY record. Can someone please tell me how he can get a job as a teacher with a record like that?! School officials won’t comment on their hiring process. Well, I can. I can tell you that their process needs to be seriously revised. All teachers are supposed to go through a criminal background check. Guess they forgot to ask about this man’s past.

Interestingly, Barker teaches in Minnesota. Minnesota is a union state. Heck, the unions have been in charge of MN since the day they learned they could legally extort money from any and all teachers. I am betting they’re going to protect this jerk and get him his job back. This is what unions do – they protect the teacher over the students.

 Kristi then writes at the end of this irrational rant:

•  Every so often I come across someone or something that makes me say, “Yes! I could not have said it better myself.”

The problem?  Jason David Barker is NOT a union member.  The union had absolutely nothing to do with getting him hired, nothing to do with his lack of background checks, lack of training or the fact that he is charged with molesting students!  None, nada, zip zero!  

So nice try but what your really showing here is why we can not have private schools teaching our children who have no accountability to the taxpayers.     Thanks for that!

Voucher School Failure!

By Jeff Simpson 


There has been a propaganda bus tour, to tell us how great private/voucher schools are and we know that the Governor will also tell us how great they are at his version of the State of the State.   Everyone knows, you can count on AFP-WI and Scott Walker to not tell us the truth, it is time to look more closely at voucher/charter schools.   

1.  We will start right in Milwaukee, WI, where we see that the Milwaukee Public School system outperforms the area voucher schools.   

 A new report from the Public Policy Forum in Milwaukee found that the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which enrolls about 25,000 students in private schools through the state's voucher program, has similar demographics and poverty levels as Milwaukee Public Schools, but students there perform slightly worse on standardized tests in math and reading.

2.   Diane Ravitch points out exactly what Milwaukee needs and it is NOT vouchers:

Gov. Scott Walker's answer to the Milwaukee problem is to call for more vouchers and charters and for virtual charters. But if the students in those schools are not outperforming the ones in the public schools after 20 years, why should those sectors grow? And we know from multiple studies that students in virtual schools do worse than those in brick-and-mortar schools.
More of the same is no answer. Doubling down on failure is a bad bet.
Yes, Milwaukee needs a bold vision. It needs a reset.
It needs one public education sector, not three competing sectors. The time for dual- and triple-systems should have ended in 1954, with the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
Milwaukee needs one public school system that receives public dollars, public support, community engagement and parental involvement.
Vouchers and charters had their chance. They failed.
Now it is time to build a great public school system that meets the needs of the children of Milwaukee.
The children of Milwaukee need universal pre-kindergarten so that they arrive in school ready to learn. Children with high needs require small classes and extra attention. Public schools should provide a superb program in the arts for all children in every grade. They should have a rich curriculum - history, literature, foreign languages, the sciences, mathematics and civics - for all children. Every student should have daily physical education. The schools should have the nurses, guidance counselors, social workers and librarians they need. Children should have after-school programs where they can learn new skills, strengthen their bodies, and get extra tutoring.
It is impossible to achieve these goals in a city with three competing school systems. It is entirely possible to achieve when there is one school system that becomes the focus of the energies of parents, civic leaders and the business community.
Many children, one Milwaukee.

3.   The School Administrators Alliance(aka union), hardly a liberal group, has come out with their own research report about voucher schools, and had the following findings:

 In the memo, the SAA makes four major points about private school voucher expansion and why it is the wrong choice for Wisconsin:

1) The ultimate objective of voucher advocates is a statewide system of private school vouchers for all Wisconsin school children.

2) Vouchers do not improve student achievement.

3) Vouchers eliminate public accountability.

4) Vouchers take resources away from public school students.

4.  Jake, like he so often does, showed us how Private schools copy failure NOT success. 

   Wisconsin's strong educational base was once again illustrated with the release of a report last week showing the Wisconsin high school class of 2010 had the 2nd-highest graduation rate in the U.S. at 91.1%. This improved on the 2009 figure of 90.7% when Wisconsin was Number 1 in the nation for best graduation, and Wisconsin's graduation rate improved from 83.3% in 2001 to that 90.7% in a span of 8 years - the 11th largest increase in the nation.

  And it wasn't like Wisconsin was just pushing kids through the system, as Wisconsin high schoolers have consistently scored well above the national averages on the ACT test,  despite the state potentially watering down the scores by encouraging more Wisconsin students to take the test in recent years.

 5.  The Northwestern likes Senator Ellis idea that local referendum passes before vouchers be expanded to a community! 

One can only hope his act of outspoken courage helps fuse the spine of fellow senators and pushes this partisan plum off the Republican agenda during biennium budget discussions. The school choice movement is little more than an employment agency for former Republican lawmakers who continue to push for taxpayers to foot the bill for private education. There is no evidence the voucher experiment in Milwaukee has produced results better than public schools.

Nor are voucher advocates prepared to suggest private schools operate under the same myriad of federal and state regulations Wisconsin’s public schools are required by law to follow. Private and religious school choice advocates would be wise to stop courting public dollars for they may ultimately find they get the dollars — and long strings attached. Parochial schools have long and proud traditions that will continue to flourish without the deep pockets and pages of requirements of public dollars.

Research over and over shows us that voucher schools do NOT perform as well as public schools, we also know that without public oversight, administrators in private schools, show us that they can not always be trusted!

6.   A Reuters reprt on charter schools, shows us that - many such institutions disregard their own promises of inclusion and equal opportunity by creating barriers to needier students while targeting for enrollment those most likely to pad test scores or otherwise enhance their own promises of "success".

As Reuters reports, many charter schools across the US, despite their assurances to the contrary,

aggressively screen student applicants, assessing their academic records, parental support, disciplinary history, motivation, special needs and even their citizenship, sometimes in violation of state and federal law.

And the barriers documented include:

• Applications that are made available just a few hours a year.
• Lengthy application forms, often printed only in English, that require student and parent essays, report cards, test scores, disciplinary records, teacher recommendations and medical records.
• Demands that students present Social Security cards and birth certificates for their applications to be considered, even though such documents cannot be required under federal law.
• Mandatory family interviews.
• Assessment exams.
• Academic prerequisites.
• Requirements that applicants document any disabilities or special needs. The U.S. Department of Education considers this practice illegal on the college level but has not addressed the issue for K-12 schools.

 full report here!

7.  We also know that while the test scores at voucher schools do not outperform public schools, we also know we can not trust the private schools to even give us the correct results!

A for-profit school that was hyped by Republican lawmakers as a solution to Tennessee’s education problems recently admitted deleting bad grades to “more accurately recognize students’ current progress.”
A December email obtained by WTVF showed that Tennessee Virtual Academy’s vice principal instructed middle school teachers to delete “failing grades” from October and September.
“After … looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays,” the email says, adding that each teacher needed to “take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress.”
“If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out.”

 

GO! GO! GO!!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Fallone!
Protaciewicz!
Staskunas!
Bryce!
Wisniewski!