Wisconsin Wednesday: Snacilbuper

Republicans here in Wisconsin do everything backwards. Really. Recent examples:

Problem: Wisconsin's largest school district, with more students in poverty, in special education, and speaking a language other than English as their first, is failing too many of the students it serves.
Republican-enacted solution: Take resources away from the district, and invest tax money in fly-by-night schools that can be established and staffed by anyone with a pulse and which are held to exactly zero academic standards.
Problem: Wisconsin's taxes are high and the tax structure is particularly punitive to middle-class homeowners.
Republican-proposed solution: Pass a law freezing taxes at the high level and propose a constitutional amendment making the tax structure permanent.
Problem: Wisconsin's health care costs are increasing faster than any other state's in the region.
Republican-proposed solution: Cap liability payouts in lawsuits--oh, wait, we did this years ago and our rates are climbing faster than ever.
Problem: Wisconsin's electoral votes go to Democrats.
Republican-proposed solution: Erect barriers to voting, including the elimination of same-day registration.

This is the most recent:
Problem: Wisconsin families and workers are being squeezed by high property taxes and high health care costs.
Republican solution: Prevent Wisconsin cities with the highest costs of living from raising the minimum wage for their residents--which might have made the squeeze a little less painful.

Monday this week, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett signed a bill that would phase in a new minimum wage of $6.50 an hour, the same increase recommended by a non-partisan state panel last year for the whole of Wisconsin. When Republican legislators (perhaps goosed by the business lobby's hands in their back pockets) balked at that plan, Madison enacted its own raise last year, phasing in an eventual rate of $7.75 by 2008. Milwaukee is the second city to raise its rate. (And it looks like Lacrosse may be the third.)

Remember, a worker earning the current minimum wage ($5.15) full-time would still only earn $11,000 a year pre-tax, pre-health care, pre-food and shelter. That is, literally, poverty wages if that person has a child. (A raise to $6.50 would only barely lift that person above poverty level.) As my guy in the Assembly Josh Zepnick put it (pdf), "Right now, a minimum wage earner can afford a monthly rent of no more than $268. Maybe some people in the Republican leadership would like to go apartment shopping with me on Milwaukee's South Side [. . .] I sure haven't been able to find any $268 apartments." (And it's true--search here.)

The business lobby, though, is crying foul. (As much as conservatives dislike trial lawyers, they sure do go to court a lot, don't they?) I say so what if the duly elected officials of certain cities want to ensure that the people who live there are able to stay there? But those Snacilbupers are even refusing to compromise.

Anyway, perfect opportunity for Republicans controlling the legislature to deny any actual solutions for the problems that they are only happy to exploit.