The 39,000 Jobs Hoax

By Keith R. Schmitz

The Walker administration and the six Republican state senators involved in this week’s recall election are throwing out the claim that the changes they have brought to state government have led to the creation of 39,000 new jobs. The media is allowing them to make that brag as well.

The six GOP targets have to sell this idea. Their jobs are on the line and if there is a metric people are looking at for all politicians right now, it is job creation. During last week’s debate in Menomonee Falls hardly ten minutes went by without Alberta Darling bringing up these job numbers and how wonderful their programs are.

For this discussion, let’s not talk about the quality of these jobs. After all, Walker chased away what would have been 5,000 good paying jobs with a future connected with extending the high-speed rail line before he even took office.

The question here is how can Walker, Darling, et al tell you that they helped create these jobs, when the realities of business tell you otherwise.

He Swears the Jobs are His

So we are to believe that the moment Scott Walker raised his right hand to take the oath of office for Governor, those jobs started popping up like mushrooms?

Usually businesses look for new hires when they have something for them to do. It would be mind stretching to think that just because someone is a fanatical Walker supporter that they would be bringing people on just because Scottie is at the helm. Not these hardnosed captains of industry.

For existing businesses, new faces generally start appearing only after a business sees a rise in revenue thanks to customers walking through the door or the sales force putting orders on the books. The evaluation process often takes months for a number of reasons and even then it’s not like people just start popping up, because recruitment takes some time.

Sure there can be new businesses opening their doors but even the planning for those is months in the works.

Origin of the Jobs?

The point is that the Walker/Darling/GOP assertion of creating 39,000 new jobs since January is ludicrous, given the way business works. It is also ludicrous because an administration has to do something to earn the credit for job creation.

A couple of times during the debates, Darling mentioned that 85% of Wisconsin business leaders said that Wisconsin is heading in the right direction. Make that 85% of the membership of WMC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party.

Now if anyone would be hiring because of giddiness over having Walker in office, it would be them. It would be interesting to find out how many of these companies have brought on new employees since they are among the state’s very largest companies, though we would never know when they actually started to think about adding these jobs.

Where Credit Is Due

The GOP crowd may not like to see this, but just about all these jobs probably began their gestation period back during the Doyle administration, with a big help from the Obama stimulus. There are in fact several companies here in Milwaukee that were able to launch new ventures thanks to stimulus funds, ventures that included high paying jobs.

Again, raising your right hand doesn’t count. In reality there was nothing Walker and the GOP did until he signed the budget back in late June. So even then, the clock didn’t start ticking until ink hits paper, so we are still many months out before we know if the plan works.

In between was the signing of the so-called budget repair bill, not a big booster to business. In fact it could be argued the other way. State employees make up 18% of the state work force, and with this large of population saying good bye to a large part of their salary; a number of stores, restaurants and other businesses will see a significant drop off in sales, especially in cities that have large concentrations of public employees such as university towns and places the have correctional facilities.

Let’s get back to the timeline. Walker signs the budget in late June, and any job creation they could take credit for would be legitimately in Fall.

May Not Be a Merry Christmas

But even with the holidays coming, the job picture may not be so rosy. In fact there are reports that this year parents have not let loose with back to school spending.

By then the recalls will be history, but we have some big events to look forward, mostly the prospect of a Walker recall, and his buddies in Congress have not been too helpful.

With the new Congress sworn in, there was as some pundits put it, “a lack of interest for more stimulus.” For many like our US Senator Ron Johnson who proclaimed that “the stimulus didn’t create a single job”, the country is finding out what the real impact of the stimulus is by its very absence. Johnson and his cohort ripped the tubes out of the patient just as the economy was recovering.

Most recently there is the horrible debt ceiling agreement. The right wing loves to assert that government jobs are not real jobs. The problem is that these people are being paid real money, which flows into the real economy and cut off that flow, the economy suffers. Many economists are predicting the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs once the debt ceiling agreement kicks into action.

Many of these economists are saying that extreme cutting is the last thing this economy needs. And we will soon find out if they are right. That may be by the end of the year, and that’s not good news for Walker.

There is speculation about when the long anticipated recall of Walker kicks into gear, ranging from around the end of 2011 to the 2012 general election. Either way, if the double dip recession hits, probably nothing Walker has done will avert it. Worse, Walker’s budget shredded the social safety net in Wisconsin, amplifying the misery – and heightening the anger against him.

If things play out, it will be Walker who will be joining the ranks of the unemployed, needing to get his first real job since college.

This is of course known in the trade as poetic justice, except we will be the ones paying the price.

Is Gov. Jim Doyle calling Rep. Gwen Moore a liar?

by folkbum

Because if he is, he should just use those words, and not beat around the bush:

Gov. Jim Doyle said Monday the state must give control of Milwaukee schools to the mayor to put in a "good faith" application for federal economic stimulus funds.

Gwen Moore, repeatedly, earlier:

During our discussion on July 9, you [Secretary of Education Arne Duncan] discussed your goals for Race to the Top, as well as the qualifications and standards that states need to follow in order to qualify for funding. I commend you for your transparency during this process, as well as for your willingness to clarify points of particular concern for my constituents at our meeting. Responding to my query regarding requirements for governance of school boards, you unequivocally stated that mayoral control of the school board is not a prerequisite to compete for Race to the Top funds--a position made clearer by the fact that the proposed rule does not mention the type of local school board control required to qualify for dollars.

One of the two must be lying or pushing a personal agenda regardless of the truth. And given that Gwen Moore has the documentation on her side (seriously, read about the Race funds and look for anything about urban district governance), I tend to believe her. If the governor knows something she doesn't, he needs to put that on the table or he'll keep looking like a fool.

Please don't. Not any more.

by folkbum

I've been going back and forth on how much or what to say about the proposed mayoral takeover of the Milwaukee Public Schools--I'm agin' it--or even whether to bother, as if my opinion counts for squat anymore.

A lot of what I wanted to say, Jennifer Morales did in her op-ed Sunday; her second half--about all the things that Mayor Tom "Fightin' Tom" Barrett could if he really wanted to help the children of Milwaukee--is almost word-for-word what I would have written if I had gotten around to it. You should really read it all.

There was one point when I'd started drafting and collected a bunch of tabs full of reasons why a mayoral takeover is a bad idea and won't work (historically it doesn't help, at least not without massive sustained increases in per-student spending as in New York, and even mentioning it is driving a wedge between Barrett and the best possible allies he could want, Michael Bonds and the AAEC) and my browser crashed so, hey, decision made.

But then I read this yesterday:

Barrett and Doyle indicated they will push on to make mayoral control happen, despite opposition from local groups and Doyle's decision to not seek re-election.

The two biggest issues at stake, Doyle said, include securing a new superintendent for Milwaukee Public Schools, which should be chosen by the mayor and answer to the mayor to create a "clear line of accountability," and submitting a competitive state application for a piece of the $4.5 billion in Race to the Top federal school stimulus funding before the end of this year.

Got that? This is about chasing money, running down a short-term prize without giving a damn about the long-term consequences of the decision. This is something about which MPS teachers can speak with experience.

This careening about in search of the New Hotness that gets Grant Funding is horrible, horrible policy. Case in point: You know North Division High School? It spent the better part of the last decade as the vanguard in MPS's small high school multiplex redesign program*, primarily because the Gates Foundation and other groups were doling out the fundage for small schools. North was generally awful before the change, and remained generally awful no matter what small program was wedged into the multiplex. It is now in the process of being rebiggified as a single school instead of a multiplex.

Marshall High School, which got the same treatment, saw failed small school after failed small school parade through and is now just going to be turned over to Morse Middle School to house a 6-12 program there. Washington's multiplex has been more stable, but the small schools have never lived up to the success that a Gates grant seemed to promise, scoring below district averages in nearly every measure.**

When the multiplex money dried up, First Things First was the next New Hotness that had Grant Funding, and the first to go in the pursuit of those funds were Bradley Tech and Pulaski. Tech you undoubtedly have an opinion of, but it's also clear that Pulaski's not living up to the promise, either, with no changes in retention rates, suspensions rates, truancy rates, or reading and math scores. My previous school, Milwaukee Madison, was forced to give up its International Baccalaureate program in favor of First Things First, driving away talented students and staff (most of whom, your humble correspondent not included, found their way to Reagan); its metrics are also in the tank.

All of these top-down decisions have crushed staff morale over the past few years, sent many a good teacher to early retirement or the suburbs, and thoroughly upheaved programs that in many cases have not recovered. The modest district-wide gains in test scores at the high school level hold little to no connection to these changes and the schools in question all continue to fail on their No Child Left Behind benchmarks, all while students, staff, and principals fight their way through conflicting visions of reform and enthusiasm-killing, soul-crushing program-churn.

And that's just what the pursuit of the elusive Grant Funding has done to the high schools, the circle in which I operate; the drive to create K-8 charters is choking the traditional middle schools, for example; I'm sure there's more if I had the time to dig just a little bit.

To be clear: I do not want to sound like I blame teachers for the failings of the schools listed above. Every one of these schools has hard-working, dedicated, talented teachers and staff who are doing the best they can under damned difficult circumstances. It's just that the pursuit of reform for the sake of $$$$$$$$$ adds layers of more Sisyphean challenge. It is Bad Policy.

And now comes Arne Duncan***, strutting past shaking his Race to the Top**** funds like a three-dollar whore, and the drool starts puddling around the feet of people who sure ought to be smarter than that. If the recent history of education in Milwaukee has shown anything--from the Bradley Foundation's funding of a middling voucher program that doesn't live up to the hype to the way the current superintendent slavishly trolled for Gates money--it's that chasing down a dollar is horrible pedagogy and worthless to the bottom line--helping kids learn.

Don't you think it's time to give it a rest?

*I did a whole series on small high schools back in 2005; it sounds prescient, now.
**All notes about school performance based on the 2007-2008 report cards. Go here, click on the names of the schools you want to see, and scroll down to access pdfs of the report cards.
***Here's a report (.pdf) suggesting that former Chicago Public Schools CEO Duncan was no miracle worker, and that mayoral control in Chicago has been ineffective.
****See also retired school administrator Mike Schutz on Race to the Top.

Fixing the Internets

by folkbum

B&S: Doyle Lives Large Much Smaller than His Republican Predecessors On Taxpayers’ Dime

Mark Neumann Site Is Up, And It's Good

by Michael Leon

The Mark Neumann for Governor committee filed its GAB-1 Campaign Registration Statement with the Government Accountability Board last week.

But a modern campaign is a campaign only when it gets its website up. Mark Neumann's site is up and it is not too shabby, though it's still in development.

Good colors, not text-heavy, and easy-to-find information.

Constructive suggestions, Mr. Neumann.

The upper-right and bottom quadrants of a given web page (in green in the above graphic) should be comprised of low-priority information. EyeTrack studies show readers’ eyes don't see these quadrants well. So whatever info you put on these spots ought to be low-priority. Your upper-right is a high-priority “Donate” button. Move this over to the left an inch or so.

Also, an industry standard is that hyperlinks should maintain the page a reader is using and open to a new, seperate page.

So your linked headline, for example, "Press Release: Mark Neumann Enters 2010 Gubernatorial Race," should open to a new window; it does not now. Easy fix. The current code for the linked headline is (in part):

-- a href="http://markforgov.com/pg/blog/MarkNeumann/read/53/press-release-mark-neumann-enters-2010-gubernatorial-race"> Press Release: Mark Neumann Enters 2010 Gubernatorial Race --

Simply place the following code target="_blank" between the " and > charactersin the code (that are bolded in above graf and in red) and the reader will open up a new window.

Like as follows (try it and hit this following link): Press Release: Mark Neumann Enters 2010 Gubernatorial Race. ... Whallah, a new window.

Mr. Neumann, I want you to win the GOP nomination for governor and then I sincerely want the best man to win the general election. I disagree with you on much policy; but you are an earnest man and such men don't grow on trees.

Lots of more ideas. Contact me if you are interested on my working on your primary as a consultant at: maleon@charter.net.

Welcome Mike Gousha Viewers!

by folkbum

(Updated: If you missed the show, our segment is online here.)

I'm quite certain that tens of thousands of people all across the state are waking up this morning and watching "UpFront with Mike Gousha" and, impressed by my madd debating skillz, are immediately firing up teh great gizoogle and finding this here blog.

Owen and I had about 4 seconds to debate about a million things, so I thought I would add a few things here that I didn't get to say.

I spent the most time boning up on the sate budget and was able to get the fewest of my talking points in about that topic. In fact, the more I read up on the budget, the more impressed I was with it.

Owen's a bit lucky that Republican talking points on the budget are easily reducible to the lazy conservative dog whistles: increased spending, benefits for gays, illegal immigrants, blahdy blah blah blah.

The truth about the budget is a bit more wonky and a bit more important to the actual real lives of people across the state. For example, the budget was done on time this year for the first time since 1977. In these difficult economic times--indeed, in worsening economic times, as the revenue news was revised downward several times since the beginning of the year--Democrats were able to come together and get a budget done on time.

It's also a budget that does not raise the sales tax, income tax (for 99% of people), property tax, or gas tax. State workers and state agencies took a big hit so that education and shared revenue could be spared the worst. The spending from General Purpose Revenue--the big pot of tax dollars the state collects from you and me--is lower, in real dollars, in actual total dollars spent, in this budget than in the previous one, but 2.5%. The total increase in spending (yes, $61b for 09-11 is larger than the $58b for 07-09) is almost entirely accounted for by federal stimulus dollars, not tax increases--and don't let the Republicans tell you any differently. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that the median home's property taxes would increase a grand total of just $94 if schools and municipalities taxed to the max under revenue limits.

Wonky, yes. But also worth being proud of--and not something that petty little issues like gay-bashing and immigrant-bashing should be allowed to overcome.

As for Jim Doyle, and whether he's running for re-election, I will reiterate what I said on the show: No one has told me any differently. However, Doyle has indeed been invisible lately, not even taking much credit for the budget. Some Democrats have expressed quite a bit of displeasure over Doyle's relative absence lately, and they have a legitimate beef. However, if you remember four years ago, Doyle was perfectly happy just to go about doing his job and letting his opponents beat each other up. I firmly believe the Republican primary will get ugly, soon, and I will be happy to watch that happen. So will Jim Doyle.

UPDATED to add something else: One other thing I wanted to say on the show but that I didn't is that the single toughest opponent Jim Doyle will face next year is the economy. It doesn't matter which Republican's name is on the ballot; if the economy is still in the toilet, Doyle's re-election is less secure.

ALSO: I'm watching Mark Neumann on the program this morning, and he's taking credit for the Clinton economy of the 1990s that he voted against consistently. Ugh.

Let Us Count the Ways

By Keith R. Schmitz

The state of Wisconsin budget just signed by Governor Jim Doyle is a reflection of torturous decisions. Of course what really helped the process was the shrill screaming that emanated from the GOP and the rad right that seemed to dominate the "discussion." For months we have been treated to charges of torrents of taxes and job killing regulations. Of course their needle seems to be stuck in that groove.

Nobody by any stretch is happy. For me, in a recession government is the employer of last resort and we should have found ways to keep state workers on the rolls full time. Studies have shown that putting a dollar into the economy through government jobs has greater yield than not taking that dollar out through taxes.

The Wisconsin Technology Network is not a Doyle cheerleader by any means, but kudos for having the fairness to find aspects of the budget that benefit business and growth. Doyle by no means hates Wisconsin business, as well as Democrats in the state legislature, or Democrats for that matter, a good number who are in business and doing very well at it.

We simply don't like a having a government that brings out the worst in business or steamrollers the other stakeholders in the state.

Even Lt. Gov. Lawton beats the pants off of Walker, Neumann

by folkbum

There is no serious indication that Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is not running for re-election. There's also not any serious indication that he is, for that matter; I think we have all just been assuming that he will.

Research 2000, for Daily Kos (so, salt grains perhaps necessary), not only polled the Doyle match-ups against his likeliest opponents (Scott Walker, Tosa Ranger and Mark (Nickname Needed) Neumann--not to mention fantasy candidate Tommy! Thompson); they also polled Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton:

Barbara Lawton (D) 44
Scott Walker (R)   35
Undecided          21

Barbara Lawton (D) 43
Mark Neumann (R)   35
Undecided          22

Barbara Lawton (D) 44
Tommy Thompson (R) 46
Undecided          10

I have to say, that's not bad for someone that the rightie bloggers insist is the least popular woman in state politics!

The full breakdown, including Senate numbers and fav/unfav for everybody polled, is here, and Lawton again proves remarkably popular for someone with a relatively low profile. If she could boost her numbers just among Democrats, for example, she would be almost as popular as Doyle, and more popular than Neumann. (She's already more popular than Walker, with a 35% favorability rating, over Walker's 33%.)

No one, of course, is more popular than Tommy!, but that's probably because absence has made our hearts fonder. And, after all, he was in charge during the 1990s boom time, and we'd give anything to return to that boom.

But the real story is Walker and Neumann, with their low scores, and low numbers against both Doyle and Lawton. And, yes, both guys hold Doyle and Lawton under 50%, which is generally a sign of weakness in an incumbent; and, yes, Walker still has 51% of the people in the state who have no opinion of him, so he has room to grow.

However, this poll confirms what even the right-tackular MacGuyver Institute poll suggested a couple of months ago: Doyle, though not the most popular guy in what should be a horrible set of circumstances for any sitting governor, is starting from relative strength against two weak opponents. The polling really does look like it did four years ago, and Doyle coasted to victory in 2006. Republicans need either better candidates or better lines of attack that anything they've used so far.

Developments show McKinsey & Co. audit of MPS not a dragonslayer

by folkbum

I was asked last night about whether there really seemed to be a lot of "consternation" about the McKinsey & Co. audit completed last month of the finances of the Milwaukee Public Schools, and I suggested that no, in fact, there wasn't. There were some documentable errors in the report, for example, and the report seemed to be a bit out if date, in that some of the things it suggested MPS do are things MPS is already working on--like selling unused properties, implementing "performance-based" budgeting and re-centralizing of purchasing functions.

And it may well be that I don't really have my finger on the pulse of community or institutional sentiment about the report, and so I'm missing a flurry of something somewhere; or it may be that the swine flu hysteria has overshadowed hysteria over the audit.

But the MPS Board of Directors' Strategic Planning and Budget Committee meeting last night suggests that I'm right:

A financial audit of Milwaukee Public Schools released last month that pointed to waste in the system and calls for reform from state and city leaders failed to produce the same kind of urgency Tuesday night at a School Board committee meeting.

An overview of the report was the topic of the meeting, but missing from the discussion were Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Gov. Jim Doyle and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster, all of whom Terry Falk, the chair of the Committee on Strategic Planning and Budget, had invited to talk to committee members. [. . .]

According to David Guran, one of the few residents who showed up to testify about the audit, the mayor's office said Tuesday that no meeting had yet been set for the MPS Innovation and Improvement Advisory Council that was supposed to form last month.

Not that I necessarily expect the governor himself to show up to an MPS board meeting, but the meeting was called specifically to discuss the audit (here's the agenda in .pdf form, including Terry Falk's letter to Doyle et al.) and you'd think that the people who demanded the audit would at least send a contingent to make their views and recommendations known to the board. But the fact that no one was there, and the fact that the big committee that is supposed to act in a non-binding oversight capacity on the MPS budget to ensure compliance with the audit's recommendations hasn't formed or met yet, just reinforces my belief that the audit was not the dragonslayer Doyle and Barrett hoped it would be.

First, the audit's findings were not so bad that Doyle and Barrett had reason to immediately call for a takeover of the district (see my earlier post here). The audit was able to cobble together $100 million a year in potential savings. That sounds like a lot of money--and it is!--but it is less than 10% of the overall MPS budget and a significant part of that savings came from foisting MPS workers onto the state dole for health care, which is not exactly the kind of thing that will save the state any money. If the audit had identified a larger number, or if it had identified $100m in pure waste as opposed to family-supporting wages and beniefits, then the report might well have given Doyle and Barrett impetus to act more forcefully and more quickly.

Second, perhaps more importantly, the audit is incredibly sympathetic toward MPS. The authors of the report make it clear that MPS faces tremendous budget pressures from many different directions--rapidly declining enrollment, a screwed-up state funding formula, an expensive health-care market in Southeast Wisconsin, and more--and that even if the audit's full recommendations are followed, MPS will still face significant budget crunches not very far down the road. While the audit does suggest that MPS needs an attitude adjustment when it comes to finances and reform, it also is pretty clear that reality will overtake the district whether administration gets ruthless (in some cases, heartless) in budgeting and collective bargaining or not.

In other words, even if Doyle or Barrett or the Milwaukee Common Council or some other institution takes over MPS, there still have to be significant changes external to MPS to make the district's finances viable long-term. Whoever is running MPS in two years will find themselves making the same arguments and facing the same difficult choices that the current board does now. I imagine that it's that reality that is keeping Doyle and Barrett far away, at least in public, from putting their own names on the line over MPS finances.

(NOTE: Thursday night, May 7, is the regular MPS Strategic Planning and Budget Committee meeting. The committee will consider the superintendent's proposed budget for the 2009-2010 school year. See the SPB agenda here (.pdf); find the budget documents here. If you have comments you want to make, this is your big chance.)

Weasel Speak Hits Wall Street

by capper

Milwaukee County Executive wrote an editorial piece which was published in the Wall Street Journal. The editorial was nothing more than a revision to his campaign stump speech which he pretended was his State of the County address. I do find it bemusing on why he would choose to put in the Wall Street Journal, as opposed to a local paper, or several local papers, like most politicians seeking a higher state office would have done. But then again, Walker doesn't have a lot of support outside of the southeastern corner of the state, so he may have tried, and failed to do that.

Most of the Posse Comatose gave it no more than a passing mention in a post, although Kevin Binversie did come out gushing a little:

With a message like this, Walker can turn what is going to be Doyle and the left’s argument “Walker Made Milwaukee County a Mess,” and turn it on its head. Try as they might, liberal bloggers will eventually have to turn the cannons inward and defend the fiscal policies of Governor Jim Doyle - a wholly-owned subsidiary of WEAC - before the 2010 Governor’s election. Try and say all you want of how “Walker screwed up Milwaukee County,” I will forever throw down my trump card in this political game of sheepshead:

Jim Doyle Screwed Up Wisconsin. A state is much, much, much bigger than a county.

But let's take a serious, factual look at this message of Walker's, shall we?

A great deal of Walker's editorial on why he thinks the stimulus package is so bad is nothing more than a blatant attack on Governor Jim Doyle.

But when Walker gets to his own bragging points, that is when the Weasel Speak kicks into high gear:

My county, however, finished fiscal year 2007 with a $7.9 million surplus and will break even for fiscal year 2008 when the books are closed next month. Why? Because we made tough budget decisions demanded by the taxpayers.

By the way, that's it for his bragging points. He apparently couldn't find anything else positive to say about himself.

But for the 2007 budget, and the surplus that he is claiming, isn't his to claim. As I pointed out at the time, and was thoroughly reported by the local paper, Walker took himself out of the budget process by vetoing the entire budget, due to his displeasure of all of the amendments the County Board had put to his original proposal. The County Board then overrode his veto, making the entire 2007 budget their own. That is why there was such a large surplus. The adults took over and ran the show, leaving Walker without anything to do but pout.

Likewise, his claims for the 2008 budget is less than honest. Walker claims that the budget will break even, but that is not a guarantee. As was reported deep in the body of a story on a different matter, we find that the County, as it stands right now, is facing a deficit (emphasis mine):

The gift to the county makes an even bigger splash, given its much smaller budget. A $1.1 million check from Allen's estate was sent to the county in December and about $1 million more is expected later this year, said county Corporation Counsel Bill Domina. The County Board's finance committee is being asked next week to approve placing the first check in the county's contingency fund.

County Budget Director Steve Kreklow said the Allen cash will be used to pay down the county's 2008 year-end deficit. The county was projected to end the year with a $1.7 million deficit, in a tally done Oct. 31.

The first payment from the Allen estate "came at a great time when we certainly needed it," Kreklow said. Unusually high overtime costs and the failure of the county to sell any of its Park East Freeway parcels have been blamed for the potential year-end shortfall.

By law, the county must operate with a balanced budget. In practice, that means if there is some red ink after all the bills and checks for a year are processed, money from the next year's budget must be first spent on balancing the prior year's budget.

As can be easily seen, Walker is lying. The 2008 budget is currently in a deficit. It is only if the County Board approves his proposal to use that windfall inheritance that it has even a chance of breaking even. As of last week, the County Board still hadn't done so, and it is not clear if it will.

Later in his article, Walker again went on with his tired and already spiel that the only way to create jobs is to give laid off workers tax breaks. But what I would like to know is Walker really knows of job creation. He had no advanced education on it, since he is a Marquette dropout. He has no personal experience since he has been a career politician his entire life. He has no professional experience, as evidenced by his losing control of the entire public assistance department, losing control of the Private Industry Council, and losing state contracts on a jobs training program.

I would be also remiss if I failed to point out that under Walker's reign, Milwaukee County's parks are falling apart, the transit system is in critical condition and about to fail next year without extraordinary efforts to keep it solvent, and many other services have steadily decreased, all of which has threatened the safety and well-being of the citizens. And even then, the county tax levy has increased 17% since Walker first took office as the County Executive.

There were 717 fully funded but unfilled positions across the county last year. Where is all that money going? It's certainly not to the workers, and it's certainly not to the citizens who need services.

There are a couple other points that Walker screwed up. One of them is the fact that, as much as the right would like to deny it, the fact is, Ronald Reagan, did indeed raise taxes as well as ballooned the deficit.

Another thing is that Walker apparently conveniently forgot that the position of County Executive is non-partisan.

In plain English, Walker is not only unfit to be a governor, he is not even fit to be a county executive.

Cross posted at Cognitive Dissidence.

Belling: Heads I win, tails you lose

by folkbum

In his column today, Mark Belling opines about Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle's chances of bolting Madison for Washington, DC, as part of an Obama administration. Belling's verdict? "50-50," he says.

Now, we long ago established that Belling's prognosticatory powers are pretty pitiful. He predicts the obvious, and when it happens, he claims victory. By claiming the odds are 50-50 that Doyle heads east, he's got his bases covered either way. But here's the part that really bugs me:

If Doyle doesn’t go, it will be because leading Wisconsin Democrats put the kibosh on the deal. A top Democratic source tells me state party leaders are telling the President-elect Obama team that a Doyle resignation in Wisconsin will be disastrous for the party here. They believe that Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton would be in over her head and could not manage the political fallout from the massive tax increases the Democrats are planning to use to close the state’s looming $5 billion budget deficit.

First, Barbara Lawton would not be any more or less "in over her head" than anyone else would be in the same position--than, in fact, Belling is likely to say that Doyle is himself. Lawton is a savvy woman, smart and tenacious. She may be less electable than Doyle, for the same reason that Jean Hundtermark was likely less electable that Mark Green: Women have a harder road to elected office than men do in this country. But a Governor Lawton would not just stand helpless while the state sinks around her. Yeesh.

However, within days of Obama's election, I heard from Democratic sources that Doyle was not particularly interested in leaving Madison. I mean, I know that when the president-elect is on the phone, you take the call. But what Belling has done here is guarantee that if my sources are right that Doyle wants to stay here and he does, the fault lies with legislative Democrats.

It's a twofer for Belling: Democrats are screwed if Doyle goes, and Democrats are screwed if Doyle stays. It reminds me of the joke among the more national bloggers, that whatever happens, it's good for the Republicans. How much does he get paid to type that crap?

Walker Blames George Bush, Jim Doyle

by capper

Talk about being held with the bag, the daily paper in these parts are now reporting that the Milwaukee County Pension Fund is going bad, in a real bad way:

The Milwaukee County Pension Board got a sobering assessment Wednesday of the lagging economy's impact on the pension fund - and some dire speculation on how far south it might go this year.

The county fund lost $56 million in January, a 3.4% drop, to $1.55 billion. The reduction in the fund's value comes on the heels of a $50 million drop for the fourth quarter of 2007, which lowered last year's growth yield to a lower-than-expected 6.3%.

The economic slowdown is hitting or will affect nearly all sectors of the
economy, according to Terry Dennison of Mercer Investment Consulting.

He warned that the county's pension system, which relies on county taxpayer contributions to stay afloat, "could implode" if things spiral down as he fears they may.

"This is not a typical recession," Dennison told the Pension Board. "This one has the elements of system failure. . . . It's spread into everything now."

So the County's Pension Fund drops $100+ million in the last four months, there is talk of major recession (thanks for nothing, Bush), but this doesn't worry County Executive Scott Walker:

County Executive Scott Walker said he was more concerned about potential state budget cuts than he is about the problems with the pension fund.

County Auditor Jerry Heer said the pension fund was in better shape than some board members suggested. The county has taken steps to stabilize the pension system in the wake of the 2002 county pension scandal, he noted.

Okay, Mr. Heer, but what about the pension scandal that just surfaced last year? What did Walker do about that, besides nothing?

Why do I keep thinking about the phrase, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned"?

Can We Have A Little HIPAA Over Here?

by capper

Last week CRG made a almost-noticed breakthrough. They introduced a data base that was to show all of the contracts that government has with various agencies. Their goal, apparently, was to increase transparency in government. While I have issues with CRG, I find this to be an admirable goal. After all, if there was more transparency in government, perhaps we wouldn't be in Iraq, or dealing with a sagging economy, while companies like Halliburton and Blackwater get sweetheart deals.

Unfortunately for CRG, the only goverment agency to respond so far was Milwaukee County. And now it turns out, the County got it wrong. They did not screen the information they gave CRG, and CRG did not double check it, and now, the personal and private information of individuals has been released to the public. Anyone who needed a psychiatric evaluation, whether for a criminal hearing, a commitment hearing, or for the purposes of granting guardianship for a person unable to take care of themselves, their names and case numbers were available for all to see.

This is of course in direct violation of HIPAA and the right to privacy that is federally protected.

It appears that Walker's acting director of the Department of Administration, didn't bother checking the law, or running this past the Clerk of Circuit Courts, John Barrett. Instead, she just went ahead and released this information. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Walker is mum on the subject.

To make the matter worse, when the error was discovered last Friday, CRG said they would. However, it was still up as late as Sunday night. I guess they were too busy over the weekend helping Walker with his campaign appearance (more on that on another day).

This is akin to the repeated failures of the State of Wisconsin, who on three separate occassions allowed the Social Security numbers of people to be printed on the labels of mailings. Of course, when that happened, the right didn't take long from blaming bureaucrats to blaming Governor Jim Doyle.

However, when Scott Walker's administration commits the same offense, the most we see is an "oops".

Owen Robinson, the only person on the right to even acknowledge this story, when challenged on the Doyle vs. Walker aspect said:

It depends on what action, if any, is taken. In the case of the state, we have seen repeated gaffes with the release of personal information. Yet, we haven’t seen any positive action taken to correct it. This indicates an issue with the leadership.

In this case, I believe this is the first case of such a gaffe (please correct me if I’m wrong). If it remains an anomaly, then it’s just an “oops.” If it happens again and Walker does not take more stern corrective action, then Walker shares the blame.

I can accept mistakes. We’re human and they happen. But the lack of management tans my hide.

Well, Owen, you better have Wendy drive you to the tannery, because this isn't the first time Walker and his sidekick, Archer, have come up on the wrong side of the law.

It is time for a change. The taxpayers of Milwaukee County are already having to pay for the multiple lawsuits that have been lost by David Clarke. We don't to keep paying for Walker's ineptitude as well. To support Lena Taylor, just go to this site.

UPDATE: The paper is now reporting that nearly seven thousand violations of confidentiality laws were posted for six days. They now have been removed. Scott Walker says, "Huh," and Cynthia Archer says, "I can't find the wisdom in them doing what we wanted them to do."

Well, it's not me, if that's what you're thinking

by folkbum

Obama: major Wisconsin endorsement
By Craig Gilbert
Saturday, Jan 5 2008, 07:11 AM

Nashua, New Hampshire -- The Obama campaign says it plans to announce a "major" Wisconsin endorsement this afternoon. Speculation centers on Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. More later.

I have nothing against Obama--I will be excited to see him as the nominee (or Clinton or Edwards)--but I am not endorsing at this time. But thank you for wondering if it was me.

Saving the Number 9

by capper

I have already pointed out how Senator Lena Taylor has done more for Milwaukee County before being elected than Scott Walker has done in the past five years. She did this by getting millions of dollars from the state budget to help preserve as much of the transit system as possible.

Gretchen at Milwaukee Rising points out that it was Governor Jim Doyle that preserved the Canal Street bus line when Walker again refused to do his job.

Now it looks like it will be up to Governor Doyle and/or the state to ride to the rescue again. Taking a page out of Walker's book, Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas is refusing to find the funding for the #9 bus route. Seventy some families depend on this route for jobs to support themselves, but for the want of a $100,000 dollars, this route is due to be eliminated on January 1, 2008.

And has James Rowen points out, with Waukesha County and the State ready and willing to spend millions of dollars on an unnecessary interchange at the Pabst Farms, there must be a way for the two counties, the state and/or the businesses that get all the tax breaks to pony up this money.

Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like the threat of losing your ability to earn a living. I personally don't care who fixes the problem, but someone better get on it. Governor Doyle could easily get the funding here, but I like Gretchen's suggestion better-something about the thought of knocking Walker's and Vrakas' heads together appeals to my baser side.

Walker Officially Breaks Another Promise

by capper

Remember earlier this year, when the conservatives made such a big deal about a pledge that Governor Jim Doyle made several years ago about not raising taxes. They kept repeating the "No Tax" thing ad nauseum. When confronted on the fact that the statement was from years ago, they said that it did not matter, a promise is a promise. An example would be such high thinking would be from Jessica McBride, in an exchange with Tim Rock:

Other Side said...
The quote you are using is from Governor Doyle's State of the State address back in February 2003 and was made in reference to to digging ourselves out of the Thompson/McCallum fiscal mess.

As a journalism professional, you might try to get all the facts and report them rather than just parrot talk radio. Your students expect more from you.
October 28, 2007 9:45 AM

Jessica McBride said...
Other Side, Your typical gratuitious(sic) nastiness aside, who cares when he promised it? He promised it. He made similar comments since then, as you well know, anyway.
October 28, 2007 11:11 AM

I would bet a lot of money that they will be changing their stance on this issue real soon.

Scott Walker has now officially declared that he will be seeking re-election for Milwaukee County Executive. This is in spite of the fact that he promised, not to run for a second full term as county executive. And before Fraley, Owen, Sykes and the other Walker supporters go into full denial mode, he did indeed promise. In fact, when you look at those campaign promises, he has broken many of those. He also appears to be in the hooks of special interests, when CRG (Corrupt Republican Goons) can make their own platform for Walker.

And before all the Walker lemmings get into line with their one-plank platform about holding the line of taxes, let's not forget that this year, even with the Milwaukee County Board doing their best to correct Walker's inept budget, it still blew up in record time. How much are all these inquests (and I'm certain there will be a lawsuit coming), faulty budgets, and broken promises really going to cost? I bet it's going to add up to a lot more than the six dollar tax increase in the 2008 county tax.

Doyle Still Winner in Budget Battle

by folkbum

I wrote a month ago that the Democrats seemed to be letting Governor Doyle take the glory on the budget negotiations. That turned out to be exactly what happened.

Consider, the Democrats aren't going to be losing the State Senate next year, and their odds of picking up the Assembly--absent a major Republican meltdown or some kinky redistricting--are relatively long. The legislative Democrats lose exactly zero by playing along with Governor Doyle's budget compromise. At worst, the legislative Dems can say they support Doyle and it's a great deal for the people, yadda yadda, even if the final plan lacks pretty much all of the legislative Dems' priorities.

Doyle, on the other hand, wins at every level. Doyle offered up a compromise; Doyle forced the legislature into a special session; Doyle gets pretty much all of his showpiece items (the Wisconsin Covenant, BadgerCare+, more UW funds). He looks like a winner in nearly every way. Even his one regret--that he couldn't get mandated autism coverage--was really a non-budget item and has a clear path in the Senate as soon as it's introduced.*

Legislative Republicans, however, are in it. They didn't get a budget that did what they promised--many in writing!--which was not to raise taxes or fees. Yes, they killed Healthy Wisconsin (for now), and they killed the hospital tax (which the hospitals supported). But they can't go back home and say they kept their promises if they vote for this budget. If they don't vote for it, then they're contrary ninnies who hate the children, kittens, and the elderly.

In the meantime, Doyle is perfectly positioned to be strong in his fight for the Holy Grail of Wisconsin Democratic politics: to be the first Democratic governor elected to a third term ever.

* The stupid thing about resistance to this mandate--resistance from legislators and heartless bloggers alike--is that catching and treating autism early saves tons of money later. What makes it a challenge is that insurance companies, whose lobbying cash flows freely in Madison, pay for the early detection and treatment, so they don't like the mandate. But the more expensive treatment later usually comes at taxpayer expense; you'd think legislators who hate paying for things with taxpayer money would be fighting each other to be the first in line behind Doyle's mandate.

And the halo goes to Doyle

by folkbum

The other day, I called on the Democrats in the State Senate to pull Healthy Wisconsin from their budget proposal. Today, they saw the light. This was followed, of course, moments later by the Assembly Republicans' stammering "well, um, no deal anyway, hosers!" (I'm paraphrasing.)

Here you've got the Senate giving up the showpiece of their budget in order to get the willofthepeople taken care of, and the Republicans insist on playing the piecemeal game that just ends badly for the state.

It took me a minute to figure out what was going on--and, frankly, I'm a little surprised that the Republicans are going along with this--and it's that the Dems are going to let Jim Doyle play the hero:

Encouraged by the progress made on a new budget this week, Gov. Jim Doyle today called on legislative leaders to meet with him and his top aides Monday morning to step up negotiations on the budget.

Doyle said he had asked leaders of Senate Democrats and Assembly Republicans to convene at the executive residence at 9 a.m. Monday to "work as long as it takes to get a budget enacted in this state." [. . .]

"The Legislature must continue to compromise, continue to work night and day and complete the job they were elected to do," Doyle said.

Well, whatever. As long as we get a budget.

And the Republicans lose.

Troha, Doyle, and Campaign Finance Reform

by folkbum

Dennis Troha, while innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, probably did some illegal things. I say this not because I have any kind of special knowledge of what went down, but because Steve Biskupic doesn't usually bring indictments against people he can't convict.

It looks like Biskupic is going to get Troha for contributions to Jim Doyle in last year's governor's race. The pattern seems to have been that Troha "loaned" family members and employees money to cover what those others gave to Doyle's campaign. The Trohas were able to bundle the contributions together into one easy-to-pick-up pile of checks for the Doyle campaign.

This is not a pattern unique to Doyle; check out the Trohas' contributions to Paul Ryan, the congressman who represents them down there in Kenosha. Even the "unemployed" Lynn Troha was able to chip in $2100 (the maximum) to Ryan's re-election bid; I have a job and couldn't afford to give anyone that kind of money. But many of those checks were all written on the same day, and I wouldn't be surprised if they came bundled in one nice big pile for Paul Ryan's campaign staff to pick up.

So let's be clear who's been indicted and who's on trial here: Dennis Troha. Got it? Not Jim Doyle, whose campaign seems to have done nothing illegal or more unethical than calling a donor and saying, "Hey, Dennis, can you raise some money for us?" Not Paul Ryan, whose campaign may very well have made the same phone call.

There are some legitimate questions about whether the Trohas' money bought influence--in other words, one has to wonder whether Paul Ryan's intercession on Troha's behalf on the casino project came because of the money, or whether Doyle may be more likely to approve that casino because of the money, and what, exactly, Troha may have gotten from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, whose members also got his money. That kind of influence peddling is much harder to prove than, say, giving your family money so you can skirt campaign finance laws, or outright bribery that involves handing over large sums of cash that a congressman then keeps in his freezer.

But even if Ryan, Doyle, Don Young, or Jim Oberstar did or will pull some strings for Dennis Troha, that's still not illegal. Unethical? Maybe. Unseemly? Most certainly. But not a violaton of the law.

Seth Zlotocha has probably the best reaction to this that I've seen--including a lot of great discussion in the comments--and I think he nails the problem quite sqarely:

this issue isn't just about casinos. It's a problem that pervades public policymaking. Unless the plan is to stop elected officials from setting public policy--in other words, doing their job--then no amount of futzing with the legislative process in relation to the campaign donation process is going to change the fact that elected officials are accountable first and foremost to those who help their chances at re-election the most. That is, those who give them the most amount of money.

The solution, rather, is to focus on the pay side of pay-for-play. If politicians are going to be accountable first and foremost to their donors and the goal is to make them accountable first and foremost to the public, then you need to make the public their donors, plain and simple.

This is an argument I have been making for a very long time now. But people on the right--including the Charlie Sykeses and Mark Bellingses who unfortunately drive so much of the political discourse in this state--see this as not Exhibit A in the case for campaign finance reform, but rather a chance to accuse Democrats, and only Democrats, of wrongdoing.

James Wigderson, whose solution to the Troha mess seems to be to spread authority out, perhaps to make sure more officials get big bucks from the likes of Troha, often laments that Democrats--and he names Russ Feingold in particluar--have succeeded in making money in politics de facto dirty. I remember his statement to that effect at the "Download 2006" event, and being amazed at the audacity of it, because at the same time as he was complaining about how we now perceive any campaign cash as dirty, every other conservative panelist that day assured us that Doyle was dirty because of the way he could be bought off with campaign cash. In other words, big-dollar campaign contributions aren't a problem, unless, of course, the money goes to Democrats.

But they are a problem. They have been and will continue to be a problem. Just the very thought of anyone, let alone Dennis Troha's unemployed relatives, being able to give $10,000 a shot to a campaign turns my stomach, and probably a lot of other people's, too. It leads to cynicsm and, as the ever-astute Recess Supervisor put it, it makes "people assume ALL politicians are dirty. So when one of them gets caught, it serves to affirm the public's perception of ALL politicians, not just Republicans or Democrats."

And that, I believe, is the crux of the matter. Doyle got caught here doing, what, exactly--obeying the law? And it has everyone crying foul. That means, to me, that it's the law that needs to change. Even, as I've suggested before, cutting the maximum contribution to a state-wide race from ten flippin' thousand dollars to something normal people might be able to pony up, one or two thousand, maybe. Or, more radically, as I've also suggested before, moving to a state-funded system like Arizona's or Maine's. The nice new ethics entity our lawmakers created to watch over themselves will remain toothless to address issues like the one involving Troha as long as what Doyle (or Tommy Thompson before him) does remains legal.

So go ahead, you righties, and demand Doyle's head on a stick (and Paul Ryan's, too, if you want to be consistent). You won't get it this time, the same way you didn't get it from Georgia Thompson, because Doyle's behavior here is not illegal. But at some point you need to recognize that crying foul on all these things will only make you hoarse. Or, like the boy who cried wolf, the public will finally tune out everything you ever say about scandal and corruption. (There are only so many people you can accuse who then walk away--since they did nothing illegal--before people stop listening.)

But if you'd rather make a difference, perhaps it's time you stand with those of us who see the problem for what it is--an institutional one--rather than hope to make partisan hay out of it. The only way to stop the Dennis Trohas of the future or, for that matter, the Jim Doyles of the future, if you must think that way, is to change the system that perpetuates them. It's time for campaign finance reform now.

Conservative Revisionist History on Gov. Doyle and Tobacco

See UPDATE below . . . and another important UPDATE, too

Robert Flessas is a Town of Brookfield Supervisor who blogs, in a couple of places, from a conservative, anti-government perspective (indeed, one of his blogs is titled "Public Trough"). And, though I disagree with his perspective, he's certainly entitled to his own opinion. He is not, however, entitled to his own facts. Today, at both of his blogs, he's posted an anti-Doyle screed that invents a history out of whole cloth. (UPDATED: See below--the posts seem to have been deleted.)

Flessas is writing about the most recent floating of that perennial favorite trial balloon, raising the cigarette tax. The revenue such a tax would generate would be spent on smoking cessation and prevention as well as funding reforms to the health care system in the state. It's not a new idea. But here's a piece of Flessas's post; see if you can spot the problem:

A recent article appearing in the paper quoted Doyle as saying, " . . . he sees the benefit of raising the cigarette tax to reduce smoking and the cost of smoking-related illnesses but would favor it only if the additional revenue was guaranteed to be isolated for health care."

Where did we hear that line before? Let's take a walk down memory lane.

About 6 years ago, the state of Wisconsin settled with tobacco companies and received almost $6 Billion dollars earmarked to curb the effects of smoking and prevent young people from starting.

When Doyle was our attorney general, he scoffed at attempts to use the settlement for anything other than tobacco prevention. But, when he was elected to his first term as governor, Doyle and our legislators sold the rights to the money, and used the funds to balance a huge state budget deficit created by our pension grubbing, premium healthcare state officials.

So, why should we believe Doyle's contention now?

I realize we're talking about ancient history here--things that happened more than half a decade ago--so if your memory fails you, as Flessas's apparently has, I can forgive you. But Flessas's assertion that "when he was elected to his first term as governor, Doyle [. . .] sold the rights to the money" is patently false. 100% false. Falser than false can be.

It is entirely true that a few budget cycles ago, the state was facing a massively ugly deficit, and the choices for plugging the hole seemed to be eliminating revenue sharing with municipalities, cutting school equalization aid, or selling off the tobacco settlement money for bonds. The settlement money was sold off in May, 2002. For those of you keeping score at home, May, 2002 is six months before Doyle was elected, eight months before he took office, and a full year before he passed his first budget.

The real fault lies with then-Governor Scott McCallum, and such shining stars of the Joint Finance Committee as then-Rep. (and now unemployed) John Gard and then-Sen. (and now ex-con) Brian Burke.

Flessas's revision of history is even worse than just getting the timeline wrong; he implies a certain level of flip-floppitiness on Doyle's part, ascribing to him a seeming desire to shaft anti-smoking efforts. In fact, Gov. Doyle has been a steady advocate of smoking prevention ever since he won our settlement as Atorney General back in 1998.*

In 1999, Doyle publicly lambasted then-Gov. (and now-presidential candidate) Tommy Thompson, who used his very busy veto pen to cut funding from that settlement for anti-smoking campaigns. And that was just the beginning of Doyle's critiques of how the money was used for other purposes. He nailed McCallum on the campaign trail in 2002 for selling the money, and investigated, among his first acts, buying back some of the money so we could see residual income on at least something.

If Flessas has read the AP story going around about the proposed dollar-a-pack tax, he would have read how Gov. Doyle "is still angry that lawmakers spent the state's tobacco settlement money in one lump sum to balance the budget in 2002." That might have been enough to save Flessas the embarrassment here.

In the end, when Flessas asks why we should believe Doyle "now," I would answer, simply, that since Doyle has maintained a consistent position since suing the tobacco companies a decade ago, it's easy to believe him.

I've emailed Flessas, as his blogs don't take comments, asking for a correction. If and when he posts that correction, I'll let you know.

UPDATE: Flessas has posted a separate correction at his Blogger-powered blog, and he has also amended his Brookfield Now blog post. The original post (still prominently linked to from WisOpinion.com) makes no note of the correction.

UPDATE, Friday, 5:30 AM: Flessas seems to have deleted the offending posts from his blogs entirely.

* My information comes from this well-sourced timeline. The link takes you to the Ws (the site lists all 50 states), so scroll down a few screens to Wisconsin, then read from the bottom up.