By The Way, It's Warm In The Arctic
Arctic snow and cold are here and in Europe. Second-year running, says The NY Times.
And more flooding in Australia, other climate change markers.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Check Marks On Scott Walker To-Do List
I'm sure there's something like this floating around Scott Walker's office, with check marks on #1-#6:
TOP TEN TO-DO LIST
1. Reward road-builders; kill train.
2. Reward builders, developers; wetlands filling.
3. Reward realtors; kill wind farms.
4. Reward oil, gas companies; (see #'s'1-3)
4 (a). Dump Madison biomass plant for gas (note to self: what the heck was biomass?).
5. Push Voter ID, kill same-day registration. (You're welcome, Jeff Stone.)
6. Screw Democrat Madison, Milwaukee; see donor data base in re: #1, #2, #3, #4, 4(a), #5. (Note to self - - move #6 to permanent #1 position.)
GET CRACKING ON THESE!! TWEET WHEN DONE!!!!
7. Rename DNR - - Department of No Regulation. Send to state sign shop, all speech writers, campaign staff. State fly-around in spring????? Check w/ home builders.
8. Get Stepp moving on naming rights, leases, auctions. (why "state" parks??? - - #2, #3 connection.)
9. WisDOT: Six lanes on SE freeways not enough. (see #1, #4). Eight lanes would get us 4 for tolls!
10: For DOA, legal counsel: Where's that right-to-work/public employee decert. memo? Draft bill?
Follow Scott Walker's Special Interest Money
Thanks to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign for breaking this out. Need we ask for any more explanation for Scott Walker's obeisance to the road-builders, home builders, energy sector, realtors, et al, etc., as he turns state government into a special interest subsidiary?
Wisconsin isn't open for business. It's open to be sold.
Walker, Scott
| Governor, Republican, Fall 2010 |
Click on an interest category below to obtain a list of contributions from individuals within that category.
Click Here to view all contributions for this candidate or leadership committee.
Click Here to view all contributions for this candidate or leadership committee.
| Interest Categories | Amount |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | $113,528.00 |
| Banking & Finance | $616,526.77 |
| Business | $442,173.89 |
| Civil servant/public employee | $48,457.00 |
| Construction | $637,946.53 |
| Defense | $2,910.00 |
| Education | $80,588.97 |
| Energy | $49,254.84 |
| Health Professionals | $534,128.53 |
| Health Services/Institutions | $268,802.57 |
| Insurance | $275,929.00 |
| Labor Unions | $900.00 |
| Lawyers/Law Firms/Lobbyists | $288,336.12 |
| Manufacturing & Distributing | $780,262.05 |
| Natural Resources | $129,148.00 |
| Non-Profit/Social Services | $36,505.00 |
| Political/Ideological | $33,405.00 |
| Real Estate | $389,655.04 |
| Retired/Homemakers/Non-income earners | $739,212.51 |
| Road Construction | $86,393.00 |
| Telecommunications & Computers | $67,053.70 |
| Tourism/Leisure/Entertainment | $140,867.08 |
| Transportation | $214,168.44 |
| Unknown | $448,650.77 |
| TOTAL |
Milwaukee County Budget Could Suffer Under UWM Land Sale Payment Delay
[Monday update: Two-year delay granted]:
If Milwaukee County accepts a delay to 2012 of payments from UWM-related private donors for County Grounds land on which the UWM Engineering school innovation center is to be built - - information here - - there would the following impacts on County finances, according to the County Board's economic development committee, county board records show.
If Milwaukee County accepts a delay to 2012 of payments from UWM-related private donors for County Grounds land on which the UWM Engineering school innovation center is to be built - - information here - - there would the following impacts on County finances, according to the County Board's economic development committee, county board records show.
The committee will take up the payment delay option Monday at 9:00 a.m:
"C. The amended agreement would result in a shortfall of $5,000,000 of revenue that is
budgeted in the 2011 Adopted Capital Improvements Budget. The projects that would be
impacted are:
· WP174 Parks Major Maintenance ($100,000) (Domes HVAC Repairs & Upgrades),
· WP186 Parks Naturalization ($61,000),
· WZ600 Zoo Master Plan ($200,000),
· WO114 Countywide Infrastructure Improvements ($2,848,382),
· WO205 Fiscal Automation Program ($65,000),
· WO444 Electronic Medical Records System ($500,000),
· WO514 War Memorial Window Replacement and Reseal ($42,000),
· WO515 War Memorial Window Ledge Leak Repairs ($15,300),
· and WO949 Inventory and Assessment of County Buildings ($1,168,318).
·
In 2012, the amended schedule would decrease anticipated revenue by $887,500 compared the original agreement.
The complete schedule of payments is listed below:
Year Revenue is Recorded Current Schedule of Payments -------Revised Schedule of Payments
2010 $5,000,000 $5,000,000
2011 $5,000,000 $0
2012 $887,500 $0
2013 $887,500 $5,000,000
2014 $887,500 $887,500
2015 $887,500 $887,500
2016 $887,500
2017 $887,500"
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Radical Leadership At Wisconsin DNR Gets Big Media Exposure
Home builder and radical Republican Cathy Stepp finds herself profiled on the front page of the Sunday Journal Sentinel.
And the disjointed, anti-government, DNR-bashing and very partisan rant she wrote in 2009 for a right-wing blog site that I have been linking to repeatedly is used in the profile fairly and prominently to bring Stepp into focus for a statewide audience.
The first item on my blog in which I linked to Stepp's posting - - here - - in December, when her name began to circulate as a possible new Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, has become the second-most downloaded item among the more than 1,000 I've written since a new data-tracking system was added to my blog in June.
All I can surmise is that Stepp's thoughts, in her own words, are finding readers, and after today, more, no doubt.
Here they are, again.
Turning the DNR into a business promotion agency as Scott Walker is directing, with a new employee loyalty oath to the WMC and the Wisconsin Club for Growth more or less mandatory, could end up being his undoing.
That's because there is an apolitical statewide constituency for outdoors preservation that transcends mainstream environmentalist in Madison, or on Milwaukee's East side, or elsewhere in the state that that political conservatives like to mock as "Democrat."
Radicals who want to undo the DNR's historic mission will find themselves miscalculating, and also on the wrong payroll.
A friend of mine with decades more experience than I have had in Wisconsin conservation once told me "if you want to find the real environmentalists, go to the Towns," and I can think of people I know in rural Mukwonago, and the Town of Waukesha, for example, who fit that definition and practice it agenda-free.
It's a lifestyle, not a platform.
These are people less concerned with DNR procedures than they are with annexation-driven subdividers who, under a de-regulated Scott Walker administration, and a pro-home builder DNR, are far more likely to object and get organized righteously if their beloved lakes and streams and groundwater, their neighbor's farm fields and woodlands are degraded, filled-in, paved and otherwise "developed."
Many of these people may have voted Republican, but I am predicting that that's where the anti-Walker revolt will begin, one aggrieved voter and small wetlands filling at a time.
These are the true conservationists: ideological conservatives are forgetting the common root in the terminology; Their self-serving bedazzlement by money and political power - - temporal opposites of authentic resource stewardship - - makes the Walker crowd no friend to the Wisconsin environment, but does make Team Walker candidates for short, but damaging careers for having pushed private interests in public offices.
Why Haven't Region's Water Tech Companies Solved Waukesha's Problems
As A.O. Smith and others head for China and opportunities worldwide, how is it that they have not helped Waukesha resolve its water purity and supply issues, and for less than the surely-low estimated cost of $164 million currently on the table?
Saturday, January 22, 2011
A Business Owner Riffs On Walker And The Business Climate
This entrepreneur has Scott Walker, his business thinking and political plans pretty well pegged.
New Wisconsin Logo
Rebuild And Redefine O'Donnell Park, Yes, But...
Michael Cudahy is right that the ruined O'Donnell Park parking ramp should be razed, and the hideous transit center moved out, too, but I'd like to see a mixed-use development tied to the lakefront and back onto the tax rolls.
Give Cudahy credit for getting the conversation started.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Longtime SE Regional DNR Chief Out
A Friday late afternoon special about the SE Wisconsin regional director - - this email is circulating in the DNR:
From: Steffes, Laurel J - DNR On Behalf Of Stepp, Cathy L - DNR
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 03:53 PM
Subject: Senior Management Update
In the last two weeks we have met with the employees of the agency gathering input and ideas on how to succeed and grow jobs while assuring environmental quality.
Southeast Wisconsin is the most active business center of our state and holds great potential for creating much needed jobs.
Southeast Wisconsin is the most active business center of our state and holds great potential for creating much needed jobs.
Starting today Gloria McCutcheon’s role will change in the Southeast.
Gloria has served the DNR with great pride. She is an environmentalist and leader who is committed to the mission and goals of the Department. We sincerely thank her for her service.
We are discussing other equally important opportunities in the DNR where we can use her knowledge and experience to achieve agency goals. She is taking sabbatical leave while she considers options.
Gloria has served the DNR with great pride. She is an environmentalist and leader who is committed to the mission and goals of the Department. We sincerely thank her for her service.
We are discussing other equally important opportunities in the DNR where we can use her knowledge and experience to achieve agency goals. She is taking sabbatical leave while she considers options.
We will work to find a replacement that is equally committed to DNR and Southeast Wisconsin. We will immediately start work to fill this key position.
While we recruit a new Regional Director, Air and Waste Leader John Hammen will be acting.
Sincerely,
Cathy
WISN-AM Stands By Belling
Station management gives talker Mark Belling a pass for bringing the Jewish religion of Marriott hotel opponents into the debate. The Journal Sentinel's media critic weighed in today with reporting.
Some history here.
My reaction is a) no surprise, b) we've all learned a lot about talk radio's practice and 'values,' and c) thanks to WISN for another reason to avoid the station and its advertisers.
In The Land Of Old Ideas, Walker Kills Another Green Project
Add the Madison biomass fuel project to the cancelled state high-speed rail segment and the once-promising wind turbine industry.
The pattern is brazenly obvious - - a true throwback to the early 1970's, Walker favors fossil fuels over cleaner alternatives, thus boosting out-dated technologies and entrenched corporate interests.
And these same groups will get more help from the Walker administration as it deregulates environmental protections at the DNR.
The realtors, the highway lobby, the home builders and the fossil fuel sector have the keys to the castle.
Wisconsin is now the land of old ideas.
Mission Implausible: Waukesha Asks Neighbors To Approve Lake Michigan Water Plan - - After The Plan Is Written
You look at the expensive, drawn-out, going-nowhere process (sic) for years that the City of Waukssha has used to pursue Lake Michigan water - - secret applications to the Governor, delays, switching application consultants, cancelling a public session last fall with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - - and you think, "Is there any misstep that this team of pro-diversion advisers, bureaucrats and Common Council members hasn't yet made?"
Here's the latest, and it's amazing - - but first a bit of background:
The draft diversion application approved by the City of Waukesha last April comes with a key element - - a mapped water service plan created by the regional planning commission (SEWRPC) - - that includes portions of the smaller, and more rural Town of Genesee and Town of Waukesha.
Overall, the map ropes in a land mass 80% larger than the City's current water service territory.
Neither the application or the proposed new and expanded water service plan and map were drawn or approved with input or approval from the Towns - - no hearings, no meetings, no votes in or by the Towns - - yet the Waukesha Water Utility wrote to both Towns on January 12th requesting "review and approval" of the water service plan.
Who knows if the Towns want the water, or any part of the application?
The City is making the request of the Towns because it says in the letter that state law and the Great Lakes Compact under which the diversion application made require evidence that "the governing body" of a municipality included in the water service plan has given its approval to the plan.
The City of Waukesha asks the Towns for a response by March 14.
In other words, there is a known legal and procedural need for a public process - - but the City of Waukesha is looking for that from the Towns of Genesee and Waukesha after it researched, drafted, edited, wrote, rewrote, and itself approved the application with plan and map before sending the whole package to the DNR.
Who remembers "ex post facto" (Latin for "after the fact") from high school civics?
For some time, I had argued that the way the map was created, its implications for sprawl and conflict with the Towns - - not to mention how it would strike the other states that must approve the diversion under the Compact - - made it the application's weakest link.
And in a different posting about questions the DNR raised months ago about the application, I made this observation about Waukesha and the neighoring Towns:
"Looks to me like the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, in its preliminary, 49 detailed question areas for the City of Waukesha about the diversion application, wants those other communities brought into the process - - but how is that going to unfold since they have been left out of the loop so far?"
And why didn't SEWRPC or the City of Waukesha do that from the outset?"The letters also say that if the Towns do not give their approval they will be deleted from the map and the plan - - which, I would assume, will be the subject of a public process - - as the Compact and Wisconsin state implementing law are heavy on transparency - - both at the regional planning commission and by the Waukesha Common council.
That's because since shrinking the water service map would no doubt result in a recalculated amount of divested water sought, related changes in plan costs, return flow impacts, rate calculations, etc.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
East Side To Get New Green Plan, And Affordable Housing, Tpp
Milwaukee shows its off its broad range of city-wide planning diversity and grassroots productivity- - unlike some suburbs which chew up one space for subdivisions (Oconomwoc@Pabst Farms), but have no room for affordable housing (New Berlin).
Belling's "Jewish" Allegations And Most Leaders' Silence Equally Baffling
It's a mystery why WISN-AM 1130 afternoon talker Mark Belling chose to made an issue out of some Marriott Hotel opponents Jewish faith, and introduced into the discussion some pretty negative stereotypes.
Even a leading conservative blogger struggled to find logic in Belling's tactic.
It was further dumbfounding that he chose not to apologize. thus keeping the issue alive.
And as Tim Cuprisin notes in a column today posted at OnMilwaukee.com, Belling chose to bring it up Wednesday. Again. With more defensive justification.
This you can say with certainty as this ugly story plays out: Belling really wants to keep the discussion going.
Cuprisin's piece is as good an analysis of talk radio and Belling that you will find anywhere.
Also baffling, and I'd add, depressing: the silence from local civic organizations and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board.
Except for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who expressed his outrage and asked Belling to apologize, opinion-makers and leaders have fled the scene.
These are the voices who should be telling the city and the larger audience that there are no Jewish-dominated cabals pulling strings behind closed doors in Milwaukee, as Belling suggested.
Traffic Congestion? We're #44
The Journal Sentinel breaks out the numbers from an annual study and finds, as I predicted yesterday, that our traffic congestion, while an annoyance, is hardly a crisis.
The reason we are dumping ever more money into new lanes, wider off-ramps, and new interchanges has more to do with road-builder and bi-partisan, long-standing State Capitol politics and less to do with data-driven decision-making.
Conservation Plan On County Grounds Should Stay On Schedule
The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Committee on Economic Development, meeting Monday, January 24th at 9:00 AM, may grant a delay for the County's receipt of payments for County Grounds property in Wauwatosa where a business innovation center is to be constructed.
The privately-financed center, to be developed by the UWM Real Estate Foundation, would be tied to a new UWM School of Engineering also planned for location on the County Grounds - - a controversial effort overall because it will separate a college from UWM's East side Milwaukee campus and eat up open space on a large tract of publicly-held land in the County.
Fund-raising for the center is underway but has gone slowly; regrettably, that jeopardizes a Habitat Restoration Plan on the County Grounds that has been incorporated into the plan to broaden its acceptability and on which considerable volunteer time and effort has been expended.
If Supervisors grant the payment delay they need to solidify the financing commitment and budget for the Habitat Protection Plan to keep faith with conservationists who promoted the plan in the public interest.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Annual Traffic Congestion Study Thursday Will Rank Milwaukee Fairly Uncongested
This yearly authoritative study comes out tomorrow, Thursday.
We're usually close to the bottom in our grouping of similarly-sized cities, with a rush hour closer to a rush minute, so why are we spending billions of dollars to add more lanes to relatively uncongested freeways?
Why Politicians Love A Long-Running Home Town Sports Story
You can bet there is no one happier than Scott Walker that the Packers are rolling in a playoff run because a) I am sure he is a true fan, and b) the streak inevitably focuses public attention on TV and good times at Lambeau Field, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago, and not on wonky politics and legislative nuts-and-bolts in Madison.
I've worked at the State Capitol, in campaigns and in two City Halls, and I can tell you that getting knocked out of the lead in a news cycle by happy news is a politician's Christmas Eve, New Year's Day and Spring break rolled into one.
And media love the continuing story, too. It's good for sales, ratings and everyone's morale.
If the Packers were to win the NFL championship game this Sunday, the entire GOP apparatus in and near the State Capitol will delight in two fresh weeks of diminished public interest, as media and constituents alike will shift their gaze to Super Bowl Sunday, February 6th, in Dallas.
Plus there's the pre-game hype, then the game and its aftermath - - win or lose - - hopefully a green-and-gold win.
People are rightly caught up with Packer fever, including me. Weeks of exciting games and victories when a single loss would bring down the curtain is a compelling, feel-good story, and one that knits the state together.
But the success of Packer players and the organization does allow Walker a freer hand to move a bit more quietly to consolidate power, goose legislation forward and propose and grease blockbuster changers in state law, regulation, litigation standards, environmental protections and fiscal policy that might be just a tad higher in the public consciousness if not for the state's intensifying love affair with its dynamite pro football team.
So if someone asks, "Hey - - how about that Pat Stevens?" (being appointed as the third key home builder insider given a policy-making post at the DNR?"), expect someone to come back with:
"Pat Stevens? Who he? How many catches does Greg Jennings get against the Bears secondary?"
Plale Gets A Hefty Perk
When lame-duck State Sen. Jeff Plale, (D-Milwaukee) turned against his own party and voted with Scott Walker and GOP legislators to kill negotiated labor contracts, some of us wondered if there would be a quid pro quo.
I had written several weeks ago - - mentioning Plale and a second party-switching Senator, Russ Decker - - "And by the way, let's keep an eye on where these gentlemen land after they leave the legislature, following their defeats."
Well, now we know where Plale is landing: Denying that it was a reward for the vote, the cost-conscious, smaller-government Walker administration announced that Plale has been given a $90,000 management job in the state Department of Administration.
Basically, when the heat goes out in a state office building, or you want to buy new carpet and file cabinets, call Plale, the new uber super, and he'll say "help is on the way."
I had written several weeks ago - - mentioning Plale and a second party-switching Senator, Russ Decker - - "And by the way, let's keep an eye on where these gentlemen land after they leave the legislature, following their defeats."
Well, now we know where Plale is landing: Denying that it was a reward for the vote, the cost-conscious, smaller-government Walker administration announced that Plale has been given a $90,000 management job in the state Department of Administration.
Basically, when the heat goes out in a state office building, or you want to buy new carpet and file cabinets, call Plale, the new uber super, and he'll say "help is on the way."
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