7 Walker moves which cost, or lost, Wisconsin $2.6+ billion - - updated

A new lede for this post and a fresh bottom for Walker and his immoral administration:

[Updated from 9/24/17 - - An expert explains how Walker gave a private company the power to pad the state budget with millions of dollars in support payments seized from disabled, foster or orphaned children to which they were entitled. 

Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has been partnering with a private company to search for foster children who are disabled or have dead birth parents — in order to take their money for state revenue. The state is even confiscating veterans’ benefits from foster children whose parents died in the military. 

[Updated from 9/17/18 - - How Walker may have cost the state 80,000 jobs.

Most economists believe that governors have a limited impact on how many jobs are created in a given state. That being said, local economist Bruce Thompson believes Walker’s policies may have actually resulted in a loss of 80,000 jobs in Wisconsin. 

Thompson created an algorithm which essentially calculates how many jobs would have been created in Wisconsin, regardless of who was governor. He did this by using data from several states in the upper Midwest: Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The data comes from labor reports from each state, collected since 1990.

At a very modest average salary of $40,000 per job, that's $3.2 billion in annual purchasing power spread through the economy. Something to think about.] 
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Here are the 7 biggest financial fails by our fake fiscally-conservative Governor:

* $11 million in forfeited Federal Medicaid fraud award eligibility.

* $20.6 million and counting for settlements and payments traced to the youth prison crisis he ignored for years at Lincoln Hills.

*  $23 million in forfeited Federal broadband expansion funding.

*  $50 million in settlement awards and equipment losses over the Amtrak train set assembly facility contract broken by Wisconsin under Walker.

*  $750 million to build an extra 19 miles of Milwaukee freeway lanes which planners had recommended against, but which Walker championed.

*  $810 million in Federal Amtrak Milwaukee-to-Madison rail construction funds Walker forfeited.

*  $1+ billion in Federal Medicaid expansion funding Walker has refused to accept through the end of the 2017-'19 state budget.

These forfeited programs or awards would have added jobs, taxable property, public revenues and spin-off development.

Who knew we had the luxury to reject all that?

Desperado desperate to fix them ornery Scottholes

Hey, voters: your puny school supplies' sales tax holiday was mere pre-election pocket change compared to the millions a Desperate Career 'Desperado' just found - -

Scott Walker offers 50 percent increase to counties to fix their roads

to fix the Scottholes he's ignored for years.

So, Bucky, are you finally hip to the game and insulted at his timing, or are you as easily bought off as he hopes?

Urban Milwaukee's Bruce Murphy nails Walker on special interest $$

I'd thrown a dart at Walker for his weaselly projection of special-interest  servitude onto opponent Tony Evers, but I defer to Urban Milwaukee's Bruce Murphy

for the heavy harpoon he threw Walker's way. Good stuff, here:

The Best Governor Money Can Buy

Just about every Walker policy was bought by special interests. 

Walker keeps hitting the "delete" key. Many examples, here.

"D" could stand for "democracy," or "disclose," but in Scott Walker's "R"-run Wisconsin, "D" is for "delete."

The Cap Times discloses that Walker's WisDOT will stop publishing data it's collected and publicized routinely to measure road congestion and travel delays - - and also to understand how effectively WisDOT is spending our money

Tracking congestion levels is often the most visible, direct way for drivers to understand how roads are functioning and a key indicator for transportation officials to evaluate what system changes might be needed. Without timely, consistent measurement of it, said Dan Fedderly, executive director of the Wisconsin County Highway Association, it is hard to hold the DOT accountable

No doubt embarrassed by multiple studies showing we have bad bridges and roads that are pockmarked by "Scottholes," Team Walker figures that maybe if you don't tell motorists stuck in traffic that they're stuck in traffic, they won't expect to be stuck in traffic the next time they play Scotthole roulette.

While no doubt arrogant and contemptuously stupid, let's not consider this a misstep by an otherwise open and transparent administration and Governor. 

Because Walker loves 

the delete key:

*  Walker's DNR began deleting climate change information and links to expert sources in 2012.

*  Followed by more definitive scrubbing I discovered in 2016.

On December 22nd, this blog carried the first disclosure that WI GOP Gov. Scott Walker's "chamber of commerce mentality" Department of Natural Resources, (see part five of a recent series about his redefining the agency, here), had again deleted from taxpayer-paid, public web pages wording and information about climate, climate change and its human causation.

* The Journal Sentinel then discovered a similar scrubbing by the Walker-controlled Public Service Commission:

For years, the Public Service Commission featured material devoted to climate change, including strategies designed to reduce Wisconsin's reliance on coal.  

Then, sometime after May 1, the agency eliminated its global warming web page.

* And then there was that ethics code reform (har!):

Scott Walker once had an ethics reform plan

 * Reprised here:

What happened to Scott Walker's state ethics code plan?

* And again, here:

Scott Walker's deleted ethics code could have skewed Foxconn lobbying, giving

* Similarly gone from his websites - - his 250,000 new jobs' promise (still unfulfilled, by the way): 

* And there was that economic development plan his campaign posted in huge type to exceed the pages in a very detailed Tom Barrett plan. Walker later blamed it all on a campaign volunteer. and the plan went off the website. 

* Just like his campaign deleted references to his still-not-met pledge to create 250,000 new private sector jobs in one, four-year term.

* It would be a few years later that Walker would discover a new way to camouflage deletions from a record - - making "D" stand for "drafting error" - - and also discover a new way win a crisp new Pants on Fire accolade.

And "D' in the Walker documentation can stand for deny and discard, too:

Discard, delete, deny...all the way back to Marquette... 

In other words old habits don't die.

WI citizens forced again to sue for clean water. Send pro-polluter crowd packing.

The costly connections between clean water, people's health and inadequate public policy in Wisconsin are again in sharp focus.

And more Wisconsin residents are again having to spend their own money to access clean drinking because Gov. Walker has directed that basic environmental programs shall be run by the formerly-science based DNR with 'a chamber of commerce mentality,' not a 'serve-the-people' philosophy.

We've seen the consequences of these distortions in Northeast Wisconsin.

Often reported on this blog:

Kewaunee County, in the northeastern part of the state and bordering Lake Michigan south of Green Bay, has so many dairy-related concentrated animal feeding operations, (CAFOs) which can pollute the groundwater that the DNR will supply bottled water to people who believe their wells have runoff contamination. 

And on another front in Sheboygan County:

Flash forward to what we learned [on August 2nd] from Friends of the Black River Forest, the citizen group trying to prevent the chain-sawing and flattening of a 247-acre nature preserve along the Lake Michigan shoreline into a high-end golfing complex. 

Among the multiple insults - - see this post - -  to the land, groundwater, wetlands, habitat, dunes, native artifacts, wildlife and more is that the project planned by another Walker donor would... [transfer] publicly-held acreage in the adjoining state park approved by both the DNR and its oversight agency, the Natural Resources Board...so the developer, another big Walker donor, can construct a building in the park to store and access equipment, mix fertilizer, park vehicles.

And now this abandonment by the state of its basic job - - the provision to citizens of public health and safety guarantees - - has forced citizens to take direction action and sue an alleged polluter in the Wisconsin's Central Sands counties of Wood and Juneau County:

Two law firms suing farm for contaminating water in Wood and Juneau counties

And keep in mind that earlier litigation over similar issues involving the same dairy operator has been dragged out by Walker ideological sidekick AG Brad Schimel - - for years:  

Wisconsin high court sides with attorney general to let dairy farm case be heard in Waukesha, not Madison

For a while it looked like state and federal regulators were finally going to do the right thing in the Central Sands counties because the data were in:

Officials warn of high nitrate levels in drinking wells around Armenia

But the state has a horrible pollution enforcement track record, and federal anti-pollution efforts in our federal region is now in the hands of Cathy Stepp, Walkers original DNR 'chamber of commerce mentality' water carrier, so it's litigation time in Wisconsin. Again.

Three final thoughts.

1.  Again we see the need for the Office of the Public Intervenor, ruined by Tommy Thompson and finished off in spirit and deed by Brad Schimel.

2. I was in a meeting of environmental advocates during Walker's early years and one very experienced anti-pollution activist recounted how a recent meeting had just played out with DNR managers about an ongoing water pollution issue about which the agency had shrugged off.

One of the DNR representatives basically closed the meeting before it could begin by saying, 'you might as well just go ahead and sue us.'

The news story I referenced above about the new lititation indicates that the the plaintiffs have retained the law firms Pines Bach and Habush, Habush, and Rottier.

For those of you not familiar with the lawyerly lay of the land, those are very tough and successful firms.

So do not be surprised if the defendants down the road are going to be sorry that regulators in Walker's Wisconsin pretend that basics like the Clean Water Act, the public interest and Wisconsin's history of environmental protection  are things of the past.

3. These clean water issues are environmental, economic and public health issues, and voters, as I recently wrote, who get the connections can force a change:

Drinking water and waterways statewide will remain contaminated as long as Walker and the Legislature give large-scale animal feeding operations a regulatory and enforcement pass and enable other big businesses to dump fertilizer and phosphorous 

The number of so-called 'impaired waterways' has doubled during Walker's tenure. There is a searchable data base listing these waters. 

Do you have one or more of these polluted waterways in your area? Is your favorite trout stream among them?

Do you think that when big dairy interests met privately with Walker to pitch moving CAFO inspections and enforcement of pollution rules to the more promotional state ag department that their goal was to make your drinking water cleaner or your boating experiences more pleasurable?

Who represented you in that meeting? And in the many other meetings where these agendas were tilted to industry or donors, not to your interests or those of your neighbors.

*  Flooding and water quality in their community or back yard will worsen as more wetlands are filled. Walker has been authorizing wetland-filling since his first day in office. 

Do you have a flooded basement? Has your car floated away? Are your property taxes going to go up as municipalities face unprecedented infrastructure repair bills?

Is your legislator a climate change denier? Has he or she backed Walker's removal of climate change information from the DNR's website, and scientists from the DNR staff? 

Do you have more respect for science than Walker does?

*  Health care in Wisconsin will remain unreliable or unaffordable as long as Walker supports a lawsuit aimed at overturning the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. 

Do you want more than Walker's promise that he will somehow pay for your pre-existing medical coverage while he's also backing the lawsuit he had our Attorney General join to overturn Obamacare?

Do you want a Governor who won't talk out of both sides of his mouth about it?

Are you going to vote with these types of questions in mind?

Are Democrats going to ask and answer them in a way that make sense to you?

WI DNR wants to loosen its rules to speed elk 'management,' er, killing

It was always clear that the Wisconsin DNR was moving towards legalizing an elk hunt.

But why do Wisconsin officials camouflage the sanctioned killing of wildlife - - in this case, elk - - with language like 'management,' as if the agency were working with consultants to rearrange the organizational chart and boost interagency productivity after a seminar in best practices?

The DNR deployed the same kind of rhetorical sanitization with the wolf hunt that ran between 2012 and 2014, and still uses the language of wolf "management," and the "harvest". 

And why are the agency's rules covering this elk 'management' so pliable?

We remember when former DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp had bitterly complained about other managers who would "Change the rules to fit the players" in a blog rant that no doubt helped win the her the job Walker handed her.

From the upcoming Natural Resources Board meeting agenda next week, see this item about changing the rules about elk "management" and "metrics" associated with permit issuance, etc.

And how long before hunting lobbies begin saying, 'hey, we need another wolf hunt because they're eating at the elk buffet we brought in.'

Tracking mass layoffs in WI this summer, by the numbers

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development tracks state employers' mass layoffs, but the numbers are often not publicized and on-the-ground, real-life stories are missed. 

Here's what you may have missed amidst the chatter in certain circles about employment, trends, and so on:

September 2018

New Notices

Company	City	Affected Workers	Notice Received	Notice Type	Layoff Begin Date	NAICS Description	County	Workforce Development Area
Silgan Containers	Plover	30	9/20/2018	WR	11/24/2018	Metal Can Mfg	Portage	North Central
Marshfield Clinic Health System	Marshfield	25	9/17/2018	WR	08/16/2018	HMO – Medical Centers	Wood	North Central
Midwest Senior Living	Thiensville	30	9/1/2018	CL	11/01/2018	Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly	Ozaukee	WOW

Updates to Previously Filed Notices

Company	Reason for Update
Mayline (DBA Safco Products Co.)	LS

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August 2018

New Notices

Company	City	Affected Workers	Notice Received	Notice Type	Layoff Begin Date	NAICS Description	County	Workforce Development Area
P.F. Chang's	Middleton	36	8/31/2018	CL	09/01/2018	Full-service restaurants	Dane	South Central
ACCO Brands USA, LLC	Pleasant Prairie	54	8/28/2018	CL	10/26/2018	Office Supplies Merch Whls	Kenosha	Southeast
Com-Tec Security, LLC	Greenville	23	8/9/2018	CL	07/31/2018	Computer Systems Design Services	Outagamie	Bay Area
OneTouchPoint	Green Bay	30	8/8/2018	WR	08/01/2018	Commercial Gravure Printing	Brown	Bay Area
Best Buy	Grafton	68	8/8/2018	CL	11/03/2018	Electronics Stores	Ozaukee	WOW
Midwest Senior Living	Appleton	54	8/6/2018	CL	10/01/2018	Managing Offices	Outagamie	Bay Area
West Corporation	Middleton	112	8/2/2018	WR	08/31/2018	Telemarketing & Other Contact Centers	Dane	South Central
West Corporation	Green Bay	36	8/2/2018	WR	08/31/2018	Telemarketing & Other Contact Centers	Brown	Bay Area

No updates for this month

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July 2018

New Notices

Company	City	Affected Workers	Notice Received	Notice Type	Layoff Begin Date	NAICS Description	County	Workforce Development Area
Schuman Cheese	Fall Creek	51	7/16/2018	WR	07/12/2018	Cheese Mfg	Eau Claire	West Central
The Fresh Market, Inc.	Brookfield, Fox Point	102	7/10/2018	CL	08/03/2018	Supermarkets and Other Grocery Stores	Milwaukee, Waukesha	Milwaukee, WOW
Mayline (DBA Safco Products Co.)	Sheboygan	127	7/2/2018	CL	09/04/2018	Office Furn exc Wood Mfg	Sheboygan	Bay Area
Mayline (DBA Safco Products Co.) - Revision 1	Sheboygan	127	9/4/2018	LS	11/02/2018	Office Furn exc Wood Mfg	Sheboygan	Bay Area

No updates for this month

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June 2018

New Notices

Company	City	Affected Workers	Notice Received	Notice Type	Layoff Begin Date	NAICS Description	County	Workforce Development Area
GE Energy	Waukesha	236	6/29/2018	CL	08/31/2018	Other Engine Equip Mfg	Waukesha	Waukesha-Ozaukee-Washington
Cooper Power Systems	Waukesha	52	6/29/2018	WR	09/07/2018	Elect Power & Specialty Transformer Mfg	Waukesha	Waukesha-Ozaukee-Washington
Ariens Company	Janesville	141	6/19/2018	CL	08/20/2018	Lawn & Garden Equip Mfg	Rock	Southwest
Roche Nimblegen, Inc.	Madison	79	6/19/2018	CL	12/31/2018	Research & Dvlp in Biotech (except Nanobio)	Dane	South Central
Daniels of Janesville, LLC	Janesville	49	6/19/2018	CL	08/15/2018	Supermarkets & Other Grocery Stores	Rock	Southwest
DHL Supply Chain	Mequon	59	6/18/2018	CL	08/10/2018	General Freight Trucking Long Distance TL	Ozaukee	Waukesha-Ozaukee-Washington
Piggly Wiggly #24	Menasha	69	6/18/2018	CL	08/18/2018	Supermarkets and Other Grocery Stores	Winnebago	Fox Valley
Wells Fargo	Menomonee Falls	46	6/7/2018	CL	10/01/2018	Portfolio Management	Waukesha	Waukesha-Ozaukee-Washington

Updates to Previously Filed Notices

Company	Reason for Update
Gannett Publishing Services	LS
First Citizens Bank	AW