A week ago (well, actually a work week), the Packers won the Super Bowl and the state was united behind the courageous Charles Woodson and the others: Rogers, Driver, Jennings and Matthews.
Everyone felt great.
In the ensuing week, the mood for many got gloomy, then breath-takingly depressing:
Scott Walker, who won electionwith just 52% of the vote, was widening his imperious and unchecked extension of executive power - - beginning early in the week with the suspension of the broadly-popular Stewardship Program through which the state and local non-profits partner to acquire open space to pass along to future generations, and ending Friday with Walker's plan legislatively to wipe out most collective bargaining rights for public employees.
The goal: slam public employees, damage Democratic Dane County's equilibrium and economy, and deflate unions across the stat.
All the while strengthening employers through tax breaks and gubernatorial control of the state's process to promulgate administrative rules - - in itself a huge win for big business at the expense of transparency and consumer power.
Combine that with the coming attack on traditional Wisconsin voting procedures through legislators' assault on the myth of voter fraud concocted by Republicans and the Walker Gang's intent is clear:
Embed radical changes deeply into Wisconsin public life and policy-making, because everyone in politics knows it's easier to do things than to undo them.
With legislative majorities, ideological allies in talk radio and an unwillingness to include others in their decision-making circle, the die seems cast for years of self-interested and harsh Republican rule.
Progressive Wisconsin R.I.P.
This is a long and detailed but important analysis by the non-partisan Legislative Reference Bureau of the Walker budget repair bill that would make broad changes in state employee benefits, calculations and related matters.
You can read this in pdf format, along with the actual bill, here.
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AN ACT relating to: state finances, collective bargaining for public employees, compensation and fringe benefits of public employees, the state civil service system, the Medical Assistance program, sale of certain facilities, granting bonding authority, and making an appropriation.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Under current law, municipal employees have the right to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment under the Municipal Employment Relations Act (MERA), and state employees have the right to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment under the State Employment Labor Relations Act (SELRA). This bill changes MERA and SELRA with respect to all employees except employees who are certain protective occupation participants under the Wisconsin Retirement System or under a county or city retirement system (public safety employees). This bill limits the right to collectively bargain for all employees who are not public safety employees (general employees) to the subject of base wages. In addition, unless a referendum authorizes a greater increase, any general employee who is part of a collective bargaining unit is limited to bargaining over a percentage of total base wages increase that is no greater than the percentage change in the consumer price index. This bill also prohibits municipal employers from collectively bargaining with municipal general employees in matters that are not permitted under MERA.
Under SELRA and MERA, a collective bargaining unit elects a labor organization as its representative once a majority of the employees in that collective bargaining unit who are actually voting votes for that labor organization; that labor organization remains the representative unless a percentage of members of the collective bargaining unit supports a petition for a new election and subsequently votes to decertify the representative. This bill requires an annual certification election of the labor organization that represents each collective bargaining unit containing general employees. If, at the election, less than 51 percent of the actual employees in the collective bargaining unit vote for a representative, then, at the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement, the current representative is decertified and the members of the collective bargaining unit are nonrepresented and may not be represented for one year. This bill requires an initial certification election for all represented state and municipal general employees in April 2011.
Currently, except for an initial collective bargaining agreement, the terms of collective bargaining agreements are generally two years for state and municipal employees, and current law does not prohibit collective bargaining agreements from being extended. This bill limits the term for general employees to one year and prohibits the extension of collective bargaining agreements.
Current law provides that state and municipal employees who are represented by a labor organization have the organization dues deducted from their salaries. Except for salary deductions for public safety employees, this bill prohibits the salary deductions for labor organization dues. This bill also allows a general employee to refrain from paying dues and remain a member of a collective bargaining unit.
Under current law, University of Wisconsin (UW) System employees, employees of the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority, and certain home care and child care providers have the right to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment. This bill eliminates the rights of these employees to collectively bargain.
PUBLIC SECTOR RETIREMENT SYSTEMS
Currently, employer and employee required contributions, and the earnings on these contributions, fund the cost of providing retirement annuities to all public employees who are covered under the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). Employer required and employee required contribution rates are set on an annual basis. This bill provides that the employee required contribution rate for general participating employees and for elected and executive participating employees must equal one−half of all actuarially required contributions, as determined by the Employee Trust Funds Board. For protective occupation employees, the bill provides that the employee required contribution rate must equal the percentage of earnings paid by general participating employees.
Current law also requires the employer to pay all of the employer required contributions, but permits the employer to also pay all or part of the employee required contributions. This bill provides that an employer may not pay any of the employee required contributions under the WRS or under an employee retirement system of a first class city or a county having a population of 500,000 or more.
Currently, when a WRS participant terminates employment and becomes eligible for a retirement annuity, assuming the participant does not receive a money purchase annuity, the amount of the annuity is determined by multiplying the participant’s final average earnings by the participant’s years of creditable service and by a percentage multiplier. For a protective occupation participant, the multiplier is either 2 percent or 2.5 percent, depending on whether the person is covered by social security. For elected officials and executive participating employees, the multiplier is 2 percent. For all other participants in the WRS, the multiplier is 1.6 percent. This bill decreases the multiplier for elected officials and executive participating employees from 2 percent to 1.6 percent for creditable service that is performed on or after the bill’s effective date.
Under current law, state employees become participating employees in the WRS if they are expected to work at least one−third of what is considered full−time employment by the Department of Employee Trust Funds (DETF) and have an expected duration of employment of one year or more. If a state employee becomes a WRS participating employee, the employee is also entitled to receive health insurance under the Group Insurance Board (GIB) program. A current group of state employees are appointed to state positions as limited term appointments in the state civil service, which are provisional appointments or appointments for less than 1,044 hours per year. This bill prohibits limited term appointments from participating in the WRS, as well as prohibits these employees from receiving health insurance under the GIB program.
This bill also requires the secretary of administration, the director of the Office of State Employee Relations (OSER), and the secretary of employee trust funds to study the WRS. The study must specifically address establishing a defined contribution plan as an option for WRS participating employees; establishing different vesting periods for employer contributions and eligibility for WRS retirement benefits; modifying the supplemental health insurance premium credit program for state employees; and permitting participating employees to not make employee required contributions under the WRS and limiting retirement benefits for these employees to a money purchase annuity.
Under the bill, no later than June 30, 2012, the secretary of administration, the director of OSER, and the secretary of employee trust funds must report their findings and recommendations to the governor.
PUBLIC SECTOR GROUP INSURANCE
Currently, state employees, as well as employees of public authorities created by the state, receive health care coverage under plans offered by GIB, which plans are assigned to one of three tiers depending on the employee’s premium costs. The employer share of premium costs for employees who work more than 1,565 hours a year is an amount not less than 80 percent of the average premium costs under the various health care coverage plans. The amount for represented employees is subject to collective bargaining and the amount for nonrepresented employees is established in various compensation plans.
This bill provides that the employer may not pay more than 88 percent of the average premium cost of plans offered in the tier with the lowest employee premium cost. For employees who work less than 1,566 hours a year, with exceptions, the employer must pay an amount determined by the director of OSER. Under the bill, the actual employer and employee share of premium costs is established on an annual basis by the director of OSER.
For the remainder of 2011, however, beginning in April 2011, the bill provides that state employees, as well as employees of public authorities created by the state, who work more than 1,565 hours a year shall pay $84 a month for individual coverage and $208 a month for family coverage for health care coverage under any plan offered in the tier with the lowest employee premium cost; $122 a month for individual coverage and $307 a month for family coverage for health care coverage under any plan offered in the tier with the next lowest employee premium cost; and $226 a month for individual coverage and $567 a month for family coverage for health care coverage under any plan offered in the tier with the highest employee premium cost.
UW System graduate assistants and teaching assistants must pay half of these amounts. Employees who work less than 1,566 hours a year are required to pay the same amount for health care coverage during 2011 that they were required to pay before the bill’s effective date.
The bill further provides that a local government employer who participates in the local government health insurance plan offered by GIB may not participate in the plan if it intends to pay more than 88 percent of the average premium cost of plans offered in any tier with the lowest employee premium cost.
This bill requires the director of OSER and the secretary of employee trust funds to study the feasibility of offering to employees eligible to receive health care coverage under the GIB plans, beginning on January 1, 2013, the option of receiving health care coverage through either a low−cost health care coverage plan or through a high−deductible health plan and the establishment of a health savings account, as described under federal law.
The study must also examine the feasibility of requiring state employees to receive health care coverage through a health benefits exchange established pursuant to the federal law and creating a health care insurance purchasing pool for all public employees and individuals receiving health care coverage under the Medical Assistance program. No later than June 30, 2012, the director and secretary shall report their findings and recommendations to the governor.
Current law also provides that GIB may not enter into agreements to modify or expand group insurance coverage in a manner that conflicts with applicable statutes, or DETF rules, or that materially affects the level of premiums required to be paid by the state or its employees or the level of benefits provided under any group insurance coverage. This bill provides that this restriction does not prevent GIB from encouraging participation in wellness or disease management programs under any of its group insurance coverage plans. In addition, the bill provides that this prohibition does not apply to GIB agreements relating to group insurance coverage for the 2012 and 2013 calendar years.
This bill requires GIB to design health care coverage plans for the 2012 calendar year that, after adjusting for any inflationary increase in health benefit costs, reduces the average premium cost of plans offered in the tier with the lowest employee premium cost by at least 5 percent from the cost of such plans offered during the 2011 calendar year. GIB must include copayments in the health care coverage plans for the 2012 calendar year and may require health risk assessments for state employees and participation in wellness or disease management programs.
This bill requires the secretary of employee trust funds to allocate $28,000,000, from reserve accounts established in the public employee trust fund for group health and pharmacy benefits for state employees, to reduce employer costs for providing group health insurance for state employees for the period beginning on July 1, 2011, and ending on December 31, 2011.
Current law permits GIB to contract with the Department of Health Services (DHS) and other public or private entities for data collection and analysis services related to health maintenance organizations and insurance companies that provide health insurance to state employees. This bill permits GIB to contract for any other consulting services related to plans it offers.
Currently, the attorney general, or his or her designee, serves on GIB. This bill requires that the attorney general designee on GIB must be an attorney.
This bill provides that if DETF determines that an audit of its employee benefit programs is necessary during the 2011−12 fiscal year, for the purpose of verifying the eligibility of dependents covered under the programs, DETF must submit a written request to the secretary of administration to expend an amount not exceeding $700,000 to conduct the audit.
STATE GOVERNMENT STATE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM
Under current law, the governor may declare a state of emergency if he or she determines that an emergency exists resulting from a disaster or the imminent threat of a disaster. This bill authorizes a state agency to discharge any state employee who fails to report to work as scheduled for any three unexcused working days during a state of emergency or who participates in a strike, work stoppage, sit−down, stay−in, slowdown, or other concerted activities to interrupt the of operations or services of state government, including specifically purported mass resignations or sick calls. Under the bill, engaging in any of these actions constitutes just cause for discharge.
Currently, the director of OSER has promulgated rules to establish a career executive program. The program provides state agencies with highly qualified executive candidates, provides outstanding administrative employees a broad opportunity for career advancement, and provides for the mobility of such employees among state agencies for the most advantageous use of their managerial and administrative skills. Under current administrative rules, an appointing authority may reassign a career executive employee from one career executive position to another career executive position within the same state agency. This bill permits an appointing authority to reassign an employee in a career executive position to a career executive position in any state agency if the appointing authority in the state agency to which the employee is to be reassigned approves of the reassignment.
This bill increases the number of unclassified division administrators by 35 FTE positions, decreases positions are to be determined by the secretary of administration, expands the definition of “division administrator” to include other managerial positions, and permits the director of OSER to appoint either a deputy director or an executive assistant in the unclassified service.
STATE FINANCE
This bill increases the amount of state public debt that may be contracted to refund any unpaid indebtedness used to finance tax−supported or self−amortizing facilities from $309,000,000 to $474,000,000. Such refunded debt must be contracted before July 1, 2011.
This bill reduces executive branch agency lapses and transfers to the general fund for the 2009−11 fiscal biennium that were required under 2007 Wisconsin Act 20 from $200,000,000 to $121,000,000, as well as reduces the expenditure authority of the Joint Committee on Finance (JCF) during the 2010−11 fiscal year by $4,590,400 from its general purpose revenue supplemental appropriation.
This bill requires the secretary of administration, before July 1, 2011, to lapse to the general fund, from executive branch appropriations, an amount equal to $27,891,400; requires the cochairpersons of the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization to lapse to the general fund, from appropriations to the legislature, an amount equal to $717,700; requires the governor to lapse to the general fund, from appropriations to the office of the governor, an amount equal to $37,500; and requires the chief justice of the supreme court to lapse to the general fund, from appropriations to the judicial branch, an amount equal to $1,153,400. The lapses seek to capture employer savings resulting from increases in state employee payments for health insurance and retirement contributions.
OTHER STATE GOVERNMENT
Currently, this state owns and operates numerous heating, cooling, and power plants that were constructed by the state to provide heating, cooling, and power to state facilities. The Department of Administration (DOA) determines the method of operation of these plants and may delegate this authority to any other state agency that has managing authority for a plant. This bill permits DOA to sell or contract for the operation of any such plant. The bill exempts such sales and contracts from the requirement for approval of the Public Service Commission (PSC) that may otherwise apply under current law. The bill provides that the net proceeds of any sale, after retirement of any outstanding state debt and any necessary repayment of federal financial assistance, is deposited in the budget stabilization fund. The bill also allows DOA, at any time, to petition the PSC to regulate as a public utility any person who purchases or contracts for the operation of any plant under the bill. Under current law, the PSC has regulatory authority over public utilities, including the authority to set rates for utility service.
HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES MEDICAL ASSISTANCE
Under current law, DHS administers the Medical Assistance (MA) program, which is a joint federal and state program that provides health services to individuals who have limited resources. Some services are provided throug programs that operate under a waiver of federal laws related to medical assistance (MA waiver progrhams). This bill requires DHS to study potential changes to the MA state plan and to waivers of federal law relating to medical assistance for certain purposes, including increasing the cost effectiveness and efficiency of care for the MA program and MA waiver programs and improving the health status of individuals who receive benefits under the MA program or an MA waiver program. If DHS determines, as a result of the study, that revision of existing statutes or rules would be necessary to advance any of the purposes for which the study was conducted, DHS may promulgate rules to implement certain changes, including making certain requirements, modifying benefits, revising provider reimbursement models, developing standards and methodologies for eligibility, and reducing income levels for purposes of determining eligibility.
Before promulgating a rule, DHS must submit the proposed rule and any plan developed as a result of the study to JCF for review. DHS must submit an amendment to the state MA plan or request a waiver of federal laws related to medical assistance, if necessary, to the extent necessary to implement any proposal. If the federal Department of Health and Human Services does not allow the amendment or does not grant the waiver, DHS may not put the rule into effect or implement the proposal. To reduce the eligibility income levels to a certain amount, DHS must request a waiver from the secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services to permit DHS to have in effect eligibility standards, methodologies, and procedures that are more restrictive than those in place on March 23, 2010.
If DHS does not receive approval for the waiver, DHS must reduce the eligibility income levels for MA programs and MA waiver programs to 133 percent of the federal poverty line for adults who are not pregnant and not disabled, as allowed under federal law. DHS may promulgate the rules as emergency rules.
OTHER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
This bill eliminates the UW Hospitals and Clinics Board, a state agency assigned the single duty to enter into a contractual services agreement with the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority to provide the services of state employees who are in clerical, blue collar and nonbuilding trades, building trades crafts, security and public safety, and technical collective bargaining units. The bill also transfers all employees of the UW Hospitals and Clinics Board to the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority.
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Reflecting the receipt of emergency contingency funds under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant program, this bill increases by $37,000,000 the amount of TANF moneys allocated for the earned income tax credit.
This bill will be referred to the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems for a detailed analysis, which will be printed as an appendix to this bill.
A day after letting it be known that he intended to strip public sector workers of most of their collective bargaining power - - hence lowering their standard of living - - Scott Walker will send each state employee an email today thanking them for their service and asking them to understand how tough a job he hast.
He will get little sympathy, as Walker has made a career by scapegoating public employees and did not approach unions for concessions before he lowered the boom.
And has he ever said a word about Wall Street bankers and housing industry manipulators who plunged the country and the state into deep recession?
And what kind of a fiscal conservative hands out $90,000-a-year-state jobs to the likes of his former County Executive chief of staff and public pension double-dipping Tom Nardelli and to Jeff Plale, a defeated state Senate Democrat whose 11th-hour lame-duck vote with Senate Republicans doomed already-negotiated employee contracts.
And Nardelli's job to supervise building safety and inspection programs is money spent inappropriately.
Walker is using the state's fiscal problems as cover to push the traditional big business, Republican goals: weaken unions, accelerate road-building, diminish transit ($1.7 billion for the Zoo Interchange, forfeit $800 million for high-speed rail), give real estate interests easier access to open space (stop the Stewardship Program funding), and deliver tax breaks for high earners (HSA savings account holders) and business owners.
That's what Walker is giving the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Club for Growth.
Others directly involved are getting an email.
And then cuts.
Follow this line of reasoning, and why not just keep going? After all, some people have yards?
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| Milwaukee County Shirks its Responsibility Tear Down the Estabrook Dam!  The Estabrook Dam was put into service in 1937 to elevate water levels for recreation after a project to prevent localized flooding caused drastic reductions in water levels. Unfortunately, Estabrook Dam has been on a long decline in the past several decades and in July 2009, WDNR issued a formal "order to repair or abandon," giving Milwaukee County until January 28, 2011 to make a formal decision on what they are going to do with this structure, which currently presents a safety hazard and public nuisance. Notwithstanding having a full year and one-half to make a decision, the County Board has failed to do so. Instead, on January 28, 2011, the County Parks sent a letter stating the County was unable to make a decision and was still contemplating the issue! The fact is that Milwaukee County does not have money to repair the dam, and it should come down NOW!  Total costs to keep the dam include $4.8 million to $6.3 million depending on the amount of contaminated sediment which needs to be removed just above the dam. These costs do not include likely expenses of constructing a fish ladder, which could add $1 million to project costs. Estimates also do not include costs for accessing private property and acquiring easements to access the dam from western bank of the Milwaukee River . Removing the dam is estimated from past studies at $650,000 with an additional $600,000 to re-vegetate and stabilize upstream areas. Sediment would still need to be removed as well were the dam to be removed. It is important to note that removal would save $1.3 million in operation and maintenance costs over 20 years (for a thorough financial explanation click here), and capital costs for removal could likely be paid for by taking advantage of significant federal or state grants for dam removal. Grant funds are NOT available for dam repair. The costs of repairing, replacing, and maintaining the ESTABROOK DAM in the long run will greatly exceed the costs of removing the dam NOW! Please call your County Supervisor and urge them to vote against funding repairs of the Estabrook Dam and instead to seek funds for removal of the Estabrook Dam, removal of contaminated sediments, and the restoration of the Milwaukee River in the area of the dam and existing impoundment. Milwaukee County Board decisions around this dam have focused on Supervisors' political interests/deal making, and not what is in the best interest of Milwaukee County taxpayers or their natural resources. Please urge your Supervisor to vote to remove the Estabrook Dam. For a detailed update on the Dam, county supervisor contact information, and additional talking points, please click here.   | |
Broadening the message.
Scott Walker will get plenty of attention nationally for his extremist plan to strip away most traditional public employees' union rights, and while his angry base may like the cost savings he's promising, the black eye it will earn Wisconsin may prove costly, too.
Every Wisconsin Governor has created and filled this non-partisan educational, budget-free board with volunteer members since 1959.
Call into Walker's press office for clarification...
[Saturday evening update, 48 hours+, no response.]
The Wisconsin Commission on the United Nations, one of many state advisory boards, has had an affiliation with the Institute of World Affairs at UW-M and principally organized events around the anniversary of the UN's founding after World War II.
It's volunteer board was drawn from religious, civic, educational, business and labor organizations, and had no state staffing and or funding.
The United Nations is a force for international peace, disease eradication, poverty elimination, clean water availability, human rights, improved schooling, and mutual respect and understanding across boundaries, among other non-partisan issues, that contribute to the quality of life in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin residents played key roles in the UN's founding and continue to carry out international educational efforts through annual Great Decisions programming, volunteer Model UN assemblies for high school students and world trade efforts in the state's large cities.
The most current UN commission chair was Milwaukee businessman Dr. Wolfgang Schmidt.
[Disclosure: my wife has been a Commission member.]
Thanks, Gov. Walker, for moving good Wisconsin rail car manufacturing jobs to a state that is really open for business.
Illinois also will welcome wind turbine business, should Walker severely restrict turbine siting in Wisconsin. So Wisconsin is open for business - - to be moved to Illinois.
How dare the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources limit the freedom of Wisconsin youth to kill wildlife with baseball bats, golf clubs and cars?
This is precisely the kind of nit-picky, bureaucratic DNR tyranny that Scott Walker and Cathy Stepp have to stop, or no one is going to want to come to our state for their thrill-killing quality time.
As Stepp herself wrote before Walker picked her to run the DNR:
Pro garter snake...pro-raccoon. It's a straight line. Animals over people."For example, people who go to work for the DNR's land, waste, and water bureaus tend to be anti-development, anti-transportation, and pro-garter snakes, karner blue butterflies, etc...This is in their nature; their make-up and DNA. So, since they're unelected bureaucrats who have only their cubicle walls to bounce ideas off of, they tend to come up with some pretty outrageous stuff that those of us in the real world have to contend with..."
Scott Walker issued a news release earlier this week praising the adoption of the special Green Bay wetlands filling bill for Bass Pro Shops - - on which the business says it will not build - - and weirdly called it "our Ashley Furniture moment" - - a reference to a controversy some years ago when Ashley fought and won permission in 2005 to build on 13.5 acres of wetlands in Arcadia.
I guess the Walker people forgot that Ashley's facility this summer was flooded. Losses topped $6 million.
Makes you think (and some disagree) that just maybe some of those wetlands that became concrete and fill could have soaked up some of that destructive water flow, as that's what wetlands do. (see: Katrina, Gulf Coast, flooding of...).
Here's the Walker release (hat tips to State Rep. Brett Hulsey, Milwaukee Riverkeeper):
February 2, 2011 For Immediate Release Contact: Cullen Werwie, 608‐267‐7303
Governor Walker Statement on Passage of SSSB 10
Madison–Governor Scott Walker today issued the following statement on the Assembly and Senate’s passage of legislation that will allow for a development in Green Bay while balancing environmental concerns.
“This is our Ashley Furniture moment, to show that we are serious about reforming DNR and other agencies to balance regulatory needs with job creation,” said Governor Scott Walker.
“Special thanks go to Senator Kedzie and Representative Mursau for shepherding through this legislation that will show we are serious about streamlining state bureaucracy.”
Can you imagine what conservative talk radio would be saying if Democrats in Madison tried something like this?
Today's big question is: will Walker tomorrow ask state employees to make major wage and benefit concessions or will he go nuclear and ask legislators to remove those employees' ability to organize.
This will be the best indicator yet if Walker wants to govern or dictate.
Scott Walker, Inc. says everything is on the budget-cutting butcher block, including bonding authority for public land purchases - - but he's still committing $1.7 billion in borrowing and spending to rebuild and expand the Zoo Interchange reconstruction and expansion, please Waukesha Republican voters and satisfy the road-builders.
What, you say? Isn't that what we call a contradiction?
Or worse, spin, or a fib?
Truth is, everything is not on the table.
Principally what's on the table are programs that help cities, which, coincidentally are where most Democrats live - - social services programs, health care programs, revenues to local governments and schools, public sector collective bargaining rights and compensation, transit investments, environmental protections and voting rights.
In the Walker era, city residents are fast becoming second-class citizens as Reince Priebus positions Walker and Congressional pal Pail Ryan as national models.
Tweak the wind turbine rules - - that took two years to write - - with the future of a multi-billion-dollar new green energy industry hanging in the balance?
With Walker's legislative allies hand-in-glove with the realtors doing the so-called tweaking?
This is like letting the Pittsburgh Steelers "tweak" the clock and add, say. five more minutes to their final Super Bowl drive.
Drought in the Amazon causes huge uptick in greenhouse gas levels.
How big: An amount added to the atmosphere equal to the entire US annual release.
Scientific American explains here.
Not merely content with their gaudy special interest funding, rightwing plutocrats are now after public financing that offers a modicum of parity through public funding. Shameless.
There are so many ways the nuclear genie can get loose: Canadian authorities are willing to let shippers move shiploads of radioactive waste across the Great Lakes.
Transportation is a risky business.
Letters, emails and calls should be made immediately to state representatives and to Scott Walker's office with at least this message:
"Do not suspend the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Conservation for future generations must be allowed to proceed through this long-standing, bi-partisan and effective program that boosts the economy and our quality of life."The contact information for state legislators is found here:
This is not a story from The Onion:
Tom Nardelli, the long-time chief of staff to then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker who served when a) a slab fell off the County-owned O'Donnell Park garage, killing one person and maiming another, b) a piece of the County Courthouse fell, c) a ceiling panel fell off the County-owned airport, injuring a passenger, d) reports were issued showing scores of millions of dollars of repairs were needed in deferred maintenance on county facilities, for which there was no regular inspection schedule....Tom Nardelli has been appointed by Walker to run the building safety division at the state Department of Commerce.
I repeat: this is not a story from The Onion.
To the editorial boards and moderate Republicans who said Scott Walker was the right choice for Wisconsin, a question:
When will Walker damage enough of the programs and goals you have backed for you to withdraw that support?
If it wasn't derailing federally-constructed Amtrak service from Milwaukee to Madison, if it wasn't jeopardizing the nascent wind turbine industry, if it wasn't shifting the biomass generating plant in Madison back to fossil fuels, if it wasn't pushing a private bill for a donor to fill a Green Bay wetlands, if it isn't grabbing off rule-making authority from the legislature - - is Walker's undoing the popular Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund program the tipping point?
Is there an overreach anywhere in this radical performance by a governor elected with just 52% of the vote that gives you genuine pause about where Walker and his extreme team are taking the state?
Do you have the commitment and consistency to come out and say, "enough is enough?"
The Stewardship Fund is about as bi-partisan, non-partisan and broadly popular a state-branded program we have. Urban, rural,and suburban people use and enjoy it, as do hikers, hunters and anglers.
Are you willing to watch the public interest in Wisconsin get the Grover Norquist--shrink-and drown-in-the-bathtub arch-reactionary treatment?
Is nothing worth preserving here?
Anybody heard from Gov. Scott Walker about Asian carp?
He's devoted time, political capital and laissez-faire message creation over 1.35 acres he wants filled fast in Green Bay for a fishing equipment store the operators say they will not build on the site, but what of the rather larger expanse of water nearby called Lake Michigan and its relevance to Wisconsin should Asian carp breakthrough into the lake?
Walker says he's for jobs, jobs, jobs - - but what about the tens of thousands of jobs from Door County to Kenosha directly tied to a health Lake Michigan that an Asian carp invasion will harm?
Who wants to ride of fishing boat if you need to wear a protective helmet? Will a fish boil with carp fill the lodges and restaurants all summer in Egg Harbor?
Michigan officials - - regardless of party - - have bee at the forefront of efforts to force the federal government to act.
We sometimes hear a peep out of our Attorney General, but it seems as if he always has bigger fish to fry, like chasing phantom voting fraud cases.
Walker's new corporate team at the DNR hasn't made the carp a priority. They're too busy thumbing through manuals and documents looking rules to cut with the zeal of early bird shoppers clipping Sunday newspaper coupons to take a strong position on carp prevention.
Leadership on the carp issue wit h Wisconsin's economy and environment is a no-brainer for every Wisconsin politician, but Team Walker on carp is AWOL.
Maybe they are afraid to take on the issue with gusto because they'd have to be aligned with some environmentalists, perhaps even some Democrats?
Maybe they are worried that a touch stance would put them in conflict with Illinois business interests who want the carp's probable route - - the Chicago shipping and refuse canal - - kept open?
Maybe they just don't see an activist role for Wisconsin government when it comes to Lake Michigan, but getting a small parcel of wetlands filled for a business that doesn't want it - - well, that's manageable;e.
Regardless, Walker's inaction keeps Wisconsin open for the carp.
Waukesha Water Utility general manager Dan Duchniak says a website redesign removed links to past water commission minutes and agendas, and while it is not clear if they will return to the utility's website, Duchniak said you can access them this way:
Republicans and conservatives across governments say their mission is jobs, but their push against government regulation - - they are doing to "regulation" what they did to "liberal" - - is also about using government to bring about worker control, environmental degradation, higher dividends and fatter compensation at the top.
In other words, it's an effort to use government power by playing with the tax code or withdrawing it from social protections to solidify corporate power - - but "job creation" sounds much nicer than "more plutocracy," or, "we love smog," or "more pie for us!"
The right isn't really against government: it just wants to use it to advance a corporatist agenda.
Much as conservatives denounce "activist" judges, when they mean "liberals," but love conservative judicial activists, like Scalia, or Gableman, when they serve the Chamber of Commerce/Manufacturers & Commerce agenda.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Walker wants executive control of rule-making at the expense of a more open, legislative review. He is installing a more pro-development Department of Natural Resources managed by business insiders.
Both the new Secretary and the deputy come from the land-hungry home-building industry; Patrick Stevens, the agency's new division chief in charge of air quality, and a former builders trade association general counsel, opined when working for the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce that the DNR had "run amok" on clean air management.
Specific environmental rules are also up for elimination, like one requiring continuous disinfection of municipal drinking water.
Watch also for an effort to pull back or wipe out rules years in the making through coordinated and consensus-driven compromise to keep polluting phosphates out of rivers, streams and lakes.compromise.
Nationally, The Washington Post reports on industry efforts to roll back numerous rules that are directly tied to public health, consumer information and worker safety.
The Wall Street Journal; notes the target is the US Environmental Protection Agency - - mirroring Walker's efforts to water down the DNR.
And these agencies work together, setting up all sorts of chaos if one or both are diluted or eliminated.
Safe products and workplaces? Clean air and water?
Republicans say those things get in the way of creating jobs, but it looks to me like the jobs that will be created by withdrawing government from regulation will be a) in corporate suites, and b) downstream in internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and cardio-vascular treatment after common sense safety nets are removed.
Time to organize. or Wisconsin will be reduced to a libertarian plutocracy - - a welfare state for the wealthy and big business - - with a disregarded natural environment as a big part of the next generation's inheritance.
Two more years to raise $5 million. Is this a reflection of the economy, really, or the legendary fiscal conservatism of the area's private sector?
Can you imagine the private sector having these problems even in a smaller city, like Madison, where the giant research park west of the city is now beginning a phase II?
This has been going on for a while.
More growth for Internet media. The Capital Times takes over WisPolitics, AOL grabs Huffington Post, and Newsweek was recently merged with The Daily Beast.
If you don't see the trend, you're not online.
Conservationists, alternative industry leaders and tech innovators should be congratulated for bringing some rationality to the State Capitol and a halt to Scott Walker's new industry-and-jobs' killing wind turbine siting restrictions.
The wind turbine siting restriction - - headed now for hearings - - was a bad proposal that would keep the state dependent on fossil fuels, drain the market of opportunities for manufacturers and suppliers, undo years of work at the Public Service Commission.
And it should be exposed as a special interest sop for major Walker donors who bragged about its introduction, according to this news account:
"Observers at the Statehouse are still trying to determine why Walker wants to make things more difficult for the wind power industry, given the promise of new jobs and an estimated $1.8 billion worth of projects already in the works.Now we need cooler, more thoughtful heads to prevail as consideration continues on two additional special interest-inspired Walker initiatives: his plan to assume rule-making approval authority from the Legislature and to exempt small wetlands parcels from full reviews for development.
Clean-energy advocates are pointing fingers at the state's real estate interests, which maintain that wind turbines significantly decrease property values. In addition, if farmers are able to collect rent by leasing their property for wind projects, they are less inclined to sell their land for a new subdivision.
Wisconsin Realtors Association lobbyist Tom Larson told Midwest Energy News that his group was "definitely" the driving force in getting Walker to call for changes in the wind siting rules.
Rules drafted by the state Public Service Commission take effect in March and create uniform standards statewide, including a required setback of 1,250 feet from homes. The Walker proposal... calls for a 1,800-foot setback from the property line - a much more stringent requirement.
Campaign contributions may also have played a role. Records compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign show Walker received $750,833 from the construction industry and $427,629 from Realtors through Oct. 18, 2010.
"The two special interests who like the anti-windmill bill gave him nearly $1.2 million during his run for governor," notes WDC research director Mike Buelow."
These are heady times for Reince Priebus, Paul Ryan and Scott Walker, as the evil mainstream media has anointed our three young guns as ascendant and consequential.
And give them their due: strategically, they were in the right place at the right time, with a right-wing talk radio infrastructure right there as the megaphone. Right, right, right, and right
But if history is our guide they will bump up against an iron-clad political rule that Nothing Is Forever.
And the corollary: There's a lot you can't control, and it can do you in.
And another corollary: You can do it to yourself, too.
Just ask George Bush the first, Jimmy Carter, or Karl Rove and his permanent Republican majority (b. 2000- - d. 2008).
It can come in the form of outside, unforeseen - - even stupid events - - that upset carefully laid plans and upend careers (see: Elliott Spitzer, Mark Sanford, Mark Foley).
There's also deflation through overexposure, turning can't-miss phenoms into a bumbling irrelevancy (for different reasons, Sarah Palin, John Edwards).
Walker (State of the State speech) and Ryan (State of the Union response) already erred with high-profile messages out-of-synch for the times, too gloomy and manipulative - - the economic equivalency of Bush/Cheney keeping us on a non-stop, eight year Ultra-High Threat Alert.
Their fear-mongering clanged off the ear like a last-second field goal hitting the upright.
I recommend, in particular, Bill Lueders in Isthmus assessing Walker's speech.
There is an unnecessary but revealing arrogance in Walker's continued push for the filling of a Green Bay wetlands' for a project already vetoed by its designated tenant - - Pro Bass Shops, a national fishing gear firm.
Arrogance Update: I rest my case: Walker announces bizarre pick for top state personnel post.
Power and publicity have a way of insulating an office holder while overdosing the ego (see, Palin, and Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney/Libby/Wolfowitz/Firth/, et al)), and fooling leaders into thinking they actually are destiny's political children - - Right and always right, immune from fallibility.
It means over-reaching is just around the corner: The messy fight underway over wind turbine siting between energy companies and real estate interests, in which pro-jobs Walker has been in the pocket of the Realtors at the expense of a billion-dollar+ new industry, shows that blowback against a bad bill and mindset is already underway.
Walker, Ryan and Priebus are worth watching.
We'll see how they handle the inevitable transience that governs the political environment in which they star today, but not necessarily tomorrow.
Wisconsin is open for air pollution: Dirty, unhealthy air for both Milwaukee and Brown Counties are on tap with an Orange alert for "fine" particulates that are bad for lungs and heart, says the DNR.
| Issued: 10:00 am CST Sunday, February 6, 2011 |
| Start Time: | 10:00 am CST Sunday, February 6, 2011 |
| End Time: | 8:00 pm CST Sunday, February 6, 2011 |
| Counties: | Brown and Milwaukee |
Let's be realistic: today is a day to watch the game, not the blogs. And may The Force of the Great Lomardi be with us.
So now we're seeing the stubborn side of Scott Walker, reminiscent a bit of George W. Bush, who didn't apologize or change course when silly facts suggested otherwise.
Walker signed that more-or-less private bill allowing a donor to build a fishing supply store on wetlands in Green Bay - - though the legal review of the wetlands fill hadn't been completed AND the fishing supply store publicly said as a matter or policy that it did not build on wetlands.
So Walker makes his point, which is exactly what?
Jeff Martinka, the executive director of Sweet Water, a fairly new regional water and planning partnership, offers a reasoned argument about our watersheds and how to clean them up.
Both the article and the comments are refreshingly clear and positive.
Earlier information, here.
The federal government is moving towards new rules to ensure the quality of drinking water. It's long overdue and a good extension of federal standard-setting that's been going on in the US for years.
Remember that some Republican legislators want Wisconsin to go in a different direction by proposing the elimination of a state rule that requires continuous disinfection of water by public water systems.
And this is part of the Walker administration's new anti-DNR stance: a smaller, weaker, less assertive DNR is somehow a good thing in the land of Gaylord Nelson, and where clean water brings tourists, new businesses and keeps residents happy and healthy.
Now I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me that one of the DNR's roles is to enforce various clean air and water regulations approved by Congress and passed onto the EPA for administration.
Which the EPA passes on to the states, so in Wisconsin, that's a DNR role.
So as long as we have a Union, and an EPA, and I know that Newt Gingrich the other day said the EPA should be abolished - - that's just one fringe right-wing presidential wannabe in a crowded field looking for fresh meat to throw to throw to the base - - we'll need a DNR to enforce these federal rules.
So, you say, just eliminate the people at the DNR so the enforcement work can't happen, and, ha ha, more wetlands to fill, and clean water requirements to overlook.
Nope: what will happen is that feds will come in a direct that things get done, and without a vigorous DNR in place - - and the same thing could happen at the DOT with regard to land use, wetlands, endangered species and more - - there will be little-to-no local control and more direct control from the feds.
I'm not sure Walker & Co. really want that, but that could be the unintended consequence of stripping people and responsibilities and mission from agencies like the DNR or the DOT that could fall under the bureaucratic and ideological ax.
Big boost for green power and rationality in politics in Wisconsin, as the crazy 'no-wind-turbines-in Wisconsin' bill gets shelved.
And Walker takes a hit.
Great news. His bill was an industry-killer.
Now onto wetlands protection and rule-making power-sharing with the legislature. Let Walker play defense for a while.
Milwaukee County's government grants an extension to UWM to complete a $13 million land deal at the County grounds for the school's business innovation center.
People - - from county taxpayers to Wauwatosa residents to local conservationists - - have a right to be skeptical, even nervous, about the extension, the private sector's fund-raising capacity and the entire plan to create an arm of UWM miles away from the main, East side Milwaukee campus.
Gov. Walker's so-called pro-business agenda is rolling through the legislature because his allies control both houses. It's not because the agenda has inherent, a priori value and truth. Power politics is underway. To the victors go the spoils.
But lost in the partisan hoopla and self-served framing is something harder to see: the expanded role Walker wants government to play in social and economic planning.
* Take his proposed wind turbine siting law. It will severely restrict how and when a property owner could lease or sell land to a utility. Conservatives have been belly-aching for years that the Department of Natural Resources does this very thing - - and Walker put a team of private-sector leaders into the agency to run it - - but his wind turbine plan will disallow many property owners statewide from exercising control of their own land.
[Update: WISC-TV3 in Madison reports Thursday afternoon that the bill is dead. We'll see...]
* The shift of administrative rule approvals to the Governor's office from the legislature centralizes his authority and removes key legal and policy reviews from legislative hearing procedures.
* The privatization of some Commerce Department activities puts economic planning authority in the hands of less accountable officials who can then further manipulate government resources, policy development and rule-making directly with the Governor.
* Walker's election supposedly validated free-markets, and unfettered competition - - but right off the bat he signed into law state imposed caps on punitive damages in lawsuit awards - - so victims have the weight of the state brought against them on behalf of manufacturers and insurers.
So the government that says it is for deregulation is enacting new restrictions on certain individuals, and special interests.
Walker's main goal is to cement his political fund-raising base in the Republican Party and its powerful private-sector donors in the statewide chamber of commerce, plus the transportation and the home-building sectors.
Politics first, survivability and extension in office, first - - and then if there is spin-off job-creation or some trickle-down hiring, the same small-government spin machine that is pulling off greater government control will grab off all the credit.
What is basically a private bill to sidestep full environmental reviews so that one developer can build one building for one retailer on one piece of wetlands in Green Bay continues to move through the State Legislature even though the retailer says as a matter of policy it doesn't build on wetlands.
But the anti-regulatory ideologues running the state these days want to make the point that a bad bill is better than following the rules.
This is worse than watching sausage being made. It's watching sausage being made with ingredients that won't pass both the smell and taste test.
Got a problem-free ride downtown to see John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett at the Pabst Wednesday night just hours after the blizzard blew itself out of town. The only traffic congestion was in the underground parking garage on the way out. As the performers said, Milwaukee knows how to deal with snow.
Cities are only as good as their basic services. Milwaukee did itself proud the last couple of days.
Reasoned argument.
You'd think that Walker would be looking for a way out of this special interest trap - - one which he dug himself - - to allow a major donor to build a building on a wetlands parcel near Lambeau Field in Green Bay without finishing a permit process still being reviewed.
The conservation group Wisconsin Wildlife Federation - - notably not, Walker or his corporatist DNR - - suggested something novel - - a meeting among all parties - - as a way to get the issue resolved with face-saving all around.
Good for the WWF, as I'd said earlier.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said at a news conference this noon that the residency requirement for city employees helped Milwaukee meet the challenges posed by the blizzard because vehicles, workers and jobs stay conveniently close.
A good point, and a strong reason for Scott Walker to slow down the talk of lifting the requirement.
UPDATE: In a classic case of projection, righty talker Jeff Wagner on 620 WTMJ-AM just attacked Barrett for "trying to exploit" the storm emergency by mentioning the residency issue.
"Shame on you, Mayor Barrett," said Wagner, tossing out this particular talker's favorite phrase
So who's exploiting the matter, now?
I was out shoveling when I remembered this pearl of 2010 campaign truthiness.
Elsewhere, Noah is no doubt being invoked.
The good news: Congress has a good teacher on the subject.
"On, Wisconsin?'
In the interest of accuracy, let's not hear it in the State of the State address tonight.
Scott Walker, his conservative appointees and legislative allies' backgrounds, beliefs and records radically say the opposite - - "NonWisconsin."
It's amazing how far this crop of right-wing extremists have taken Wisconsin from its great, Progressive tradition - - and I use that in a bi-partisan sense because the Progressive movement that is deep within the state's experience actually began among Republicans - - to drag us back to an era when special interests ran the government for their own private benefit, not the common good.
You can see the connection between what's happening in Madison under Walker and the New Extremists and the bad old, pre-Progressive days in this account published by the Wisconsin Historical Society:
"Until the 1890s, a few [Republican} party leaders tightly controlled Wisconsin's legislative agenda. At the same time, the rise of big business after 1870 had concentrated economic power in the hands of a few privileged individuals. These two groups, party leaders and business leaders, often overlapped, personally and pragmatically, as the interests and actions of government and business converged.Here's a brief look at some of Walker's NonWisconsin lowlights:
Progressive Republicans, in contrast, believed that the business of government was to serve the people. They sought to restrict the power of corporations when it interfered with the needs of individual citizens. The Progressive Movement appealed to citizens who wanted honest government and moderate economic reforms that would expand democracy and improve public morality."
"The Department of Health Services combines supervision of many state and local functions that had developed separately in the 1800s... By the time the federal government entered the field of public welfare during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Wisconsin had already pioneered a number of programs, including aid to children and pensions for the elderly (enacted in 1931). The Wisconsin Children’s Code, enacted by Chapter 439, Laws of 1929, was one of the most comprehensive in the nation."Smith has written that the states could save money by dropping Medicaid.
Great news about Wisconsin wind turbine manufacturing winning jobs - - in other states.
I see a pattern - - things built or assembled in Wisconsin, like high-speed trains and wind turbines - - can be made in Wisconsin but not used here because the Walker administration has a political stance against them.
Why have modern trains or cleaner alternative energy generating systems when there is good, old-fashioned natural gas and petroleum to use instead?
Continuous disinfection of drinking water?
Are there limits to the state's new radical agenda?
Ah - - who needs that Nanny state crap, say ultra-pro-business-come-what-may GOP legislators who are gearing up to stop the state from enforcing rules to keep viruses and other contaminants out of Wisconsin municipal water systems.
Yeah, that'll recruit new industry to Wisconsin. I can see the new Welcome To Wisconsin signs now:
Open For Business: Bring Your Own Medicine Bag.
Right now, about 12% of Wisconsin municipal systems do not continuously disinfect, says the DNR, which has had the nerve, along with the previous Legislature, of applying science to rule-making.
And The who-cares-what's-in-the-water coalition is looking for co-sponsors (note Erik Severson, a new State Rep. from Osceola, is a physician), while Harsdorf is on Joint Finance. There's you new GOP at work.
As they say in their legislative email:
DATE: January 27, 2011
TO: Legislative Colleagues
FROM: Senators Sheila Harsdorf
Representative Erik Severson
RE: Co-sponsorship of LRB-0937, relating to disinfection of municipal water supplies.
