Can Janesville Overcome Community Divide For July Fourth?

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Here we go again. Thursday’s news of the Odd Fellows dropping the July 4th community fireworks event in Janesville was not a surprise. Apparently, they could not attract enough "community" business donors (see Rock County advisory council 5.0) to sponsor the event. Again, no surprise. However, soon after that story broke in the Janesville Gazette, the Rock Aqua Jays announced they are forming an exploratory committee to consider taking on and hosting the Fourth of July festivities in Janesville.

I sincerely wish the Rock Aqua Jays all the luck and success in the world regarding this venture.

As a citizen who has been following the area's socio-political divide, there’s a lot to be said about the community spirit or lack of spirit here in Janesville. With that, I salute both the Jaycees and the Odd Fellows for stepping up to the plate for their efforts over the past years. They exemplify “when the going got tough – the tough got going” and gave it their solemn best despite shortfalls in money, manpower and community support. Folks should now be able to get a better understanding of what not only the Jaycees were up against, but what this entire “community” event is up against with or without a good economy. It’s brutal.

Just for instance. Looking over the past three years, the Jaycees had the full efforts of some local folks who think they own God, country, family and patriotism working diligently against them. The Janesville city council would reluctantly agree to offer park and police services for the event, but not until they thoroughly scolded the event spokesperson for not having their finances up to the council's standards. And our monopolized media played a huge part disseminating an anti-social if not totally weird campaign against the event while a religious organization believe it or not, cast stones at the Jaycees. After that, I felt right at home supporting the Jaycees if you know what I mean. But that’s what many of us call home here in Janesville. It’s an institutionalized “us against them” mentality. The Gazette, being a 165 year-old institution, obviously plays the leading role in this point of view. I can proudly say this 3½ year old blog is a direct result of that environment.

I now recall back in 2007 when someone identifying themselves as a member of the Jaycees emailed me the event schedule and asked if I would post it on my blog. I immediately obliged. With that small gesture of community spirit, I decided to go even further and created a small animated ad with exploding fireworks for the Jaycees and ran it free of charge in the blog’s sidebar for several weeks leading up to the event. Perhaps only a few hundred blog visitors had seen the ad at the time, but that wasn’t the point. It was the idea that someone in their group took the initiative to reach out regardless of their politics or religious point of view. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the Odd Fellows.

For whatever their reasons, I never received a communication or schedule of events from the Odd Fellows. No big deal. Not that that is a barometer of community outreach, but I do offer a free bulletin board for posting such events and activities. But I also remember checking out the Gazette’s Web Page for a schedule of events - and do you know what I found? The Gazette’s sidebar listing under “Most Emailed” did contain a link for the schedule of the Janesville July 4th events…except the schedule was from the year before! That didn't help, but they made an effort and that's what counts I suppose.

In slight contrast, it looks like the Rock Aqua Jays have the organizational skills to fund raise and plan the event, but can they overcome the media inflicted anti-social virus and built-in opposition that has ravaged the previous community organizers? If anything it’ll be interesting to watch and you can bet I'll be taking notes.

Expect Wider Class Divide

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A report by the Pew Center placed Wisconsin among a list of states at risk of a deepening economic distress similar to that of California.

JG Excerpt:
Wisconsin On List Of Ailing States (Nov. 11, 2009)
A report released Wednesday by the Pew Center on the States says Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin also are at risk of fiscal calamity.

Google News Excerpt:
Wisconsin officials issued a statement late Wednesday saying the Pew report was inaccurate. Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Michael Morgan said the state has balanced its budget by cutting spending and raising revenue. It projects a $270 million budget surplus for the period ending July 1, 2011, Morgan said in his statement.

JG Excerpt: (April 9, 2008)
Rich Getting Rich Faster
Rich people in Wisconsin are getting richer faster than middle-income earners and the poor. A couple of reports released today shows the gap between the rich and poor isn't as wide in Wisconsin as in the rest of the country - but the gap is growing.

While the state struggles to balance the books, organized paymasters have the time and the means to extort tax cuts, credits and exemptions from government under the guise of "partnership" and job creation. Their continued success will mean home-owning wage-earners and the working poor should expect to pay a much larger share of the local tax burden.

Hurry! Pass this legislation before the fools catch on.

Fatal Attraction Ends In Draw

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The story of the buck and lawn ornament reminded me of the time (about 10 years ago) I saw a buck on Newville Rd. and RT. 59 ram a parked minivan a few times before finally taking off. The owner of the van (still inside) was terrified.

LaCrosse Tribune Excerpt:
Mark Brye, who owns Brye Plumbing in Viroqua, was still laughing about the suicidal buck he found near his elk statue last week.

Sure, the buck lost his life, but the story says both “combatants” were found down and out. I don't think of myself as being overly sensitive, yet for some reason I didn’t find anything in the story to cheer about.

Moral of the story: Never tangle with a real live buck in the rut. Unless you weigh over 600 lbs. You will lose.

State Democrats Announce Jobs Program

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I have to admit, Democrats came up with some very good ideas for job creation. Aside from increasing tax credits and caps to $8 million for those dirt poor angel investors, the rest of program however is loaded with creative ways to bootstrap the free market without heavy government interference. Particularly with the green retrofitting, education and micro loans sections.

CORE Jobs Act Excerpt:
Our number one priority is to rebuild Wisconsin’s economy, and put our men and women back to work. The Wisconsin C.O.R.E. Jobs Act is a comprehensive economic development package that builds on successful job creation programs and capitalizes on the strengths of our state. C.O.R.E. stands for Connecting Opportunity, Research, and Entrepreneurship; and that’s what the CORE Jobs Act will do.

It certainly beats the state GOP's wealth redistribution program of more tax cuts to the wealthy, deregulation and the basic surrender of government agency and treasury to old money venture capitalists.

Large Wastewater Rate Increase Expected In Janesville

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I was holding back this post for a few days to see how the Janesville Gazette would report on the wastewater rate hike proposal as presented in the council agenda by the city administration. As it turns out the newspaper did not publish any report on the expected rate hike or agenda for Monday's city council meeting.

Agenda Excerpt:
As such, adjustments in the rates have occurred. This rate adjustment will generate an additional $2,125,200 in revenue in fiscal year 2010, or an overall increase in rates of 30.3%, effective January 1, residential 2010. The proposed rate adjustment will result in the average wastewater bill increasing by 29.3%, or $18.05 per quarter.

Let's back up a moment. For the past year, the Janesville water utility (with the help from the watchdog Gazette) repeatedly used the term "quarterly water bill" here and here rather loosely to help present a previous water rate increase. They pegged the average quarterly water bill at $40. For all practical purposes, Janesville residents do not receive a "wastewater bill" per se. Wastewater charges are included on the invoice most Janesville residents would call the "quarterly water bill."

Now that we're past that, it appears the city administration is making a slightly better effort to draw a distinction between the wastewater portion and the supply side on the "average quarterly water bill."From this we can assume the old average residential quarterly water bill was about $106 ($40 water supply + $61 wastewater and $5 fire department). After this latest increase including the one from earlier in the year, the new average "quarterly water bill" should be around $130.55

Well, we are still making assumptions. These figures may or may not include the fixed wastewater fee which the administration describes as rising disproportionately for different users. Got that? I would suppose that feature arose from the recently approved Clean Wisconsin agreement.

Still, the city administration appears to have made an effort this time and might begin to figure out what most people define as their water bill. Perhaps someday the term "quarterly water bill" in Janesville will mean just that - the total of all the charges from utilities that appear on our "quarterly water bill" and not just what administration officials want it to mean at any given time to fit their specific presentation or goal.

It's just as well the Gazette didn't run Monday's council agenda through their filter, at least now we see the information as it was intended - straight from the horse's mouth.

Revision: Only hours before the Janesville City council meeting, the Janesville Gazette posted a short blog entry? placing the projected "new" average quarterly water bill after the wastewater rate proposal at $120.40. This should be fairly accurate since the earlier water supply rate increase (mentioned in the above post) was replaced instead by Clean Wisconsin's progressive water rate policy.

Are Auto Insurance Companies Piling On Increases?

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Bear with me on this story as most of it is strictly from the cobwebs crossing the hallows of my mind.

Due to a heightened sense of financial vulnerability in my personal situation during the 1990’s, I went to my auto insurance agent and requested to have higher liability coverages for more protection. I don’t recall exactly what the coverages were at the time but I thought they were ridiculously low considering the expensive cars on the road, the higher costs necessary to repair them, and the continuous ratcheting up of medical expenses. I do remember what some of the coverage numbers were changed to.

The agent recommended 100,000/300,000 liability which translated to $100,000 for uninsured motorists/per injury and $300,000 per accident. Property damage was set at $25,000. I also recall the agent explaining how these amounts were becoming more common as the new low standard for automobile insurance and would raise my premium only a few dollars per period because they don’t anticipate any sudden surge in costs or claims. I clearly remember that part because he said it while scrutinizing me with one eye. I reassured him I didn’t expect to post any sudden claims – with that, we had a good laugh.

However, when we got to the medical coverage part, he seemed to show some resistance and suggested anything higher than $10,000 would have a substantial impact on my premiums. So it was capped at $10,000. All in all, my yearly premium increased by a little more than 10%. Again, I remember the amount because I wrote a separate check in advance at the agent’s office. I don't recall receiving any shocking increases thereafter.

Over the years since, I’ve changed insurance companies, but kept the exact same coverages while making zero claims. It also now turns out that the coverage I’ve had for the past 15 years is nearly identical to the new increased coverages mandated by the Wisconsin legislature. And so, with the new mandatory requirement that all drivers must carry insurance and pay into the kitty, I felt I should see either little to no increase in my premium. Well, I figured wrong. I just received my usual 6-month premium notice which is due during the last week of November and according to my calculator, it has a 11.8% increase.

According to GOP partisans and their media enablers, I'm supposed to hold insurance companies blameless for this increase.

Moore's Love Story Is A Haunt

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I finally got the chance to see Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” over the Halloween weekend at the Rock Theatre (Wildwood) here in Janesville.

To my surprise, the documentary fittingly opens up with the tune “Louie, Louie” in the days of the class war cruelty that prevailed between the ruling elite and the peasants of the Roman Empire. From there, Moore takes off into the current American foreclosure crisis and weaves bits of historical facts, modern politics and human nature into a heart felt and personal cinematic experience.

Of course during the following two hours he tackles a multitude of the common misconceptions about capitalism. For instance, he accurately portrays how the practitioners of capitalism have successfully commercialized and glorified its worst attributes synonymously with personal success, God and country. He also paints establishment figures including police as nothing more than pawns and sycophants taking marching orders from the controlling big business elitists.

No doubt, Moore's enemies will label him as a irritable rabble-rouser and hypocrite simply because his documentary will likely turn a handsome profit. To the contrary, Moore gave me the impression that he loves capitalism, hence the title. He just has a problem with capitalism's single-minded and cold-blooded adherents and hi-jackers. And who could blame him?

However, he does tend to give socialism a little more credit than I think it deserves, yet at the same time he doesn’t completely take down the capital system. In a broad sense, his documentary makes a compelling argument against the perversions and greed obviously driving the money operators and other “get rich” wannabes to turn a profit.

I was disappointed in how short Congressman Paul Ryan’s role was in the film. But one thing was clear. Moore did a great job describing the importance the owners of America place on those who know how to steer the masses wrong. Ryan was one of the Wall Street pawn’s in Congress who did just that, yet was able to convince his supporters at home that he courageously voted against his principles to protect their risk. For this, his political party crowned him as a future rising star in the political arena. Ryan has slowly polished this personal gift into a quality that is highly regarded among the masters of the universe.

There is perhaps an interesting side note to the Wisconsin connection with Moore's film than just the fast talking and corporate-groomed Paul Ryan. Though Moore makes no mention of this at all, few people would connect the late billionaire Ken Hendricks of Beloit-based ABC Supply with Moore's love story. However, Hendricks was not only a heavy donor to Paul Ryan’s re-election campaigns but also was the primary sponsor of a movie parodizing Michael Moore as a modern day left-wing Ebenezer Scrooge in the forgettable dud "An American carol." This all may be just my own peculiar observation, but "Capitalism" was released one day short of exactly a year after the national debut of American Carol.

Nevertheless, Moore’s documentary is a must see for those who want to witness another confirming point of view of your worst suspicions about capitalism. It’s a respectful mixture of real life events backed up with historical evidence through the common sense eyes of the folksy idealist film maker. There certainly is a lot to chew on. I give it four stars.

Wealthy Community Organizers Have Inside Track

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Way back in June of this year, after the Gazette published an article about our city and county government's efforts to market the area for potential new businesses and entrepreneurs, I had a few questions to ask. Actually, it's not so important that I had a few questions to ask back then as much as they offered up some rather unethical interactions and questionable information that deserved some answers.

JG Excerpt(s): (June 14, 2009)
The alliance taps a bigger war chest of talent and money....“If I’ve got a company considering Janesville, and I can just get them there, these guys will close the deal,” Schwartz said...Each week, the group is in either Milwaukee or Chicago making detailed presentations to potential brokers, developers and investors.

Afterwards, I raised a few questions here.

RNR Excerpt: (June 17, 2009)
How do individuals separate their governmental duties from their Alliance duties? The Alliance address is the Rock County Court House Building - under whose power and authority do they operate under? Do we assume the Rock County Board? If the Alliance is a multi-governmental body – who pays for what? Are local business owners involved? Who are its members? And what connection do they have in city, county and state government? What connection does the Alliance have to the local business elite? Where is the transparency?

Finally last week, the Gazette published a front page article titled,"We need to pull together" which did answer a couple questions regarding the once hidden chest of wealth and the local elite pulling the strings behind the curtain.

JG Excerpt: (Oct. 29, 2009)
The money will be budgeted over five years and will be used to develop software specific to Rock County's economic development efforts.

It also will offset travel and marketing materials for the alliance partners who have spent a significant number of days on the road selling Rock County, said James Otterstein, the county's economic development manager.

To be honest (not to imply I'm ever dishonest), I didn't expect any answers from these folks or the Gazette, so I have to give them some credit even though the transparency and publicity seems more of a matter of expediency than it does to provide a sense of selfless public service.

Still I don't feel any more comfortable knowing that any special interest group, regardless of their wealth or lack thereof, not only have an inside track into government but are also bankrolling extracurricular activities of high ranking government employees to apparently do their bidding.

Perhaps I'm the only person who thought the Gazette's article in June was just a little too sneaky from the start. After this newly released information, I don't feel much better than before.