Janesville Officials Suggest Without Government, Business Cannot Expand

Tweet

In the aftermath of Janesville's Economic Development Director ending his employment with the city, city officials are asking community members for input on the next step. Several officials are worried that losing momentum could hurt the city’s economic development.

Janesville's City Council President weighed in and implied that things are not getting done without the city's government assistance ...

JG Excerpt:
“We have a vacancy in our economic development department right now, and we have people, businesses that want to expand right now, and we have businesses that want to move into the city of Janesville right now,” she said.

Open up the floodgates and let 'er rip ...

Of course I believe the modern local economic development director has devolved into little more than a welfare program coordinator and lobbyist for businesses. But outside of possible changes in zoning, which should be applied for by the business and falls under the jurisdiction of the city council, I have no idea what kind of municipal laws and regs are preventing businesses from entering or expanding in Janesville.

Do you?

What? Politifact Said Social Security Adds To The Deficit?

Tweet

"Not one dime gets added to the deficit because of Social Security." -- Rep. Mark Pocan (2nd CD WI)

Keywords to remember - "because of."

Well, Politifact gave that statement a "Mostly False" rating. Here's the heart of their explanation...

JS Politifact Excerpt:
Although Social Security used to run surpluses, over the past few years it hasn’t collected enough in taxes to pay in benefits.

And the trust fund consists not of prior Social Security surplus funds, but of interest-bearing securities provided through federal government borrowing -- thus the link to the deficit.

Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system: Payroll taxes paid by current workers and their employers go to pay benefits to current retirees and other Social Security recipients.

From 1984 to 2009, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits. That surplus was transferred from the Social Security program to the federal government's general fund. In return, the Treasury gave Social Security bonds that it could redeem to pay future benefits.

The government, in turn, incurred obligations to repay the bonds, plus interest, to the Social Security trust fund.

In simpler language, Politifact and their sources said: Because you borrowed money from my stockpile, you will at some point have to pay it back to make me whole again. Assuming you will have to borrow from a different source (Treasury) to pay me back, the interest incurred resulting from your borrowing increased your debt load - so it's my fault.

In effect, according to Politifact and the American Enterprise Institute, because Social Security must begin drawing on its own surplus to meet its obligations, SS adds to the nation's current annual deficit and accumulating debt because congress borrowed it.

Fact is, the money coming into Social Security is real cash from payroll taxes. It's not SS's fault that the government borrows from it, and it's not SS's fault that government debt might grow in order to pay it back. It is totally absurd to misconstrue the loan transaction by implying Social Security adds to the deficit because of the borrower's obligation to pay it back.

The bottom line is, money the government borrowed will have to be paid back and those transaction events will have an effect on the government's balance sheet whether the lender is China, Saudi Arabia or Social Security OR whether the government has its own surplus or deficit to pay out from. By the way, Politifact assumes the government will have to borrow to buy back SS notes.

ProTip: Borrowing yet again to pay back loans will effect your debt. Don't blame the lender.

I give Politifact "Full Asshat" on this verdict.

Maddow Show and Jon Stewart Tackle GOP's Benghazi Hysteria

Tweet

A MEDIAite Double-Header.

On her Wednesday show, Rachel Maddow tore into Republican outrage over Benghazi as the latest example of conservative conspiracy theories seeping in the mainstream.
Read story here - with video.

Daily Show host Jon Stewart mocked Fox News for over-hyping yet another congressional hearing on the attack in Benghazi.
Read story here - with video.

OR

Copy and paste below for your Twitter fans. Change/Add hashtag to your liking.

Maddow Destroys GOP Conspiracies: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rachel-maddow-tears-apart-benghazi-outrage-in-epic-segment-on-gop-conspiracy-mongering/ Jon Stewart Exposes GOP False Rage: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/stewart-rips-fox-news-over-benghazi-coverage-denizens-of-bullsht-mountain-have-cried-wolf-before/ #Benghazi

Twitter will shorten URL with room to spare.

Wisconsin CEOs: Show Us The Money - Not Skilled Workers

Tweet

First saw the story on this at the Root River Siren. Apparently, Gov. Scott Walker has kicked off a series of (unscheduled?) statewide economic listening sessions to learn how the state can best help create jobs. Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee. But seriously. This is not funny.

Problem: Businesses blame "low performing" schools for lack of jobs in Racine. Solution: Government should offer more tax credits to incoming companies so they too cannot hire for lack of "educated" workers.

Journal Times Excerpt:
Modine President and CEO Tom Burke weighed in, affirming, “It’s hard to recruit from schools because they’re performing below level.”

What the government can do, Kacala said, is continue to work with the county to offer tax incentives to incoming companies, something he said many have come to expect.

For developers, there’s a pervasive idea that “if you’re not asking for significant incentives, you’re missing the boat,” Kacala said. “Unfortunately, it’s still ‘show us the money.’

It never was "show us the skilled workers." Ever. This is unbelievable, almost Onionish.

Like most Wisconsin bloggers, I've been writing about the wrong-headed business incentives and phony "skills gap" narrative for several years now, so this is nothing new. It's also escalated to the point where the tax credits and cash incentives are now an absolute necessity, not to create jobs, but to retain businesses who are offered competing free cash deals to move to other states. They've turned the term," free market competition" into a mockery with state governments competing, really stealing, for each other's businesses. So, this is not about education, innovation or entrepreneurship and it's not about creating businesses, industry and jobs from the ground up. It never was.

Tax credits and cash kick backs are simply not the reason or the incentive for any business to create jobs. The idea has become nothing more than a bold-faced game of extortion in a zero sum national environment. Taxpayers will always lose.

Janesville: Forum On Media Influence

Tweet

Speaker:
Mary Bottari, Director of the Center for Media and Democracy’s Real Economy Project, Editor of the Bankster.org for bank busting activists. See additional bio below.

* This is a free event. Open to the general public *

When:
Wednesday - May 8
6 PM-6:30 PM cheese & cracker reception (nonalcoholic potluck)
6:30 PM- 7:45 PM, speakers & discussion

Where:
Basics Cooperative
1711 Lodge
Janeville, Wisconsin

* This is an independent event not affiliated with Basics *

From the Huffington Post: Mary Bottari is an experienced policy wonk and public interest advocate. For the last ten years she served as a senior analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based consumer group Public Citizen in its Global Trade Watch division. She has investigated and documented the impact of international trade agreements on public policy including in the areas of financial services, health care, toxics regulation, food safety, and the environment. Prior to her stint at Public Citizen, Mary was press secretary for U.S. Senator Russ Feingold and worked for many years in the Wisconsin State Senate. She has an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her family. Her favorite Wisconsin cheese is Prairie Ridge Reserve.

SOURCE: Rock County Progressives

If We Can't Afford The Roads We Have Now - Go Bigger and More Expensive

Tweet

That's only common sense.

Well, not at all really unless you're Gov. Scott Walker or happen to represent Big Roads and the local business cartel, Forward Janesville. That's the message in a recent editorial by FJ's VP who you may recall wrote a nearly identical piece last year attacking Tom Barrett for suggesting the state re-commit transportation funds to local roads and spend within its means. Amazing how the rhetoric is now more reality based. Barrett is the conservative and these guys including Walker are the crony collectivists. That's the way it always was.

One of the main differences this time around, but only in semantics, is that their definition of "transportation network" or "transit system" doesn't involve the entire gamut of local roads, public transportation, highways, buses, bike paths, trains, planes and automobiles. They mean only asphalt highways and interstates. Period.

Last time around, I also wrote that the only alternatives to Walker's budget and FJ's demands will be either a wave of local road tax referendums or hikes in levies and new wheel taxes.

Plymouth Town Chairman Larry Harding: "There's 101,000 miles of roads in the state of Wisconsin, and the towns have 61,000 of those miles. Yet we get 33 percent of the transportation aid returned back to fix roads with," he said.

Over that timeframe, Janesville has instituted a $10 annual vehicle tax - the Walker Wheel Tax - to help offset Walker's shortfalls in revenue returned to Janesville for local road maintenance. Janesville of course is still woefully short in maintenance money. But I completely forgot that we also have the option of going backward - to the time of dirt roads.

Believe it or not - THAT is coming!

ADDITIONAL:

The Political Environment - Pothole Complaints Up - Local Road Repair Funding To Fall

Democurmudgeon - Dirt Roads return under Walker! w/News3 Video from Rock County

JS Editorial - State needs to build better transportation budget

Rip Rap

Tweet

Local Newspaper Labels Politician's Half-Truths Differently

A couple weeks ago, I took issue with the Janesville Gazette for taking a cheapshot at a Democratic state legislator with a title heading on a Politifact editorial rating her statement "Half True." The Gazette insinuated that she needs to go back to school.

Last Sunday the Gazette published another Politifact "Half True" editorial. But because this time they're rating the GOP's homeboy rock star, Paul Ryan, the Janesville paper writes him up as "Honest Abe." Lucky for us, the Gazette insists they have no political agenda. LOL

---

Obamacare Will Devastate AND Obamacare Will Empower.

---

Wisconsin TeaGOPers Going "Postal" with Plan To Bankrupt Local Towns

Via Chris McDonough...
This is a fiendishly clever recycling of the law Congress is using to destroy the USPS. In this case, Wisconsin TeaGOPers want to saddle towns with costs far exceeding reason, with the intent of making the towns go bankrupt. Then, the Governor will appoint an "emergency manager" and all local control vanishes instantly. This has ALEC DNA all over it.

I would also ask Republicans to first test their devious little plan in the private sector before anything else. Report back. * eyeroll *

---

Blistering Audit Faults Scott Walker's WEDC Jobs Creation Agency. But not Scott Walker?

Excerpt:
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A blistering audit released Wednesday said Republican Gov. Scott Walker's premier job creation agency repeatedly broke state law in its first year of operation, failed to adequately track money it awarded for economic development projects and sometimes gave money to ineligible recipients.

Nothing seems to work in Scott Walker's Wisconsin.

---

Sen. Tim Cullen remarks on a bill intended to create $75 million venture capital fund...

JG Excerpt:
“It’s one of the most interesting issues in Madison, and there’s opposition to it from the far ends of both parties,” he said. “On the far right, the Republicans call it crony capitalism. The far left wants to spend that $25 million on education and health care.”

Curiously, what would we call a person who thinks both; that the money would be better used on education AND thinks the state-run venture cap fund is crony capitalism? A centrist? That would be me.

---

Mike McCabe (Democracy Campaign) "Democrats Need To Grow a Pair"

Tandem blog posts from McCabe followed by a response/review from Jack Craver of the Cap Times. Check 'em out.

McCabe's First Post - Democrats Won't Find Answers Without Asking The Right Questions

McCabe's Second Post - Castrated By Money's Grip

Jack Craver - Mike McCabe to Dems: Grow a pair

---

Come 'on Democrats. We've got your backs. Do you have ours?

---

Funny how in the competitive free markets, restaurant customers often don't have the choices of both Pepsi and Coke. But school choice advocates believe the government owes them a choice of schools and to oppose it is a baseless anti-market fear of competition.

Pulitzer Prize Winning Writer Planning a Book On Janesville

Tweet

Here's a story about a journalist who has spent 1-1/2 years researching Janesville for a new book ...

NBC News Excerpt:
Amy Goldstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer on leave from The Washington Post, has spent the past 1-1/2 years researching the small city of Janesville, Wis., taking an intensely close look at what has happened in one community where thousands of people lost their jobs when the country’s oldest operating auto plant closed its doors. More than four years later, many of the people laid off from the plant and other local companies are still struggling to find a job with decent pay—or any job at all.

And a passage from the article that aligned with my own observations...

And the cleavage points in town have changed. Some people used to resent the GM’ers, who had such good wages and benefits. Now, some people are angry at schoolteachers for similar reasons; at least one teacher has changed when she goes grocery shopping, because she’d gotten yelled at in the store more than once by people in town who resented her summers off and her pension.

Janesville is different than some of the larger autotowns that went under primarily because it had almost 30 years of close calls and warnings to help prepare itself. But even with that, there's a vicious clawdown effect going on in Janesville that is part of a broader statewide agenda.

What can be easily overlooked, possibly out of fear of retribution, is the hand the town's politically motivated newspaper, the Janesville Gazette, has had in fueling most of the local derision and cover-ups for the past 20 years.

But according to the NBC story, the focus of the book however will be about how an ordinary community deals with heavy job losses. Fair enough, but I'm hoping the writer's final draft will delve into Janesville's internal workings, political undercurrents and unelected leadership that is steering the area's post-GM low-wage economy - if she goes that far - and I hope she does.