Walker's Second Crack At 250,000 Jobs Worse Than His First

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According to an older article (March, 2017) from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the state of Wisconsin, under six years of Gov. Scott Walker and his reforms, "created" 185,208 jobs.

One problem with that is the newspaper writes up his 250,000 jobs promise as "remains elusive" after six full years have passed, as if to suggest that someday he will fulfill the promise.

The second problem is, and it's a whopper, is Walker's original promise was made as candidate Walker running for a four year term for governor. Put it this way, nobody runs in a first-time election for a four year term, makes promises and then states, "Oh, I'll need three, maybe four terms in office to fulfill any promises you heard my lips speak. Just so you know." Nobody. Never. Said.

Just to be clear. The Journal Sentinel's attempt to keep Walker's jobs promise alive ...after it died two years earlier, borders on "fake news" political propaganda. It's a hypothetical story line that carries whimsical, almost meaningless soundbites in a ploy to keep Walker's promise and his reforms active in conversations regarding jobs creation in Wisconsin.

But enough with the media analysis. Let's look at the numbers.

Scott Walker promised that his reforms would create 250,000 jobs in his first term in office. Unfortunately, he created only 132,443. Slightly more than half, but woefully short. To put it bluntly, his reforms failed and he failed to keep his promise. End of story. It's over.

However, Walker is back in the news and according to The Political Environment, he is creating a new number or qualifier for annual jobs success - and that number is 30,000 jobs starting in 2017. As noted at TPE, that new 30K jobs number is slightly less than half of the 62,500 jobs Walker claimed his reforms would create annually beginning in 2011.

After miserably failing to keep his jobs promise in his first term, Wisconsin voters, for whatever their reason, gave him a second chance and re-elected him in November of 2014.

To be fair, Walker never made a jobs promise for his second term ...but, it's also fair to see where Walker, now into the last year of his second term, and his reforms are taking Wisconsin. What's the trajectory?

It's not looking good.

Walker's second term jobs numbers begins in 2015 with 35,565 officially reported and 17,200 for 2016. That's 52,765 at mid-term. Now he's touting 30,000 jobs for 2017 and because I'm a good guy, I'll generously give him 30,000 for 2018 as well for a grand total of 112,765 jobs in his second term.

A loss of almost 20,000 jobs from the total reported for his first term.

Or as Walker would say, "My reforms are working!!"

Tunesday: Moody Blues - Send Me No Wine

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Janesville's Blight - Downtown

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As a big fan of Janesville's downtown, I was greatly dismayed when city officials and the city council labeled the area as blighted when they approved the downtown TIF District. At the time unfortunately, I seem to have been the only one in Janesville who objected to the designation for such a well-maintained historic district.

Sure, Janesville's downtown has its share of underappreciated buildings. The old Monterey Hotel is probably the most well-known of those, but I doubt if the downtown area has more than five or six percent blight following the state's legal definition for blight regarding tax increment law. It reads ...

1. “Blighted area" means any of the following: a. An area, including a slum area, in which the structures, buildings or improvements, which by reason of dilapidation, deterioration, age or obsolescence, inadequate provision for ventilation, light, air, sanitation, or open spaces, high density of population and overcrowding, or the existence of conditions which endanger life or property by fire and other causes, or any combination of these factors is conducive to ill health, transmission of disease, infant mortality, juvenile delinquency, or crime, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, morals or welfare.

The blight designation is important because TIF Districts located in a city must have NOT LESS than 50 percent, by area, of the real property within the district designated area.

That means MORE than 50% of Janesville's downtown must be blighted to receive the TIF District designation. However, the blight designation has become severely abused and a matter of opinion among city officials. In other words, they could label Janesville's recently new Festival Foods as blight if nobody is willing to challenge it.

No doubt TIF can be an effective tool for increasing property values, especially for blighted urban properties. However, re-investment and redevelopment was occurring in downtown Janesville well before the city drew a TIF District around it. Fact is, Janesville's downtown TIF District was created with one sole purpose - to capture the expected growth in assessed values to divert revenue away from General Fund purposes.

But again, I stand alone and simply disagree with city officials. They should terminate the TIF District as soon as possible to remove the slum designation ...because Downtown Janesville is NOT a slum.

Tax Cuts Should Drive Lower Prices, Not Higher Wages, To Remain Competitive

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For years, no - decades, conservatives and right-wing American corporatists like Congressman Paul Ryan would claim over and over again that our high wages drive jobs overseas, and combined with high taxes, regulations and even civil rights create undue burdens on economic development and growth.

We heard that in Wisconsin at roundtable discussions on taxes during Act 10 and again by the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce cartel in their recent defense for dark store property tax cuts. The WMC said that increased taxes, "will do nothing more than increase the costs to do business in Wisconsin, making the products we buy each and every day more expensive.”

That's the old stand-by right-wing mantra.

"Increasing taxes on businesses will increase the cost to do business and those higher costs will be reflected in higher prices for consumer goods and services."

Simple common logic that should lead to us to deduce that lower taxes, conversely, should drive lower prices at the cash register.

In addition, Ryan's rhetoric about putting more money in worker's pockets and increasing take home pay has absolutely nothing to do with increasing wages in the private sector. Ask him. Raising the minimum wage is not a part of his plan. Same with Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson. Simply put, raising American domestic wages puts the nation at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world. We've been told that over and over again.

So, when top ten GOP donor class corporations like AT&T, Boeing, Wells Fargo and Third Fifth made announcements about increasing wages as a result of the GOP's tax plan, they are in fact putting America at an economic disadvantage. It sounds crazy but it is their rules.

I don't see anyone on the Left, and that includes me, saying raising wages is a bad thing. What I am saying is for the GOP tax cuts to work as intended based on their own history, ideology and rules, we need to see noticeably lower prices for American goods and services across the board, starting immediately. Particularly in Trump de-regulated industries like banking, insurance, manufacturing and energy.

Because tax cuts come at a tremendous cost to our country, I for one want to see any tax cuts work for the benefit of our economy. But again, raising wages puts us at an economic disadvantage with countries like China, Mexico and India. We were also told raising wages will increase unemployment or encourage automation here at home.

Remember, lowering taxes on businesses will lower the cost to do business and those lower costs should be reflected in lower prices for consumer goods and services.

Unless of course, higher taxes allow businesses to artificially raise their prices and blame it on high taxes ...followed by lower taxes allowing them to keep the difference.

So, instead of GOP donor class companies making largely anecdotal announcements for the benefit of their political tools, companies like AT&T and their competitors should be dropping their monthly fees on internet, phone and cable by 20% to 30%.

For starters. Americans are waiting.

Tunesday: Drifters - Up On The Roof

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Anonymous Column - "Pass It On" #15

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On The City's Failed Leaf Pick-Up
✦ Last year's leaf pick-up (2016) was bad and should have been a warning for city officials to keep a closer eye on Mother Nature this year. Instead, they failed twice as bad this year. If you can't get a simple roadside leaf pick-up scheduled right, you shouldn't be paid to do it wrong.

✦ How much money did City Manager Mark Freitag save Janesville taxpayers with his failed leaf pick up? Where is our refund?

✦ So, some in Janesville are saying the city leaf pick-up is a luxury and people shouldn't depend on government to do it for them? We pay for it. If you can't get it right, pay it back.

✦ How much money does our city manager get paid? $150K? And he can't schedule leaf pick-up in a timely efficient manner?

✦ We're a red state now. If we want less government and fewer regulations but allow those in government who can't get it right to keep their jobs, we deserve to be ripped off. Might as well return to burning leaves at the curb. Let's burn tires too and save us those disposal fees.

✦ Why doesn’t the city schedule snow plowing, say, Monday, Wednesday and Friday and ignore what Mother Nature is doing just like they do with the current leaf pickup?

✦ I just saw that Janesville City Manager Mark Freitag's top budget priority is "tax to the max." Vote him out!! Oh wait. I forgot that Janesville taxpayers can't vote him out. He was appointed by Forward Janesville "tax to the max" elitists. He works for them.

On WalkerConn
✦ Giving $3 BIL of taxpayer $$ to FOREIGN Corp to build $10 BIL plant... why not keep the $3B and let them build just a $7 BIL plant?

✦ About that $10 billion Foxconn plant. It's expected to be assessed at $1.4B and THAT'S a high estimate. Oh, and the $7B in annual spending has been downgraded to $4.6 billion - and THAT has been downgraded to $1.4B. Funny how those numbers match.

✦ Foxconn costs keep climbing. Along with $3 bil cash incentives and $252 mil for I-94, now we have $134 million in state $ for new highways, $140 million in higher electric rates, and hundreds of millions in local subsidies.

On Paul Ryans' "retirement"
✦ The "Paul Ryan is leaving" stories are not stories but planted market research....why are publications buying it and dutifully running it?

✦ Paul Ryan floating retirement at this time is pure genius.

✦ I don't think Ryan got the response he was looking for when he floated retirement. He expected people to come to his defense or lament "we always lose the good ones first." Instead he got "good riddance." He just might have to retire.

✦ If you want to know more about Paul Ryan's future, ask the Koch brothers and Diane Hendricks. He works for them.

✦ So the local rumor mill has Ryan building a home outside of the district, west of Janesville. Like that is supposed to mean something?

✦ I always thought Paul Ryan wanting to tax cut the rich, destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were hysterical ruminations from leftists and other haters to smear the congressman. My apologies.

✦Paul Ryan can retire now or in 2018, but he will always be the guy who enabled Trump's worst behavior, lied about health care and taxes, and coddled racist clowns like Steve King to maintain power.

On Wisconsin's Budget Surplus
✦ Did you know that Gov. Walker recently boasted about a budget surplus of $597 MILLION?? Where are our rebate checks?

On Janesville's Privileged Elite
✦ Sheriff Spoden blurred the lines between his duties as sheriff and being a father. Most parents would have done the same. The state said Spoden did nothing illegal, but the Janesville Gazette still slammed him for being, "if not criminal." Give me a break. I never thought it possible, but I fear the Gazette hasn't reached their bottom yet.

✦ When Rock County Sheriff Spoden misspoke, he accidentally reported on the treatment area elites expect from public officials and law enforcement. This is what they're angry about most.

✦ Sure, the County Sheriff chose some poor words suggesting an investigation was unnecessary because "the kids come from good families." But in the era of Trump, speaking your mind is supposed to be the honest way even when it's offensive. Ask Trump's supporters.

✦ Make no mistake. Area elites in Janesville are the people who defend the city's broken manager/council government. In fact, they think electing people from wards for city council in a representative democracy is forced diversity.

✦ Anybody get the names of the adults or address of the home where the underage drinking pool party took place? No? Why not? Special treatment? But just have a drinking party on a porch in the Fourth Ward involving a serious injury and clicky Janesville facebook pages will post names, mugshots and gang signs.

✦ Let's not kid ourselves. Janesville is not different than most other towns. Not just with law enforcement either, but in city hall and the local media. People of wealth, particularly its native business community and city hall insiders are a protected class treated far differently than those living in the central, south and west sides of the city.

✦ The Janesville Gazette was unusually quick to condemn Sheriff Spoden for blurring the lines between his duty as a father and sheriff, but to practically reference his actions as "criminal" is beyond the pale especially for a newspaper that endorsed Scott Walker three times.

✦ Funny. When Janesville City Manager Mark Freitag called those around him who failed to reach the height of elitism he attained, "chumps," few took notice.

✦ According to the Gazette article, the Rock County DA admits to having a personal problem prosecuting the three teens from good families who were truthful about what happened when so many were not. Hmmm. No worries about the good ol' boys club taking a hit. It is firmly intact.

✦ The privileged in Janesville have got to go. They think they're above the law. Money buys privilege and privilege begats power.

✦ Shut up already. There are no "privileged" people in Janesville. Well, except for members of Forward Janesville and the Paul Ryan klan.

On JanesvilleCon
✦ Remember when Janesville residents voted against a property tax hike referendum to pay for additional road maintenance? Soon afterwards, the city council thumbed their noses at the people and doubled the wheel tax anyways.

✦ Then the city manager mismanaged us into a $850K budget deficit and asked for immediate public discussions - only to drop the subject completely for the next six months.

✦ Because at the time, the city administration and council were foisting a TIF District on downtown properties that would carve out about $1M annual from a general fund facing an immediate $850K deficit.

✦ Only until after the TIF District was approved did the city manager and Janesville Gazette return with reminders about the $850K deficit which by then had grown to $950K.

✦ To balance the $950K deficit, the city council then approved $2.3M in registration fees, utility rate and permit fee hikes.

✦ For the next year, the city manager boasted how his policies helped double the city's tax base growth in a one year period, policies that resulted in raising the city's property tax rate even higher.

✦ In the meantime, the administration struggled to find $60K to help fund the county's animal shelter and can't manage a single softball field while they plan a $500K remodel of council chambers and consider building a new ice arena for a well-connected city hall insider's failed sports business.

✦ That's the JanesvilleCon ...so far, in a nutshell.

On Republican's Tax Reform Bill
✦ I see their "tax reform" bill more like a swamp renewal and stock buy-back. Congress ran out of things to sell, so now they have all those loopholes, exemptions and subsidies to re-offer in exchange for massive donations from those willing to buy. Starts the entire "best democracy money can buy" process all over again.

Wisconsin Communities Should Heed WMC's Dark Store Position

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Did you know Wisconsin municipalities held a "Dark Store Day" to push state legislators into passing two bills they believe will close the dark store loophole?

I didn't know until after it was over. Only one tweet appeared under the dark store day hashtag and it was by the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in opposition to the city's campaign. That doesn't say much for the Municipal Association's social media digital operation. Actually, it's non-existent.

The WMC tweeted a link to their dark store editorial titled, Local Governments Participate in “Raise Your Taxes Day”

Basically, the WMC wrote that A.) it's just a ploy by local governments and aggressive assessors to raise taxes, B.) the WMC oppose the state's uniformity clause because they believe keeping assessment procedures and formulas including tax rates uniform mean higher costs to Wisconsinites. They said that right here...

WMC Excerpt:
“Don’t let them fool you. This is about raising taxes on all businesses, not just ‘big box’ stores,” Manley added. “Thanks to our state’s uniformity clause, these bills could raise taxes for the small manufacturer in your town or your favorite spot for Friday fish fry. Unfortunately, that means higher costs for all Wisconsinites.”

You read that right. The WMC is blaming the state's constitutional uniformity clause for uniform taxes. Uniform taxes that they believe "unfortunately" lead to higher costs on their membership. When for the most part, legislators have been ignoring the clause for years to pass specialized tax cuts, portability options and exemptions for their donor-class business partners.

The theory is if nobody challenges uniformity clause abuses in the courts ...it's constitutional, and if somebody does challenge it, they can't challenge its constitutionality unless they can prove personal harm. That almost guarantees abuse.

Because I believe dark store litigation and TIF District abuse are intrinsically linked together by the state's abuse of the uniformity clause, the WMC's dark store position paper is a shot across the bow of WILL's challenge to a TIF District in Eau Claire. The WMC is advising the State Supreme Court through media that the court should not uphold or apply the state's uniformity clause when making their TIF District decision in February. I also think state republicans are waiting on SCOWI language and direction from the February TIF ruling before taking up dark store legislation.

But, what the WMC is also saying is; when a city like Janesville must refund $500K to several big box stores and other businesses and then lower future assessments by a third or more, NOBODY is twisting Janesville's arm to shift the tax burden onto homeowners and small businesses. That's absolutely true. In effect, the WMC suggests that cities should cut their budgets by a corresponding amount, and start closing roads, shuttering schools and laying off administration, police and fire - to meet budget balance. That's what they're saying.

Because not to make those cuts is the reason why the WMC is accusing city officials for using the dark store issue as an excuse to pile on and raise taxes ...and the WMC is right, at least half way.

Here's why.

If I was mayor of Janesville, I would hold a press conference and name the businesses including the amounts each have sued for that are forcing city budget cuts. I would also explain that as a mayor who takes his fiduciary responsibility seriously, I cannot in good conscience force others (homeowners and small business) to pay more than their fair share when others refuse to pay theirs.

So as mayor I would recommend two things. The first would be a list of city services that will be cut along with the personnel layoffs to meet the dark store budget cuts. Second, I would suggest Janesville residents take up a petition for a referendum asking to raise property taxes an amount equal to the dark store refunds and make them as permanent as the dark store assessments remain in effect. IF they want those jobs and services restored.

Sure, the WMC would probably accuse me of grandstanding the dark store issue anyways, but that is what the state's largest business association is recommending in their dark store day editorial.

Public Policy Group Takes Up Fight Against TIF District Abuse

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God, how patient are thy poor! These corporations and masters of manipulation in finance heaping up great fortunes by a system of legalized extortion, and then exacting from the contributors-to whom a little means so much-a double share to guard the treasure! -- Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a Eau Claire TIF District, a case filed by the Right-Wing Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (“WILL”) led by attorney Rick Esenberg.

WILL is working on behalf of local taxpayers who say Eau Claire abused Wisconsin’s tax incremental financing (TIF) law.

WILL Excerpt:
The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the City’s actions in creating and amending two tax incremental financing (“TIF”) districts to fund certain aspects of the Confluence Project and, in particular to pay fees and expenses to the real estate developers involved in the construction of a student residence hall/mixed use facility. The suit alleges that the TIF districts are illegal for the following reasons:

The properties within the TIF districts do not meet the legal definition of “blight”

Development within the TIF districts would occur even without TIF money

The city council and the joint review board (a board made up of representatives of the different authorities that can tax property within the district) lacked a factual basis for their conclusions

The TIF districts lack a valid public purpose

The TIF districts violate the Uniformity Clause of the Wisconsin Constitution

TIF funds are unlawfully being used to reimburse the developer for demolishing historic buildings

In what should have been a torchlight policy fight by every progressive, liberal, lefty lawyer in the state of Wisconsin is instead taken up by the Right. Go figure.

But it's about time somebody challenged these abuses. They are a scourge against the free markets and a pox on good government, let alone that active TIF Districts can increase the property tax burden of those outside the TIF by as much as 30%. People then wonder why paving their roads and keeping their schools open seems so unaffordable.

According to a recent story from Madison Dot Com, the state's Attorney General Office (Brad Schimel) is sending counsel to intervene in support of the Eau Claire TIF District project against Esenberg's lawsuit.

That will set up some interesting dynamics worth watching between the Bradley Foundation funded WILL group against the Bradley-owned AG office and the Bradley Foundation majority state supreme court with TIF District right-wing engineered trickle-down economics hanging in the balance.

It's popcorn time! Stay tuned.