Band-aid fix in Appleton and Fox-con leaves nothing for other roads

In a surprise campaign event announcement yesterday, Governor Walker announced that one freeway project in the Fox Valley was getting a boost in funding, and was going to be opened sooner than we thought.

The construction on U.S. 10 and State 441 will be finished a year earlier than expected, Gov. Scott Walker announced Monday during a visit to Appleton.

The work is expected to be completed in 2019 — a full year ahead of schedule — as a result of savings announced earlier this year that allowed work to move forward faster than anticipated…

A six-mile stretch of State 441 and U.S. 10 between Winnebago County CB in Fox Crossing and Oneida Street in Appleton is being rebuilt and widened from four to six lanes. A second bridge is also being built next to the Roland Kampo Memorial Bridge over Little Lake Butte des Morts.

The project began construction in 2014. The cost of the project had been estimated at $482 million, but a DOT report released this past summer estimated the cost at about $400 million.

The interchange between Interstate 41 and U.S. 10 is scheduled to open in the fall of 2018. The diverging diamond interchange planned for the State 441 and Oneida Street interchange is also expected to be completed in 2018.

Huh, funny that Walker showed up to announce this on the same day that Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson asked why money wasn't being used to take care of the Valley's increasing traffic needs.

“If a state transportation project here in the Fox Valley comes in under budget, why not fund another Fox Valley transportation project that’s been on hold for two budget cycles? The residents and businesses that heavily rely on Hwy 15 between Appleton and New London are tired of waiting. This dangerous stretch of highway is in desperate need of action, which is one of the many reasons why all of the local officials along this route are very supportive of funding this project. Much of the right of way is purchased, the design is complete, all we need now is the funding for construction. On behalf of all of these officials and the business and residents who utilize this key transportation corridor, I’d ask the Governor to keep any I-441 savings local and fund Hwy 15 construction. All we want for Christmas is our fair share!”

In addition, Assembly Dem Leader Gordon Hintz pointed out that even with the extra money now being funneled into it, Highway 10-441 isn't being finished “ahead of schedule” by any means.

Gov. Walker should not get credit for delaying a project in 2015 because he could not pay for it, and then moving the project up to its original finish date and celebrating like it is done early. YOU DELAYED IT. Now it is back on schedule. #cmonpress https://t.co/mkYSTAHFwn

— Gordon Hintz (@GordonHintz) December 19, 2017

In other words, what do you want Scotty, a cookie?

As for the budget side of the equation, I noted back in October there was a sizable amount of extra money that the DOT could tap for the next 2 years. That would seem like an obvious explanation of where the extra money is being tapped to take care of the work near Appleton in 2019.

Also worth looking at are the figures regarding the Transportation Fund in the Appendix of the AFR. Looks like the Transportation Fund ended up with a year-end balance of $219.1 million, which would be $74 million above what we saw projected in the budget that passed for Transportation last month.

But as I also noted in October, the reason there was such a large carryover is because WisDOT cut back on projects in the last Fiscal Year.

Total state spending in Transportation Fund
2015-16 $1,929.6 million
2016-17 $1,941.1 million (+$11.5 million, +0.6%)

Debt payments, Transportation Fund
2015-16 $340.8 million
2016-17 $356.1 million (+$15.3 million, +4.5%)

So that means we actually SPENT LESS on fixing the roads and in giving out local aids for roads and transportation in Fiscal Year 2017 than Fiscal Year 2016. Which helps to explain the side effects of the 2015-17 austerity budget. Think about how many more wheel taxes and similar local fees that have had to be imposed in the last 2 years so communities could adequately fix their streets, because they didn’t have enough funding from the state or feds to take care of these needs.

So really, these projects could have been completed on time and without fanfare if we had competent leadership at the Capitol, but instead our Guv was more worried about kissing up to DC lobbyist Grover Norquist by "holding the line on taxes" ahead of his (failed) presidential campaign instead of maintaining our state's infrasturcture. And now they're asking for applause for playing catch-up?

The other problem with funneling the money to the Appleton project is that it doesn’t help other everyday highways in the state. With $134 million going into the SE corner of the state to further subsidize the Fox-con, using up these excess DOT funds to keep people in Appleton happy means there is nothing left to fix everything else in the state. And there is also nothing to carry over to the next budget, where there are still around a $1 billion deficit to take care of in order to catch up to the needs that weren’t met in this budget.

And between the lines, the reason behind yesterday's announcement of funding for 10-441 is obvious- the Walker Administration is floundering on the road funding issue, and the weekend's revelation that they were throwing $134 million around Foxconn with no debate went over VERY badly. So now Walker is trying to appear that he isn’t screwing over the rest of the state, and trying to shore up support in NE Wisconsin that is clearly slipping.

No dice, Scotty. DOT is still in a funding mess, especially at the local road and state highway level, and any kind of Band-aid that you try to put on this won’t be nearly enough to cover up the many potholes and other road gaps that will open up in the coming months.

Roll call- what's your property and wheel tax this year?

Given that our fair Governor is jetting around the state on taxpayer-funded campaign trips events and selling numerous Tweets claiming that property taxes are lower in Wisconsin than they were 4 years ago, I figured I'd take an unscientific poll around the Funhouse and see what we get as an answer.

The question: Are you property taxes up or down vs last year?
The required answer: The amount of change AND the name of your municipality (so I can check and see if you're bullshitting).

For example, our property tax in the City of Madison went up $182 vs last year. That's a 2.6% increase, which I should probably expect given that our property value went up by 5% last year.

Also, feel free to mention if you are in a community that has a local vehicle registration fee (aka "wheel tax). As the Wisconsin DOT notes, many of these have been put into place in the last year -a direct result of state revenue sources failing to keep up with needs.

Municipalities​
Appleton (city; $20)
Arena (township; $20)
Beloit (city; ​​$20)
Eden (village; $20 beginning for November 2017 registrations)
Evansville (city; $20 for January 2018 registrations)
Fort Atkinson (city; $20)​​
Gillett (city; $20)
Iron Ridge (village: $10)
Janesville (city; $20)​
Kaukauna (city; $10)
Lodi (city; $20)
Milton (city; $30 beginning for April 2017 registrations)
Milwaukee (city; $20)
New London (city; $20 for January 2018 registrations)
Platteville (city; $20 beginning for March 2017 registrations)
Portage (city; $20 beginning for April 2017 registrations)
Prairie du Sac (village; $20)​​
Sheboygan​​ (city; $20)
Tigerton​​​ (village; $10 beginning for September 2016 registrations)

​Counties
Chippewa County ($10)
Iowa County ($20)
Lincoln County ($20 beginning for January 2018 registrations)
Marathon County ($25)
Milwaukee County ($30 beginning for March 2017 registrations)
St. Croix County ($10) ​

I'll also note that this list does not include Dane County, which just approved a $28 registration fee for their 2018 budget. It also doesn't count the Brown County cities of Green Bay and De Pere, who both have taken steps to put in a wheel tax, but has yet to formally approve it.

Lastly, let me know if you live in a county that has or will be adding a 0.5% sales tax in 2017 and 2018. This includes Brown, Calumet, Kewaunee, and Sheboygan Counties.

On eve of vote, POS tax bill is even more a regressive budget-buster

As the GOP Congress seems hell-bent on voting on this absurd tax bill, more evidence keeps coming out showing how damaging this bill would be. Not only because of the massive increases in the deficit, but also in the regressive nature of the scam, with average Americans having to pay more while the rich and the corporate get all of the benefits.

On the individual side, the Corker kickbacks and other additional giveaways to the rich and connected that have been larded onto this Piece of Shit in the last 2 weeks make it even more regressive, if that was possible.

The Republican tax bill got worse: now the top 1% get 83% of the gains https://t.co/xX8S2asSf5

— Vox (@voxdotcom) December 18, 2017

Klein is quoting an updated analysis from the Tax Policy Center which took into account the changes in the House-Senate Conference Committee. The TPC says that the tax cut starts off OK for most people, as almost all individuals will pay fewer taxes next year.

In 2018, taxes would be reduced by about $1,600 on average, increasing after-tax incomes 2.2 percent (table 1). Taxes would decline on average across all income groups.Taxpayers in the bottom quintile (those with income less than $25,000) would see an average tax cut of $60,or 0.4 percent of after-tax income. Taxpayers in the middle income quintile (those with income between about $49,000 and $86,000) would receive an average tax cut of about $900,or 1.6 percent of after-tax income. Taxpayers in the 95th to 99th income percentiles (those with income between about $308,000 and $733,000)would benefit the most as a shareof after-tax income,with an average tax cut of about $13,500 or 4.1 percent of after-tax income. Taxpayers in the top 1 percent of the income distribution (those with income more than $733,000) would receive an average cut of $51,000,or 3.4 percent of after-tax income.

The TPC adds that the top 1% will get a little over 1/5 of the total tax cut next year, but the top 20% will get nearly 2/3 of the tax cut. And according to this handy tool, me and my wife also get that middle-income tax cut of $900 Problem is that we are likely in the 4th quartile due to SALT limitations, so that seems to put us behind the curve, if anything.

Moving ahead to 2025 (the last year of that the reduced rates and other "reforms" will be in place), and the TPC says richer people will be grabbing a larger share. And the installation of Chained CPI as an inflation measure (yes, that's in this Piece of Shit) means that individuals will be having a slow-motion back-door tax INCREASE in future years.

In 2025, the average tax cut would be almost $1,600,or 1.7 percent of after-tax income (table 2). The magnitude of the average tax cut as a share of after-tax income would be smaller in 2025 than in 2018 for most income groups, mainly because the tax system would be indexed to the slower-growing chain-weighted consumer price index and due to the phase-out of certain business tax cuts,and phase-in of certain business tax increases.

Taxpayers in the bottom quintile would see an average tax cut of $70, or 0.4 percent of after-tax income. Taxpayers in the middle income quintile would receive an average tax cut of about $900, or 1.3 percent of after-tax income. Taxpayers in the 95th to 99th income percentiles would benefit the most as a share of after-tax income, with an average tax cut of almost $13,000,or 3.2 percent of after-tax income. Taxpayers in the top 1 percent of the income distribution would receive an average cut of about $61,000, or 2.9 percent of after-tax income.

And then the tax hikes hit after 2025. The Tax Policy Center looks at the final year of the 10-year tax window, and it shows how not only most Americans would be paying higher taxes, but that the rich are much better off.

In 2027, the overall average tax cut would be $160,or 0.2 percent of after-tax income (table 3), largely because almost all individual income tax provisions would sunset after 2025.On average, taxes would be little changed for taxpayers in the bottom 95 percent of the income distribution.

Taxpayers in the bottom two quintiles of the income distribution would face an average tax increase of 0.1 percent of after-tax income; taxpayers in the middle income quintile would see no material change on average; and taxpayers in the 95th to 99th income percentiles would receive an average tax cut of 0.2 percent of after-tax income. Taxpayers in the top 1 percent of the income distribution would receive an average tax cut of 0.9 percent of after-tax income, accounting for 83 percent of the total benefit for that year.

If anything, that summary soft-sells the TPC's findings for 2027, as they say the top 20% get 107 PERCENT OF ALL TAX BENEFITS, meaning that the bottom 80% are paying more in aggregate.

n top of the tax scam being a regressive giveaway to the rich, this article in the Hill illustrates what might be the biggest piece of cynicism in this Piece of Shit. Since the bill had to be set up to fit under the $1.5 trillion deficit cap over 10 years, the tax cuts for real people will either go away in 8 years, or they will be a lot more costly than $1.5 trillion.

Most of the bill's changes for individuals sunsets in 2025, even as a cut to the corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent is made permanent.

If future Congresses decide to extend the lower tax rates for individuals and families rather than allow them to expire, and also extends other temporary provisions, the bill will end up costing $2 trillion to $2.2 trillion, according to a report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan deficit hawk group.

Even accounting for economic growth, it predicts the bill would add $1.5 trillion to $1.7 trillion to the debt — bringing debt levels close to 100 percent of the nation's GDP.

"If expiring provisions are extended and late-stage tax hikes avoided, debt could reach as high as 98 percent or 100 percent of GDP by 2027," the group said. "In other words, the national debt could exceed the size of the economy."

This is where I remind you that the $2 trillion increase in aggregate deficits are ON TOP OF the structural deficit that is already built into our federal budget. As I mentioned earlier this month, that structural deficit is already projected to be $1 trillion by 2022 BEFORE we account for the revenue losses from this tax cut, and is already being signaled as an excuse for Republicans to cut Social Security and Medicare if Americans are stupid enough to keep them in office.



And this is before I even talk about the damage this bill will do to the average American due to its preference of Wall Street gambling and profit-hoarding over paying workers, and because it would not become worthwhile to write off housing-related deductions and other itemizations under this bill, it will likely speed a housing crash with the next economic downturn.

Anyone who signs off on tax scam should be kicked out in 10 1/2 months, and I have a sick feeling that most of the GOPs know it too. Which is why they are trying to pull this smash-and-grab, so they and their puppetmasters can loot the country one more time before they "retire" to become big-money lobbyists, leaving Democratic politicians and those of us with real jobs to clean up the mess.

Dishonest hack AG Schimel and WisGOP are a model of Trumpian thuggery

Something always smelled wrong about Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel's report on the 2016 leak of information of the state's General Accountability Board's investigation into the campaign operation of Scott Walker and other Wisconsin GOP politicans. Better known as the John Doe cases, this information found its way to The Guardian (click here to get a refresher on the story), and it detailed a money-laundering and influence-peddling operation that funneled millions from rich people and corporations into ads and campaigns supporting Walker and other GOP candidates.

Schimel responded by releasing a report that had plenty of conjecture and rehashing of the John Doe investigation, but no recommendation for charges. And as we found out from Matthew DeFour in today's Wisconsin State Journal, there were a lot of things about the John Doe cases that Schimel left out, while possibly breaking the law with some of the things he DID reveal.

In this case, the newspaper has learned, the GAB — a panel of six retired judges appointed by the governor — closed the 16-month investigation in March 2013 without recommending criminal charges or penalties. State law requires such inquiries to remain secret unless they result in penalties or criminal charges.

It was not publicized until Schimel this month issued his report on the leaks stemming from the so-called John Doe II investigation into Walker’s recall campaign. Schimel’s report for the first time unmasked the identities of subjects of the previously undisclosed ethics probe, including state Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Brookfield, who is now running for U.S. Senate...

Former GAB ethics administrator Jonathan Becker said he was not aware of there ever being a “John Doe III,” a term Schimel coined to describe GAB investigation No. 2012-01, the one looking at whether state employees were campaigning on taxpayer time....

Becker said the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office provided evidence it had collected during the John Doe I investigation to the GAB, which did not seek warrants for records itself. It is not unusual for the state’s ethics agency to conduct secret investigations when presented with evidence in a complaint or a referral from law enforcement.

“There was an investigation that I can’t talk about,” Becker said. “I have maintained confidentiality my whole professional career on this stuff, unlike the Attorney General who may have violated (the confidentiality laws related to ethics investigations) by talking about this stuff in his report.”

Both are dumb, but at least Homer is well-meaning

The State Journal story talks to several current and former GAB staff, and all of the comments point to the investigation not only being legitimate, but it also indicates that our AG and his Department of "Justice" was selective in what was revealed in that report.

Urban Milwaukee's Bruce Thompson also took a look at Schimel's report, and found it slanted and lacking in detail. Thompson points to an unneeded and incorrect statement about the employment of Journal-Sentinel reporter Daniel Bice's wife (a clear attempt to play the "media is biased" card that backfired), and a claim from Schimel that then-Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson inspected the John Doe files, but never actually asking Justice Abrahamson why she did that.

Thompson also asks why Schimel is so adamant that his Department of "Justice" knows more than lawyers who specialize in the laws that the John Doe case dealt with.

Then there is this quite strange paragraph:

Because the attorneys for GAB (none of whom were experienced criminal prosecutors) prejudged the evidence and what it meant, they had difficulty accepting that their interpretation of the law was wrong.

This paragraph seems to assume that “experienced criminal prosecutors” can better interpret campaign law than attorneys who have spent their careers interpreting campaign law. While Schimel does not spell out the GAB attorneys’ supposedly wrong interpretation, it’s likely the interpretation that the US Supreme Court has expressed since its Buckley decision in 1976. If so, it is understandable that the attorneys would have difficulty accepting the novel theory adopted by four of the Wisconsin Supreme Court justices, which ignored decades of precedent.

Well stated, Bruce. The only reason Schimel had a problem with what the GAB did is because HE DIDN'T WANT THEM TO FOLLOW THE LAW THAT EXISTED. Instead, he wanted them to act like WisGOP hacks who are perfectly fine with laundering campaign funds and hiding from the public the names of donors and sources of the money in the name of "free speech."

Thompson ends his column by asking a few questions.

The report recommends that seven people face contempt proceedings, referring to a letter that has not yet been made public. It is hard to see how such proceedings would satisfy basic standards of fairness unless the defendants are able to access the information in the files. Yet in a report at Wispolitics, DOJ spokesman Johnny Koremenos says that DOJ “would oppose that request” for access to the files.

Brad Schimel has developed into the most partisan Attorney General of either party in recent memory, remaking the DOJ into an instrument of the Republican Party. Is this what he wishes to be known for? (Jake thinks it's because Schimel's such a crook that he doesn't care).

In fact, Thompson notes that the non-public nature of John Doe investigations actually played into the hands of the GOP money-launderers and their fellow GOP-puppets on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The use of secrecy in the John Doe investigations desperately needs to be rethought. At this point the John Doe secrecy chiefly serves those, like the Supreme Court majority and the DOJ who want to control information in order to spin only their version of events.

In the case of witnesses, the secrecy orders are probably “screamingly unconstitutional,” in the words of one federal judge, and therefore unenforceable. This has the ironic effect of ceding control to those with a political agenda, who are most willing to defy the (probably unenforceable) secrecy order. Compare the widely-circulated but untrue accounts of the Doe investigation with news reports of Robert Mueller’s current investigation of Russian election interference, in which witnesses know they are free to talk to the press.

And that is why the attempts by Fox News and other right-wing GOPper-ganda to derail the Mueller investigation into Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP in THEIR money-laundering and influence-peddling case sounds so familiar to me. It's the same playbook that the Wisconsin GOP pulled in John Doe! Lie, demonize, and blur the lines on the facts of the case, and use your media outlets to amplify that message, no matter how BS or slanted it is.

The difference is that the national media isn't a bunch of bought-off pushovers like the Wisconsin media was in the early to mid-2010s. In DC and in the rest of the national media, there is actually a reward to doing investigative reporting and dot-connecting to expose the money train and influence-buying, and they have enough of an ability to blow off the BS thrown out by right-wing hacks. Fox News is largely discredited outside of the RW Bubble these days, as proven by Trump's approval ratings being in the mid-30s and dropping.

In Wisconsin, there was never enough of a pushback to the lies about John Doe that were spewed on a daily basis by the likes of Icki McKenna, Mark Belling, Charlie Sykes, or Jerry Bader. Whether that was because our state's media was incompetent or under orders by their corporate paymasters, I'll leave that up to you. But Brad Schimel, Leah Vukmir, and Scott Walker clearly think that appealing to the "victim complex" that is central to the mentality of right-wing trash in Wisconsin is still a way to win in 2018.

Let's show them that they're wrong. Fire Schimel, humiliate Vukmir, and blast the rest of the GOP out of this state and out of Congress in 2018 (especially if they do not stand up to the obstruction of justice that Trump and company are trying in DC). Doing so will be a start in restoring the fairness of the law that has gone by the wayside in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan.

Even with a few nice changes, tax bill still a POS

Now that the GOP bravely dumped their updated Piece of Shit tax bil on a Friday evening ahead of a vote next week, let's see where things stand.

First of all, the Congressional Budget Office does say the bill would only need 50 votes to pass (or 50% of those voting, a situation in play with 2 GOP Senators in the hospital), because it can be reconciled to the 2018 budget resolution which projects a deficit increase of $1.5 trillion in the next 10 years. Its overview of the bill starts as follows.

Title I would amend numerous provisions of U.S. tax law. Among other changes, the bill would reduce most income tax rates for individuals and modify the tax brackets for those taxpayers; increase the standard deduction and the child tax credit; repeal deductions for personal exemptions; repeal or limit certain itemized deductions; and increase the exemption amounts for the individual alternative minimum tax. Those changes would take effect on January 1, 2018, and would be scheduled to expire after December 31, 2025. The bill also would permanently repeal the penalties associated with the requirement that most people obtain health insurance coverage (also known as the individual mandate).

Title I would also permanently modify business taxation. Among other provisions, beginning in 2018, it would replace the structure of corporate income tax rates, which has a top rate of 35 percent under current law, with a single 21 percent rate. The legislation also would substantially alter the current system under which the worldwide income of U.S. corporations is subject to taxation. Title II would direct the Secretary of the Interior to implement an oil and gas leasing program for the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and would affect oil and gas leases and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Because oil drilling = tax reform, you know.

In addition to raising people's income taxes in 8 years, the CBO also says the other reason this Piece of Shit tax plan can fit under the $1.5 trillion deficit cap, is because it counts on less people being covered money being spent for Obamacare subsidies by removing the individual mandate

Effects on the Federal Budget

CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the legislation would reduce revenues by about $1,649 billion and decrease outlays by $194 billion over the 2018-2027 period. As a result, the bill is estimated to increase the deficit by $1,455 billion over the next 10 years, excluding effects from macroeconomic feedback. A portion of the changes in revenues would be from Social Security payroll taxes, which are off-budget. Excluding the estimated $27 billion increase in off-budget revenues over the next 10 years, the legislation would increase on-budget deficits by about $1,482 billion over the period from 2018 to 2027. Pay-as-you-go procedures apply because enacting the legislation would affect direct spending and revenues.

And those pay-go procedures will reportedly lead to a $25 billion cut in Medicare next year, and other programs are also facing required cuts if deficits end up higher as a result of this Piece of Shit bill (as they likely will, even if there's an increase in economic activity).

For more specifics, Bloomberg News has a good rundown of what is now in (and out of) the bill. Some of these include items we had heard about, including a major cut for pass-through income that is taxed so millionaires like Ron Johnson can keep even more money from their businesses, and a near-doubling of the standard deduction to $12,000 single/ $24,000 married, while removing the $4,150 personal deductions. . But here are some others.

In addition to the base corporate rate being cut from 35% to 21%, the Corporate Alternate Mininum Tax (AMT) is now repealed. This repairs a screw-up by the GOP Senate, who accidentally put the AMT back in when they were hand-writing their changes to the bill 2 weeks ago.

In addition to the temporary income tax rate changes over the next 8 years, and the income that is not subject to the AMT is also higher ($16,000 for single filers, about $25,000 for married couples). This makes the bill a "double tax break" for richer people, as they are the ones who overwhelmingly pay the AMT in the first place.



They have allowed for individuals to use both income and property taxes for the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. But it is still limited to $10,000 total, and unless married couples have major mortgage interest or donations to charity, they are not likely to be able to deduct anything, due to the higher standard deduction (as noted in the Trump Tax calculator). Which greatly reduces the incentives for couples to buy houses vs renting.

And here a couple of others from Bloomberg

Child Tax Credit
Current law: A $1,000 credit for each child under 17. The credit begins phasing out for couples earning more than $110,000. The credit is at least partially refundable to qualified taxpayers who earned more than $3,000.

Proposed: Double the credit to $2,000 and provide it for each child under 18 through 2024. Raise the phase-out amount to $400,000, and cap the refundable portion at $1,400 in 2018.

Estate Tax
Current law: Applies a 40 percent levy on estates worth more than $5.49 million for individuals and $10.98 million for couples.

Proposed: Double the thresholds (to $11 million individuals, $22 mil for couples) so the levy applies to fewer estates. The higher thresholds would sunset in 2026.

Also worth mentioning, it appears the potential tax hike on graduate students and people with student loans isn't going to happen.

Senate and House Republican leaders have agreed to abandon many of the controversial proposals that higher-education leaders and students had rallied to thwart, according to congressional aides. Under the agreement, tuition waivers received by graduate students remain tax-free, students can still deduct loan interest payments and bonds that colleges use for construction stay interest-free.

Well, I guess that means I probably won't need to send in an interest-only payment in 2 weeks, so that's not so bad. And since it's "above the line" instead of a Schedule A deduction, my state taxes also won't go up, since I'll still be writing off a similar amount that reduces my taxable income.

But it's still probably worthwhile for us (and lots of you) to pay your mortgage and property taxes before the end of the year, as it may be the last one for quite a while where it is worth it to write it off. And this thing is still a regressive Piece of Shit that will drive our already-awful levels of inequality even higher. And given the prospect of the deficit exploding in the next 5 years along with people losing their health care, this awful legislation still needs to be exposed and shot down before it's allowed to blow up our economy in the next few years.


No, you don't need the help

EDIT- Republicans aren't even trying to pretend this is good for anyone other than themselves and their donors at this point. And illustrates perfectly why I describe the bill as a Piece of Shit that keeps getting more garbage glommed onto it.

BREAKING: Sen. @JohnCornyn tells @ThisWeekABC that last-minute provision enriching @SenBobCorker & other GOP lawmakers was added to the tax bill as part of an effort to “cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed” https://t.co/5spNBNb8Vl

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) December 17, 2017

Wages falling behind while spending more money? Sounds scarily familiar

It isn’t just the resurgence of Democrats at the polls that is making things feel like 2005-06 these days. As I mentioned earlier this month, there’s a worrying trend that we are also returning to the mid-2000s trend of “low wage growth, high spending, low savings.” And two reports released this week indicate that trend may be accelerating.

The first part was with the Census Bureau’s release of the Retail Sales report for November. The November report is understandably more important than most others because it includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales for the Holiday season. And the signs were positive for consumer spending, as the sales figures were very strong.

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for November 2017, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $492.7 billion, an increase of 0.8 percent (±0.5 percent) from the previous month, and 5.8 percent (±0.7 percent) above November 2016. Total sales for the September 2017 through November 2017 period were up 5.2 percent (±0.5 percent) from the same period a year ago. The September 2017 to October 2017 percent change was revised from up 0.2 percent (±0.5 percent)* to up 0.5 percent (±0.2 percent). Retail trade sales were up 0.8 percent (±0.5 percent) from October 2017, and were up 6.3 percent (±0.7 percent) from last year. Gasoline Stations were up 12.2 percent (±1.4 percent) from November 2016, while Building Materials and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers were up 10.7 percent (±2.1 percent) from last year.

But a lot of those extra sales must be going on credit for many people, because a separate report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that earnings failed to keep up with inflation last month.

Real average hourly earnings for all employees decreased 0.2 percent from October to November, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported [Thursday]. This result stems from a 0.2-percent increase in average hourly earnings being more than offset by a 0.4-percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).

This is the fourth straight month that real average hourly earnings have declined, a noted reversal from the real hourly wage gains that we saw in 5 out of 6 months between February and July, and down 1.0% percent from that July peak.

With these recent declines, the BLS says real hourly earnings are no different than they were when Donald Trump was elected, with more gains coming from a longer workweek than actual wages.

Real average hourly earnings increased 0.2 percent, seasonally adjusted, from November 2016 to November 2017. The increase in real average hourly earnings combined with a 0.6-percent increase in the average workweek resulted in a 0.8-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over this period.

And another comparison to the mid-2000s involves inflated GDP figures that are a result of this overspending. We had 8 of 14 quarters with GDP growth above 3.0% between 2004 and Q2 2007, blowing the bubble larger, and making the crash worse. Now recognize that Q4 2017 growth will likely be higher than most quarters in the 2010s due to these strong retail sales and other indications of lower savings, despite many people not actually being better off. Uh oh.

And if this Piece of Shit regressive tax bill passes, it’ll put this trend into overdrive, with even more stock buybacks and other profit hoarding by richer people and corporations, and less incentive to add jobs or wages (in fact, it will encourage automation and layoffs). This article from Bloomberg titled "America's Inequality Machine is Sending the Dow Soaring", summed it up quite well.

The Fed’s post-2008 toolkit included massive purchases of financial assets, which supported a liftoff on the markets but took time to trickle through to the real economy. Trump’s tax critics say his plan will have a similar effect, because companies will spend the windfall on share buybacks or dividends, instead of job-creating investments. Plenty of executives say that’s exactly what they’ll do.

Bank of America’s most recent buyback program totals $18 billion. Chairman Brian Moynihan championed the tax proposal this month. “It’s good for corporate America, and it’s good for us,” he said....

Soaring markets helped the top 1 percent of Americans increase their slice of the national wealth to 39 percent in 2016, according to the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances. The bottom 90 percent of families held a one-third share in 1989; that’s now shrunk to less than one-quarter.

And if you want to say "Well, at least the 401-ks and investments are growing for everyday people," don't forget that the majority of Americans have few if any investments (as shown by the blue and gray bars in the chart below), and rely on wages and the future promises of Social Security and Medicare to get by.



Put these realities together with the ramifications of this Piece of Shit tax bill, and it means in the next year or two, expect this story to become familiar again for a lot of Americans.

New roads, electric bills, and local subsidies. Hidden costs of the Fox-con

We haven’t checked back on what’s happening with the Fox-con recently. And we probably should, because we are finding out that a lot of unadvertised costs and changes are rippling out that go beyond what we were told during the debate over the bill a couple of months ago.

I had a post ready to explain some of these added costs, but then we saw this blockbuster story from the Wisconsin State Journal tonight, which summarizes the mess in totality.

Wisconsin has converted several local roads near the future Foxconn factory in Racine County into state highways to access state road repair and improvement funding, a new state report has disclosed.

But the move could siphon $134 million from other highway projects around the state, according to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo.

Gov. Scott Walker says savings from other road projects will help cover those costs....

The fiscal bureau memo to Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, now reveals the previously unknown cost of local road improvements on top of the $252.4 million in state bonding that was authorized to pay for the nearby expansion of Interstate 94.

None of the plans for the state to take over these roads nor the extra costs that state taxpayers would pay were revealed during the debate of the Fox-con package in the Legislature. The Walker Administration claims that they have the extra money in the DOT budget, but the $100 million in "savings" that Walker flack Tom Evenson references in the article seems to be no different than what was carried over into the 2017-19 budget to begin with, and built into the figures for the next 2 years.

Which leads the LFB to indicate that this $134 million in extra road-building costs for the Fox-con would take away from other road projects in the state,

...fiscal bureau analyst John Wilson-Tepeli explained in the memo that because the roads in Racine County were local roads when the 2017-19 budget was adopted it is "unlikely" that the work was accounted for in the state highway rehabilitation fund during the budget debate.

"Therefore, the use of state highway rehabilitation funding to complete this work near the Foxconn site would likely result in the delay of other, previously planned rehabilitation projects on state highways," Wilson-Tepeli wrote.

An example of this new taxpayer-funded road construction near the Foxconn campus was detailed in a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel report today about a brand-new road in Racine County being created to deal with the added traffic that will result from the plant.

State transportation officials unveiled plans Thursday for a new two-mile road east of I-94 aimed at easing traffic congestion near Foxconn’s planned $10 billion manufacturing complex in Racine County.

The Department of Transportation revealed plans for the road, dubbed “Wisconn Valley Way,” at a public meeting to provide details of planned upgrades to I-94 and state roads near the Taiwan company’s proposed facility…
The road will have two lanes in each direction with adjacent bike and pedestrian paths on both sides is expected to cost $20 million to $30 million and is planned for completion in 2019. The road will be paid with existing state transportation funds, officials said.

Let me remind you that this money is being shelled out while projects like the Zoo Interchange and US 10-441 in Appleton are being delayed because allegedly there isn’t enough money available to pay for those projects, and statewide highway development and rehabilitation is being cut in the 2017-19 budget. But throwing $134 million more down into the “Wisconn Valley” near Foxconn? NO PROBLEM!



There was another story out this week showing how everyday Wisconsinites will end up paying for added infrastructure from the Foxconn plant, this time in the form of higher electricity rates and in buildings being knocked down.

American Transmission Co. plans to make $140 million in upgrades to its power line system between Racine and Pleasant Prairie to meet increased electrical demand from Foxconn and related development.

The project would include a new substation to serve Foxconn’s Mount Pleasant campus, new electric transmission lines and modifications to existing transmission lines, structures and substations, according to a description of the project posted on the utility’s website…

Plans also call for the addition of a second 345-kilovolt transmission circuit to the existing transmission line between Racine and Mount Pleasant. Crews would replace 19 structures along the route, but no new right-of-way would be required.

ATC says the project’s $140 million cost would be spread across roughly 5 million residential customers over a 40-year period. That would amount to about 70 cents per year.

Getting power to Foxconn’s campus, which the company projects could ultimately employ 13,000 people, is just one of the infrastructure challenges related to the project.

That $8.40 a year is a direct subsidy from Wisconsinites to Foxconn to help in the start-up costs of their plant. And of course, this is on top of the bags of cash that Foxconn and its contractors will get from the state for constructing the plant and hiring people, because the write-offs are more than any taxes that Foxconn would ever pay.

And let’s not forget that Racine County and other local governments are on the hook for major borrowing and infrastructure upgrades related to the Fox-con, while other people are being bought off/driven off their land as part of eminent domain measures in and around the plant site. And those who remain will be the only ones paying property taxes until the Foxconn property can be worth enough to close the massive TIF district that was created solely for the campus (if that ever happens).

We already knew the Fox-con was a massive scam from the absurd $3 billion+ price tag of the incentives. But add in the local subsidies and Foxconn-related public works projects that will disproportionately benefit one small sliver of the state’s economy, and the foolishness of the Fox-con gets compounded.

It’s time to get some responsible leadership into office at the Capitol that can stop this madness and get an economic strategy that goes beyond “giving away everything to a few connected corporations at the expense of everyone else.” And if it doesn’t happen in 2018, giveaways like the Fox-con may make us too fiscally screwed to ever return this state to making investments that help ALL Wisconsinites, instead of the failing cronyism that we see today.