I was going to post a comment about how Wisconsin's economy continued to beat the national trends, as the January unemployment numbers came out showing another 6,200 jobs created in Wisconsin for January and an unemployment rate down to 7.4%.
I was going to add that the same report showed a state government job LOSS of 3,600 seasonally-adjusted jobs, which illustrated once again that Scott Walker's threat of layoffs was empty bullshit, and an indication of how limited his administration was in not simply taking the attrition losses to get major savings in the budget.
I was going to mention that today is the 2-year anniversary of the S&P's low point after the crash that followed the financial crisis- it closed at 676.53. Today's S&P close? 1320.02, a nice 95% runup (has your pay gone up 95%? NOOO?). Neither of these things look too bad for an anti-business president and a failed stimulus, eh?
And then the WisGOPs in the Senate give a no-notice, probably illegal vote, and give themselves the nuclear option by trying to eliminate collective bargaining. It's shocking and gutless, and I'm amazed that the GOP just decided to self-destruct because....it sounds good on WTMJ?
I didn't think these dimwits at WisGOP could top themselves in incompetence and bubble-thinking, and boy was I wrong. I guess it's on, now.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
More fun and games with the big budget (geeky)
So I've finally gotten around to some reading about Gov. Walker's 2-year (July 1, 2011- June 30, 2013) budget proposal. I highly recommend the Budget in Brief over the 1,300+ page kahuna with all the details. But here's a few highights that go into the added budgetary gimmicks of Gov. Walker and the Koch-heads.
1. Around page 73 comes the information on added pension and health insurance premiums for state and local employees. These increases, which the unions indicated they would accept 2 weeks ago, would cut spending by about $30 million for this biennium (taking care of most of the current budget in need of "repair"), and $326 million for the 2011-13 one. It's a nice chunk of change, and while a bit severe for my taste, is real progress, but it's not a free lunch cut. The $98 million in health contributions are pre-tax dollars, so if you assume a 6.5% tax rate for a $50,000 single earner, that's over $6 million in reduced income tax revenues.
I'm not even mentioning the reduced sales and tax and economic activity that would result from hundreds of thousands of households losing 10-15% of their after-tax income. But does Scotty's budget mention that reduced revenue? No, of course not. So there's a hole that probably reaches the tens of millions of dollars that's magically assumed to disappear.
3. Now you're probably saying, "but Jake, the economy is going to take off and that'll add revenues through higher income, corporate and sales taxes. (you were saying that, right?) Well, Walker's budget guys sure don't think so, as they illustrate starting on page 79. They estimate job growth to be all of 140,600 jobs added between the end of 2010 and the end of 2013, a yearly rate that's barely above last year's growth of 32,600. But wait, I thought there were supposed to be 250,000 new jobs by 2014? Walker's own budget indicates that they'll be about 47,000 below that pace if he's still around in 3 years. HMMMMMM....
In fact, Walker and the WisGOPs are gloomy about the economy in general. They anticipate job growth nationwide of 1.4% for 2011 or about 150,000 jobs a month, which is interesting to note given that today's monthly jobs report clocked in at 192,000 new jobs. Maybe they're working it out with the GOPs in Congress to screw up the economy in the second half of the year to give Obama trouble, and that's where it comes from (don't bet against this being a strategy, by the way).
Another suspicious number is the 1.6% inflation estimation for 2011. Inflation was already up 0.8% between November and January, and that's before the gas spikes and $104 oil hit. Now inflation certainly sucks the big weenie when it comes to purchasing power and in costs such as gasoline for State Patrol cars, but it also raises sales tax and excise revenue, because those costs are often based on a % of the price of the product. It's kind of the same way people could get jacked by higher property taxes because their property values shot up. So, much as I said earlier, don't be surprised if current-year revenues "suprise" on the upside.
3. This budget has NO LAYOFFS. In Appendix 5, you will see that not many positions get eliminated in reality. After you throw out the changes due to the Dept. of Commerce UW-Madison and the UW Hospitals being spun off of state government (the jobs aren't being reduced, just moved) the budget mentions that all 735 vacancies over a year old will have their position eliminated, 269 positions go due to the consolidation of a couple of juvy facilities, and 59 more are due to a couple of sexual offender facility closings. After those 1,063 positions are taken care of, there are basically no other position changes! Sure, some jobs get shifted from this department to that, but there aren't these massive drops in the number of workers that will be around 2 years from now.
Which begs the question- how can you lay anyone off if no one is in the jobs being taken away? Especially when requests for eestimates of retirement benefits from state employees are up 50% from this time last year. Heck, Walker and co. can't even tell the state unions where the layoffs will come from.
I'll tackle some of the other absurd parts of this budget (like cutting aid to schools and municipalities without allowing them to make up the difference) at a later point. But if you needed more proof that Gov. Dropout is all about union-busting and posing for national media instead of taking care of our budget issues, there it is. To call this budget a shaky one is to say that Charlie Sheen has been a wee bit off-center recently.
1. Around page 73 comes the information on added pension and health insurance premiums for state and local employees. These increases, which the unions indicated they would accept 2 weeks ago, would cut spending by about $30 million for this biennium (taking care of most of the current budget in need of "repair"), and $326 million for the 2011-13 one. It's a nice chunk of change, and while a bit severe for my taste, is real progress, but it's not a free lunch cut. The $98 million in health contributions are pre-tax dollars, so if you assume a 6.5% tax rate for a $50,000 single earner, that's over $6 million in reduced income tax revenues.
I'm not even mentioning the reduced sales and tax and economic activity that would result from hundreds of thousands of households losing 10-15% of their after-tax income. But does Scotty's budget mention that reduced revenue? No, of course not. So there's a hole that probably reaches the tens of millions of dollars that's magically assumed to disappear.
3. Now you're probably saying, "but Jake, the economy is going to take off and that'll add revenues through higher income, corporate and sales taxes. (you were saying that, right?) Well, Walker's budget guys sure don't think so, as they illustrate starting on page 79. They estimate job growth to be all of 140,600 jobs added between the end of 2010 and the end of 2013, a yearly rate that's barely above last year's growth of 32,600. But wait, I thought there were supposed to be 250,000 new jobs by 2014? Walker's own budget indicates that they'll be about 47,000 below that pace if he's still around in 3 years. HMMMMMM....
In fact, Walker and the WisGOPs are gloomy about the economy in general. They anticipate job growth nationwide of 1.4% for 2011 or about 150,000 jobs a month, which is interesting to note given that today's monthly jobs report clocked in at 192,000 new jobs. Maybe they're working it out with the GOPs in Congress to screw up the economy in the second half of the year to give Obama trouble, and that's where it comes from (don't bet against this being a strategy, by the way).
Another suspicious number is the 1.6% inflation estimation for 2011. Inflation was already up 0.8% between November and January, and that's before the gas spikes and $104 oil hit. Now inflation certainly sucks the big weenie when it comes to purchasing power and in costs such as gasoline for State Patrol cars, but it also raises sales tax and excise revenue, because those costs are often based on a % of the price of the product. It's kind of the same way people could get jacked by higher property taxes because their property values shot up. So, much as I said earlier, don't be surprised if current-year revenues "suprise" on the upside.
3. This budget has NO LAYOFFS. In Appendix 5, you will see that not many positions get eliminated in reality. After you throw out the changes due to the Dept. of Commerce UW-Madison and the UW Hospitals being spun off of state government (the jobs aren't being reduced, just moved) the budget mentions that all 735 vacancies over a year old will have their position eliminated, 269 positions go due to the consolidation of a couple of juvy facilities, and 59 more are due to a couple of sexual offender facility closings. After those 1,063 positions are taken care of, there are basically no other position changes! Sure, some jobs get shifted from this department to that, but there aren't these massive drops in the number of workers that will be around 2 years from now.
Which begs the question- how can you lay anyone off if no one is in the jobs being taken away? Especially when requests for eestimates of retirement benefits from state employees are up 50% from this time last year. Heck, Walker and co. can't even tell the state unions where the layoffs will come from.
I'll tackle some of the other absurd parts of this budget (like cutting aid to schools and municipalities without allowing them to make up the difference) at a later point. But if you needed more proof that Gov. Dropout is all about union-busting and posing for national media instead of taking care of our budget issues, there it is. To call this budget a shaky one is to say that Charlie Sheen has been a wee bit off-center recently.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Scott Walker = Tom Crean
You can't help but notice the comparisons between our current governor and former Marquette and current Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean. Seriously.
1. Both are obnoxious, media-grubbing Republicans in their mid-40s.
2. Both look ridiculous- Crean with that pemanent tan of his, and Walker with that ferret on his head that's a lame attempt to cover his bald spot.
3. Both got their big-time jobs in Milwaukee at a relatively young age, and then lucked into prominence in the early 2000s. Crean rode Dwyane Wade to a Final 4 in 2003, while Walker rode Tom Ament's corruption and Charles Sykes' schlong to County Exec. in 2002.
4. Both make a big show out of how in control their are, acting enthusiastic for their cause and knowing how to kiss the right backsides and strike the right poses to impress those of lesser intelligence. But their records in Milwaukee weren't worthy of the adulation their supporters would give them - Walker never got Milwaukee County's finances in order and destroyed the level of services, and Crean won a grand total of ONE NCAA tournament game at MU without D. Wade, and couldn't even make the Big Dance 4 times in 9 years.
5. Both have been pathetic in the position they got promoted to after leaving Milwaukee. Walker is well on his way to being recalled and a sick punchline in Wisconsin history, and Crean is now a stellar 8-45 in the Big Ten at IU. (You know, Indiana basketball, arguably the best program in the Big Ten's history with 5 national titles, 8 Final Fours and the home state of "Hoosiers"?)
6. Both are owned by those goofy Madison libruls. Walker has been outplayed and humiliated by the protestors and thinkers in Madtown right now, and he has no legitimate answer for what they are bringing to him. And Tom Crean has now lost 12 out of 14 against UW for his career.
7. You get the feeling it'll end badly for both of them in 2012. And just like Marquette has ended up better off with Buzz Williams, Wisconsin will end up better off after the Scott Walker era ends.
1. Both are obnoxious, media-grubbing Republicans in their mid-40s.
2. Both look ridiculous- Crean with that pemanent tan of his, and Walker with that ferret on his head that's a lame attempt to cover his bald spot.
3. Both got their big-time jobs in Milwaukee at a relatively young age, and then lucked into prominence in the early 2000s. Crean rode Dwyane Wade to a Final 4 in 2003, while Walker rode Tom Ament's corruption and Charles Sykes' schlong to County Exec. in 2002.
4. Both make a big show out of how in control their are, acting enthusiastic for their cause and knowing how to kiss the right backsides and strike the right poses to impress those of lesser intelligence. But their records in Milwaukee weren't worthy of the adulation their supporters would give them - Walker never got Milwaukee County's finances in order and destroyed the level of services, and Crean won a grand total of ONE NCAA tournament game at MU without D. Wade, and couldn't even make the Big Dance 4 times in 9 years.
5. Both have been pathetic in the position they got promoted to after leaving Milwaukee. Walker is well on his way to being recalled and a sick punchline in Wisconsin history, and Crean is now a stellar 8-45 in the Big Ten at IU. (You know, Indiana basketball, arguably the best program in the Big Ten's history with 5 national titles, 8 Final Fours and the home state of "Hoosiers"?)
6. Both are owned by those goofy Madison libruls. Walker has been outplayed and humiliated by the protestors and thinkers in Madtown right now, and he has no legitimate answer for what they are bringing to him. And Tom Crean has now lost 12 out of 14 against UW for his career.
7. You get the feeling it'll end badly for both of them in 2012. And just like Marquette has ended up better off with Buzz Williams, Wisconsin will end up better off after the Scott Walker era ends.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Budget "crisis" growing fraudulent by the day
There's a few things that have flown under the radar as Gov. Dropout continues to dig his hole deeper and the nation has caught on to what a transparent power-grab and union bash this alleged "budget repair" bill is. But I want to go back to the budget part for a second, because there are some recent developments that make Walker's "crisis" siren even more shaky.
In the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's now-famous 2011 budget projection, the LFB figured Wisconsin tax revenue growth of 4.6% from the 2009-'10 fiscal year. However, Wisconsin's economy has been recently picking up over the last few months, much like other parts of the nation, and the Department of Revenue just released figures showing revenue growth of 5.0% for the first seven months of the fiscal year, and 7.1% for January . If 5.0% growth holds, that's another $47 million to close whatever minor budget gap exists. Remember, the state union concessions that were declined by Walker, WisGOP and the corrupt Jeff Plale and Russ Decker was estimated at $100 million. There'd be no further need for extra borrowing or other accounting tricks.
And there's no reason to think that the above-trend revenues won't continue. Between the Packer Super Bowl and huge amounts of protest-related tourism in Madison, there are 2 unexpected events that have probably led to larger-than-normal consumption, and as a result, high levels of sales taxes and income in the service sector (bars, restaurants, etc.). Dane County just reported 38% growth in last month's sales taxes vs 2010, and are $1.6 million over budget in the last year. Obviously, Dane County sales taxes are a reflection of state sales taxes in that area, since they're both collected at the same time, and it is logical to assume that will cross over into the state figures shortly.
And lastly, in checking the numbers side of the budget adjustment bill , it looks like the insurance and pension concessions that state workers would give up (and have said they'd agree to) are around $29 million for the rest of this fiscal year...or about $70 million less in savings than the concessions would have been if Walker, Plale and co. hadn't have interefered in the contracts 2 months ago, because those savings would have included retroactive payments, while the budget "repair" bill only does it from late March forward. And I'm not even going into the extra $26 million in expenses for the next budget that will have to be paid off due to Scotty's plan of borrowing another $165 million (it's in Page 10).
Lastly, in that DOR January 2011 report, it reports corporate taxes are up nearly 14% from last year, and income taxes up 4.7%, sort of discrediting the idea that tax revenues go down if loopholes close and high-income taxes go up (as they did in Jim Doyle's and the Dems' last budget). And likewise, a huge reason there's even a chance to justify any type of repair is due to Scotty and co's corporate tax giveaway lowering this year's revenues.
Much like the federal budget's deficit, tax cuts and the unemployment resulting from deregulation and bad trade policy lead to the "problem" of deficits that allow GOPpers to squawk about the need to cut spending. If there weren't those bad GOP policies in the first place, there wouldn't be this problem. You know much like the "Fire in the Reichstag" tactic of taking an alleged budget deficit as the excuse to bust unions and grab power.
In the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's now-famous 2011 budget projection, the LFB figured Wisconsin tax revenue growth of 4.6% from the 2009-'10 fiscal year. However, Wisconsin's economy has been recently picking up over the last few months, much like other parts of the nation, and the Department of Revenue just released figures showing revenue growth of 5.0% for the first seven months of the fiscal year, and 7.1% for January . If 5.0% growth holds, that's another $47 million to close whatever minor budget gap exists. Remember, the state union concessions that were declined by Walker, WisGOP and the corrupt Jeff Plale and Russ Decker was estimated at $100 million. There'd be no further need for extra borrowing or other accounting tricks.
And there's no reason to think that the above-trend revenues won't continue. Between the Packer Super Bowl and huge amounts of protest-related tourism in Madison, there are 2 unexpected events that have probably led to larger-than-normal consumption, and as a result, high levels of sales taxes and income in the service sector (bars, restaurants, etc.). Dane County just reported 38% growth in last month's sales taxes vs 2010, and are $1.6 million over budget in the last year. Obviously, Dane County sales taxes are a reflection of state sales taxes in that area, since they're both collected at the same time, and it is logical to assume that will cross over into the state figures shortly.
And lastly, in checking the numbers side of the budget adjustment bill , it looks like the insurance and pension concessions that state workers would give up (and have said they'd agree to) are around $29 million for the rest of this fiscal year...or about $70 million less in savings than the concessions would have been if Walker, Plale and co. hadn't have interefered in the contracts 2 months ago, because those savings would have included retroactive payments, while the budget "repair" bill only does it from late March forward. And I'm not even going into the extra $26 million in expenses for the next budget that will have to be paid off due to Scotty's plan of borrowing another $165 million (it's in Page 10).
Lastly, in that DOR January 2011 report, it reports corporate taxes are up nearly 14% from last year, and income taxes up 4.7%, sort of discrediting the idea that tax revenues go down if loopholes close and high-income taxes go up (as they did in Jim Doyle's and the Dems' last budget). And likewise, a huge reason there's even a chance to justify any type of repair is due to Scotty and co's corporate tax giveaway lowering this year's revenues.
Much like the federal budget's deficit, tax cuts and the unemployment resulting from deregulation and bad trade policy lead to the "problem" of deficits that allow GOPpers to squawk about the need to cut spending. If there weren't those bad GOP policies in the first place, there wouldn't be this problem. You know much like the "Fire in the Reichstag" tactic of taking an alleged budget deficit as the excuse to bust unions and grab power.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Media- shut up and learn
After attending yesterday's festivities around the Capitol, I have a few quick notes.
1. There may have been 3,000 Tea Baggers, and about 60,000 anti-Walker/ anti-Tea Baggers. The media portraying it as "equal, dueling" protests is their typical "both sides are equal" lie. If you weren't on the lawn on the one corner of the Capitol the baggers were, you wouldn't know they existed. Their show was so lame they baled 90 minutes ahead of schedule, and I only knew that because I then saw a few Walker signs heading to the other side of the Capitol.
2. Memo to the D.C. and New York media. This is not a budget issue in Wisconsin, it is a workers' rights and inequality issue. And trying to tie it into the federal budget is especially stupid, but since you have no clue about anything going on among people who make less than 6 figures or west of the Appalachians, it's not surprising that this is eluding you. And why is someone like George Will allowed to speak on ANYTHING outside the Beltway? The next contact he has with someone in a real job will be his first in decades.
3. The longer this goes on, the worse Scott Walker looks. If WisGOP had a brain, they'd take the concessions agreed to by the state unions. But they're dumb, so they won't, and they will be smoked over the next 2 years.
1. There may have been 3,000 Tea Baggers, and about 60,000 anti-Walker/ anti-Tea Baggers. The media portraying it as "equal, dueling" protests is their typical "both sides are equal" lie. If you weren't on the lawn on the one corner of the Capitol the baggers were, you wouldn't know they existed. Their show was so lame they baled 90 minutes ahead of schedule, and I only knew that because I then saw a few Walker signs heading to the other side of the Capitol.
2. Memo to the D.C. and New York media. This is not a budget issue in Wisconsin, it is a workers' rights and inequality issue. And trying to tie it into the federal budget is especially stupid, but since you have no clue about anything going on among people who make less than 6 figures or west of the Appalachians, it's not surprising that this is eluding you. And why is someone like George Will allowed to speak on ANYTHING outside the Beltway? The next contact he has with someone in a real job will be his first in decades.
3. The longer this goes on, the worse Scott Walker looks. If WisGOP had a brain, they'd take the concessions agreed to by the state unions. But they're dumb, so they won't, and they will be smoked over the next 2 years.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Reflections from Madtown on the week that is
Needless to say, it's kinda crazy over here right now. I took a long lunch on Wedensday to check it out, and it seems to have grown from there (I worked at my federally-funded job the rest of the week, if you're curious). In fact, I kind of worry that the protesting part is taking on a life of its own and trying to make itself the story, with Jesse Jackson dropping in yesterday (I guess he noticed all the cameras converging 3 hours from home and had to get involved), and the Tea Baggers trying to hold their little crumpet-fest today (they'll be mocked and outnumbered).
With that in mind, let's get back to the issues at hand:
1. There is no major fiscal crisis for the remainder of the January-June 30, 2011 fiscal year. Here's the now-famous LFB memo on the current-year situation. Now, there is some validity to holding back some of that $56 million additional money to take care of items such as Minnesota reciprocity and extra Medicaid payments ($121 M is the number thrown around, but Page 2 shows that $65 million is kept back as a "rainy day fund"). But that's a comparatively small amount that results in a tiny deficit that could be made up in a couple of other ways.
2. And here's the other ways you make up that deficit. Scotty and co. could have used the $103 million in concessions the state employees union agreed to and plugged most of the gap that way, and then used the increased pension and health contributions as a starting point for the 2011-2013 budget. But as you recall, Scotty tried to barge into the negotiations before taking office and bribed Sen. Jeff Plale with a cushy state job in exchange for voting the contracts down.
Another major source of savings is the huge amount of retirements that have been happening over the last 3 months in state service. Walk into any state agency office building, and you will see flyer after flyer discussing some long-time employee's upcoming retirement get-together. In my section of 12, 4 have left, and the only 2 filled positions have been internal fills. Any manager knows that attrition reduces the need for layoffs, and not filling positions lowers expenses in the short-term both in salaries and benefit costs. So when Walker threatens 5,000 or 1,600 or whatever-number-he-pulls-out-of-his-ass-today layoffs in the state, HE IS LYING.
3. So when you realize that there is no short-term fiscal crisis and you read the bill for more than 5 seconds, it becomes obvious that this is not a "budget repair bill", it is a union-busintg bill. Especially since Scotty and co want to usurp local governments and their agreements with their local unions by throwing out collective bargaining rights for all those employees in addition to the state ones. And that's where the mistake was made, because once you made it about the teachers, and the caregivers and the snow plow drivers, that's what took the protests from "small group of local Madison folks" to "this is a fight for everyone."
I'll speak more after I check out the rallies today. I'm debating whether to reprise my Honest Tea-Baggers outfit from Halloween, with signs like "Ignorance is Easier" and "Didn't need those benefits anyway." The best part is that those clowns probably won't understand the joke.
With that in mind, let's get back to the issues at hand:
1. There is no major fiscal crisis for the remainder of the January-June 30, 2011 fiscal year. Here's the now-famous LFB memo on the current-year situation. Now, there is some validity to holding back some of that $56 million additional money to take care of items such as Minnesota reciprocity and extra Medicaid payments ($121 M is the number thrown around, but Page 2 shows that $65 million is kept back as a "rainy day fund"). But that's a comparatively small amount that results in a tiny deficit that could be made up in a couple of other ways.
2. And here's the other ways you make up that deficit. Scotty and co. could have used the $103 million in concessions the state employees union agreed to and plugged most of the gap that way, and then used the increased pension and health contributions as a starting point for the 2011-2013 budget. But as you recall, Scotty tried to barge into the negotiations before taking office and bribed Sen. Jeff Plale with a cushy state job in exchange for voting the contracts down.
Another major source of savings is the huge amount of retirements that have been happening over the last 3 months in state service. Walk into any state agency office building, and you will see flyer after flyer discussing some long-time employee's upcoming retirement get-together. In my section of 12, 4 have left, and the only 2 filled positions have been internal fills. Any manager knows that attrition reduces the need for layoffs, and not filling positions lowers expenses in the short-term both in salaries and benefit costs. So when Walker threatens 5,000 or 1,600 or whatever-number-he-pulls-out-of-his-ass-today layoffs in the state, HE IS LYING.
3. So when you realize that there is no short-term fiscal crisis and you read the bill for more than 5 seconds, it becomes obvious that this is not a "budget repair bill", it is a union-busintg bill. Especially since Scotty and co want to usurp local governments and their agreements with their local unions by throwing out collective bargaining rights for all those employees in addition to the state ones. And that's where the mistake was made, because once you made it about the teachers, and the caregivers and the snow plow drivers, that's what took the protests from "small group of local Madison folks" to "this is a fight for everyone."
I'll speak more after I check out the rallies today. I'm debating whether to reprise my Honest Tea-Baggers outfit from Halloween, with signs like "Ignorance is Easier" and "Didn't need those benefits anyway." The best part is that those clowns probably won't understand the joke.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
You want Wisconsin to be like Indiana and Jersey, Scotty?
So, Scott Walker wants to take the Chris Christie method of scapegoating and talking tough against public employees as a way to control their state's fiscal problems, and also wants to use Mitch Daniels' theories in Indiana of selling off any state agency to a private vendor. Well, let's see how those places have fared in the last year with these policies in charge, and compare it to how we've been doing in Wisconsin. I mean, Walker wouldn't be pursuing these ideas if they weren't working and could make us better off here in the home of Titletown, right?
Let's go with number of jobs and unemployment in the last year. I've also included private sector unemployment change to avoid the complaints if the job number are skewed by public sector job cuts.
Wisconsin +32,600 jobs (+31,600 private), 7.5% unemployment (down 1.0% vs end of '09)
New Jersey -30,700 jobs (-1,600 private), 9.1% unemployment (down 0.9% vs.'09)
Indiana +25,100 jobs (+36,400 private), 9.5% unemployment (down 0.2% vs. '09)
So cutting jobs in Jersey's public sector certainly has not translated into job growth in the private sector, which is doubly remarkable when you figure Wall Street's comeback should translate into growth in an area that has plenty of commuters into NYC. So no, cutting the public sector does not raise the tide for others in New Jersey, at least so far.
Indiana seems to be doing well on the total jobs front, but hasn't cut into unemployment nearly as high as Wisconsin has, and still has unemployment 2% higher than we do. This also doesn't bring up the fact that Indiana had a drop in median household income of 4.7% in 2009 under My Man Mitch, which is well above the national average drop of 2.9%, and Wisconsin's 3.8%. In addition, Indiana's household income would have to go up by 10% to reach ours, so a large amount of those jobs are clearly low-wage, low-skill.
So why copy the ways of New Jersey and Indiana as policies when they clearly are substandard compared to what we have right now? Unless the plan is to make skilled Wisconsinites miserable and want to leave, which means there's a higher percentage of the population left who are dumb and going nowhere, or with "big fish, small pond" syndrome and fear of competition for their high status.
In other words, we'd be left with more of the type of dopes who might still support Scott Walker and WisGOP. Hmmm......Maybe Walker's antics aren't so crazy, now are there? With WisGOP, it's not "the economy, stupid", it's POWER.
Let's go with number of jobs and unemployment in the last year. I've also included private sector unemployment change to avoid the complaints if the job number are skewed by public sector job cuts.
Wisconsin +32,600 jobs (+31,600 private), 7.5% unemployment (down 1.0% vs end of '09)
New Jersey -30,700 jobs (-1,600 private), 9.1% unemployment (down 0.9% vs.'09)
Indiana +25,100 jobs (+36,400 private), 9.5% unemployment (down 0.2% vs. '09)
So cutting jobs in Jersey's public sector certainly has not translated into job growth in the private sector, which is doubly remarkable when you figure Wall Street's comeback should translate into growth in an area that has plenty of commuters into NYC. So no, cutting the public sector does not raise the tide for others in New Jersey, at least so far.
Indiana seems to be doing well on the total jobs front, but hasn't cut into unemployment nearly as high as Wisconsin has, and still has unemployment 2% higher than we do. This also doesn't bring up the fact that Indiana had a drop in median household income of 4.7% in 2009 under My Man Mitch, which is well above the national average drop of 2.9%, and Wisconsin's 3.8%. In addition, Indiana's household income would have to go up by 10% to reach ours, so a large amount of those jobs are clearly low-wage, low-skill.
So why copy the ways of New Jersey and Indiana as policies when they clearly are substandard compared to what we have right now? Unless the plan is to make skilled Wisconsinites miserable and want to leave, which means there's a higher percentage of the population left who are dumb and going nowhere, or with "big fish, small pond" syndrome and fear of competition for their high status.
In other words, we'd be left with more of the type of dopes who might still support Scott Walker and WisGOP. Hmmm......Maybe Walker's antics aren't so crazy, now are there? With WisGOP, it's not "the economy, stupid", it's POWER.
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