More on the silly property tax giveaway

Now that I'm back at home, I have a little more time to reflect on WisGOP's relatively meaningless attempt to reduce property taxes on schools. And others have, too.

First is the revelation from One Wisconsin Now that shows this bill was only drafted last week, after Mary Burke entered the Governor's race. Heck, it still doesn't have an official bill number (just a drafting number), and it indicates to me that this bill was rushed in a lame attempt to grab headlines and get a talking point. Then again, "Ready! Fire! aim!" and picking politics over developing policies that work is kind of a Walker trademark, so I suppose we shouldn't be surprised by such a silly move.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau still has yet to say what the effect of giving away $40 million this year and $60 million next year will have on this budget, and the next one. As it stands, this $100 million would put the state into a deficit by the end of 2015, which would be illegal under state rules, although it is possible that the Walker Administration is correct that the year-end surplus for 2013 will be higher than previously predicted, so they'd technically be able to get away with it. But if this is true, there's another conversation to have, because we need to back up and see if this is the proper way to take advantage of this one-time upside budget number.

I'm not the only one asking for legislators to take a step back and look at the big picture. The Wisconsin Budget Project points out that there are a lot of other directions that the Walker Administration and the Legislature could take, but aren't.

•What is the source of the increased revenue? Is it from a sustained upturn in revenue projections, or primarily from a one-time surplus?

•Will this proposal increase the state’s structural deficit? If it will, would it make more sense to use the revenue for fiscally responsible purposes, such as reducing bonding or increasing the required minimum balance (which lawmakers have promised to do in the statutes, but every two years they postpone for two more years)?

•If the larger surplus results in part from reduced spending, do those spending projections take into account the probable $52 million reduction in the federal share of Medicaid spending?

And as I mentioned earlier today, this measure won't do anything when it comes to helping schools meet the cost and space constraints in their system, because while there is an added $100 million in state spending being proposed, there is ZERO being added to the districts' revenue limits, which means they can't spend another dime in this year, and are extremely limited in doing so next year.

The lack of increased revenue for schools is one of the many points brought up by State Senator (and hopefully future candidate for Governor) Kathleen Vinehout.

Schools are limited in what they can spend by state imposed revenue limits. Many frugal school boards don’t tax to the extent they are allowed. But as state money shrinks, board members are left with few options.

Local school boards are now preparing budgets for the next school year. Many members told me the “tools” the Governor gave the districts are not working. Costs are increasing faster than boards can make cuts. Especially hard hit are rural schools. Many districts have combined classrooms, cut electives, have multi-certified teachers, share staff with neighboring districts, share sports teams and long ago got rid of much support and administrative staff.

School boards now have no choice but to levy to the maximum allowed by law. Meaning possible big property tax increases for residents.

Enter the Governor’s new “property tax relief”.

And as Sen. Vinehout brings up, this added $100 million and the previously-approved small increase that was already in the budget for 2013-15 still doesn't come close to recovering the $800 million a year that was cut out of school aids in Gov. Walker's first budget. We are not better off econimically, our property taxes are still going up, and we've had an entirely unnecessary 3 years of teacher-bashing and anger as a result of Walker's and WisGOP's horrible education policies.

So while I severely doubt this will happen, I'd encourage the State Legislature to take the time to discuss if a one-time, minimal property tax limitation is the proper way to handle this $100 million. I certainly don't see a need to have it be part of a special legislative session, especially since we're already in a regular Legislative session, and slamming this through and making school boards and DPI staff have go through a large amount of adjustments and extra work in the next 3 weeks seems to be unnecessary. Why not let things play out for the 2013-'14 school year, and if the budget battle and debt limit is decided in the next week or two, THEN come back and propose the ntire $100 million of relief for the next school year? Or use the surplus funds to make decisions on meeting other priorities.

But wait, that would entail responsible governing and not playing cheap, cynical games. And God knows Scott Walker would never choose good governance over talk-show type stunts designed to get a short-term bump from low-information voters. Which explains why we have this silly, symbolic move being brought up.

LATE EDIT: The Department of Administration released its year-end fiscal report, and it says the projected cash surplus ended up at $759 million, which is $89 million above the previous projection. That pretty much pays for the $100 million giveaway, but still leaves the $545 million structural deficit in the next budget....and possibly higher if revenues don't pick up like people project it to.

That $100 million won't go far

Still unpacking and working, so not much time to talk yet, but here are a few quick thoughts on the WisGOP property tax plan.

The LFB has released its analysis of the proposed property tax relief bill, and I'd highly recommend that you not plan any major purchases around your extra funds.

The bill would increase general school aids funding by $40 million GPR in 2013-14 and $60 million GPR in 2014-15. Under the bill, general school aids funding would increase from $4,293,658,000 in the 2012-13 base year to $4,381,594,600 in 2013-14 and $4,475,960,500 in 2014-15. Compared to the base [of 2012-13 funds], the general aids appropriation would increase by $87,936,600 in 2013-14 and $182,302,500 in 2014-15 under the bill.

Because the additional general aid funding under the bill would be subject to revenue limits, it is estimated that the statewide school district levy would be reduced under the bill by $40 million in 2013-14 and $60 million in 2014-15 from current law. As a result, the projected school district levy would be reduced by an estimated 0.8% in 2013-14 from the level projected at the time Act 20 was enacted (from an estimated $4,735 million under Act 20 to an estimated $4,695 million under the bill), and by an estimated 1.2% in 2014-15 (from an estimated $4,797 million under Act 20 to an estimated $4,737 million under the bill). The actual school levy in 2012-13 was $4,656.1 million.

So while property taxes will be reduced FROM WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN for the next 2 years, they're still going to be up $39 million vs. today in 2014, and up $81 million from today in 2015.

I'll forward you to the Wisconsin Soapbox blog for more analysis. Andy rightfully calls out this as symbolic BS that does little to nothing to reduce class sizes or improve public education in any sort of way. It's just a shift of funding from property taxes to general state taxes- not a bad thing on its face if you feel that's where the burdens should fall, but also not intended to change outcomes.

The Soapbox article also links to this report from the LFB that dropped late last week, which says property taxes might not be so high in 2014 for a different reason- dropping property values. In fact, the LFB now predicts that the median-valued home in Wisconsin DROPPED MORE THAN $3,000, from $151,148 in 2012, to $148,000 in 2013. Now your community's standards may differ, but that seems to indicate that any property tax "cut" you might be getting this year is more than offset from the loss of home value you're going to have.

So how's that "cutting of teacher take-home pay and demonizing public employees" strategy working out for us? I'll have more later this week after I unpack more boxes.

Moving on up

My wife and I are in the process of moving to a bigger place on the west side, so that's why I've been quiet here recently.

But I'm keeping my eyes opened, and among the things I've spied include the Wisconsin Budget Project showing that Wisconsin may have to spend $52 million more in Medicaid funds .

Gov Walker's decision to TeaBag the expanded Medicaid funding that was part of Obamacare looks dumber by the day, doesn't it?

I'll be back next week to talk some more, and we might even have some data to go with it once the shutdown ends.

2014- 1 in, 1 out, 1 to come?

After surviving a trip to Michelle Bachmann-land to take part in a wedding this weekend, it was back to work today. And quite an interesting day in Wisconsin politics it is.

1. Mary Burke is in for Gov. No real surprise here, since Burke's name had been floated by insiders for months, and that she had been working behind the scenes. She's even got her own little bio to introduce yourself to her.



I'm a bit skeptical of a Burke candidacy, but it's more because of a perception that DPW Chair Mike Tate has been trying to promote her candidacy behind the scenes and push other candidates out of the race. Unlike most blogging types in this state, I've actually seen Mary Burke in a public job, at a candidate forum when she ran for Madison School Board in 2012, and I liked what I heard, as she clearly understands that poverty is the key predictor of student achievement). She also does favor union and school board control of charter schools (a key concern I'd have), although she's not as good on teacher unions and pay as I'd like.

But while Burke is knowledgeable on economic issues and education, she also comes off as very milquetoast, and I have my doubts on how head-on she'll be willing to take on the failed Walker Administration, which she will need to do if she is to win. She also needs to step out, define what she stands for more (or else the right-wing lie machine will do it for her), and MEET WITH THE VOTERS. It seems that the Dem grassroots was the one DPW group Burke hasn't spent a lot of time with, and that'll have to change if she is to get my support in August 2014. I'm keeping an open mind on Burke, and anything's better than Walker in November 2014 (and I will vehemently support the Dem opponent), but I also am looking for more at this point from the Dems' candidate. Maybe Burke will bring it, or maybe someone else will (see below)

2. JB Van Hollen is OUT for Attorney General. This announcement surprised me, and I don't think it was because this partisan hack wanted to rain on Mary Burke's parade. There's something going on here, but I can't figure out what it is. Is Van Hollen scared of some kind of TeaBag challenge (hilarious because Van Hollen has covered for pretty much every sickening Walker agenda item, including his recent defense of ALEC and Leah Vukmir against open records requests), or is it because he knows something's about to come down and he doesn't want to have to face the voters as it happens? One Wisconsin Now has been all over Van Hollen asking for an investigation into the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin shenanigans, and Van Hollen doing nothing in that fiasco would look like an obvious cover-up. Maybe he will do something, and not running keeps the Sykesists and other GOP dimwits from primarying him out of office next August (I kid...kinda).

And what is Van Hollen's future endgame with this move? He's got a political future, but if you're a GOP, things are kind of blocked in the next year. There's no Senate race in 2014 and Ron Johnson is the incumbent for 2016. If Walker does run for governor, DB-VH certainly won't run there. Is he waiting for 2018, when Tammy Baldwin would be up for re-election in the Senate and it would be unlikely that Walker would be in the picture for Governor then (either because Walker lost in 2014, or he'd be on the verge of leaving for "real money")? And perhaps 2018 is enough of a break to allow Van Hollen to resurface from the ashes if WisGOP does get their ass kicked in 2014 (not out of the realm of possibility, especially with the Republican brand going into the toilet due to DC Baggers and Walker's failures). The A-G jockeying for both parties might be more interesting than the Guv doings in the next few months.

3. Who else gets in? For Guv, I am fairly certain Mary Burke will not be the only major candidate. State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout has been making all the indications of someone going for the guv job, and has been actively going to several meet-and-greets and other types of fundraisers outside of her Western Wisconsin district. The Vinehout campaign release sure sounded like someone who wasn't backing off going for the gold.

I wish Mary Burke the best. Politics is fun, exhilarating and important. Running for office is a great education. Everybody should do it at least once.

I've made no secret about being a big Vinehout fan- how can I not like a candidate who writes weekly wonky blogs? And she exposes GOP BS in places that many don't look, like when Vinehout humiliated State Sen. Alberta Darling in a Senate Education Committee meeting on charter schools last week, showing how SB 76 removes local control of charters, and funnels money away from public schools.

If Vinehout officially gets in the guv's race (she's said she won't announce till after January, though the Burke announcement might make her want to speed that up), the Dem primary will be festive and have a positive energy and type of debate that I think would help whoever came out of that August election, both in name recognition, and in making that candidate more battle-tested.

There's plenty of time between now and August, but with today's developments, that August election is all of a sudden looking like an election that will have plenty in play. And it feels like a lot of other developments will hit in the meantime in Wisconsin- both before and after the Baggers finish having their temper-tantrum in DC.

United Sportsmen scandal- where we are, where it's going

The last couple of days for the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin scandal have had some amazing developments, on top of the sordid things we already knew (check out Part 1 if you need a refresher). The Republican spin job to try to get out of this includes another GOP rep resigning his seat to cash in (the 3rd in recent weeks), and some ridiculous attempts to excuse and deflect the issue.

Let's start with yesterday, when an emboldened Democratic contingent put together their own bill for outdoors grants, and asked for all applicants for this grant to be 501-(c)3 non-profits (the non-political type that United Sportsmen couldn't prove it was eligible to be).

GOP Legislators were peeved that they had to deal with this issue- when they drop the always-classy "Democrat proposal" line in the title of their press release, you know they're annoyed. Not surprising that they'd be defensive, but what made this notable is that the first release came from Senate Natural Resources Chair Neal Kedzie, who spit out the following.

However, I certainly hope the authors are sincere in their intent and not simply looking to score political points with some of the inflammatory rhetoric and sniping expressed earlier today. If the authors can truly put their politics aside, as they mentioned at the press conference, then perhaps we can have an honest dialogue in the weeks to come.

"Honest dialogue," Sen. Kedzie? That's rich, since you were publically claiming your son got beat up by "liberals" 2 weeks before the last November election, without any evidence to back your claim up. And given that your boy later asked for the investigation to be dropped (after the election, of course), it seems to indicate he actually got his drunk ass kicked in a bartime fight that had nothing to do with politics. But you weren't about toning down the rhetoric with "honest dialogue" then, were ya Neal?

But I digress, and back to the Wisconsin Sportsmen scandal. It's quite clear that WisGOP wants this issue to go away, and isn't taking any steps to investigate the grant or what Scott Suder, Gov Walker, or DNR officials knew and when they knew it. However, the near-daily articles in the Journal-Sentinel and other outlets was making that impossible, so today WisGOP tried another strategy. They announced that Suder was conveniently leaving the $94,000 position at the Public Service Commission that he was going to start on Monday, and instead was going to be a lobbyist for Wisconsin's paper industry. And of course, a main player in Wisconsin's paper industry is Koch-owned Georgia Pacific Industries, who have 6 facilities in the state. But I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

So what happens to the job Suder would have had at the Public Service Commission. Well, looks like Scott Walker already had someone picked out.

Today, Chairperson Phil Montgomery announced that Representative Jeff Stone has accepted the position of Division Administrator for the Division of Water, Compliance, and Consumer Affairs. This transition will take place once Representative Stone has vacated his position within the Assembly.

"Jeff will be a tremendous addition to the Public Service Commission, his service to the state as a legislator whom has served on a number of important committees will be a great asset to Wisconsin's future" said Public Service Commission Chairperson Phil Montgomery. "Jeff is a solid voice of reason in the State Assembly and will bring that 'Wisconsin First' mentality to the Public Service Commission."

Of course, among that "Wisconsin First" mentality that Rep. Stone has had is his unflagging backing of voter ID and other forms of election rigging. Stone also was a co-sponsor and strong supporter of the Mining Bill, and he will have some oversight over mining issues and the related water quality regulations that may be part of it.

The justifications from the Walker Administration on the Suder-for-Stone trade are laughable. Take a look at this from the Madison.com summary of today's events.

“During Scott Suder’s initial discussions with PSC, he mentioned this other opportunity may present itself, and it did,” said Walker spokeswoman Julie Lund. “We wish him well in his new position in the private sector.”

Oh, so this opportunity just happened to be out there, and Scott Suder changed his mind, leaving the public sector to be a paper industry lobbyist. And Jeff Stone was all ready to take the PSC job when it popped open, and he'll leave the Assembly in 10 days. It's amazing how easily that all worked out, especially as Walker was starting to receive major heat for hiring Suder under these iffy circumstances.

Fortunately, Assembly Dem leader Peter Barca was having none of it.

“The fact that the Republicans are engaged in a game of musical chairs indicates they know there are serious problems with the $500,000 grant Republicans directed to political allies under the guise of a hunting education grant and further proves Republicans knew that their budget measure would fleece taxpayers.

“This does not resolve the many questions swirling around the broad, scandalous betrayal of hunters and taxpayers. And this should be a huge red flag to the public and hunters that there is very likely far more fire behind all this smoke.

And I think Rep. Barca is showing where this scandal is heading. Rep. Stone is going to have to be formally confirmed to the PSC job, and I think it might be a good time for Dems to raise the question when his confirmation comes up. A few Open Records requests to see how Walker and the DOA handled the hire seem to be in order, determining whether Suder really did have his eye on being a paper lobbyist, and to see why this job wasn't opened back up to the general public once Suder was pushed out resigned the appointment.

It makes you wonder going on at this PSC Division that a qualified public servant can't know about and administer over? Neither Suder nor Stone (a printing shop owner) have overwhelming expertise on the subject, so I think we need to find out just what made Jeff Stone such a great fit for this job. The fact that an important gig dealing with water quality and related regulations was kept in the extremely partisan GOP family should make anyone suspicious.

It's also not normal when 5% of the Assembly GOP contingent all pull the plug on their political careers in the middle of a session. Especially when Suder, Stone and Mark Honadel were all major supporters and sponsors of the Mining Bill- a bill that United Sportsmen of Wisconsin actively supported and lobbied for. If Gov Walker's Administration thinks removing Scott Suder and replacing him with Jeff Stone will cause the United Sportsmen issue to go away from people's minds when they go to the polls in 13 months and 1 day, I think they've got another thing coming.

See, the pattern of corruption and cronyism with WisGOP runs deep, with United Sportsmen just being the latest in a long line of transgressions. It's up to us and the Dems to make sure they aren't allowed to get off the hook for cheating the people of Wisconsin by funneling funds and power among their little GOP boys' and girls' club. Between the potential money-laundering and the mining bill connections to the WisGOP reps that are stepping through the revolving door, there is plenty of corruption angles to investigate with the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin issue. Our media needs to take the final step to connect the dots that they've done well to expose in this disgusting case.

We can't trust the GOP-run Legislature to honestly look into these issues, since revelations that may come from it could hurt their chances in next year's elections (and it already looks tough enough in 2014 if you're a GOP). Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is too busy covering up for Leah Vukmir and ALEC, and refused to help the FBI during the John Doe investigation in Milwaukee so he can't be trusted to do the right thing. Therefore, it is time to demand Dane County DA Ismael Ozanne and federal investigators take over to look into this Madison-based sketchiness. And unlike Milwaukee's John Chisholm, I wouldn't expect Ozanne or the feds to chicken out when it comes time to connect the final dots- to the guy in the Governor's Office, and to the corporates pulling his strings.

United Sportsmen scandal- Pt. 1, Where we've been

That's right, it's time for another installment in our ongoing look into WisGOP corruption. Today, we'll discuss the recent developments on the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin scandal, which had plenty of news come down over the last few days, culminating with Gov Walker trading one corrupt and sketchy GOP Assemblyman for another. But I want to use this first post to remind you of how we got to this point, and then I'll use a 2nd post to talk about what's developing now, and where it seems to be going.

To review, we already know that United Sportsmen of Wisconsin was a thinly-disguised Koch front group with a history of election fraud,and plenty of direct connections to now-former Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder. Suder cooked up a taxpayer-funded $500,000 grant for United Sportsmen to perform "hunter education" and related duties, but that grant later was first changed by Gov. Walker to get around federal oversight (and the possible loss of millions of federal funds), and then yanked entirely once it was revealed that United Sportsmen lied about their tax-exempt status to the DNR, and that United Sportsmen's president had previously been arrested and fined for violating hunting laws.

Well, PR Watch gave us a good insight into just what kind of "outdoors education" United Sportsmen of Wisconsin was planning to give. Luke Hilgemann was a former Chief of Staff to Scott Suder, and later became head of the Wisconsin branch of the Koch mouthpiece Americans for Prosperity. He recently left the state to become the Koch's Number 2 guy for AFP in D.C., and an open records request into the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin fiasco showed that in addition to living in right-wing bubble-world, Hilgemann saw the grant as a way to gain political points.

PR Watch isn't attacking George Meyer, the waterfowl association, or any other outdoor group in Wisconsin because while they may be doing good work, they aren't having an impact on public policy like USW has.

If we weren't onto something that here that threatens the lefts (sic) stranglehold on the environment or conservation, these types of stories wouldn't be printed.

They know that if we're successful in educating and exposing a new generation of soccer moms and their children to the outdoors and the sporting pursuits that will eat away at their base and they won't be able to perpetuate the lies and scare tactics they've used on these groups anymore... (I never knew promoting Wisconsin's outdoors was a partisan thing, did you?)

And that is why we must continue to fight on! Because what we are doing is critical to the future of our sporting heritage and our passion for the outdoors, so again I say BRING IT!

Well, the Journal-Sentinel continued to "bring it" this week, as Jason Stein and Company continue to drip out details on this corrupt group, and I get the idea they already know that it leads to something huge, but they don't want to take a wrong turn on the way to getting there. The most recent revelation involved a United Sportsmen lobbyist taking Suder on a nice, all-expenses paid weekend excursion.

Scott Meyer, United Sportsmen's executive director and lobbyist, sent an email Aug. 16 to Suder and two others detailing plans for three outings over two days.

"Both (Thursday) evening and Friday evening are no charge," Meyer wrote, referring to a charter fishing trip and an outing on a boat owned by a United Sportsmen board member.

The trip came a week before the United Sportsmen Foundation won a $500,000, two-year grant from the state to promote fishing and hunting. In May and June, Suder had worked with other GOP lawmakers to insert a provision into the state budget creating a grant so narrowly tailored that the United Sportsmen Foundation was all but assured of receiving it. The politically active group has scant experience with the kind of training called for in the grant.

Suder claimed that he later paid the money back (after the stories on the fraudulent grant came out), but also is caught in the same story lying when he told the J-S he didn't know Hilgemann was a part of United Sportsmen.

It also turns out that Scott Suder wasn't the only one who wanted United Sportsmen of Wisconsin to get that grant, as Assembly Dem leader Peter Barca released a letter showing that 17 other legislative Republicans signed onto a letter of support for United Sportsmen of Wisconsin for the grant. The letter-writers say they believe that United Sportsmen "not only meets but will exceed the criteria outlined" for this grant, despite the organization having no history of providing any outdoors training or other DNR-type duties, or really much of anything except for being a right-wing electioneering group. Makes you wonder what gave them that confidence - and was it related to a few dollars toward their election bids?

It's worth noting that of the 18 GOP legislators signing onto the letter, many are in their first or second term. This includes Northwoods Reps. Rob Swearingen and Rep. Mary Czaja, and also features vulnerable GOP newcomers like Sen. Frank Lasee, Rep. John Spiros, Rep. Warren Petryk, Rep. Scott Krug, and Rep. John Jagler. It's not hard to imagine that they got some serious NRA and Koch-related support to get their seats, and that this United Sportsmen grant was a "thank you for your support" measure.

And at the top of the list along with Scott Suder? State Senator and Mining Bill co-sponsor Tom Tiffany. Tiffany's 2012 election up North helped to get the Mining Bill the 17-16 approval it received in the Senate early this year, and United Sportsmen of Wisconsin actively lobbied in favor of that mining bill - which seems odd for an "outdoors" organization to do, given that the mine would chew up miles of Northern Wisconsin forest land. Tiffany also is mentioned in the Journal-Sentinel story that brings up Suder's United Sportsmen-sponsored fishing trip.

The day after the last day of the trip, Aug. 24, a Saturday, the United Sportsmen Foundation held a board meeting in the state Capitol. They were able to meet there because Sen. Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) had reserved a room for Meyer, who lives in his district.

Suder joined them for part of that meeting. Also at the meeting was David Fladeboe, a former Suder aide who replaced Hilgemann at the helm of the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity. United Sportsmen and Americans for Prosperity have teamed up in the past on voter registration drives and a "freedom fest."

Tiffany aide Jennifer Esser was invited to the board meeting as a special guest. Tiffany said Esser allowed the group into the room and locked it up afterward, but did not actually attend the meeting.

Oh, but I'm sure these connections that Tom Tiffany are tied up in are all coincidence, and the have NOTHING to do with a kickback to AFP/Koch. And United Sportsmen and Koch have NOTHING AT ALL to do with the mining companies that GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald told reporters were the ones who wrote the mining bill.



So that gives you a (somewhat) brief history of the United Sportsmen scandal through this Tuesday. It's gotten a whole lot more interesting the last 2 days, which I'll hit in part 2.

Hard to be Open for Business when no one wants to come

I was surprised at the level of retweets I got on this subject, so it clearly hit a nerve, and I'm going to link to the article on this page as well. Governing magazine compiled Census data that showed where people moved to in 2012, and Wisconsin was 48th in the nation when it came to the number of people that came here from another state in 2012. Governing explains how it made its rankings.

In all, states welcomed more than 8.9 million new residents in 2012. Census data released last week paints a portrait of each state’s new crop of residents, showing significant variation across different demographic groups.

For the most part, newcomers mirror a state’s existing population and that of the surrounding region.

But this isn’t always the case. To examine differences in each state’s newest residents, Governing compiled updated data published by the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Mobility data was pulled for two groups: those moving from a different state (about 7.1 million individuals nationwide) and from abroad (approximately 1.8 million).

It should be noted that this analysis considers only individuals relocating to a state in 2012. It does not account for those moving within a state, births, deaths or net migration totals.

Basically, Governing did a measure of where people are moving to, and here's how Wisconsin fared (hint, it wasn't good).

Stats involving movers to Wisconsin
Total out of state movers 116,995
Movers as percent of state's population 2.1% (3rd lowest out of 50)
Median Income of Domestic Movers $16,764 (7th lowest out of 50)
Education attainment: Bachelor's degree: 43.2% (18th in U.S.), Master's degree: 18.6% (15th in U.S.)

Even the high levels of educational attainment aren't all that great in context, because many of those that move to Wisconsin include grad students moving to the Madison area to study at the UW (which has been subject to serious funding limitations and GOP criticism in recent years). With that atmosphere floating around, good luck getting those high-skill people to stay after their studies are done, especially when you have states like Minnesota (15th for Bachelor's movers, 18th for Master's), Illinois (8th for Bachelor's, 11th for Master's), and Michigan (19th for Bachelor's, 13th for Master's) competing for that same talent.

Wisconsin is also failing to compete in wages, as shown by the recently-released Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. A good example of this is how the state matches up with its Midwestern neighbors when it comes to what they pay workers in manufacturing.

Average weekly manufacturing wage, Q1 2013
Ill. $1,313
Mich $1,277
Minn $1,180
Ind. $1,180
Ohio $1,110
Wis. $1,053
Iowa $1,008

Low wages aren't going to make people want to pack up and come here either. And despite the large amount of talk that Gov. Walker and WisGOP make about manufacturing and business development (by the way, the Gov wants you to know that Manufacturing Month starts tomorrow!), they NEVER discuss the low wages that are a primary cause of this state's alleged skills gap in these industries. In fact, Walker puppetmasters like Diane Hendricks would love it if wages were even lower in Wisconsin!

So when you combine the low wages with the cuts in public education, the institution of regressive social policies, and having a whole lot of ideologically-driven fools call the shots at both the Capitol and the Governor's Mansion, it adds up to being 48th in the nation in having out-of-staters move to our state. And those who do move tend to be poorer than other areas, and likely have lower skill levels to go with it, because the better skilled can get paid more elsewhere. That's not exactly raising the level of the talent pool in this state and making it attractive for businesses to want to come here, and sounds a whole lot more like some low-quality of life Confederate state that smart people leave as soon as they can.

If we're going in this direction in Wisconsin, it sort of flies in the face of being "Open for Business", doesn't it?