Walker's pathetic propaganda on broadband expansion recalls earlier screwup

Nearly 6 years ago, Scott Walker turned down $23 million from the Obama Administration that would have paid for rural and underserved areas of the state to expand broadband capacity A broadband expansion program that HAD NO COST TO THE STATE REQUIRED, may I remind you.

Well, now that Wisconsin has badly lagged the rest of the country in job growth and economic competitiveness due to this type of foolishness, Scotty is trying to make people forget about that blunder and is posing as someone who is “adding new investments for the work force" as part of his campaign events travels around the state the day after the State of the State address.

Investing in Wisconsin’s broadband infrastructure by providing an additional $35.5 million for the Broadband Expansion Grant Program. These funds will bring Governor Walker’s total investment in broadband to $52 million.

As someone who actually pays attention and can remember things for more than a few days, it’s pathetic to see Walker trying to sell this as some kind of new idea. He’s merely reiterating his support for a bill that was proposed last month which redirects already-existing funds under the state’s Universal Service Fund (which you pay on your cable and cell phone bills).

The bill makes changes to funding for grants made by the PSC for constructing broadband infrastructure in underserved areas. Under current law, $6,000,000 was transferred from the universal service fund (USF) for making the grants, but current law also limits the total grants made in a fiscal year to $1,500,000. The bill eliminates that limit. The bill also provides additional funding for the grants by doing the following: 1) transferring an additional $6,000,000 from the USF; 2) transferring $5,000,000 from moneys received under a federal program for assisting schools and libraries in obtaining telecommunications services and Internet access, which is commonly known as the federal e-rate program; and 3) at the end of each fiscal year, transferring the unencumbered balances from other USF-funded appropriations. Also, beginning in fiscal year 2017-18, the bill allows the PSC to fund its administration of the broadband grant program from contributions made by telecommunications providers to the USF.

During fiscal year 2016-17, the bill allows the PSC to allocate a portion of the funding provided under the bill to make the grants described above to telecommunications utilities that are receiving support for broadband deployment under certain federal programs administered by the Federal Communication Commission. During that fiscal year, the bill allows the PSC to evaluate applications and award the grants to those telecommunications utilities on an expedited basis…

TEACH program

Under current law, the TEACH program offers telecommunications access to school districts, private schools, cooperative educational service agencies, technical college districts, independent charter school authorizers, juvenile correctional facilities, private and tribal colleges, and public library boards at discounted rates and by subsidizing the cost of installing data lines and video links. As part of the TEACH program, DOA awards information technology block grants to school districts to improve information technology infrastructure. Under current law, the Information technology block grant program ends on July 1, 2017. This bill delays the sunset of the information technology block grant program until July 1, 2019. In addition, the bill authorizes DOA to award an additional round of information technology block grants before July 1, 2017. The eligibility for these grants is expanded to include school districts that have up to 26 pupils per square mile.

These grants are in addition to any grants a school district may have already received under the program during the 2015-17 biennium and therefore do not count towards the maximum amount a school district may receive in a biennium. The bill also consolidates the appropriations for TEACH contracts into a single 2017 - 2018 Legislature appropriation. Finally, in fiscal year 2016-17, the bill transfers $7,500,000 of moneys received under the federal e-rate program to the consolidated appropriation for TEACH contracts.

I’m not denying this is better than nothing (especially since nothing is mostly what we got from Walker and WisGOP on rural broadband until last year). But this is merely a one-time money-grab that takes advantage of the fact that the Universal Service Fund’s balance has grown from $5.55 million at the end of Fiscal Year 2014 to nearly $14.6 million at the end of Fiscal Year 2016 (figures courtesy of the state’s Annual Fiscal Report).

Also, is anyone else bothered that Walker was flying around the state at taxpayer expense and taking along Public Service Commissioner/GOP hack Ellen Nowak with him to try to sell this broadband plan? Especially when the PSC’s own Twitter site was using Walker talking points on this issue today, while still claiming on that same site that it is an “independent, regulatory agency dedicated to serving the public interest”? The PSC is openly supporting GOP proposals that aren’t law, and they have no business making taxpayer-funded campaign stops/photo ops with the Guv. It is garbage and beneath the "Public Service" Commission.

And lastly, given that there won’t be $14.6 million left over in the USF for 2018 or 2019 due to this “newfound” initiative, and the Feds have to sign off on using these TEACH program dollars, are these investments even going to happen after the promises are made? And with the TEACH program gone in two years, tell me where is the money going to come from to take care of future online infrastructure needs? Guess that’s something Scotty doesn’t want you or the media to think about, he just thinks he can cynically grab a one-day poser headline to make people forget about his years of neglect and failure.

2 Midwest Senators- 1 patriot, 1 traitor

Here's Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn) putting Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions up against the wall for his two-faced act on Russia and WikiLeaks. It also includes Franken revealing to Sessions the new reports on how President-Elect Trump was "cultivated" by the Russians for over 5 years. And all over some golden showers in a Moscow hotel room!



Now contrast this with today's story in Urban Milwaukee by Bruce Murphy, where he shows how US Senator Ron Johnson was told of the Russian propaganda efforts and hacking in a meeting in September. Not a big deal in itself, but Murphy connects the dots and notes that instead of being forthcoming on what the Russians were trying to do and do the right thing by fighting against it to guarantee fair and free elections, Johnson reportedly worked with GOP Leader Mitch McConnell to cover it up, and he and Trump benefitted from the Russian misinformation campaign in the November elections.

As chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Johnson was one the so-called “Gang of 12,” the top 12 congressional leaders, who were invited to the meeting. (House Speaker Paul Ryan also attended the meeting.) Johnson later confirmed to Politico that he participated in the briefing.

“In a secure room in the Capitol used for briefings involving classified information, administration officials broadly laid out the evidence U.S. spy agencies had collected, showing Russia’s role in cyber-intrusions in at least two states and in hacking the emails of the Democratic organizations and individuals,” the [Washington] Post reported....

Johnson, in short, had an opportunity to be a patriot and condemn the fact that Russia was now engaged in such activities in the United States. But he issued no resolutions — in fact, not one word — on Russian’s cyber attacks on America.

Worse, he has engaged in his own pattern of misinformation on the subject. After the CIA publicly released a report in January concluding that Russia meddled in the presidential election to help Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election, Johnson issued a statement to the Wisconsin State Journal saying he would “would need more definitive information before drawing further conclusions.” Johnson did not reveal that he had been informed back in September this was happening.

Johnson went on to complain to CNBC that the CIA refused to brief him on Russian hacking, saying “I have not seen the evidence that it actually was Russia,” while failing to note the CIA report’s echoed the briefing he’d received from other intelligence leaders in September.

This is damning stuff, and shows that Ron Johnson has no moral center other than greed and power. Given that a sizable number of Americans were tricked into voting for Trump and likely Johnson due to this Russian propaganda, it makes both of their close elections illegitimate, and they should treated that way.


That flag pin doesn't let you get away with this, Ronnie.

But I suppose (mo)Ron Johnson doesn't care. He thinks he has a 6-figure taxpayer-funded salary + benefits for the next 6 years regardless of the slimy circumstances he was elected under. It would be nice to find ways for that NOT to be the case, but I fear that since (mo)Ron won't have the class to admit to his role in dragging this country down, and I also fear that things may unravel to the point that many others won't accept having this treasonous dimwit continue to "represent" this state in DC.

Simple question on Scotty's UW tuition pose- WHERE'S THE MONEY?

Because 4 years of frozen tuition and falling UW rankings wasn't enough. Now Gov Walker (in full "throw shit against the wall for my re-election campaign and hope the rubes fall for it" mode) says this at today's State of the State address?

.@GovWalker to announce WI undergrad tuition cut for @UWSystem students in 2017-19 budget in #WISOTS - freeze has been in place since 2013

— Greg Neumann (@gneumann_wkow) January 10, 2017

Neumann later said a Walker spokesman claimed any alleged tuition cut will be made possible by increasing state funding. On the surface, that doesn't seem so bad, although it still doesn't even start to replace the hundreds of millions in disinvestment in the UW System that has happened in the 6 years of this Reign of Error.

But there's one problem with that. WHERE'S THE MONEY GONNA COME FROM? And Neumann should know that as well as anyone, because GOP Senate Leader Scott Fitzgerald was just on Neumann's show 2 days ago floating a scheme to pull $720 million OUT of the General Fund (meaning less money is available to give to the UW) and using it to pay for roads.

As I pointed out yesterday, if that scheme were to come to pass, Wisconsin would be facing a $1.5 billion budget DEFICIT, given the state's disappointing revenues and rising needs in Medicaid and K-12 spending. The UW System only was asking for an increase of $42.5 million in their 2-year budget request, which means there's not much room to reduce that requested boost, and get a "savings" as a result.

But let's assume Walker chooses to use all of that $42.5 million to go to tuition relief (instead of using it to, you know, pay talent or improve services after years of budget and take-home pay cuts). Quick math indicates an in-state tuition cut of $42.5 million would be around $150 a student a year. I suppose it doesn't suck, but it's not really going to be anything that's going to jump-start the economy. And if UW's competitiveness and respect continues to slip, the earning potential for UW grads will be hurt by a lot more than $150....more like $15,000 a year for 40 years.

And since there's no change in the amount of money that's going to the UW vs the budget request, it brings us back to my original question. WHERE'S THE MONEY GOING TO COME FROM? This tells me that this 2017-19 budget will reach new depths in Walker cynicism. Given the lousy revenue picture, there is no way that Walker will be able to come close to avoiding higher taxes and fees while pulling off gimmicks like a tuition cut without the following occurring:

1. "Magic asterisks" like an inflated estimate of savings on a new employee health insurance plan for 2018. This was done by Walker all the time in Milwaukee County, and will be done in the hope that the inevitable budget deficit from these "magic asterisks" falling short doesn't become apparent until after the 2018 election (good luck on that, guys!).

2. Some mysterious new revenue source that we haven't found out about yet. This could either be in the form of a bailout from Trump and the GOP Congress through higher Federal spending (stop laughing!) or through a massive increase of land sales and other state assets (uh oh...).

We need to be prepared to lower the boom and call BULLSHIT on all of this when it gets revealed. Our lagging job growth and chronic deficits show that Walkerism ain't working, and doubling down on the same talking point-based "policy" REALLY isn't going to work. Don't fall for the shell games and GOPper-ganda lies that are sure to be part of the next 5 months of budget deliberations.

Fitz tries to float a dumb and damaging tax shift

It's pretty clear the Wisconsin Republicans cannot figure out a way to fix the large amounts of needs on state roads without having to raise taxes. But Governor Scott Walker has to strike a pose as a "tax-cutter" ahead of the 2018 elections, regardless of the consequences that such a blind doctrine has on the people and services of Wisconsin. So enter the top Republican in the Senate trying to work out a scheme that would move taxes around so the roads can get fixed with less borrowing.

In an attempt to meet Gov. Scott Walker's (R-WI) criteria that would only allow raising new transportation revenues if taxes are cut in another area of the upcoming 2017-19 state budget, Senate Republicans are looking at eliminating the state utility tax customers pay on their monthly energy bills.

In an interview that will air on Capital City Sunday on WKOW 27 this weekend, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said eliminating that would reduce the burden on state taxpayers - both residential and commercial - by about $300 million annually.

"That would be a good example of something very specific. People would understand what you're getting rid of, and it's in the ball park which would allow you to maybe raise some revenue and move some more money into transportation," said Sen. Fitzgerald.

The money collected through the utility tax currently goes into the state's general purpose revenue fund.

First of all, this is yet another WisGOP giveaway to the rich and corporate, because the biggest users of electricity are large businesses (especially power plants) and McMansions, so they'd be the ones that got the largest benefits. And by the way, the total taken in by the Public Utility tax isn't $300 million a year- it was over $360 million in Fiscal Year 2016.

Which leads to a second problem that Fitzy didn't talk about. WHAT DOES HE PLAN TO DO ABOUT THE MONEY TAKEN OUT OF THE GENERAL FUND? It's not like we're flush, because despite Gov Walker's demands for a "zero-growth" budget requests for most departments, but Walker's own Department of Administration admitted we still face a projected $588 million shortfall between revenues and expenses in the 2017-19 budget. And that was before bad revenue figures from last month put Wisconsin to be on track to miss the DOA's already-lowered estimates by nearly $200 million for Fiscal Year 2017.

This means that $588 million figure is likely to grow to nearly $800 million, and now Fitz wants to add another $360 mil a year on top of that deficit, and put the General Fund another $720 million in the hole over the next 2 years, bringing the General Fund deficit over $1.5 billion? What state services and aids to local governments are getting cut to make up for that, and how much are property taxes going to go up to cover the difference? I'm betting the ones who suffer won't be part of the voucher lobby that threw over a million dollars into 2016's elections to help Fitz's GOP stay in power.

What Fitzgerald is proposing is nothing more than a pathetic trial balloon that's being thrown up by a Wisconsin GOP that is trapped between the Bubble World of DC lobbyist Grover Norquist (and not being allowed to raise taxes) and the real world of Wisconsin, where 6 years of Fitzwalkerstani foolishness has downgraded the state's services and quality of life. When the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's new revenue estimates show another shortfall later this month, and this regressive tax shift is shown to be impossible to balance, the blame needs to be mercilessly aimed at Scott Fitzgerald and the rest of the Wisconsin GOP for messing it up.

We've been here before in GB

5 years ago, I was in a hotel room in Vegas with buddies watching Packers-Giants as the first half ended. The Pack had been outplayed, but were within 13-10, and were in position to find a way to take it in the second half if they could keep it close. And then this happened. (note- you have to click twice due to NFL greed)



I may have thrown a few items around the room after this play. I knew the Pack was fucked after it happened. And they were, and their 15-1 season went down the drain.

Well, 5 years later, the Pack were lucky to be up 7-6 in a game where the Giants had outplayed them for the first half. But this time it was the Packers having the ball with 6 seconds left, and they had the choice whether to do a short out to get enough yards to kick a FG, or heave it into the same end zone the Giants scored in 5 years ago. Well...



And despite a foolish McCarthy decision to go for it in his own territory that allowed the Giants to cut it to 1 for a few minutes, the brilliance of #12 took over, leading to a great 38-13 Packer blowout. Now onto Dallas.

Oh, and may I mention that the Giants ended up winning it all 5 years ago? Not saying it's fate for the Lombardi Trophy to get back to Titletown, but...

Today's Packer game just part of economic boost from pro sports in Wisconsin

When the Packers wrapped up the division title against the Lions last Sunday, it culminated a run that few of us expected when the Pack was 4-6 and flailing before Thanksgiving. And the Journal-Sentinel reminded us that one of the biggest benefits from the team running the table goes to the Green Bay area economy.

Of course, other NFL cities hosting playoff games will reap a similar happy windfall. But the impact on Green Bay is unique, given the size of the city (population 104,057), the seating capacity at Lambeau Field (81,435, including standing-room), and the number of hotel rooms available in Brown County (about 4,300).

And that $14 million is just the dollars that can be counted. [Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau President] Brad Toll said it's impossible to put a price on the value an extra nationally broadcast game brings to the community. Not just images broadcast inside the Lambeau bowl but also from the video snapshots network crews often produce in the days before the game to give viewers mini profiles of northeastern Wisconsin. These can be profoundly beneficial from a marketing perspective, even if images at this time of year might be of fishermen sitting on buckets on the frozen Fox River or traffic rumbling down a Lombardi Ave. so salt-stained it's white as chalk. It doesn't matter. It all puts Green Bay in people's minds, and may lure them into swinging through the city.

"That is advertising we can't afford, especially on a national stage," Toll said.

Inside Lambeau Field Monday, employees buzzed about prepping the field and stocking concessions for a game that wasn’t even on the schedule 12 hours earlier. That didn't mean they had not prepared. Lambeau commissary manager Mike Kane said last week he put in a provisional order for 238 kegs of beer to bolster what's already on stock. He said he didn't have to call the distributor or push some sort of button to tell the trucks to roll Monday morning. He said the distributor knew to fill the order the second Kane did.

"Watching the game," Kane said, "that's their button."

Interestingly, this is the first Packer playoff game since the Lambeau Field tax in Brown County was rescinded in late 2015 after raising over $300 million for numerous renovations and expanded seating at the stadium. After some debate over what to do, state legislators refunded $18 million of excess sales taxes to Brown County communities in 2016, But after the one-time benefit on this year's property taxes and possible economic development, there is no further local funding mechanism for Brown County governments to receive taxes from the visitors and extra business in GB this weekend.

Fortunately for Brown County residents, the Packers are planning to give a major addition to the area's property tax base, as the team has been buying up large tracts of land around Lambeau in the neighboring village of Ashwaubenon to create the Titletown District. This $120 million district will include 10 acres of public space, new office buildings, and residential development along with new Packer-related retail, and some of the businesses will open as soon as this Spring.



New development like this will likely help Brown County taxpayers who won't be able to have their property taxes offset from funding off of a sales tax that could be levied on all of this Packer tourism spending, and it helps the team grab additional revenue streams to help pay for players and upkeep at the newly-remodeled Lambeau.

About 2 hours south of Lambeau, the Milwaukee Bucks got approval this week from a City committee on the design of the developments surrounding the NBA team's new arena, which is being built just north of the Bradley Center downtown.

The pedestrian mall, if given final approval by the full council, will take up N. 4th St. between W. Juneau Ave. on the north and W. Highland Ave. to the south.

The mall will feature trees and shrubbery and inclined lawns throughout, with a 12,300-square-foot events area in the center. There will also be outdoor dining opportunities and a plaza.

Some ideas presented to the committee for possible activities in the space, which will operate as a year-round public plaza, included farmers markets and art shows, a 4,800-square-foot ice rink, and basketball courts for tournaments. The events area, adjacent to the plaza, would feature live music.....

The city still technically maintains ownership of the plaza as a public right of way, according to Mary Schanning of the city attorney’s office. But it has been leased to the Wisconsin Center District, which has in turn sub-leased it to representatives of the Milwaukee Bucks, who will be responsible for day-to-day management of the mall.

As a public right of way, public access and traffic related easement is mandatory. Still, the Bucks organization can still seek a permit to close the street for private, but limited, purposes.

The arena-related development was likely a reason why the Bucks arena project was able to be approved by the State Legislature 2 years ago, and why the final package of TIF money and Wisconsin Center District sales taxes/borrowing was a major upgrade from what Scott Walker's original 2015-17 budget had- a $220 million giveaway of state-funded borrowing to pay for the arena.

Still doesn't mean that there weren't bigger priorities that should have funded for the City/County of Milwaukee over the Bucks arena (or allowing the City/County with the largest amount of tourism spending in the state to receive additional sales taxes from that spending). But with the added development coming together in downtown Milwaukee, along with the team grabbing national attention due to the Greek Freak becoming a legitimate NBA star and the team being a playoff contender, the Bucks arena project is coming together at the right time. The new arena scheduled to open for the 2018-19 season, and it's likely that some of the development along with the pedestrian/live block is ready to go before that, and I'm going to be very intrigued to see how things look when I head to Milwaukee for March Madness in a couple of months.

Whether or not you like the priorities, pro sports are one of the few things that seem to be booming and sparking the Wisconsin economy in 2017, and we'll see more examples of it today.

December jobs increase means overall US economy doing OK

The report of the Obama Administration was released on Friday, and it shows that Donald Trump is going inherit a stable economy that's still adding jobs when he takes over in (ugh) 13 days.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 156,000 in December, with an increase in health care and social assistance. Job growth totaled 2.2 million in 2016, less than the increase of 2.7 million in 2015. (See table B-1.)

Employment in health care rose by 43,000 in December, with most of the increase occurring in ambulatory health care services (+30,000) and hospitals (+11,000). Health care added an average of 35,000 jobs per month in 2016, roughly in line with the average monthly gain of 39,000 in 2015.

While the total jobs added dropped a bit from October and November, a lot of that decrease seems to be related to a lack of seasonal hiring in a handful of industries.

Seasonally vs Non-seasonally-adjusted figures, Dec 2016
General Merchandise stores
-23,900 seasonally-adjusted, +12,300 non-seasonal

Accounting and Bookkeeping Services
-13,200 seasonally-adjusted, +22,400 non-seasonal

Temporary help services
-15,500 seasonally-adjusted, -7,600 non-seasonal

On the flip side, manufacturing had a nice increase of 17,000 for December, reversing a downward trend that had been a problem for most of 2016. And health care had a strong increase of 43,200, finishing 2016 with an increase of nearly 422,000 jobs, which seems to be an important stat to keep in mind as Trump and the rest of the Republicans try to dismantle Obamacare.

The unemployment rate bumped back up to 4.7% after dropping from 4.9% to 4.6% over the previous two months- not a huge deal, and the labor force expanded by 184,000 in this survey. And both the wage and revision figures featured good news, as both headed up.

In December, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 10 cents to $26.00, after edging down by 2 cents in November. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.9 percent. In December, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 7 cents to $21.80....

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised down from +142,000 to +135,000, and the change for November was revised up from +178,000 to +204,000. With these revisions, employment gains in October and November were 19,000 higher than previously reported. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 165,000 per month.

The wage increases are especially heartening to see, as that's the largest in 7 1/2 years, and given that oil prices and other costs have been back on the rise, real wage growth had been declining. Now combine that 10 cent wage bump with 19 states increasing their minimum wages on January 1, and it seems likely that hourly/weekly wage number will look good again next month.

So we were in decent shape overall as the year ended, although apparently that wasn't enough for a lot of people, which explains why they thought Donald freaking Trump would "make America great again". Let's check back at the end of 2017 and compare those figures to the 2.2 million job growth and 2.9% wage growth we saw in 2016. I'd bet the under today.