LAB - Walker Admin cut libraries and hoarded USF funds

File this one under "reports out media chose to pass over because it requires 10 seconds of analysis." It's a very crowded file in this state, but this is worth adding to it.

The Legislative Audit Bureau handed out a report this week on the state's Universal Service Fund. The USF is a state-administered fee that goes on most communications, including cell phones, land lines, and cable TV systems (you'll see it on your bills if you look closely enough), and the idea is that the money will be used to help expand availability of communications technology and help offset some of the costs that businesses would have to take on to build these communications lines. As the summary of the LFB report brings up, the USF helps fund a large amount of the state's public Internet and Library services.

The USF has been the sole funding source for Aid to Public Library Systems since FY 2008-09. The Educational Telecommunications Access Program is managed by the Department of Administration (DOA) and subsidizes access for approximately 1,000 pre-K-12 public, private, and charter schools; technical colleges; public libraries; and other educational institutions to a state-supported broadband network known as the BadgerNet Converged Network.

Not surprisingly, this fee has been used in recent years to fill budget holes and/or allow tax revenues to be used for other purposes, a trend that started 10 years ago when the Doyle Administration tried to clean up the fiscal mess from the Thompson/ McCallum years but wanted to keep funding local public libraries.

The State used general purpose revenue (GPR) as the sole funding source for the Aid to Public Library Systems program, which is managed by DPI, until 2003 Wisconsin Act 33 first required the USF to fund a portion of that aid in FY 2003-04. As part of the State’s efforts to address budget shortfalls, additional USF resources were used for public library aids.

The state also used $1.2 million of excess USF funds in 2010-2011 to help close the massive GPR budget hole that opened up as a result of the Great Recession.

The Walker Administration continued the USF in the 2011-2013 budget, albeit with a slight cut in the rate according to the PSC, but at the same time put in a $1.7 million cut to library aids to local communities.

USF revenues decreased again from FY 2010-11 to FY 2011-12 due to a $1.7 million, or 10 percent, decrease in the assessments for Aid to Public Libraries, and lesser reductions to assessments for Library Service Contracts and the Educational Telecommunications Access Program for school districts. There was no change in assessments for UW System BadgerNet Access in FY 2009-10, FY 2010-11, or FY 2011-12.

Appropriations for the DPI programs under 2009 Wisconsin Act 28 continued the trend of using the USF for funding the Aid to Public Library Systems in place of GPR. USF appropriations for Aid to Public Library Systems began in FY 2003-04 at $2.1 million and have increased in the intervening years to $16.7 million in FY 2010-11. That trend changed under 2011 Wisconsin Act 32, the 2011-13 Biennial Budget Act, when Aid to Public Library Systems was reduced to $15.0 million for FY 2011-12.

This cut meant that local communities and school districts had to find another $1.7 million to make up for these cuts in a time when shared revenues were also being cut, and the ability to make up the difference in property taxes or sales taxes was also limited. Interestingly, the fund took in about $1.7 million more than it spent out for that budget year, which means the cut to library aids could have been restored, giving some huge relief to local communities and schools.

That's bad enough on its own, but it also came after years of similar hoarding of the USF fee. A quick look at the 2011-2012 finances of the USF in the first year of the Walker budget makes this look a whole lot worse. As the LAB summary brings up

Our report includes a recommendation for DOA to ensure that an administrative fee it charges the USF for services related to use of the BadgerNet Converged Network reflects only the actual costs of providing those services. We estimate that at least $4.3 million of the $5.4 million that has accumulated in a DOA appropriation represents excess administrative services fees paid by the USF.

Basically, they're saying the DOA is skimming extra funds above what it actually costs to take care of its administrative duties in taking care of the USF books and distributing the money. This is extra "revenue" when looked at on the GPR budget side, and can be used to fill budget holes and fund other duties that the USF isn't supposed to be paying for (kind of like how the Walker Administration banked $25 million in federal foreclosure funds, and used it to help create our current budget "surplus").

And this leads to the Walker Administration's current policy on broadband and other communications, which is a helluva kicker. The LAB notes that the DOA may lower some of these fees to make up the difference, and that the upcoming budget plans to spend more of these dollars to expand availibility of new technology in Wisconsin.

The PSC has indicated that it will evaluate the overall fund balance at the end of FY 2012-13 to determine if an additional offset of provider assessments is appropriate when setting the rates for FY 2013-14. We note that 2013 Assembly Bill 40, the Governor’s 2013-15 biennial budget proposal, creates a broadband grant program funded by $4.7 million in USF funds. This program would be administered by DOA, in consultation with PSC, to expand broadband access in underserved areas.

These are good moves on their face- bringing our underserved areas up to speed on communications is a great way to improve economic competitiveness in a lot of areas. However, there's yet another Walker failure lurking behind this move, and it results from a clssic "pose over policy" move that these dingbats made in 2011.

State officials are returning $23 million to the federal government, saying there were too many strings attached to stimulus money that was supposed to be for expanding high-speed Internet service in schools, libraries and government agencies.

The money was to have boosted broadband connections in 380 Wisconsin communities, including 385 libraries and 82 schools. It also could have been used to improve police, fire department and hospital communications in rural areas....

Wisconsin received the grant a year ago from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. It was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included about $7 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees to extend broadband to underserved rural areas and was compatible with President Barack Obama's goal of making high-speed Internet available to 98% of Americans by 2016.

The money would have been used for the BadgerNet Converged Network, which brings the Internet to schools, libraries, and state and local government agencies. It would have paid for 200 miles of fiber-optic cable, improving the Internet connections at hundreds of public facilities.

So instead of taking federal money with little to no cost to state taxpayers, the Walker boys decided to spite turned down these millions of dollars, only to spend nearly $5 million in state dollars 2 years later. If this sounds a lot like the train fiasco and the current "work makes you free" Medicaid plan, it's only because it is, and turning down the broadband money was every bit as stupid.

So not only has the Walker Administration hoarded funds from the USF that could have been used to relieve the pressure of budget cuts on communications access, they also turned down federal money that also could have lessened these burdens, lowered the costs to the state, and had a more wide-ranging effect than the upcoming budget initiative ever will. It's a great illustration of the combination of fiscal mismanagement, idiotic posing, and failed policy that has been the hallmark of the 27 months of the Age of Fitzwalkerstan, and just because the media didn't cover this failure on the USF and communications technology doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Supreme Court recap

   Pretty straightforward analysis here for Tuesday's Supreme Court election, because it only takes a couple of stats to tll the big story. First, when a candidate only wins 8 counties statewide, that candidate isn't going to win no matter which places turn out. That's a serious shift from the 2012 election, when both Obama and Baldwin won approximately half of the state's counties in their victories.

   It was even 50-50 in Dem strongholds like La Crosse, Milwaukee, and Rock Counties, and it's clear that Roggensack are her backers spending 5 to 10 times the Fallone supporters did her a major advantage in exposure to the casual bystanders that cast ballots. If you're going to run against a WMC-bought candidate, you have to spend money yourself, and many of the pro-Fallone and Dem forces didn't do that, or do it nearly as much as the Roggensack group did.

    But turnout does come into play when you realize Roggensack's winning margin in pro-Dem counties is related to the under-20 percent turnout that the election had.  Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are burned out after the last 2 years, and this allows the corporate slime to seep in even more, because they and the scared old folks that listen to angry-man radio never have an off-switch when it comes to imposing things onto this state (it's not really admirable, because it shows they don't really care about doing right and it shows they don't have a life). Because the turnout was so low, especially in places without a lot of huge local elections (especially in Milwaukee), it allowed other places to take a bigger share of pie than they're used to.

   Top 10 counties, 2013 Supreme Court election (unofficial)
    Dane County 10.84%
    Waukesha Co. 9.45%
     City of Milwaukee 6.02%
     Rest of Milw Co. 6.01%
     Brown County  3.67%
     Racine County 3.52%
     Washington Co. 2.92%
     Outagamie Co. 2.87%
     Sheboygan Co. 2.51%
     Ozaukee County 2.38%

   Compare this with the November 2012 elections, which had a 70% turnout.
  
Top 10 turnout counties, 2012 president
Dane County 9.88%
City of Milwaukee 9.54%
Waukesha County 7.91%
Rest of Milwaukee Co. 6.55%
Brown County 4.21%
Racine County 3.37%
Outagamie Co. 3.07%
Winnebago Co. 2.89%
Rock County 2.64%
Kenosha County 2.64%
(Washington Co. 2.58%)

  
First, see that the amount of votes for the City of Milwaukee and the rest of Milwaukee County are basically the same? Very different than what we saw in November, wasn't it? Also notice that Waukesha County massively outvoted both of those constituencies this week, and that all 3 dead-red WOW counties appear in the top 10 (and all 3 gave between 74 and 79% of their votes for Roggensack), - only Waukesha County did that in November 2012. Rock, Kenosha, and Winnebago counties don't even show up in the top 10 in the Supreme Court elections, and all 3 counties went for Obama in 2012.  

  This illustrates a challenge and the opportunity that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin should take note of- if turnout is higher in Wisconsin, Dems usually win, and if not, righties win. And it takes active exposure of Democratic candidates and advancing popular progressive values to get these voters out to the polls.

  This didn't happen enough on Tuesday, and the work needs to start today to change that dynamic over the next 19 months. Standing against vouchers and in favor of public education (like School Superintendent Tony Evers did) is a winning position. So's the demanding of clean government, standing in favor of same-day registration and opening up the vote, and standing up to the corrupting influence of money in politics. Instead, I hear an obsession about the huge corporate donations to Walker and WisGOP and fear of GOP mouthpieces on AM radio, but not enough done to stand up to them. Mealy-mouthed nice-guy stuff may be noble, but it's not enough to move the needle in the places Dems need it to move, so why stick with that method of campaigning?

  2014 starts now. Get on  it.

New lows for Wisconsin jobs disaster pt. 2- Unemployment

This is a follow up to the post I made over the weekend discussing the latest bad jobs numbers in Wisconsin. This time, I wanted to take a look at a stat the Badger state has generally looked good in compared to the rest of the nation- the unemployment rate. Unfortunately, this is another stat where we are faring poorly compared to other states during the Age of Fitzwalkerstan.

The  February jobs report included an increase in the state's unemployment rate to 7.2% from 7.0% in January. It went against the U.S. trend, which had unemployment fall from 7.9% to 7.7%, and we'll see where it stands when the March numbers come out on Friday.

It also goes against the positive trend this state had before Scott Walker and WisGOP came to power in 2011. Wisconsin was able to hold its own compared to its neighbors during the Great Recession, as it never reached 10% unemployment like Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio did. But it did have a bad go of it from June 2008 to June 2009, as our unemployment rate went from 4.5% to 9.2%. During that time, Barack Obama was elected president and Democrats took control of both houses of the Wisconsin Legislature, which meant that they had to deal with the huge budget deficit that resulted from the financial crisis and Great Recession.

The Democrats' budget was signed by Governor Doyle in June 2009, and Wisconsinhad higher unemployment than 30 other states, at 9.2%. The 4.7% increase over the previous 12 months was also  the 7th-highest rise in the U.S. That trend needed to stop, and quickly. And for the rest of the time that Doyle and the Dems were in power, it did.

    Wisconsin unemployment under Doyle/Dem control
     January 2009 7.1%
     June 2009 9.2% (31st lowest in U.S., +4.7% last 12 months)
     Jan 2010 9.2% (29th lowest, +2.1% last 12 mos.)
     June 2010 8.4% (25th lowest, -0.8% last 12 mos., 7th-biggest drop)
     Jan 2011 7.7% (18th lowest, -1.5% last 12 mos., 5th-biggest drop)

So Scott Walker and WisGOP entered office with Wisconsin's unemployment falling, and relatively low. And after holding steady compared to the rest of the country for the first year-and-a-half, the state's unemployment stats have turned bad since June's recall election.

  Wisconsin unemployment rate under Walker/ WisGOP control
    Jan 2011 7.7% (18th lowest, -1.5% last 12 mos.)
    June 2011 7.7% (21st lowest, -0.7% last 12 mos.)- Walker signs budget
    Jan 2012 7.0% (17th lowest, -0.7% last 12 mos.)
    June 2012 7.0% (17th lowest, -0.7% last 12 mos.) Walker wins recall election
    Feb 2013 7.2% (23rd lowest, +0.3 last 12 mos., 6th-biggest RISE in U.S)

A chart showing Wisconsin's rank in lowest unemployment rates among states also bears this out.

  

All these numbers come from the BLS's handy interactive search tool on state unemployment rates, which you can use at your leisure to put numbers together. I highly recommend it when you want to compare state-vs. state.

It's also worth mentioning that any lowering of unemployment in the first 18 months of Walker's term probably has little to do with what's happening in Wisconsin, and instead reflects the improving national economy. This is in stark contrast to what happened under the Doyle-Dem budget, as Wisconsin's increase in unemployment stopped in mid-2009, months ahead of the U.S., and also fell faster than the U.S. rate throughout 2010. That trend has reversed in the last 12 months.

 

Look at how the gap between the U.S. and Wisconsin's unemployment rates have shrunk in the last 2 years. When Walker and WisGOP took control in January 2011, Wisconsin had an unemployment rate 1.4% lower than the U.S. That gap is barely more than 1/3 that amount today, at 0.5%.

So if you hear right-wing loudmouths still trying to give Scott Walker credit for "holding Wisconsin's unemployment under the national average," the simple response is "He didn't build that." In fact, the Fitzwalkerstan era is erasing Wisconsin's longtime advantage of lower unemployment, and may soon cause the state to reside in the bottom half of U.S states in that statistic. It is yet another failure that you can hang on these guys, and much like with the total jobs figures, there is little reason to believe this bad unemployment trend will start beating the national average anytime soon.

Supreme Court vote by the numbers

With next week's elections coming up for Wisconsin Supreme Court and State Superintendent of Schools, I wanted to do a breakdown of who votes in these elections, and see what the differences might be vs. a November election.

Top 10 turnout counties, 2011 Supreme Court
Dane County 12.16%
Waukesha Co. 8.34%
City of Milwaukee 7.78%
Rest of Milwaukee Co. 7.49%
Brown County 4.05%
Racine County 3.39%
Outagamie Co. 2.91%
Washington Co. 2.71%
Winnebago Co. 2.64%
Rock County 2.46%

Now let's compare this with 2012's recall election, as well as the presidential election breakdown of the top 10 counties by votes.

Top 10 turnout counties, Governor recall election 2012
Dane County 10.17%
City of Milwaukee 9.24%
Waukesha Co. 8.53%
Rest of Milwaukee Co. 6.53%
Brown County 4.15%
Racine County 3.43%
Outagamie Co. 3.10%
Winnebago Co. 2.83%
Washington Co. 2.76%
Rock County 2.52%

Top 10 turnout counties, 2012 president
Dane County 9.88%
City of Milwaukee 9.54%
Waukesha County 7.91%
Rest of Milwaukee Co. 6.55%
Brown County 4.21%
Racine County 3.37%
Outagamie Co. 3.07%
Winnebago Co. 2.89%
Rock County 2.64%
Kenosha County 2.64%
(Washington Co. 2.58%)

You can see where the bigger turnout in a presidential election diluted the amounts for both Dane and Waukesha Counties (Dane especially), and that while Milwaukee County had only a slightly higher percentage of the overall vote share, there were a lot more of those votes coming from the City of Milwaukee in both elections in 2012 vs. 2011. We'll see if Fallone's status as a Shorewood native and Marquette Law Professor changes those numbers up a bit. In addition, Brown County and Outagamie County have had a steadily higher percentage in each of the 2012 elections, perhaps reflecting those areas being one of the few outside of Madison that are consistently growing in Wisconsin.

Obviously, who votes in these elections is also a big difference, with fewer "casual voters" meaning that often the bases are more likely to come out. And certainly the heat of the 2011 election added to it, as it took place at the height of the Uprising, with the race receiving huge national attention.

 This certainly made a difference in the 2011 race, as dead-red Washington County went for Prosser 75-25 while Kenosha went for Kloppenberg 54-46 and Rock was 60-40 Kloppenberg. Which counties (or in the case of Milwaukee, city vs. suburbs) turn out the voters in Southeastern Wisconsin will obviously play a big part in Tuesday's result. Washington County had their votes watered down with the 2012 presidential turnout, with blue counties such as Kenosha and Rock moving their way past Baggerland (Kenosha was down in 13th place in the Supreme Court race, at 2.05%).

  Now the GAB has said that they think turnout will be closer to 20% on Tuesday, or about 850,000 votes instead of the 1.5 million in 2011. If that's true, let's look at the top 10 counties for the last times we had a turnout like that, and see if there's a difference. I'll use the 2008 closely-contested Butler vs. Gableman election as a proxy, since the 2009 race between Abrahamson and Koshnick was never really that serious.

   Top 10 turnout counties, Supreme Court 2008
   City of Milwaukee- 9.78%
   Milwaukee Co.- 9.45%
   Dane County- 8.60%
   Waukesha Co.- 7.87%
   Brown County- 3.54%
   Racine County- 3.42%
   Outagamie Co.- 2.91%
   Washington Co.- 2.69%
   Winnebago Co.- 2.46%
    Kenosha County- 2.45%

   Note that the rest of Milwaukee County gets almost as many votes as the City, and Dane County especially had a lower turnout than they usually get. And the larger-turnout counties of Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago Counties all take up a smaller percentage, meaning the more rural counties of Wisconsin get a slightly higher amount of importance. Rock County slips all the way down to 12th place in this study.

  Milwaukee County's numbers in particular are interesting in the 2008 and 2011 Supreme Court race, because the rest of the county diluted the City's totals (maybe because of County Exec races on the ballot in both years - that's not the case Tuesday). This is also reflected in the totals of the "pro-Dem" candidate in the Supreme Court race.

   Milwaukee County vote percentage
   2008 Supreme Court- Butler 57-42
   2010 Governor- Barrett 62-38
   2011 Supreme Court- Kloppenberg 56-43
   2012 Recall Governor- Barrett 63-36

  If Butler wins Milwaukee County 62-38 like Barrett, and gets a turnout in Dane County near the amounts of most November elections, he's still on the Supreme Court, and the Court is nowhere near the corporately-bought disgrace it is today. If Kloppenberg wins Milwaukee County with 63% like Barrett did a year later, former Prosser aide Kathy Nickolaus can't come up with the magic votes to get the Choker on the Court, because Kloppenberg would have won by 20,000 votes.

   

  Now do you see why it's important to get yourself out on Tuesday and get to the polls for Fallone? Because all it takes is a few more of us to do the right thing and to convince others to step up and do the same, and the decline of this state can begin to stop.

   

New lows for the Wisconsin jobs disaster- pt. 1

  The week's big news was that Scott Walker's preferred jobs metric confirmed what every other jobs stat had shown- that things had nosedived since he took office, with Wisconsin ranking 44th in the nation in private sector job growth from September 2011 to September 2012, and dead last in the Midwest. 

  While there are plenty of charts that can sum up the economic debacle in Fitzwalkerstan, I think the J-S's chart explained it quite well. It shows that Wisconsin outperformed the U.S. in year-over-year job performance for the 11 months before Scott Walker took office in January 2011. Since Scotty signed Act 10 in March 2011, the state has been BELOW the U.S. in job creation for 17 of the last 18 months measured.

  Any question as to why? Not in the above-ground world. Hilariously, if you go the the handy-dandy QCEW interactive site, you'll see that Wisconsin did lead in job growth for one category- State Government jobs.

    12-month increase in State gov't employment, Sept '11- Sept '12 
   Wis. +2.8%
   Utah +2.5%
   Minn +2.1%
   Mont +1.7%
   Conn +1.6%
  
And even this number is a damning of Walker austerity, as 8,000 state government jobs were LOST between June 2010 and June 2011 (with Act 10 and the passage of the Walker budget going in during that time period), in no small part because of nearly 19,000 retirements from workers who weren't going to put up with Walker taking thousands of dollars from their pockets. Since August 2011 and September 2012, 6,000 of those jobs have been hired back, as state governments have had to cover for the retirements and Walker has had to cover for the administrative failures such as the short-staffed WEDC. So the abuse of state workers in Act 10 hasn't cut much off of the state work force, and cost the Wisconsin economy hundreds of millions of dollars in lost take-home pay for those workers (it's not like anyone got a tax cut or added services from the state-level cuts for Act 10, it just got funneled into future tax cuts for corporations).

  And the numbers going forward from end of the QCEW report in September don't help either, as reiterated by Thursday's release of the February jobs report by Walker's DWD, which showed another 2,300 private sector jobs were lost and the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.2%. This occured in the same month that well over 200,000 private sector jobs were created in the U.S., which added another 7,600 to the Walker jobs gap, putting that number well above 40,000 in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan.

   

 Now interestingly, seasonally-adjusted total jobs went up by 12,100 for February, but that's more to a reflection of MLK weekend and Winter semester starting later than normal for UW System schools, so these job changes weren't caught in the January report like they usually are (causing a "loss" of 10,600 government jobs in January and a "gain" of 14,400 for February- net difference is +3,800, which is more plausible.) This gives a cosmetic uptick for the month, but still puts the total Walker jobs gap at 32,000.

 

     And notice that we had a big bump in March of last year, in no small part to the record 70 and 80-degree temperatures that hit for a sizable amount of that month. That sure isn't the case this year (there's still snow on the ground outside of my window), and you can bet that many of the 9,000 jobs in March 2012 that were pushed forward due to the early Spring/Summer aren't going to show up for this year.

  So when you combine this week's awful QCEW report with the medicore-at-best job figures of the 6 months after it, don't count on Wisconsin to pull itself out of its current "last in the Midwest and bottom 10 in the U.S." job stats any time soon.

  Oh, but "It's Working!"

Low wage growth- a bigger failure than jobs

   Today the BEA came out with its year-end figures on Personal Income by state. And stop me if you heard this one before, but it doesn't reflect well on how things are going in Wisconsin.

  

 

Yep, that's us in the "lowest quintile" for personal income growth- 41st in the U.S., to be exact (income includes items such as selling assets, dividends and other ways to have money coming in addition to wages). And you may also notice the dark blue state to our west. Yep again, it's Minnesota, ranking 6th in overall income growth, continuing a trend where they keep kicking Wisconsin's ass economically. And if you go inside the numbers, it gets even worse for us in Fitzwalkerstan.

 

  The same report uses the Census Bureau's recent estimates of population for 2012, and figures income per capita based on that report and the income report. On the surface, it makes Wisconsin look merely below-average, at 5th out of 7 Midwestern states.

   per capita income change, 2012
   Ohio +3.84%
   Minn +3.74%
   Ind. +3.40%
   Mich +3.40%
   Wis. +2.43%
   Ill. +2.38%
   Iowa +2.34%

   But then you go inside the numbers, and you notice that it's even worse than that in Fitzwalkerstan. Because several Midwestern states were hit hard by the Summer drought, which dropped income by huge amounts in some places. For example, Illinois lost over $2 billion in farm income earnings, Iowa lost $1.42 billion, and Indiana $734 million. Wisconsin lost some too, $179 million worth, but certainly not on the level of those states (interestingly, Minnesota gained $977 million in farm income). So let's assume all the Midwestern states had $0 farm income, which erases the losses in most states, and gives us the non-farm income change.

   per capita income change with $0 farm income, 2012
  Ohio +3.95%
  Ind. +3.71
  Iowa +3.47%
  Mich +3.44%
  Minn +3.33%
  Ill. +2.75%
  Wis. +2.52%

  Dead last in the Midwest in income-per-capita growth. Another black mark on the record of Scott Walker, and completely contradicts the idea of trickle-down, where lower taxes and lower public expenditures should be offset by higher wages. Hasn't happened.

  And this was borne out today with the release of the Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages. Obviously the big headline is  Wisconsin slipping to 44th in the nation in 12-month job growth for Scott Walker's favorite stat, but the wage part is also horrible, as average wages dropped across the board in this 12-month period.

  Wisconsin weekly average wage change, Sept. 2011- Sept. 2012
    All jobs  -2.7% (47th in U.S.)
   Private sector -2.2% (45th in U.S.)
   Manufacturing -4.1% (46th in U.S.)

  And dead last in the Midwest in every one of these stats as well. Hell, who needs right-to-freeload laws when workers are already getting jacked around and paid nothing?

   Don't worry, I'll have plenty to say about today's disastrous jobs reports in the coming days (when losing private sector jobs in February and having unemployment go up to 7.2% is the third-worst jobs story for Scott Walker today, that tells you quite a bit, don't it?). But let's also remind people that it's not just the lack of jobs that is causing pain in Fitzwalkerstan- it's also the lack of wages that the "job-creators" refuse to give to those that DO have jobs. And Walker and WisGOP deserve to pay a price for that failure as well, as low wages for workers are the intelligence of trickle-down's design.

"Diane Hendricks interchange" on the way?

This will be brief, as I'm on my lunch hour, but take a look at two press releases and tell me that selling off state property isn't in the plans for Walker Inc.

First came this press release from the Road Builders and their friends yesterday, approving of the major payoff increase in freeway spending in Walker's budget. Note this part.

Some have expressed concerns about the level of proposed bonding, particularly with the future revenue challenges facing the Transportation Fund. To this point, we would like to emphasize several points:

• Approximately 41 percent of all bonding is in the form of Transportation Revenue Bonds, which are repaid with pledged registration fee revenues. Huh? We already spend more than the state takes in for registration fees. And there aren't any increases in fees as far as I know.
• General obligation bonds are being used for the Southeast Freeway Megaprojects and Hoan Bridge only. These are extremely long-­‐life projects that will significantly outlast the life of the bonds.
Bonding for these projects is one way to spread their cost across both present and future users. Of these bonds, $200 million will be retired with proceeds from asset sales, thus eliminating future debt service payments.

WHOA! What asset sales? And those revenues aren't in the budget. Where did the Road Builders come up with this idea?

Here's where. Take a look at what the LFB said about the Walker budget today when it came to asset sales.

Under AB 40, DOA and the Building Commission would generally have similar authority related to the sale or lease of state-owned real property, and the use of the proceeds from the sale or lease of such property. Both DOA and the Commission could sell or lease any state-owned real property, except for specific exemptions (see below), whether or not the property or facility is in use or the agency is required by law to operate the facility. Both would also have authority to sell or lease of state-owned real property under the jurisdiction of the UW System Board of Regents. DOA could only sell property if the sale is approved by the Building Commission. The Building Commission could lease state-owned real property with or without the approval of the agency. AB40 would not provide DOA the explicit authority to lease such property without the agency's approval, although administration officials indicate that it was their intent to allow DOA to do so. The Building Commission could not sell or lease any property after being notified by DOA that an offer for sale or a lease agreement is pending on that property.

Both DOA and the Building Commission would have specific authority to sell or lease state owned heating, cooling, or power plants. (Hi, Mr. Koch!) DOA could not lease such property without agency approval. Also, DOA would have separate authority to contract with any purchaser or lessee of such facilities for the operation of those facilities. Administration officials indicate that it was their intent to allow DOA to contract for the output, rather than the operation, of any leased or sold heating, cooling, or power plants.

The above provisions would essentially allow DOA or the Building Commission to sell most state-owned real property or facilities, including those under the jurisdiction of the UW System Board of Regents and those facilities that are actively being operated or used by an agency. While administration officials indicate they have no plans to do so, these provisions are broad enough that the type of properties that could be sold or leased could include a state highway or bridge, a dormitory facility, or a prison.

And the memo goes on to say that money from these sales do not have to be reinvested in the agency it came from, but could be used for other purposes, such as filling in budget holes in other parts of the budget.

And you thought I was kidding when I mentioned the "Diane Hendricks Memorial Interchange" at I-90 and I-43 in Beloit. It's not a joke, folks. These guys are trying to sell all that the state has to other members of their old boys' and girls' club. And if they do it right, we don't get to have a say about it.

Cool, huh?