Progressive Thinking

26 years ago, Wisconsin lawmakers started the Parental Choice Program in Milwaukee, the first Taxpayer-subsidized private schooling. It started with just over 300 students, now there are more than 30,000. Today, private schools are getting 20% more state aid per student than the public schools educating everyone else’s children. Why?

ALTOONA, WI - Some 26 years ago, Wisconsin lawmakers blazed a new trail by creating the nation’s first scholastic welfare program. It started in Milwaukee, expanded to Racine, and then was taken statewide. It started small, with just over 300 students. Now there are more than 30,000 in the program.

It’s officially called the Parental Choice Program. If there were truth in labeling, it would be called what it is: Taxpayer-subsidized private schooling. The small number of families getting the subsidies already had a choice. In fact,most of them were exercising their option to have their children privately schooled before handouts were ever offered.

So here’s what this boils down to: People who showed they have the means to send their children to private schools are now able to continue to send them to private schools but have the rest of us taxpayers pay their tuition for them.

The real kick in the teeth for taxpayers is that the value of the public-funded vouchers for private schooling is considerably higher than the amount of state aid for each student attending a public school in Wisconsin. The state is spending $236 million this school year on the Milwaukee, Racine and statewide “Parental Choice Programs,” and is cutting state aid to public schools by $75 million to help pay for it. Next year, the cost of the vouchers that scholastic welfare recipients receive will rise to $258 million and $83 million will be taken from the public schools to help cover the cost. This year, each voucher is worth $7,210 for elementary and middle school students and $7,856 for high school students. Next year, taxpayers will be picking up the tab to the tune of $7,323 for each elementary and middle school student and $7,969 for each high schooler. Meanwhile, when you look at all the different forms of state aid to public schools, the amount being spent on each of the more than 870,000 students attending public schools is less than $6,000.

Let that sink in for a moment. The private schools serving scholastic welfare recipients are getting roughly 20% more state aid per student than the public schools educating everyone else’s children are getting.

The lobbyists who sold Wisconsin lawmakers on this scheme a quarter of a century ago insisted at the time that the program would create competition and ultimately boost student achievement. It hasn’t. Students getting taxpayer-subsidized private schooling are doing no better than their public school counterparts. If anything, they actually are doing somewhat worse. And that holds true in other states that followed Wisconsin’s lead.

So why does Wisconsin keep throwing good money after bad? Scholastic welfare is a raw deal for taxpayers and a decades-long failure as an educational policy, but it has been very good for the campaign coffers of state politicians.

And why is so much money thrown at politicians to keep expanding a program that has never delivered on its promises? This is all about propping up private and parochial schools whose enrollments have been plummeting nationwide. Sure enough, while private school enrollments in Wisconsin were falling statewide, they were increasing in the counties where the scholastic welfare program was started. Keeping failing private schools alive is the one thing this program has succeeded in doing. That’s why the program was expanded statewide in 2013.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout attended a meeting with business people, elected officials, telecommunication companies, and the State Broadband Director to discuss what can be done to solve the problems with rural broadband connectivity.

LA CROSSE, WI - “I don’t want to promise you fiber where fiber is not going to come,” Kent Disch, AT&T Wisconsin External Affairs Director, told Ellsworth community leaders.

Pierce County business leaders and elected officials gathered with telecommunication company representatives and local cooperatives to push for resolution to Internet problems.

Business leaders asked companies why they would not or could not bring services to businesses that were more than willing to pay. A concrete company owner noted his company is growing but lack of good broadband “is a bottleneck.” Broadband is needed to prosper.

One after another, the business leaders, county board members, and a former mayor shared community problems. People could not join mandatory webinars or attend virtual conference meetings. Locals frequently experienced dropped Internet connections. The Internet would not work at certain times of the day.

Families could not obtain services they needed for the business of life. Teens drove across the river to Minnesota to download files. Elderly women had inadequate phone service. Others completely lost phone service with no plans by the company to replace old copper lines. Some couldn’t get Internet at all.

“How motivated is AT&T to work here?” a local business owner asked. Clearly frustrated, she said, “I am still waiting for voicemail [for my business phone]. And it’s been ten years!”

“It’s not a great business investment to put in copper or fiber,” the AT&T representative told the group.

Here was part of the problem. Local people live in an area lacking large concentrations of people. The network of fiber is more valuable to a company as more people are connected. Without some type of incentive, the companies appeared uninterested or unable to connect rural residents.

Earlier this year three companies, AT&T, Frontier, and CenturyLink received more than $570 million in federal money to build rural broadband. As reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin is second only to California in the dollars given to the states through the Connect America Fund II program. Wisconsin also made a very modest investment of a few million dollars in grants to expand broadband.

With this incentive, one would think things were great and build-out would be coming soon. But, not so fast - maybe six or seven years - no commitments.

“We’re not going to go trenching through a bluff,” said the AT&T representative. “We are figuring out what facilities we have. We are a large wireless company…how do we leverage [our assets] to get the best bang for the buck…where can we grab the low hanging fruit…where do we have cell towers with capacity…there is a lot of engineering that goes into this.”

Throughout the discussion, residents learned the place they chose to live was largely responsible for the problems they experienced. Soaring bluffs, rocky outcrops, rolling hills – our beautiful state – was responsible for our lack of broadband.

People at the meeting reviewed maps of connectivity. However, the maps did not accurately show the void in service coverage.

“We know the map is incorrect,” said Angie Dickison, State Broadband Director as she handed me a brightly colored map of our Senate District. “Why?” I asked. She replied, “Data comes from the providers. Reporting is done on census block. If just one person receives service the entire census block is covered.”

When I asked specific questions about resolving people’s problems I learned most problems could be solved.

Does the Internet drop you? Your service is “oversubscribed” meaning there are too many people on the line. Is it hard to get on at certain times of the day? There are too many people and not enough equipment. Having problems with lag-time on the computer? A common problem with satellite service as the signal travels to outer space and back again.

Could the state get an accurate internet connectivity map? Yes. But the law requiring companies to provide detailed data was changed with the telecommunication “modernization.”

Wisconsin lost the levers of power to require certain actions by companies (such as providing basic phone service to everyone) by deregulation. Now, it seems, we are relying on the goodwill of the company and the lure of public dollars to bring broadband to rural areas.

But will the company deliver? There are no promises.

Ever since the 1980's, the American economy has been under the spell of "trickle-down economics", a theory that produces feed-the-rich policies. They have made the rich vastly richer, and everyone else’s earnings stagnant. But there’s a geyser ready to blow, if we’re smart enough to shift our attention from supply to demand.

ALTOONA, WI - For close to 40 years now, the American economy has been under the spell of supply-side theory, better known on the streets as trickle-down economics. The theory is that expanding the economy’s capacity to produce more goods is the best way to stimulate economic growth. In practice, that theory produces feed-the-rich policies — such as steep cuts in the income taxes corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay — aimed at encouraging private investment in businesses, production facilities and equipment.

Those policies have worked like a charm in one regard. They have made the rich vastly richer. With everyone else’s earnings stagnating, the gap between America’s rich and the rest has grown dramatically by every statistical measure since trickle-down took hold of our economy. Trickle-down economics has been a colossal failure when it comes to producing shared prosperity. George H.W. Bush called it “voodoo economics” for supercharging the accumulation of national debt, but its biggest sin is that America was growing together before the supply-siders took over and has been growing apart ever since.

There are conspicuous reasons why the only thing trickle-down economics does well is produce income and wealth inequality. Feed the rich and they don’t eat much of what they are fed. They store it away. They amass more wealth. Every dollar added to their net worth is a dollar out of circulation that creates no multiplier effect in the economy. Put more money in the pockets of everyday workers and consumers and they spend it. That creates demand. When someone wants to buy, someone else is eager to sell. The economy is stimulated.

That’s the fundamental flaw in supply-side theory. You can shower incentives on corporations and the superwealthy to supply more goods, but if no one is buying what they are making the new factories will be shuttered in no time. Demand drives economic growth, not supply. Shared prosperity doesn’t trickle down, it springs from the ground up like a geyser.

Shifting from failed trickle-down economics to geyser economics means concentrating on stoking demand rather than trying to politically manipulate supply. Boosting wages is a good place to start. The federal minimum wage has been increased 22 different times, and every time supply-siders screamed that increasing it would be a jobs killer. Never worked out that way. The national gross domestic product (GDP) steadily grew through every minimum wage increase. And states that increased their own minimum wages have seen faster job growth than those that didn’t. That’s because workers earning more end up spending more. Good capitalists figure out how to supply what consumers are demanding. They scale up their operations to meet the increased demand, and that means hiring rather than laying off.

A critical next step toward geyser economics is overhauling our tax system. America effectively has two tax systems, one for the rich and another for the rest. That needs to change. We don’t need new taxes. We do need to make sure everyone pays the ones we already have. That will reduce the share of total taxes paid by low-income and middle-class Americans, leaving them with more to spend on other things. Demand will be further stoked.

Big business handouts are a favorite recipe in the trickle-down cookbook. Funny how so many of the handouts wind up hidden in shell companies and tax havens overseas and don’t actually create any additional supply — or jobs — here at home. States have fallen in love with this recipe too. Wisconsin’s corporate welfare office spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year, creates no noticeable economic stimulation and hardly any jobs, and can’t even seem to keep track of how the taxpayers’ money is spent.

For the sake of free market capitalism and shared prosperity, geyser economics is predicated on doing away with crony capitalism. We’re better off taking the money wasted on handouts to corporations and the ultrawealthy and investing it instead in things like affordable, debt-free education. An entire generation of young Americans is buried under a mountain of college debt. With them spending 20, 30, even 40 years paying off student loans, think of how many are putting off purchases of cars and houses and other such goods. Imagine what it would do for auto manufacturers, car dealers, home builders and realtors if we made education as affordable for today’s youth as it was for us older folks. You don’t think they’d gladly supply what legions of young Americans would suddenly be able to buy?

There’s a geyser ready to blow, if we’re smart enough to shift our attention from supply to demand.

JFK asked us to serve our country, but we Americans have been mostly asking what our country can do for us since at least the 1980s. Republican politics especially has been of the “me first” variety. Is it time to ask what we can do for our country again?

ALTOONA, WI - For the last several decades, American politics has been “me politics.” Reflecting on the famous line in John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address, it’s hard not to notice that we Americans have been mostly asking what our country can do for us since at least the 1980s.

In their own ways, both major parties mirror the self-centeredness of the modern American psyche.

Republican politics has been of the “me first” variety, focusing on how best to enable the most ambitious and enterprising and ruthless and privileged among us to elbow their way to the front of the line. The result has been heretofore unimagined levels of prosperity for some, but also grotesque levels of income and wealth inequality.

Democratic politics has been of the “me too” kind, concentrating on getting previously excluded or disadvantaged segments of the population more rights and opportunities. As a result, historic advances have been made in such areas as civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights and disability rights. The gains have not come without a cost to Democrats as they have lost much of their appeal to blue collar Americans, especially working class white men.

Two generations worth of emphasis on individual advancement and self fulfillment have been both good and bad. Americans have grown more equal in some ways, more unequal in others. Some have prospered, others have been left behind. Many have finally secured a seat at the table, which is good. America is more divided and politically polarized than it has been in a very long time, which is not.

What “me politics” has done for us and to us is striking and significant, but equally striking is what is missing and can only be provided by a resurgence of “we politics.”

The list of missing things is long, but here are three in need of resuscitation for starters:

• Public service. Doing for others at personal sacrifice has fallen out of fashion. Even serving in elective office now smacks of self dealing more than at perhaps any other time in our nation’s history, evidenced by the revolving door between Congress and the lucrative lobbying trade. The same game is on prominent display in statehouses across the country. True public service is not a training program to prepare for plum jobs paying six- and seven-figure salaries.
• Mutual support. Being there for each other takes many forms. Neighbors helping neighbors. Communities pulling together. Service to country. This ethic is at the heart of “we politics.”
• Common good. Me politics is about private interests. What is yours and what is mine. We politics is about the public interest and what is ours. It cultivates an understanding that we’re all in this together and we need each other. That understanding prompts us to act in ways that enrich the commonwealth. Such action has become too rare.

For a long time now, American politics has been me politics. Change is in the air. You can feel it. But we won’t move from me to we automatically. It has to be done consciously and will take concerted effort. It’s time to ask what we can do for our country again.

In the past, schools used referenda primarily for building and maintenance projects, but state cuts to school funding are forcing more school districts to use them to pass the cost of educational programs to local property tax payers.

MADISON - “School districts these days more or less live and die by these referendums in terms of their ability to sustain programs and staff,” Dan Rossmiller of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) recently said as reported by the Isthmus.

So far in 2016, voters approved more than three-quarters of the 85 ballot referenda to raise property taxes to send more local dollars to schools. The nearly 77% pass rate is much higher than a few years ago.

People are voting to raise property taxes to keep their schools alive.

Recently I met with officials from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to understand school funding trends. I learned there was a big shift in the success of referenda. Prior to 2011 (and the deep school cuts that year) about half of school referenda passed. In the past five years about two-thirds passed.

Historically, communities voted to raise school property taxes to build buildings. Prior to 2011, nearly two-thirds of referenda votes were for the purpose of raising debt for building projects.

After 2011, over half of the votes to raise school property taxes are to fund current educational costs. But there is a limit to how much people can raise their property taxes to pay for current operations.

Back in 2012, the community of Gilmanton raised the school portion of their property taxes by over 40% to keep their beloved school alive. After the vote, many constituents told me “voters will never again” be able to afford such an increase in property taxes.

At a recent legislative breakfast, local school officials pleaded with lawmakers to increase state aid. School officials spoke of local “referenda fatigue” meaning people just can’t afford to raise their property taxes even though they want to keep the school district afloat.

Superintendent Dr. Connie Biedron reviewed the different ways the state cut funds to schools: cuts in state aid, local school districts paying for Milwaukee charter schools, local school districts paying for private school vouchers.

“I’m so grateful people are supporting schools by passing the referendum, but we are facing a continual decline in state funding”, said Dr. Biedron, “Communities can’t continue to tax more. They just can’t support taxing more.”

Prescott is a community that recently voted down a referendum for “existing educational programs and staff”. The February loss means the district is facing cuts of nearly 10% of its budget.

Just over river from Prescott, in Minnesota, voters do not face the same harsh realities of raising property taxes or facing deep cuts to schools.

Minnesota funds about two-thirds of school budgets with state aid. Only 30% comes from local sources like property taxes. Todd Langenfeld, a Prescott resident active in the referenda discussion, told me, “Wisconsin made a commitment to fund schools with two-thirds state funding. But we are well below that.”

The state of Wisconsin contributes about 45% (compared to Minnesota’s 64%) of the cost of schools, while locals contribute almost half.

Mr. Langenfeld continued, “To make up the difference, Prescott goes to referendum. If the state kicked in more, people would pay less in taxes.”

When the state pays less, people face awful choices; raise property taxes just to stay even with the cost of educating children or keep property taxes the same and cut children’s educational opportunities.

For Prescott, state funding this year covers about 53% of students’ costs. But two years ago, the state aid covered about 55% of the school district budget. Given rising costs and the expiration of a “non-recurring” referendum (renewed since 1999), it is not surprising voters faced a hard choice.

Prescott voters will get another opportunity to support their schools on May 25, 2016 when a special election will be held on another referendum. This time voters will be asked to make permanent (or recurring) the expiring referendum.

The immediate lay-off of teachers, cuts in student activities, cancelling bus routes, and closing buildings may be averted with the passage of the May referendum.

However, voters all around the state must solve long-term problems by electing a Legislature willing to tackle the tough questions of how to increase permanently the state share of money for our children’s education.

While it is not an undue burden for most people to obtain a valid photo ID to vote, it is too difficult for some people. Voting is a right for every eligible person, and no political party should place barriers in front of those who want to vote.

MADISON - The decision by the US Appeals Court to send a recent voter ID case back to the Federal District Court (lower court) acknowledges that for some, obtaining an ID to vote is so burdensome that they may not be able to vote in violation of the state and federal law.

The Appeals Court directed the lower court to find a way to allow some voters to vote without a photo ID because they cannot receive one the way the law currently stands.

This is not a surprise to those of us that did not support passage of this proposal.

Voting is a right for every eligible person in Wisconsin and it is simply not the job of any political party to place barriers in front of those that want to vote. The illusion that voter fraud is a reality has been shattered many times. Attorney Generals, Judges and District Attorneys have found no voter fraud.

It is this simple, voting is just not a high benefit crime for criminals and the outlier in our 5 million person state who votes more than once is found out and prosecuted like the case against republican Robert Monroe.

To sum up the decision, while the court said it is not an undue burden for most people to obtain a valid photo ID to vote, it is too difficult for some people. Some people can even be put into classes, or groups of individuals who cannot obtain a valid ID that qualifies under the Wisconsin law. While three groups are a part of this action by the court, some may say there are other groups that have exceptional difficulty obtaining a valid ID to vote. This ruling opens the door.

Homeless and those that move frequently for a variety of reasons often have no valid ID because they live on the streets, in shelters or on a friends couch. Being transient does not make an individual ineligible to vote. In Wisconsin, the number of people experiencing homelessness has increased every year since 2008 with the numbers reaching at least 25,000 in Wisconsin.

In this decision the court acknowledged that for some groups of individuals who want to vote obtaining a valid photo ID is an exceptional challenge. My hope is that through this decision and what happens next in the lower court there will be a clear path for the right to vote for all.

The absence of Legislative remedy is not a reason for the court to be blind to the realized and actual shortcomings of the law. The courts job under the Constitution in the balance of the powers doctrine is to interpret the law. The Republican Legislature passed this law and said over and over “not one voter would be displaced by this law.” It is the job of the courts to make sure that is a reality.

For more information on this recent court decision or voter ID laws in general please contact my office at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 888-549-0027.

MADISON - On Tuesday, I went to UW-Milwaukee to give a lecture about an under-appreciated aspect of our undemocratic system: the disenfranchisement of prisoners and former prisoners. In researching this talk, I discovered just how blatantly racist the policy has always been:

Felon disenfranchisement, then and now

In our never-ending sorrow at the demise of the Government Accountability Board, our worst fears have been confirmed: Partisans from both sides are being appointed to the new state ethics and elections commissions. This week, it was Peter Barca’s turn:

Barca’s appointees contributed $107K to Democrats

And as we look back at the legislative session, one hypocrisy jumped out at us. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce talks all the time about the need for a highly educated workforce, but it didn’t put any of its money where its mouth is:

WMC, business groups AWOL on higher ed bills

Two announcements:

--If you’re in Madison at the Dane County Farmers' Market on Saturday, please stop by our booth at the southwest corner of the Square (W Main and S Hamilton Sts. across from Inn on the Park). I’ll be there with Madison activist Bert Zipperer from 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. {Reminder: there is road construction on the northside of the Square}

--And if you’re in the Sun Prairie area Saturday afternoon, the Sun Prairie Action Resource Coalition (SPARC) will host a public meeting from 12-3 pm at the Westside Community Service Building at 2598 W. Main St. I'll be speaking around 2 p.m. Topic: “The Assault on Democracy in Wisconsin” (or, “Where Do I Start?”).

Hope to see you soon.

MIDDLETON, WI - The opioid crisis is a tragedy that ravages our communities, and it should never be a partisan issue. Addiction is a disease that we have to address comprehensively – that means treatment, prevention, and education.

So I am encouraged that leaders like Sen. Tammy Baldwin are fighting for bipartisan solutions that prioritize treatment & recovery, expand access to naloxone, and seek to strengthen monitoring of prescription medications.

What we cannot do is repeat the failures of the war on drugs. We can’t wish the problem away. More of our leaders need to step up to work in a bipartisan manner to provide our communities with the resources that our families truly need in order to reach those afflicted by this crisis. This is a public health emergency and must be treated as such.

State budget cuts have forced UW Extension administrators to rethink their commitment to 100-years of county-based services, putting at risk such popular programs as 4H. County boards are passing resolutions calling for the UW President and Board of Regents to reject the plan.

MENOMONIE, WI - “We can’t do more with less,” UW Extension Regional Director Julie Keown-Bomar told people gathered at a recent Menomonie meeting. “We have to do less with less. We cannot be the same cooperative extension service that we used to be.”

The news hit hard. Downcast eyes, people with hands over their mouth, and long pauses after Julie asked the group for questions.

Julie explained how budget cuts forced UW Extension administrators to rethink their commitment to 100-years of county-based services. Wisconsin has a valuable partnership between the UW System and local counties.

Under the “Multicounty Reorganization Plan”, new regions would be created. Many staff would move or lose their jobs. Forty open positions would not be filled and another 40 would be cut. Some staff may remain local but a lot seemed to depend on the ability of counties to pay for lost state funding.

Local programs and support are at risk.

Farmers and rural residents rely on UW Extension for many services. Generations of youth explored life-changing opportunities and developed their skills through 4H projects. A multitude of pest, crop and disease crises were averted through the work of local Ag agents who provided immediate communication between UW experts in Madison and farmers hundreds of miles away. Family living and economic development services affected every community.

Counties invest heavily in extension. Locals are not happy with what they see as a “top-down” process. For example, Buffalo County recently passed a resolution, calling the planning process “flawed, not transparent… reorganization plan imposes a drastic and reckless change…” The board calls on UW Extension administration to retract the plan and “engage Counties/Tribes as equal partners.”

Dunn County passed a different resolution, calling for Dunn to be the hub of a region to include Eau Claire and Chippewa counties. Being a hub would put resources in Menomonie. It was unclear how to accomplish this with Eau Claire and Chippewa residents likely wanting the same.

Dunn County Supervisors at the meeting expressed concern about supervision of Extension staff through county board committees. One board member said, “We now have monthly meetings with staff. How do we maintain relationships? Now we have constant feedback. That will soften.”

Julie’s answer was not comforting. “Reality is things will change,” she said, “There is a sense of loss and [loss of] a really good relationship.”

Most of us take for granted services that have existed for a century. Few realized deep cuts to the UW System could mean no local staff person to help organize 4H clubs or provide support for county fairs - so much a staple of Wisconsin rural life.

Julie told the crowd, “People didn’t know Extension was connected to the UW.” She added, “If anything, this budget has taught us that people’s first entry into the UW System is a [county] fair or 4H.”

Cuts to the UW System are deep. Majority lawmakers voted last summer to make $250 million in cuts to the UW System’s base budget. Cuts came on top of tuition freezes and many prior losses of state support. Every UW campus is struggling with fewer staff, programs, and money for maintenance and facilities.

For some in the Menomonie audience, cuts to the UW System had seemed distant. Until they realized this could mean an end to 4H, as we know it now.

I talked with local residents after the meeting. A Menomonie schoolteacher who asked about youth being a part of the decision-making told me, “I’m tired of going to meetings that feel like wakes.”

One supervisor summed up things best, “We’re just not investing our resources in the right places. The general public is not paying attention. They don’t realize what’s happening until it touches them.”

As I left, I admired the youth art hanging in the halls. I walked past a conference room bustling with noisy, happy adolescent girls working together. The sign on the door said “Horse Project 4H Meeting.”

I wondered if any of the girls or their parents knew of the meeting I attended about cuts affecting a program about which they are passionate. If they had the opportunity to choose a budget priority, would they have chosen differently?

MIDDLETON, WI - Women have played an invaluable role in growing and strengthening Wisconsin’s economy; their hard work, dedication and ingenuity have built strong families, businesses and communities. Yet, women still lack the legal protection to guarantee the pay they deserve.

Equal Pay Day marks how far into the year women on average have to work to catch up to men’s earnings from the previous year. Women in Wisconsin still earn only 79 cents for every dollar a man earns, and we clearly have much more work to do to ensure that women and their families have every opportunity to succeed. We not only need equal pay legislation, but we must also raise the minimum wage, guarantee paid family leave, and ensure access to quality, affordable women’s healthcare -- including access to reproductive care.

Unlike my opponent, the incumbent senator, who believes that equal pay legislation does “more harm than good,” I firmly believe that we must do more to ensure that all of Wisconsin’s women are able to fight pay discrimination. All of the hardworking women in Wisconsin and across the country deserve the respect and dignity of their work.

The yearly nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) review of state agencies, known as the Single Audit, was recently released and like a football game film it's a good place to evaluate performance. You might say, after watching the game film, experts gave Wisconsin a failing grade.

MADISON - When the game is over the coaches go into the film room to see where the breakdown was in play execution. The best game plan in the world is not any good if the team does not execute it.

The “game film” for the State of Wisconsin was recently released. This is a good place to start for anyone evaluating the state’s performance.

Every year the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) conducts a review of state agencies. Known as the Single Audit, auditors examine Wisconsin’s financial accounting of federal dollars.

State computer systems are a bit like the football team’s offensive line. These systems do the grunt work so the star players can score.

Computer systems must work well for everyone else in state government to do their job. Watching the film – or in this case reading the audit – I learned about computer problems so great that the details, according to the LAB, “were too sensitive to communicate publically.” In other words, by describing the problems, auditors would open the state up to more problems making it easier to “maliciously” expose personal data of employees and students’ information, and deliberately introducing financial misstatements or fraudulent payments.

Auditors found significant deficiencies in computer systems run by the Department of Administration (DOA) and systems run by the University of Wisconsin (UW).

With so many potential holes in the offensive line, it is no surprise our quarterback has been sacked an awful lot.

A key role of the state is oversight. The “watchdog” role is critical. Watching over health facilities, including nursing homes, and hospitals, is one job of the Department of Health Services (DHS). Audits found DHS officials identified problems at health facilities but failed to refer any of the two years’ worth of cases of caregiver misconduct to the Department of Justice for prosecution. When asked why, the department blamed staff turnover.

That’s like saying we forgot to tell the new blocker to block!

Auditors found the DHS did not have proper procedures in place to stop improper use of federal money in “Money Follows the Person”, a program to help people move from nursing homes to the community. Errors were so great, auditors “qualified” – in auditor language – their opinion of the program.

You might say, after watching game film, experts gave a failing grade.

At the Department of Administration, auditors reported many problems with the administration of two programs to provide housing and other local assistance. Auditors found improper payments; contracts not properly executed; a backlog of incomplete monitoring activities and required site visits not completed. Required performance and evaluation reports had not been done for at least two years.

These findings are disturbingly similar to those auditors found at Wisconsin’s Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). Ironically, the Governor moved one of these programs from WEDC to the Department of Administration at insistence from the feds because previously the state was not following federal requirements.

Watching the film – or reading the audit – I was struck by repeat bad performance.

Almost two-thirds of the auditors’ recommendations were made in previous Single Audits.

If mistakes are not fixed, the team is never going to get better. Persistent problems lead to penalties – in football and state government.

For example, an estimated $62 million in federal funds since 2003 had to be sent back to the federal government because of improper actions taken by the Department of Administration.

The first goal of government is getting the job done right. Proper training, policies and procedures, oversight, competence, accuracy, and compliance all matter.

A few months ago, the Governor created a new Governor’s Commission on Government Reform, Efficiency and Performance. Commission members would do well to start by watching the film.

If the front line does not perform, the quarterback is sacked, the running back loses yards, and the coach is fired.

MADISON - For the past few months, we’ve been checking, almost every day, to see when Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce was going to start spending money on behalf of Judge Rebecca Bradley in her race against Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. But we’ve found nothing, which is very puzzling.

One answer to the puzzle may be that WMC is funneling its dough through a dark-money group, as we discuss here:

Is WMC hiding its $$ in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race?

For a look at all the independent groups, including PACs and bogus “issue ad” groups, that are throwing money around in this race on both sides, just click here:

Hijacking Campaign 2016 updated with new independent spending

And for a look at the biggest individual donors to both candidates, check out this posting:

GOP, Democratic donors continue to give big to high-court candidates

Aside from this Supreme Court contest, and the Presidential race, there is one other important bit of balloting on April 5: In 11 communities in Wisconsin, citizens can vote on referendums to amend the U.S. Constitution to proclaim that corporations aren’t persons and money is not speech. See if your community is on the list here:

Vote to overturn Citizens United on April 5 in Wisconsin!

In any case, please vote in this election. You can still do early voting, also known as in-person absentee voting, this week at your city clerk’s office. Early voting closes at 5 p.m. or the close of business for the municipal clerk (whichever is later) on Friday. Or please show up at your regular polling place on Tuesday. And if you don’t know where that is, just fill out your address here:

https://myvote.wi.gov/Address/AddressSearchScreen.aspx

ALTOONA, WI - Never seen anything quite like this before. The presidential race, that is.

It’s been so dark, so ugly, so ridiculously comical at times, it must signal something. The fall of an empire. The birth of a new American fascism. A major party coming apart at the seams. Something.

Or not.

This much is clear, national politics right now is reflecting nationwide angst. The causes of that anxiety did not suddenly appear this year, they have been mounting for several decades. America is being socially transformed. Civil rights. Women’s rights. Gay rights. For many, this all feels right, it was about time. Some find the social upheaval discomforting, but they’re adjusting. For others, such change is intolerable, and they are pushing back. Hard. The ferocity of the political backlash is itself a sure indication of how transformative recent social movements have been and continue to be.

At the same time our country is experiencing dramatic social change, we are in transition economically. Economic dislocations are always painful and traumatic. And the fear and uncertainty and sense of loss that accompany them always find a political outlet. When large numbers of people left the land and went to factories and offices more than a century ago, there was political turbulence. With a global economy emerging and with factory jobs here at home disappearing and with great recessions and jobless recoveries and rapidly expanding income and wealth inequality, there is political turbulence.

All of this has many if not most Americans convinced that the country’s best days are in the rear view mirror. They are wrong. A three-year journey across America didn’t reveal a dying nation to journalist James Fallows. Instead, in place after place — from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Bend, Oregon to Columbus, Mississippi and Holland, Michigan and from San Bernardino, California and Duluth, Minnesota to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Greenville, South Carolina — Fallows repeatedly found evidence of reinvention and renewal and revival.

America is being remade, both socially and economically. This makeover didn’t start this year, and it won’t be completed this year. Fallows observed that in many ways Americans are adapting better and faster to the shifting ground beneath our feet than people in much of the rest of the world, but our national politics is lagging behind and dragging us down. That means the U.S. has a harder time taking the steps that would make adjusting to the challenges of our time less painful and more productive. For example, workers now have to change jobs much more frequently than in the past. Guaranteeing access to medical care by making health insurance truly portable so it follows workers regardless of where they are employed makes all kinds of sense in this new economy, but the political system has so far proven incapable of meeting the need.

This is why there is so much anti-establishment fervor. This is why the race for the White House is so ghastly. America is being remade, both socially and economically. It needs to be remade politically too.

MADISON, WI - On Monday, Governor Scott Walker signed into law four higher education bills, Assembly Bills 740, 741, 742 and 744, calling the package 'college affordability bills' .

These Republican bills do nothing to address the burden of student debt and the people of Wisconsin shouldn’t fall for the Republicans’ lack of action with these modest election-year smoke and mirrors.

These anemic Republican bills do not provide a single ounce of relief for the roughly one million Wisconsinites burdened by the $19 billion student debt crisis. Republicans did not even pass the most significant of these weak bills which at least would have provided a tax break to a small percentage of those with significant debt.

Democrats provided Republicans ample opportunity to support our ‘Higher Ed, Lower Debt’ bill which is a real solution to providing relief to Wisconsinites with student loan debt. The Democratic proposal allows borrowers to refinance their loans, just like a car loan or mortgage. It is a common sense, popular plan that would grow Wisconsin’s economy and unfortunately Republicans voted against this proposal several times this session.

Gov. Walker and Republicans also cannot hide from their record of gutting higher education in Wisconsin. Since they came into power, the UW System has lost $795 million in state aid* and the technical college system has lost $203 million in state aid.

(*excluding debt service. Source: Jan. 2016 Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo)

Recently passed Republican legislation changes absentee/early voting rules in Wisconsin, making the window for early voting very small and more difficult to use for many working people.

LA CROSSE, WI - “We’ve got to go to the clerk and get your ballot sent to college,” I said to my son.

“Aw Mom. Is this election really that important?” he asked. “YES!” I answered. Maybe I added a little too much emphasis.

Spring elections are April 5th. Voters will choose, among others, all county board supervisors, a Supreme Court judge and their preference for President.

Voters are required to show an ID card. For folks not home on Election Day - the truck driver, college student or traveler - the absentee voting window is closing much faster.

To explain voting changes, I will take the perspective of an over-the-road truck driver named Joe.

The window for voting used to be fairly long. Joe could vote at his rural clerk’s kitchen table over the weekend. He had three weeks to get to the clerk’s home. Most town clerks work full-time out of the home. Usually, the best times for the clerk and the driver was on the weekend or later in the evening. Recently enacted law changes removed both of these options.

The new early voting timeframe opens later and closes earlier. Joe can only vote in person two weeks before Election Day. And he can only come to the clerk’s home (or municipal building in a city) Monday through Friday during limited hours. Voters can no longer vote absentee on the weekend or the Monday before an election.

Joe drives all week. With these changes, his only option is to ask for a ballot by mail.

To do this he must obtain an application, either by mail from the clerk or download the application from a website. Joe must fill out the application and make a copy of his ID. Then he must mail the ballot application and copy of the ID to the clerk. Or, like my son and I, deliver the application in person. The clerk holds the application until the very limited voting window opens. She then mails the ballot to Joe. He fills out the ballot, has it signed by a witness, and mails it back to the clerk. She delivers the ballot to the polling place.

If Joe had a scanner, an Internet connection and email, he could scan the ID and the ballot application (after he had downloaded it) and email the whole package to the clerk. He might shave off a few days in the process.

Shaving days off the process is critical because the ballot will not be counted unless it arrives by Election Day. The window is tight.

A bill (Senate Bill 295) changing voting rules recently passed the legislature. This bill was the 32nd new law making changes to voting and elections since the GOP majority took control in 2011. The new law requires the clerk receive absentee ballots by Election Day.

The new law also requires clerks to log in a statewide computer system every action they take in the absentee ballot process I described. Clerks must make five separate entries. This information will connect Joe’s name and address with the date he applied for the ballot, the date the clerk mailed the ballot, the date he returned his ballot and the polling place at which he would have voted.

Under Senate Bill 295, all this information is sold by the state as a subscription service presumably to groups who want to influence Joe during the time prior to completing his ballot. For Joe, or any other absentee voter, this means voter harassment targeted specifically at him.

Senate Bill 295 made many changes in voting laws. Some are useful, like allowing on-line voter registration by 2017 and allowing veteran’s IDs for voting purposes for the April election. Some are very harmful like shortening the voting window. And the absentee ballot tracking system seems like a tremendous, unnecessary invasion of voter’s privacy.

My son and I drove over to our clerk’s home late Friday night and got his ballot sent to college. We chatted about his friends from high school. More became truck drivers than any other occupation. For these folks, voting became harder.

And the importance of voting never greater!

Scott Walker signs the last of the nasty bills that Speaker Vos and Majority Leader Fitzgerald plopped on his desk, and Wisconsin keeps going backwards.

MADISON - We’re still waiting to see whether Scott Walker signs the last of the nasty bills that Speaker Vos and Majority Leader Fitzgerald plopped on his desk.

Here’s one of them:

Bill to ease sulfur dioxide pollution enforcement goes to Walker

Speaking of pollution, Tuesday was World Water Day, and Wisconsin keeps going backwards as far as protecting this vital resource goes, as we noted here:

Wisconsin all wet on World Water Day

For the big Wisconsin Supreme Court race on April 5, we just updated our files on the outside groups that are throwing their money around:

Hijacking Campaign 2016 updated with new PAC and issue ad group activity

And I’m still very concerned about the John Doe II appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, so I wrote the following open letter to the DAs involved:

Letter to DAs in John Doe II case appeal

I hope these postings interest you.

Sen. Vinehout shares the problems some Trempealeau County residents had to deal with after a sand mine and processing plant began using an old agriculture high capacity well as its water source. They clearly demonstrate the need to balance the impact on everyone when considering changes to high capacity well laws.

LINCOLN TOWNSHIP, WI - “I feel like the state failed to protect the people,” Stacy told me. “Nobody really cares because it’s not affecting them.”

Stacy is one of several Lincoln Township residents in Trempealeau County who lived through two years of well problems. An industrial sand mine and processing plant set up shop in the neighborhood.

Mine owners wanted to avoid county zoning rules. The owners negotiated with the cities of Whitehall and Independence – some say pitting one city against the other – to annex the mine into Whitehall and the processing plant into Independence.

The residents of Lincoln Township were left out. They had no voice in the rules placed on the mine and processing plant by the City Councils.

The mine negotiated with Whitehall to provide water for sand processing. Industrial sand mine processing is a very water intensive process. The city’s pipes were unable to handle the high pressure needed to pump water miles away to the mine. Residents told me the city tried to drill a well just for the mine but couldn’t find water.

The mine needed water to operate. Locals said the mine made a deal to use an old nearby agriculture irrigation high capacity well to supply water to the sand processing plant.

Water use escalated. By 2015, three and a half times the water was removed from the agriculture well compared to 2013. Almost immediately after the mine began operation, residents experienced problems. Neighbor’s water pressure dropped dramatically during blasting; a well went dry; water filters normally changed every 30 years had to be changed every two or three months; chicken watering devises clogged with sand; chickens died and heavy metals appeared in drinking water.

As one local county board supervisor told me, “There was a clear connection between well degradation and sand mine activity.”

Stacy lives about a half mile from the mine. She sent me photos of her water, which was a murky brownish orange, and photos of her scooping handfuls of sand out of her toilet tank. She has gone through three or four washing machines in the past few years.

But the worst came in January. Stacy lost Apples, her horse. Stacy said, “I took it very bad.”

Apples died of liver failure. The horse had heavy metals in his tissues. Stacy told me the metals were “too much for his body. He can’t process or get rid of it.” Her vet said her water “was the worst water he’d ever seen.”

County officials started a well testing program. They contacted the state and asked if conditions of the farm well permit used by the mine were violated. When the county couldn’t get answers they called me.

Ironically, the Senate was considering a bill to change high capacity well laws. The bill would have made permanent – unless a court took action – every high capacity well in the state.

During the Senate debate, I asked colleagues to support amendments to review well permits when there is a change in use, i.e. from agriculture to mining; when there is a dramatic increase in the water removed, and when water is piped away from the property. Had these requirements already been law the locals might still have good wells. The Senate majority voted down all my amendments.

GOP Senators did pass a bill that differed from the bill passed by the Assembly. This means, unless the Assembly comes back to act on the bill, it will die.

The high capacity well law does need to change. Residents in Lincoln Township and across the state are vulnerable.

Mine operations in Stacy’s neighborhood are winding down. But local news reports a mine annexed into the nearby City of Blair will soon begin operations. I talked with a Whitehall business owner, Linda Mossman, who worries Blair residents will soon face similar troubles.

She asked me to encourage residents to act now by measuring the depth of wells to document – through video or photos – their foundations and to use the well water-testing program available through the county extension office. For under $30, residents can get a comprehensive water test that usually runs about $100.

“People need to know,” Linda told me, “This WILL happen in your neighborhood.”

Today’s Republican Party has become the party of backlash. The Democratic Party is now widely seen as the party of entitlement and protected classes. In the middle 'Made-for-TV' characters like Donald Trump gladly try to fill the empty space.

ALTOONA, WI - Fear. Anger. Envy. Resentment. Division. Hate. Violence. Madness. Folly. Destruction. Decline.

These are what America’s Great Void naturally and inevitably will produce.

The current condition of the two major political parties has created a vacuum. Made-for-TV characters like Donald Trump gladly try to fill the empty space.

Republicans are increasingly spooked by the prospect of having Trump as their standard bearer. Prominent Democrats are pointing out that the Republicans did this to themselves. This is, of course, true. But it’s not the whole truth.

Democrats share blame for fueling Trump’s rise because Democrats bear great responsibility for the formation of the Great Void.

The Democratic Party is now widely seen as the party of entitlement and protected classes. It is seen as the party that taxes those who work and gives to those who don’t, the party that will give you the shirt off someone else’s back. Democratic policies catering to narrow constituencies since at least the 1960s have continually reinforced this image.

Over the years Democrats earned a reputation as water carriers for organized labor. This reputation served Democrats well when you could find a union member in nearly every family in the country. But the vast majority of working people in the U.S. don’t belong to unions anymore. Unions now represent only about one in 10 American workers. In the private sector it’s more like one in 15. The masses of nonunion blue-collar laborers see the Democrats fighting for those few, but not for them.

Today’s Republican Party has become the party of backlash. The GOP has dedicated itself to demolishing the welfare state, cutting down the social safety net, pitting one group of working people against another, and generally retracing every liberal step that’s been taken and reversing every liberal law that’s been made. Unfortunately for the Republicans, Donald Trump perfectly embodies the backlash. And he is a personality so large he can seemingly fill the Great Void all by himself.

The problem for Republicans is their identity at the moment is entirely wrapped up in what they want to tear down. The only thing they can think to build is walls. Making America a fortress has undeniable appeal to the darkest side of our nature, but closing ourselves off from others won’t make our country great again. Isolationism in any of its many forms has never made America great. Turns out that while Trump’s personality is luminous and gigantic, his vision is dark and puny. Even with an ego that large stepping into the vacuum, the Great Void remains.

Filling it requires us to stop fixating on what we are entitled to and focusing instead on how to best serve others. Thinking service instead of entitlement, thinking we first instead of me first, will lead to rethinking policies geared to helping a tenth of Americans and coming up with new ones aiming to help us all. What better way to start making it clear that we’re all in this together than to thoroughly overhaul a tax system that political privilege built and which breeds further economic inequality.

Filling the Great Void comes down to making three words the guiding light for every step we take and every law we make. One for all.

Area sportsmen clash with railroad enforcement on public lands along the Mississippi. Sen. Vinehout writes about the questions she has heard from local residents, enforcement and elected officials on the authority of railroad police. She has authored three bills addressing issues brought forward in her conversations.

LA CROSSE, WI - It was no wonder the Legislative committee chairperson did not want to hold a public hearing on Senate Bill 734, a bill that would return railroad trespassing law to pre-2006, which allowed crossing.

Madison lobbyists lined up against the bill to allow people to cross railroad tracks. The lobbyists represented seven different law enforcement groups, three labor groups, six different railroad groups, the oil industry and the state’s largest business lobby – Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

The Railroad Association asked lawmakers to oppose the bill because…“changing this law works against ongoing safety efforts by federal, state and local officials.”

In western Wisconsin, the epicenter of the rail police’s ‘education campaign’ to stop rail track trespassing, the local sentiment was very different. “Utter nonsense,” a local enforcement official said when I asked about the railroad police stopping an elderly angler.

I spoke with law enforcement, county board supervisors, a judge and city council members from around western Wisconsin. The common response was “Ice fishermen crossing the tracks? We have too many real problems.”

I also heard from many local residents who were concerned about losing access to over 200 miles of public lands along the Mississippi River.

Some outdoor enthusiasts told me they already gave up using public lands along the Mississippi. “My son was afraid when we were threatened,” one man told me.” His son went duck hunting last fall. “Now the boy doesn’t want to go hunting again.”

“This [action of the railroad] dissuades people from doing things they have a right to do,” said a trout angler, who is also a retired attorney. He questioned whether the railroad company had authority to write citations.

“Trespass citations are issued by a local authority unless special authority is conferred by the Legislature,” said the angler/retired attorney.

Federal law allows rail police to exist, but individual states must grant authority. Some states, like Minnesota, don’t allow rail police at all. Other states, like Illinois, highly regulate rail police and do give authority to write citations.

Wisconsin law allows limited authority to arrest but the officer must “immediately take the offender before a judge.” I could find no mention in the law of authority granted to issue “tickets” or local citations.

The retired attorney continued, “Say I was an angler and wanted to get to the river. The railroad does not have the authority to cite me for trespassing and they are threatening me. Doesn’t that come under the angler harassment law?”

In response to local concerns, I introduced three bills. The first would abolish the law that grants railroad police authority. By removing a section of the law, Wisconsin would become similar to Minnesota where rail police protect the property of the railroad but do not serve in a law enforcement capacity.

A story by a LaCrosse Tribune reporter was inspiration for the second bill. Under the open records law, the reporter requested from the railroad records of all rail police arrests and citations. The railroad denied the reporter’s request saying that as a private company the railroad did not follow open records laws.

However, if a company acts in a public law enforcement capacity, the public has a right to know what is going on. For this reason, I introduced a bill to apply the open records law to the railroad with regard to the arrests and citations for trespassing made by rail police.

Many people complained about the treatment they received by rail police. Unlike other states, Wisconsin has no avenue for residents to complain about unfair treatment by rail police. For this reason, I wrote a third bill to create a complaint process through the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

I asked the attorneys at the Wisconsin Legislative Council just what authority do railroad police have to write a citation or take other action. These attorneys serve lawmakers and research legal questions. Unfortunately, these folks are scrambling right now to keep up with the Capitol’s version of March Madness as the legislative majority rushes through hundreds of bills. I expect they will provide an answer to my question in a few weeks.

Stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted on what I learn.

MADISON - I’m going to be traveling all over the state next week, so I hope you can attend one of my events if you’re in Milwaukee, La Crosse, Eau Claire, Wausau, Green Bay, Appleton, Sheboygan, Waukesha, or Janesville.

The Milwaukee event is Thursday, March 17, and is sponsored by the Milwaukee Press Club and is on “Keeping Public Records Public.” I’ll be on a panel with Attorney General Brad Schimel, so I may tangle with him a bit. The event is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Lake Express High-Speed Ferry Terminal, 2330 S. Lincoln Memorial Drive.

The other events are all panels sponsored by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, and they deal with how to use the open records law. The Council has created Facebook event pages for each of the stops for those on Facebook who care to share them with others.

The stops and locations are listed here:

Day 1: Tuesday, March 15

2 pm: La Crosse
Local sponsor: La Crosse Tribune
Venue: La Crosse Public Library, 800 Main St.

7 pm: Eau Claire
Local sponsor: Eau Claire Leader-Telegram
Venue: UW-Eau Claire, Centennial Hall, Room 1614

Day 2: Wednesday, March 16

10 am: Wausau
Local sponsor: Wausau Daily Herald
Venue: Marathon County Public Library; 300 N. 1st St. Wausau

2 pm, Green Bay
Local sponsor: Green Bay Press-Gazette
Venue: Brown County Public Library, 515 Pine St., Green Bay

7:30 Appleton
Local sponsor: Appleton Post-Crescent
Venue: Appleton Public Library, 225 N Oneida St.

Day 3: Thursday, March 17

10 am, Sheboygan
Local sponsor: Sheboygan Press
Venue: Sheboygan Public Library, 710 N 8th St.

2 pm, Waukesha
Local sponsor: Schott, Bublitz and Engel, S.C.
Venue: Waukesha Public Library, 321 W Wisconsin Ave.

7 pm, Janesville
Local sponsor: Janesville Gazette
Venue: Blackhawk Technical College. 6004 S. County G, Janesville, Room 1400B

I hope to see you at one of these events, before I wear out!