Progressive Thinking

Republicans need to look past ideology and work with Democrats to fix Wisconsin’s budget crisis.

MADISON - On Wednesday, a memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau indicated that, despite promises of windfalls, there will be no new revenue to salvage Walker’s sinking economy.

Despite a national growing economy nationally and significant revenue growth in neighboring Midwestern states like Minnesota, which is expecting a $2 billion surplus, Wisconsin continues to fall further behind because of extreme GOP policies. Instead, they have created a self-inflicted $2.2 billion deficit.

Instead of focusing on Wisconsin’s traditional shared values over the past five years, currently the Republicans in power have been consumed with historic slashes to education funding and denying our neighbors access to basic health services and family-supporting jobs, while at the same time widening tax loopholes for the wealthy and corporations.

On one hand, Minnesota is flush with cash and reaping the benefits because they have invested in their public schools, raised wages for families, and expanded access to affordable health care. On the other hand, Republicans in Wisconsin have been busy selling out our state to the lowest bidder.

Now is the time for a course correction. Governor Walker must put his personal ambitions on hold and Republicans in the legislature must look past their extreme ideology and work with Democrats to start investing in pro-growth policies that represent the shared values of the state and our citizens to get us out of this budget crisis.

We can do this by moving forward with accepting the federal Medicaid expansion and by pausing the costly Manufacturing and Agriculture Tax Credit.

It is time to end the regressive era in Wisconsin politics and get the state moving forward again.

Republicans push for lower pay and less skill for Wisconsin workers and their families.

MADISON - On Tuesday, Republican leaders in the Wisconsin legislature held a hearing on the repeal of our prevailing wage law.

After hours of testimony, it is crystal clear Wisconsin workers and businesses do not support dismantling yet another protection for Wisconsin’s middle class, our prevailing wage law, which has been critical in creating a top-notch construction industry in our state since the 1930s. This system is effective in delivering quality work, by a well-trained Wisconsin workforce, at a price that is mindful of our shared, public investments.

Hardworking Wisconsinites are already struggling under the failed policies of the governor and his Republican allies in the Legislature. Recently, it was unveiled that Wisconsin ranks the worst among all 50 states in terms of a shrinking middle class. Instead of facing this reality, we are talking about repealing a law that helps ensure jobs go to local workers whose families shop in local businesses, thus strengthening local communities. At the same time, just down the hall from the hearing, legislators on the Joint Finance Committee are discussing a budget that spends and borrows more money than at any point in state history.

In addition to workers, we heard from an expert who has studied the construction industry for over 20 years, Dr. Peter Philips. Dr. Philip’s posed a crucial question to lawmakers: ‘Do you want this to be a high-wage, high-skill industry or a low-wage, low-skill industry?’

The facts from other states show, repealing prevailing wage will drive down wages, promote the outsourcing of workers, lower productivity levels, decrease workplace safety, and restrict access to health care. It will ultimately prevent people from being part of the middle class and reaching the American Dream – an already increasingly rare commodity in our state.

Prevailing wage laws ensure we have well-trained, skilled workers, who give the taxpayers the best deal by doing high-quality work, efficiently. In fact, under the prevailing wage law, Wisconsin is the third most productive in the country and even the best in the Midwest in terms of our workers getting things done right and on time. Pulling prevailing wage out by the roots is morally and economically the wrong direction for Wisconsin. As one person who testified put it: ‘this is the kind of bill that will make those who build our bridges, end up living underneath them.’

Bipartisan effort by Wisconsin Legislators seeks to lessen burden on students and teachers.

GREEN BAY - On Tuesday, State Representative Eric Genrich (D-Green Bay), along with a bipartisan group of 23 Wisconsin legislators, sent a letter to the Wisconsin Congressional delegation urging their support for legislation to eliminate annual federal testing requirements.

The Student Testing Improvement and Accountability Act, introduced by Sen. Tester (D-Montana) in the Senate and Rep. Sinema (AZ-9) and Gibson (NY-19) in the House, replaces the current provision in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that requires every public school child to sit for an annual test in grades 3-8 and once in high school with one that instead requires testing in three grade spans: elementary, middle and high school.

"The current federally-required testing regime reduces instructional time, sidelines creativity in the classroom, and has not proved to be successful in the effort to improve academic success," said Genrich. "This legislation allows teachers to place more of the focus where it belongs: on classroom teaching and learning."

As the Congress moves to reauthorize the ESEA, a diverse set of lawmakers and advocates have stepped forward to support efforts to remove the burdensome annual federal testing requirements and empower local teachers and school boards to determine educational priorities.

Genrich continued, “Now is the right time to acknowledge that annual standardized tests do not drive student success. While we face an uphill battle in the fight to reduce unnecessary testing in our classrooms, I am encouraged by this bipartisan recognition of the need to free our students and teachers from a system of testing that has failed them.”

The U.S. Senate is anticipated to begin its floor debate on ESEA reauthorization later this month. Sen. Tester has pledged to offer his legislation as an amendment at that time.

STATEWIDE - The combination of the growing number of poverty wage jobs that do not provide health benefits and Governor Walker’s decision to reject federal dollars for BadgerCare are already having a major fiscal impact on the state budget, which will grow worse for the foreseeable future.

The number of Wisconsin workers eligible for BadgerCare and who work for large poverty wage employers has increased by 8% over the last year, according to data released last week by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Highly profitable corporations such as Walmart, McDonald’s, Kwik Trip and Target now have more employees on BadgerCare than they did in 2013. New federal data released last week shows that Medicaid enrollment in Wisconsin has increased more than 6.8% over the last year.

One of the main drivers increasing BadgerCare enrollment is the failure of Wisconsin’s economic development policies to produce family supporting jobs which include health benefits. Nine of the top ten occupations with job openings in Wisconsin have low or very low wages and benefits. The two fastest growing occupations in Wisconsin are retail and fast food jobs. Recent reports from the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty and the UW-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development confirm that poverty wage jobs are the major source of job growth in Wisconsin, and that poverty continues to increase even as more of these jobs are created.

The disturbing growth in poverty wage jobs is making the fiscal impact of Governor Walker’s decision to reject enhanced federal dollars for BadgerCare even worse. This is because Wisconsin is needlessly paying 40 cents on the dollar for many BadgerCare enrollees who could be entirely paid for with federal dollars. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates each individual on BadgerCare not covered with the enhanced federal funding Walker rejected costs Wisconsin $4,596 per year. The Fiscal Bureau estimate of the cost of this decision continues to increase. According to the most recent estimate, the decision to reject enhanced federal Medicaid dollars will cost the state $345 million in the next budget, unless the Legislature reverses it.

“The combination of the failure of Governor Walker’s economic policies to create family supporting jobs and his misguided decision to reject federal funds for BadgerCare together are having a major negative impact on the state budget which will grow worse over time,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “Governor Walker’s economic, health care, and budget policies are creating a perfect storm of destruction, needlessly denying affordable health care to tens of thousands, shrinking the middle class, and leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table that could be used to support education, long term care, and other vital investments needed to expand opportunity.”

It can be difficult for legislators to know the full effect of cuts without the critical input of citizens. Senator Kathleen Vinehout writes about how citizen input provided her with details about the effect of cuts in the DNR budget.

MADISON - “Why is it I keep hearing more about what’s in the governor’s budget?” the woman asked me. “Don’t you see it all at once and then decide what to do?”

It can be difficult for legislators to know the full effect of cuts without the critical input of citizens.

For example, news of cuts to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) made its way to western Wisconsin. Constituents communicated back to me the effect of these cuts. Through emails, phone calls and office visits I was able to piece together the real effect of a few lines of DNR budget cuts.

County conservation staff assists locals in protecting water resources and rehabilitating lost habitat. For example, last summer I was delighted to attend the “opening” of a rehabilitated trout stream in Buffalo County. While only Mother Nature can create a trout stream, a hard-working coalition of people made possible the restoration of habitat to bring spawning trout back to Buffalo County.

There are dozens of best practices farmers can use to protect waterways and keep nutrients where they belong – on the crops. Investing in the assistance farmers need to be good land and water stewards is an investment that will pay off for future generations.

One way to accomplish change in the quality of our waterways is to engage groups of farmers through a process known as farmer-led councils. This water quality enhancement process focuses energy of many community members in a transparent and democratic process. But to be successful, projects need a dedicated coordinator. This role falls to UW Extension staff funded in part through a line in the DNR budget called nonpoint source contracts.

When I first saw this budget line, I imagined contracts to private industry. Only through emails, phone calls, office visits and more phone calls did I realize the full extent of the decision to eliminate these funds. Further, I began to understand the value of farmer-led watershed councils and the important role conservation and extension staff play in coordinating the work of many community groups and levels of government.

Residents of Dunn and Barron Counties are working hard to restore Lake Menomin and Tainter Lake. Restoration efforts are enhanced by the Red Cedar River Water Quality Partnership, made up of 14 different groups including businesses, Wisconsin Farmers Union, nonprofits and local residents through their lake association. But without the coordination of UW extension staff, the partnership would not be effective.

I received a letter and office visits from Dunn County Board Chair Steve Rasmussen who told me about the work to “mitigate the pollution of the watershed and algae blooms” in the lakes.

Chair Rasmussen wrote, “Elimination of these two positions would be a major setback in a multi-county/multi-municipality effort to improve the health of the Red Cedar River Watershed…The health of the Red Cedar River is of critical importance to the citizens of Dunn County.”

Later I spoke with Mr. Rasmussen who told me 68% of all pollution in the Red Cedar came from agriculture. Farmer-led initiatives were an effective way to address nonpoint source pollution. Farmers talk with each other. They learn from each other. Sometimes folks will more readily accept new practices if they see their neighbors doing it.

Cutting conservation and extension staff comes at a critical time for the Red Cedar and watersheds across the state. I spoke to a man with intimate knowledge of land and water conservation, Jim VandenBrook, the executive director of Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association. He said “The facts are clear: water quality has progressively gotten worse since the 1990s; Great Lakes Initiative money is disappearing; DNR does not have the staff to do education. We are the educators for DNR.”

In our discussion about the work of the conservation and extension staff Jim noted the watershed partners “are all worried all our work is going by the wayside.”

Indeed. The partners know why we work so hard to protect land and water.

Thank you to all who wrote or called. Your input is critical for Wisconsin’s future. In the words of the ancient proverb, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”.