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Illegal Coordination Highlighted in Guardian Story

Posted by Jon Erpenbach Press. State Senator 27th District
Jon Erpenbach Press. State Senator 27th District
State Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Madison) - A former radio personality and legisla
User is currently offline
on Wednesday, 14 September 2016
in Wisconsin

scott-walker-sworeinSenate Republicans knew they were blowing our campaign finance laws to pieces for their own personal benefit. That is the true crime in all of this.


MADISON, WI - Last November, the Wisconsin Senate Republicans made changes to Wisconsin election laws that they knew would allow collusion and coordination between political candidates and dark money issue ads in elections. This move was needed because they had been breaking the law, most notable in the recall elections as highlighted in The Guardian leak of thousands of pages of a John Doe investigation into Governor Scott Walker.

Wisconsin courts have found that if a group is coordinating on issue ads with a candidate, their spending -- regardless of whether it includes express advocacy -- can be considered a contribution, which under Wisconsin law encompasses both cash donations and the giving of anything of value. AB 387 changed that and made collusion and coordination legal, even when candidates coordinate with ’issue advocacy’ groups.

Issue ads claim they are NOT campaigning because they are just educating voters, not trying to influence the outcome of an election. But coordination with a candidate is the definition of campaigning. We argued all day on the Senate floor and every single Senate Republican knew they were blowing our campaign finance laws to pieces for their own personal benefit. That is the true crime in all of this. Politicians voting to benefits themselves.

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Blue Jean Nation "Things heard on the outside"

Posted by Mike McCabe, Blue Jean Nation
Mike McCabe, Blue Jean Nation
Mike McCabe is the founder and president of Blue Jean Nation and author of Blue
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 13 September 2016
in Wisconsin

capitol-night-wiscMost people living in small towns or out in the country claim to be Republicans, but only because they seem to despise Democrats. Few actually seem to like the Republicans deep down.


ALTOONA, WI - My past work as a government watchdog led me to spend more time than I liked in the State Capitol. With seemingly each passing day, I found the place increasingly unpleasant. Just setting foot in the building had a way of dampening my spirits. It’s a beautiful setting, but there’s growing ugliness in what goes on inside.

Since joining with others from around the state to give birth to Blue Jean Nation about a year and a half ago, I’ve been in the Capitol only three times, and none of the visits was my idea. I’ve made a point of staying away from the Capitol and hitting the road instead.

On a few occasions my recent travels have taken me outside Wisconsin’s borders. But for the most part, I’ve criss-crossed the countryside in my home state. Community events and gatherings from Argyle to Appleton to Ashland, from Waukesha to Waterloo to Wausau. Sometimes it’s bigger towns like Eau Claire, Green Bay, Janesville or La Crosse. Other times small towns like Lake Mills, Darlington, Viroqua, Elkhorn and Owen. For every trip to Milwaukee there have been visits to Menasha and Menomonie, Hayward and Hudson, Brookfield and Baraboo, Portage and Prairie du Chien. And dozens of other locales. Plans have me heading soon to Tomah, Waupun and New Glarus, among other places.

I’ve met with local residents in churches, coffee shops, cafes, bowling alleys, libraries, taverns, barns, feed mills, town halls and community centers. I’ve been invited into high school classrooms and to college campuses. Everywhere I go, I talk politics with those I meet. What I hear varies from place to place but at the same time is strikingly similar. Distill all the stories down and common themes emerge.

People are reluctant to talk politics, but you can tell they want to. Political discussions have been too painful lately.

The most commonly used word to describe both the economy and the political system has got to be “rigged.” It amazes me how often that word is chosen.

Pessimism is rampant. People seem afraid of what the future holds. Many are beaten down. No matter how hard they work, they see themselves falling behind. They have a hard time imagining how that’s going to change. This leads not only to intense frustration but also a strong suspicion that America’s best days are behind her.

Optimism is dormant but not dead. People want to believe things can get better, and are on the lookout for signs we might be turning the corner. Leadership is craved.

Few see themselves being the ones able to satisfy the craving. Most see leadership coming from someone else.

Someone else isn’t leading.

The word “Democrat” is toxic most everywhere outside of Madison and Milwaukee.

Most people living in small towns or out in the country are Republicans, but only because they despise Democrats. Few actually seem to like the Republicans deep down.

Most people can tell you what Republicans believe in, whether they agree with it or not. Most struggle to put into words what Democrats stand for. What they do say isn’t flattering.

Young people are not nearly as apathetic as older people think they are. They know what’s going on. They care. They may feel powerless, but that’s different than not caring.

People of every age tell you who’s to blame for the mess that’s been made, but then they say something that hints at understanding of how all the resentment and scapegoating lead nowhere good.

These are things you never hear in the State Capitol. And doesn’t that say something revealing about the Capitol?

— Mike McCabe

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State's LAB Celebrates 50 Years of Service

Posted by Kathleen Vinehout, State Senator 31st District
Kathleen Vinehout, State Senator 31st District
Kathleen Vinehout of Alma is an educator, business woman, and farmer who is now
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on Tuesday, 13 September 2016
in Wisconsin

lab-wiFor 50 years, the Legislative Audit Bureau has worked quietly behind the scenes monitoring funds and agencies to ensure state government delivers quality services.


MADISON - “Happy Birthday!” I told eighty auditors and other legislative leaders at a recent Capitol gathering. The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) recently celebrated 50 years of service to the people of the State of Wisconsin.

LAB is the agency that works quietly behind the scenes to ensure state government delivers quality services. The agency has earned high marks for its work in national circles and criticism from both sides of the aisle in its detailed depiction of problems and recommended changes to state government.

As described in the words of former State Auditor Janet Mueller, the LAB serves as “the Steward of the People’s Money.”

You might not have heard of the LAB, but they work methodically to ensure your tax dollars are well spent.

Half of the Audit Bureau team focuses on financial auditing. As a highly trained team of certified public accountants, these professionals are skilled in government accounting. They check and recheck records, and in some cases, must reconstruct records to review the accuracy of agencies’ reports.

The financial auditors are responsible for completing many audits required by state and federal law. Their work includes monitoring funds overseen by the State Investment Board; the State Lottery Fund; the State of Wisconsin itself and the Single Audit – a comprehensive accounting of all federal dollars flowing through state government. The details of the Single Audit are truly astounding as, thirty cents of every dollar the state spends is from Uncle Sam - with some programs larger. For example, forty cents of every transportation dollar spent is federal as is fifty cents of every health dollar spent.

Financial auditors answer questions like “How much money was spent?” and “Are adequate safeguards in place to assure money was properly accounted for?”

Program auditors make up the other half of the Audit Bureau team. They answer questions about state programs such as “How well is the program working?” and “How might the state improve service delivery?”

Program auditors often work closely with financial auditors. For example, the troubled Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s performance was examined thoroughly by both financial and program auditors in three separate audits.

Early audits of WEDC showed no clear budget or consistent accounting practices in an agency that distributes tens of millions in grants and loans and hundreds of millions in tax credits. Even the most recent audit found WEDC lost track of loans. Millions in other loans were written off when companies failed to deliver promised jobs. WEDC broke federal rules and, as a consequence, Wisconsin paid penalties. Remarkably, WEDC failed to independently verify that companies given tax dollars to create jobs actually did as they promised.

Sometimes the auditors do such a good job, state leaders want to get rid of them. I think of this as “Killing the Messenger.” For example, in the FY 15-17 Governor’s budget, he removed the requirement for LAB to financially audit WEDC. Thankfully the legislature replaced the requirement, and LAB will issue a new WEDC audit this spring.

Following the release of the third disturbing audit of the WEDC, two Assemblymen, Rep. Craig (R-Big Bend) and Rep. Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) circulated a bill to abolish the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and replace the agency with partisan “Inspector Generals” to be housed in the very agencies they oversee.

Again, thoughtful lawmakers prevailed and the bill died. Wisconsin needs more nonpartisan oversight, not less. We need LAB’s steadfast efforts in evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of state government.

Later this month, the Legislative Audit Committee, which I serve as ranking minority member, will meet to take up a new crisis in state government: the care of veterans at the Wisconsin King Veterans Home.

All citizens can contact the Legislative Audit Bureau through a toll free hotline (1-877-FRAUD-17) for citizens to report fraud, waste and mismanagement in state government.

Congratulations to State Auditor Joe Chrisman and his dedicated staff, and to former state auditors Jan Mueller and Dale Cattanach who helped make LAB the award winning team it is today. Wishing the LAB many more years of service as the Steward of the People’s Money!

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Tax Giveaways Are Not Creating Jobs

Posted by Janet Bewley Press, State Senator Dist 25
Janet Bewley Press, State Senator Dist 25
Janet Bewley, State Senator Dist 25 was elected to the Senate in the fall of 201
User is currently offline
on Saturday, 10 September 2016
in Wisconsin

walker-senateIn every quarter since the first Walker Budget took effect, Wisconsin has trailed the nation in total private job creation. The Republican plan is not working.


ASHLAND - Quarterly numbers released Wednesday show that Wisconsin lost 509 manufacturing jobs. For 19 straight quarters Wisconsin has trailed the nation in total private job creation. That’s every quarter since the first Walker Budget took effect in 2011.

My Republican colleagues keep saying that they have a plan for growing Wisconsin’s economy. They’ve been saying it for 6 years, but simply saying something doesn’t make it true.

Take the Manufacturing & Agriculture Tax Credit, which took effect in 2013. “What we’re trying to do is grow jobs, so it’s very much in keeping with that,” budget committee chair Senator Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) said. “Come to Wisconsin. Make things here,” said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington).

Earlier this summer I released a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo exposing that 20,527 fewer manufacturing jobs were created in the three years after the Manufacturing Tax Credit took effect than in the three years before.

This week’s news is even worse for defenders of this shameless giveaway. We didn’t just create fewer jobs, we lost manufacturing jobs. And the credit is going to take $209 million of working taxpayers’ money next year and put it in the pockets of wealthy individuals who aren’t using it to create new jobs. 11 people earning more than $35 million will be handed $21.5 million of your money.

The plan isn’t working. It’s time to stop picking working taxpayers’ pockets for this entitlement for the already entitled. Handouts like the Manufacturing Tax Credit are preventing us from making investments in our roads and schools. Those investments would actually grow our economy.

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Blue Jean Nation "Yogurt and presidents"

Posted by Mike McCabe, Blue Jean Nation
Mike McCabe, Blue Jean Nation
Mike McCabe is the founder and president of Blue Jean Nation and author of Blue
User is currently offline
on Saturday, 10 September 2016
in Wisconsin

nose-holder-memeWe see ourselves stuck with two choices, and not just in presidential elections. But we have more power than we know, more choices than we realize.


ALTOONA, WI - Henry Ford famously said his customers could get one of his cars in any color they wanted as long as it was black. American consumers have come a long way since the days of the Model T.

American voters haven’t. Ford’s “they can have what I say they can have” philosophy is nowhere to be seen anymore in commerce but it still looms large in elections. Some 150 years ago Boss Tweed quipped “I don’t care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating.” It’s not so very different today.

As Daily Show host Trevor Noah recently wisecracked: “When it comes to everything except presidential candidates, Americans have the most choices for more things that anyone else in the world. Like, I can walk into a supermarket — any supermarket in America — and choose from literally 400 different kinds of yogurt…. And yet, when it comes to selecting America’s leader for the next four years, you’re stuck with two choices: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Or to put that in yogurt terms: vanilla and Sriracha baboon anus.”

This is the truth, but not the whole truth. We see ourselves stuck with two choices alright, and not just in presidential elections but all partisan elections. We can vote for major party nominees who occasionally win but rarely do what we want once elected and regularly sell us out. Or we can vote for minor party candidates who seem less compromised and more likely to act in our interests but never win. An inadequate and profoundly unsatisfying choice, to say the least.

Here’s what’s amazing. As demanding as we are as consumers, that’s just how passively accepting we are as citizens.

We don’t have to be passive. We don’t have to be accepting. We have more power than we know. And we have more choices than we realize.

When major party establishments offer us bleak and bleaker, our choices are not limited to either holding our noses and selecting what we consider the lesser of evils or saying the hell with it and casting a protest vote for someone with no chance of winning. There is another option.

Almost exactly a century ago, farmers in North Dakota were at wit’s end about the insensitivity of elected officials to their economic plight. A couple of socialists organized tens of thousands of disgruntled North Dakotans and lined up reform candidates to run for office all across the state. But they didn’t run under the Socialist Party banner. Their movement and their candidates were embedded in North Dakota’s ruling Republican Party and in a few short years they took it over.

Almost exactly a century later, at the beginning of this decade, anti-government feelings smoldered in poor, recession-ravaged communities and was fanned by rich right-wing ideologues, exploding into a prairie fire that swept the country. It was dubbed the Tea Party, but it was not a party at all. Its organizers took cues from those North Dakota socialists and embedded their insurgency within the Republican Party, and in a few short years lightning struck again in the same place. The GOP was pretty much taken over.

Now go all the way back to the 19th Century. The Progressives of the late 1800s tried for a time to establish a separate party, but did not truly gain traction until their kind were embedded in both major parties. Once you had Teddy Roosevelt successfully running for president as a Progressive on the Republican ticket and some years later Woodrow Wilson winning the presidency as a Progressive on the Democratic ticket, the major parties had no choice but to embrace the Progressive agenda and enact Progressive reforms. America was radically transformed.

Consider what was done by Wisconsin’s legislature in 1911 alone. Child labor laws and protections for women in the workplace were put in place. Workers’ compensation was established to help injured laborers. And so much more. Railroad regulation. Insurance reform. The first state life insurance program anywhere in the country. The nation’s first system of taxation based on ability to pay, namely the progressive income tax. America’s first vocational, technical and adult education system. All done by a legislature made up almost entirely of Republicans and Democrats. All done by Progressives embedded in those major parties.

All done by people who refused to accept the dismal choice we assume we are stuck with today.

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