Progressive Thinking

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!