Progressive Thinking

Damaging changes proposed to the WRS Board structure under the cover of darkness, with no debate or public input, which could open the door for political manipulation and corruption.

MADISON - The Joint Finance Committee ended its work on the state budget last week by slipping in some policy changes in it's last minute Motion, #999. One of them affects landline phone service, which may hurt many rural residents in northern Wisconsin. Another changes the composition of the Joint Survey Committee On Retirement Systems (JSCRS).

This committee is responsible for reviewing any changes to the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). It has been composed of Senate and Assembly legislators of both parties plus representatives of the public, the Attorney General, The Department of Employee Trust Funds, and the Insurance Commissioners office. Under the proposed changes, the committee would become entirely appointed legislators (five Assembly and five Senate).

As with many of the proposals in this budget, this one is a “solution looking for a problem.” The current committee structure has been working. WRS is rated as one of the best public retirement programs in the nation. Why are changes being proposed?

The JSCRS is a powerful committee that is legally required to review any proposed changes to the WRS so that all the long term "effects" are known. This means "effects" on taxpayers, on retirees, on workers, of government agencies, on retention of high quality workers, etc. Recently, the legislature has been avoiding this law and making changes to the WRS without detailed study.

This proposal opens the door for political manipulation and corruption. The ruling party would have complete control over reviewing and recommending changes to the WRS. It reduces broad public oversight of a $100 billion public trust fund.

Governor Scott Walker and many Republican leaders support the goal of the right wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Wall Street to privatize public pension funds. Under privatization, Wall Street could make billions in fees and control the investments to divert retiree fund monies into their buddies' businesses. Governments could decrease their share of funding of public pension systems and retirees would get smaller pensions.

Is this an overreaction? Maybe. Will the state legislature vote yes on this budget proposal? We don't know. But has your paper, radio or TV station been covering this attempt to change WRS? Probably not.

It is very "Walker like" for the Governor to make an outrageous proposal like the recent attack on open government, walk it back in the face of outrage, then "end run" other damaging changes to public policy with no debate or public input, while the media is busy congratulating itself on their "victory".

The Joint Finance Committee ended its work on the state budget last week by slipping in some policy changes in it's last minute Motion, #999. One of them affects landline phone service, which many rural residents depend upon for all purposes including emergencies. They don’t have the option of a cell phone because of lack of coverage in many rural areas of the state.

MADISON - I didn’t expect to look up telephone laws reading the state budget.

Snuck in the end of the Joint Finance Committee’s work is a law change that could affect the safety of rural residents. It had me asking, “What if you picked up the phone to call 911 and heard no dial tone?”

Rural residents rely on small legal protections to keep a dial tone on their landline phones. Thousands of rural residents live in an area where cell phones do not work and cable services do not exist.

We rely on landlines for business, neighborliness, family communication, and emergencies and safety.

In 2011 a “modernization” of the laws governing telephones removed state law protecting consumers. Part of this legal language was known as the “provider of last resort”. That “provider” would be your local rural phone company.

Some phone companies are cooperatives heavily invested in serving rural residents - even providing high-speed Internet in some areas. But other rural providers are big city companies looking to invest in urban, not rural areas.

Recently the state’s budget writing committee finished its work. The final committee budget motion contained over 60 items amending state laws. Most of these items were policy unrelated to the spending of state dollars. In “capitol speak” we call these “non-fiscal provisions”.

One overlooked provision removed a date from state law – that is it. But the date, tying state law to consumer protections in federal law on January 1, 2010, protected rural telephone consumers from big telephone companies pulling the plug on their landline.

In another provision, the job of cleaning up those old telephone poles is left to land owners and local government (I find this incredibly irresponsible).

AT&T has made it clear they intend to eliminate all copper lines in the U.S. in the next decade. Call me pessimistic, but I do not see cable or cell coverage coming to the hills of western Wisconsin or the north woods any time soon.

So how are you going to call 911? Did anyone ask those 12 budget committee legislators – many represent rural folks – before they voted “aye”?

Much recent budget action would not endear legislators to their constituents if the people knew details about policy for which the 12 voted.

Here’s a sampling of the recent budget action. Take away powers of a locally elected (Milwaukee) county board to oversee contracts. Get rid of the (Madison) sanitary district county board appointees. Change the tax code to give more breaks to big business; Tax every dime of wage earners but remove mention of ‘living wage’ in Wisconsin law. Rewrite the minimum wage law. Make it harder to get employees represented by a union.

Added are new regulations of “pharmacy benefit managers” (those companies who tell you which generic drug you can have). Allow out-of-state “risk retention groups” to sell insurance. Increase the ways payday loan companies can dupe unsuspecting consumers. Provide details of how to resolve unpaid health insurance claims for chiropractors. Changes in septic and well pump installer electrician licensing and sprinkler codes adopted by cities. Some of these ideas might have merit – but they all deserve an open and transparent public hearing.

Fortunately, egregious changes to the state’s open record laws – sheltering the work of lawmakers from the public’s eye – became public. Under significant public pressure, the governor and legislative leaders agreed to remove any changes related to open records laws.

What about the remaining policy in the budget? All too often bills that fail to pass through the normal legislative process end up in the budget.

This is especially true with education policy that did not clear the Education Committee: special education “vouchers” for private schools; expanding who can “authorize” privately run charter school paid for with tax dollars; changes to the rules on “school report cards” for private schools paid for with public money and allow private schools to choose among several alternatives to the statewide student test.

Not all states struggle with policy hidden in the state budget.

Colorado, Oklahoma and Illinois are a few states I found that limit non-fiscal policy in the state budget. The latter uses a very simple Constitutional statement: Appropriation bills shall be limited to the subject of appropriations.

MADISON - Wisconsin Democrats have a bad case of Scott Walker on the brain.

The governor is in the news constantly, especially now that he is unofficially but obviously running for president. His opponents do a great deal to help keep him in the news, ridiculing his every move and parsing his every word and filling the blogosphere and twitterverse with a daily recital of his transgressions and shortcomings and overall unfitness for office. Whether any of it is true or false is beside the point. It all does Walker a considerable service.

In his book Don’t Think of an Elephant! and other writings, noted linguist George Lakoff examines how the human brain works, politically speaking. In our minds, words and images fit within what he calls moral “frames” and what us non-linguists would probably call core values. One of Lakoff’s key teachings is that when faced with facts that conflict with a moral frame, many if not most people will ignore the facts and hold tight to the frame. Lakoff also has observed that negating a frame paradoxically evokes the frame. For example, when Nixon told the country “I am not a crook,” the negation conjured the frame. The president unwittingly made people think of crooks when they thought of him.

There’s an old saying, “Speak of the devil and he appears.” When Walker’s enemies talk endlessly about what a bum the governor is, they keep the governor top of mind. Negating Walker evokes Walker . . . and relegates his critics and their ideas to the political equivalent of a dusty attic.

Democrats would be better off giving the governor the Lord Voldemort treatment. Do not speak his name. Resist the temptation to vent about You-Know-Who’s latest slip of the tongue or divide-and-conquer maneuver. Think twice when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named does one more thing prompting the urge to hurl insults. Counter the impulse to spew more venom with a conscious effort to concentrate on hopes and dreams and big plans for making Wisconsin a better place.

It has been well established that Wisconsin Democrats cannot beat Walker by hating Walker. Hating him has helped him immeasurably, made him stronger. Wisconsin has been reminded daily what the Democrats are against. What they are for is more of a mystery to state voters. It will remain a mystery until the choice is made to stop obsessing – and mourning – over what is being torn down and start drawing up blueprints for what will be built up.

If Democrats could just channel their inner Harry Potter, they would see that’s the power the Dark Lord knows not.

MADISON - In their provocative book The Fourth Turning, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe suggest there is a predictable rhythm to social conditions and change, with alternating periods of progress, decay and renewal.

According to Strauss and Howe, each generation has distinct characteristics and archetypes that contribute to the perpetual change and occasional upheaval societies experience. Over the course of what they describe as a “natural century,” or roughly the length of a normal human life, there are four identifiable phases or “turnings.”

A first turning is marked by a high, that euphoric buzz that accompanies a recent overhaul of the social order. Faith in institutions is high, and society is confident of where it is headed collectively. These heady times are followed by an awakening, when institutions begin to be questioned and attacked in the name of personal autonomy. Just when society is reaching a high tide of public progress, people tire of communal discipline and long for more individual satisfaction and enjoyment.

Awakenings invariably produce an unraveling. Public institutions become weak and distrusted. Individualism flourishes. More than one observer has noticed that the early part of the 21st Century has amounted to a “great unraveling.” After unraveling comes crisis. Fourth turnings are phoenix moments, when societies are reborn – as if arising from the ashes – and national identity is redefined. Institutions are torn down and rebuilt from the ground up in response to a perceived threat to the nation’s very survival. Civic life revives, and a sense of community purpose reemerges.

America’s last fourth turning began with the stock market crash of 1929 and climaxed with World War II, followed by a prolonged post-war high, closely tracing the telltale pattern Strauss and Howe identified. Highs follow crises when society senses it must coalesce and rebuild. Unravelings come on the heels of awakenings, when the social impulse is to fragment and enjoy.

As the title of their book implies, the U.S. is now entering a fourth turning. Our country has gone through this before . . . three times to be exact. The first was at the time of the nation’s founding and culminated with the American Revolution. The second was the nation’s reckoning with the scourge of slavery and the resulting Civil War. The third was the Great Depression and World War II. The impending crisis grows out of the chaos of economic globalization, the concentration of wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands, and global climate change.

Public institutions are in tatters, having fallen victim to the loss of civic consciousness that came with the great unraveling. The major political parties are canaries in the coal mine.

The Republican Party was established by radicals who sought to overthrow morally bankrupt institutions and remake the social order. It now works to ward off social change and protect the privileges of the high and mighty. The GOP once was the party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower and devoted itself to creating opportunity for all. It now is dedicated to serving the rich.

The Democratic Party has spent an enormous amount of energy trying to make amends for being on the wrong side of history with respect to slavery, and even emerged as a force for considerable good under the leadership of FDR at a time of national and global crisis. But since then the Democrats have experienced their own great unraveling, to the point where it is known to most Americans simply as the party of more government and higher taxes. At a time when society has grown wary if not resentful of public authority and when once-stout public institutions are being torn to pieces, being the party of government is not solid ground to stand on. Today’s Democrats are easy prey for opponents wishing to caricature them as a party that takes from people who work and gives to people who don’t.

Meanwhile, economic and environmental challenges and demand for social change are reaching a boiling point.

Another phoenix moment fast approaches.

Where political parties are allowed to pick their voters and protect their majorities we have seen growing polarization as the party in power feels protected from the wishes of the voters. Independent redistricting has been shown to reduce polarization.

GREEN BAY - In response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding independent drawing of legislative districts, it is time for Wisconsin to move forward with passage of legislation that would create an independent Redistricting Advisory Commission to oversee the legislative and congressional redistricting process.

“The conservative U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the ability of states to enact laws creating an independent non-partisan redistricting process. It is time for Wisconsin to join the growing movement to end the ability of politicians and political parties to rig district lines to protect their jobs and their majorities,” said Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), author of Senate Bill 58 to create a non-partisan redistricting process.

In its decision, the Court upheld the right and interest of the public to have a fair and independent process that takes politics out of redistricting.

According to Hansen, “It doesn’t matter which party is in power, Republicans or Democrats, gerrymandering districts to protect the power of politicians for either party violates the spirit of a true democracy. The people have a right to free, fair elections where their votes actually matter, regardless of where they live.”

Research commissioned by the USC Schwarzenegger Institute showed that after independent redistricting was implemented in California, their state legislature became less polarized with the gap in polarization between the parties falling 15% in the Assembly and 10% in the state Senate based upon the votes taken by members of both parties.

Where political parties are allowed to pick their voters and protect their majorities we have seen growing polarization as the party in power feels protected from the wishes of the voters.

Here in Wisconsin the proposed state budget contains a number of items vastly opposed by Wisconsin residents including a $250 million cut to the state’s public universities, cuts to public schools and taxpayer funding for the Bucks arena.

“If legislators from both parties had to be concerned with the wishes of all the voters we likely would not have seen these provisions in the state budget," said Hansen.  "Instead we might likely see a budget that would have enough votes from both parties to have already been approved by the Legislature."

Now, the budget process is delayed as Republican leaders attempt to pass a budget bloated with special interest giveaways in exchange for cuts that harm the middle-class.

***

Senate Staffer Jay Wadd contributed to this article.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about the state’s transportation budget which has stalled deliberations on the state budget. Here are some options to break the impasse on the transportation portion of the budget by addressing the four major components: raising revenue, lowering spending, cutting debt and improving efficiency.

MADISON - “If it was up to you,” the Chamber of Commerce moderator asked area legislators, “How would you solve the transportation problem?”

Budget talks are stalled. Legislators can’t seem to find a way through the labyrinth of interests stalking the Capitol halls. One main sticking point is how to balance the transportation budget.

Governor Walker left lawmakers with $1.3 billion in new debt to pay for roads over the next two years. Among many decisions the governor made was to increase spending in the Major Highway Development Program by $100 million or over 13%. He borrowed $109 million to pay for this spending.

One decision the governor did not make was to take any of the two-dozen suggestions of his Secretary of Transportation to make possible changes in revenue – new taxes or fees.

Of course, borrowing $1.3 billion to pay for spending means someone in the future would have to increase taxes and fees. This is true because, by the end of the budget nearly a quarter of the spending on transportation is on debt service –an unsustainable amount.

So how to fix the transportation budget? The answer is to raise revenue, lower spending, cut debt and improve efficiencies in the dollars we spend.

Easy to say – hard to do.

To raising revenue: the simplest and easiest to administer is to increase the per-gallon gas tax. I suggest by a nickel.

Talking through options with our nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) analysts, I was reminded of lawmakers’ changes in 2006 that eliminated indexing (or matching to inflation) of the gas tax. If this law were still in place, the tax would be 6.5 cents more and better kept up with rising costs.

The LFB analysts also reminded me average fuel economy has improved giving consumers a 2.7-cent “bonus” (my words, not theirs) as improving gas mileage gets us farther on a gallon of gas. To quote LFB analyst Al Runde:

Paying less in fuel taxes for the same miles driven means that while the state’s roads receive the same impact [wear], fuel tax revenues associated with those miles driven has fallen, making it more difficult for the state to maintain and construct its roads.”

To changes in spending: I suggest we cut the really big road projects in Southeast Wisconsin by about $100 million, not buy the 13% increase the governor wants in the “majors”. Instead, cut both it and the Highway Rehab program by $50 million each. Get rid of the TEA program (an economic development program that has no evidence of success) as well as a new pilot program to eliminate competitive bidding (not a good idea!).

I would limit the Freight Rail Program to its current balance. My constituents simply cannot justify borrowing $43 million to buy new state-owned railroad with all the other deep cuts in this budget.

These changes and others could cut borrowing in half and allow for significant spending increases in local and state road repair, transit, and other alternative transportation options. In my alternative transportation budget, I also add investments in rail-crossing improvements and rail emergency preparedness – two important constituent concerns. In addition, I return money the governor ‘raided’ from the general fund to pay for road repairs.

Finally, answering the thorny question of how to get a better “bang for our buck” in road spending. The conservative Reason Foundation studied state transportation spending for over two decades. A study released last fall provides clues to Wisconsin’s road spending.

I compared numbers between Minnesota and Wisconsin –two states with similar weather and miles of state-owned roads. Over three years, Minnesota’s total spending on transportation per state-controlled mile grew less than 3%. During the same period (2009-2012) Wisconsin’s spending per state-controlled mile grew 37%.

By 2012, Wisconsin spent $226,901 per state-controlled mile to Minnesota’s $132,230.

I don’t know why spending is so different but I think Wisconsin taxpayers ought to find out why. That’s why I am renewing my call for a comprehensive audit of Transportation.

Solving the Transportation budget will be difficult. Delaying projects will take their toll on residents and business. However, making our grandchildren pay for our inability to say “no” is not a responsible choice.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has once again upheld the ACA as the law of the land, Governor Walker should do the right thing for the people of Wisconsin and take back our federal tax dollars to strengthen BadgerCare.

GREEN BAY - Thursday’s 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding Affordable Care Act tax credits is an especially important victory for the 183,000 Wisconsinites, including 11,000 children, who stood to lose their health care coverage. Had the decision gone the other way, Gov. Scott Walker made it clear as recently as Wednesday that he would not take any affirmative steps to ensure those families would continue to be covered.

According to State Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), the “decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is a win for those who believe everyone should have access to affordable, quality health care". It "brings peace of mind to more than 166,000 Wisconsin residents who are secure in knowing that their coverage under the Affordable Care Act will continue as it was intended."

Unfortunately, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites still cannot access health care because extreme legislative Republicans refuse to enact the same law that all our neighboring states benefit from, at least in part due to Walker’s presidential posturing.

Joining our Midwestern neighbors in reclaiming our federal health care investments would allow more than 80,000 Wisconsin citizens to access health care coverage at a savings of more than $360 million over the next two years and well over $2 billion over the decade. It would provide health care access to more people at a lower cost to taxpayers and could help Wisconsin invest tax dollars in schools and communities.

Hansen says “Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has once again upheld the ACA as the law of the land, Governor Walker should do the right thing for the people of Wisconsin and take back our federal tax dollars to strengthen BadgerCare. Doing so would provide health insurance to thousands while saving Wisconsin taxpayers over $360 million over the next two years.”

Adds Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha),  “The people of Wisconsin are tired of legislative Republicans forcing them to take a back seat to Governor Walker’s political career. It’s time to do the right thing by taking the health care money.”

MADISON - Wisconsin deserves far more than a debate over whether investment in our state university system should be cut by $300 million as the governor wishes or $250 million as legislative leaders desire. The debate should be about how to make education as affordable for future generations as past generations made it for us. Lawmakers here and across the country should be trying to figure out how to reach the goal of tuition-free college. The future of the American Dream depends on it.

Something predictable happens when it is suggested that the promise of free public education for all children be extended all the way through college. Hardcore right-wingers balk at the idea of paying for anything that helps someone else. But something else happens too. Liberals instinctively call for means testing, arguing that only those who could not otherwise afford to pay for schooling should get society’s assistance.

This liberal impulse is understandable. It is also self-defeating. It ends up undermining the very kind of public investments liberals think are so critically important. It does so by stigmatizing public investments and sowing the seeds of resentment and hostility toward the beneficiaries.

Means testing inevitably pits those who qualify against those who don’t. It is no accident that the government programs that have been most successful and enduring – like Social Security – are not means tested. Everyone pays, everyone benefits.

Means tests also are prone to creating poverty traps. You have to be needy enough to qualify for a public benefit, and you have to stay needy enough to keep receiving it.

In order to have a just and decent society, we need to be there for each other. And we need our government to reflect that spirit of interdependence. Arriving there depends on us being smart enough to resist impulses like means testing that make government programs vulnerable to divide-and-conquer tactics. To the greatest extent humanly possible, what government does needs to be done for the whole of society. Everyone pays, everyone benefits.

Earl Holt III, leader of white supremacist group Council of Conservative Citizens cited in 'Dylann Roof manifesto' donated to top Republican politicians, including ours in Wisconsin. Says it is "not surprising" that Roof learned about "black-on-white violent crime" from the group's site.

GREEN BAY - A white supremacist who influenced the Charleston church shooter gave tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and committees in the past five years, including $3,500 to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, $1,250 to Sen. Ron Johnson and $1,000 to Rep. Paul Ryan's leadership committee.

The Green Bay Press Gazette reported Monday that Earl Holt III, president of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which was cited in a manifesto by shooter Dylann Roof, contributed $500 on seven occasions to Walker's campaign since 2011.

Holt also contributed $500 in 2011 and $500 in 2012 to Ryan's Prosperity PAC and gave Johnson's campaign $250 in 2010 and $1,000 in 2013. In Johnson's campaign filings from 2013, Holt lists his occupation as "slumlord."

AshLee Strong, a Walker spokeswoman, said, "The governor will be donating this money to charity."

A spokeswoman for Johnson said his campaign learned about the contributions on Monday morning and cut a check for the full amount to a charity to help the victims in Charleston.

"As soon as we discovered that Mr. Holt had contributed to the campaign, we immediately donated the full amount of his contribution to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund," Johnson campaign spokeswoman Betsy Ankney said.

A spokesman for Ryan's committee said the PAC will give the contributions it received from Holt to the Charleston church where the shooting occurred.

Roof, the suspect in last week's murder of nine blacks at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., said he learned about "brutal black-on-white murders" from the Council of Conservative Citizens website.

Holt said in a statement posted Sunday on the group's website that it is "not surprising" that Roof learned about "black-on-white violent crime" from the group's site. But the group "unequivocally condemns Roof's murderous actions."

The Guardian first reported Sunday that Holt has given more than $65,000 to Republicans in recent years, including presidential contenders Rick Santorum, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

***

Melissa Baldauff, WisDems Communications Director, also contributed to this article.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about the need to create a state-based health insurance marketplace in face of the potential devastating impact of the Supreme Court ruling in the King v. Burwell case. She calls on her colleagues to take action to protect over 180,000 Wisconsin citizens who currently receive federal subsidies.

MADISON - “Wisconsin has relied heavily on the exchange to expand health insurance coverage,” wrote President Eric Borgerding of the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA). In a recent letter to Legislators, he warned a looming Supreme Court decision “could strike down premium assistance.”

Many Wisconsinites are waiting to hear if they will still be able to afford their health insurance bill.

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on the legality of health insurance subsidies for those living in states that did not create a state-based health insurance marketplace.

The WHA estimates over 180,000 Wisconsinites receive tax credit assistance from the federal government for health insurance purchased through healthcare.gov, the federal marketplace. That is roughly like the population of Green Bay and Racine losing an average of almost $3,800 a year.

In western Wisconsin, more folks receive assistance than the statewide average (89%). In just the nine counties that are totally or partially in our Senate District, 13,712 or 98% of people receiving health care through the federal exchange also receive federal tax credits. The number potentially affected by loss of assistance is more than the entire population of Buffalo County. Potential dollars lost to families in our 9-county area is $4.3 million and statewide the potential loss is $57 million.

Wisconsin can avert this crisis by creating a state-based marketplace.

The Legislature should take up Senate Bill 107 to create a Badger Health Benefit Authority. I introduced the bill earlier this year (for the fourth time!) and warned my colleagues of the potential disaster if the Supreme Court strikes down premium assistance going to hardworking Wisconsinites.

My bill creates both a Small Business Health Options Program and an individual marketplace for people buying insurance on their own. The proposal builds on unique aspects of Wisconsin health care including the work by health plans and providers to improve price transparency, control costs and maintain exceptional quality of care.

Because political winds blow both ways through Wisconsin, the marketplace should be independent of state government. This is why my bill calls for an autonomous authority to govern the exchange and a nonpartisan board to oversee operations.

To avert possibilities of corruption and assure public confidence, the marketplace must be transparent – follow state open meetings and records laws – and follow provisions related to accountability, conflict of interest, ethics and disclosure of financial interests. No person employed by a health plan, provider of health care or who sells insurance should be on the board governing the marketplace.

If the Supreme Court rules to invalidate insurance premium assistance for 180,000 Wisconsinites, the insurance market in Wisconsin could be thrown into chaos. Without assistance of an average payment of $316 dollars a month (lowering insurance costs on average to $125), many people will be forced to drop insurance.

When healthy people drop insurance and only sick people keep it, insurance companies end up raising rates. Hospitals and doctors face more people without insurance – also adding to the cost of health care for everyone else. Pharmacies, medical equipment companies and others who serve patients will likely experience a drop in business.

A recent New York Times article quoted Larry Levitt of Kaiser Family Foundation, “A reasonable assumption is that (spending on) healthcare by people who lost their existing subsidies will drop by at least half.” Nationwide the NYT reported this spending would be about $7.5 billion.

Arkansas, Delaware and Pennsylvania recently received permission from federal authorities to create their own state-based exchange. Officials in these states are preparing. So why not Wisconsin?

There is only one answer: Health insurance has become a partisan issue.

Recent action by the Obama administration granting approval to three states gives us a path forward. We could use the healthcare.gov website as the front of our marketplace and SB 107 to create a governance structure that takes advantage of Wisconsin ingenuity.

To the Governor and Republican Legislators I say, ‘People’s health is at stake. Take my bill, make it better, and get the job done!’

Latest reports confirm WEDC officials failed to perform critical underwriting for $124.4 million in taxpayer supported loans it made to 27 companies. Provide confirmation WEDC has failed at predicted economic development and jobs creation.

MADISON - State Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) called for the closure of the troubled Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) today after it was revealed that WEDC officials failed to perform critical underwriting for $124.4 million in taxpayer supported loans it made to 27 companies.

WEDC was created in 2011 by Governor Scott Walker and majority legislative Republicans, replacing the former Department of Commerce as the primary agency responsible for economic development and jobs creation in Wisconsin. Since then, it has consistently failed to meet its goals in both.

Governor Walker said the creation of WEDC was central to his promise to create 250,000 jobs during his first term in office. However, according to a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report, Wisconsin ranks 35th in the nation for job creation since Gov. Walker took office and ranks worst in the nation for new business creation. Reports also showed that Walker created just 129,131 new jobs in his first term, or 51.7 percent of his 250,000 jobs promise.

In addition, a series of non-partisan audits beginning in 2012 show WEDC lost track of $56 million worth of taxpayer funded loans and found that the agency lacked basic internal accounting controls. The quasi-public agency has also written off more than $7.6 million in loans, to include a $500,000 loan to a troubled company owned by a major donor to Walker’s campaign.

“WEDC has been an unmitigated disaster from the start. It has been one scandal after another, squandered millions of dollars and failed to produce any significant numbers of jobs,” said Hansen a longtime critic. “There is no way to justify its existence any longer. It is time to end WEDC. It is beyond repair and the taxpayers deserve better.”

"Since it was created WEDC it has given millions to companies that outsourced Wisconsin jobs, ignored its own rules and state law, and written off millions in failed loans to Republican campaign donors," said Hansen. "According to a recent audit, of the 19,306 jobs WEDC was expected to create during fiscal years 2011-2013 it created only 7,894—barely 40% of the number of jobs promised."

“Unfortunately those of us who said that WEDC was a failed model from the start have seen our prediction come true. After wasting millions of taxpayer dollars amid numerous scandals it is time to admit that the WEDC model is a failure and scrap it in favor of a more open and transparent model that is truly accountable to the taxpayers,” Hansen said.

The Senator concludes “By any measure, WEDC is a failure that taxpayers cannot afford to support. With Wisconsin’s economy still continuing to lag our neighbors and the nation, there is nothing left to do but shut the doors on WEDC and close the book on what has become a very expensive lesson in how not to create jobs.”

Dangerous U.S. Supreme Court Decision Could Come Next Week.

STATEWIDE - Governor Scott Walker continues to deny any responsibility for protecting health care coverage for over 184,000 Wisconsinites at risk because of a U.S. Supreme Court case that could be decided next week. At a campaign event in Florida, Walker recently told Bloomberg News: “States didn't create this problem, the federal government did. And they should fix it."

Governor Walker bears a special responsibility for this potential disaster because he forced tens of thousands off BadgerCare and onto the federal marketplace. In addition, many Wisconsin consumers on the health insurance marketplace have pre-existing conditions and faced shocking discrimination from insurance companies before the passage of health reform. The potential disaster would hit Wisconsin especially hard because it is a relatively high cost state for health insurance, an issue Walker has also taken no serious action to address.

The case of King v. Burwell could strip health insurance subsidies in states like Wisconsin which did not set up their own Affordable Care Act marketplaces. This could increase premiums on average over 300%. If Wisconsin were to create its own health insurance marketplace, or partner with another state that has created one, there would be no threat to health coverage.

“It’s Scott Walker’s moral responsibility as Governor to protect the people from a foreseeable disaster, like tens of thousands being cut off from health coverage,” said Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.”By passing the buck to Congress, Walker is putting at risk the lives and fundamental freedoms of people in every corner of Wisconsin.”

MADISON - Real estate and construction interests, which have contributed about $1.9 million to legislators since January 2011, are backing a bill that would loosen lead paint inspection requirements in Wisconsin.

The measure has drawn support from the Wisconsin Realtors Association, Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee and the Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin.

The state has rules for inspecting and testing for lead-based paints before renovations are done on dwellings built before 1978.

The measure, Senate Bill 178, creates an exemption from state lead inspection requirements for lead sampling and testing for renovation projects. Under the bill, a dwelling that undergoes a renovation does not have to be inspected if the presence of lead-based paint is assumed, and tests are done, and the renovation is performed in a lead-safe manner.

Ninety percent, or nearly $1.7 million, of the contributions made by construction and real estate interests between January 2011 and December 2014 to all legislators went to Republican lawmakers, who control the Assembly by a margin of 63-36 and the Senate by a margin of 19-14.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. Mary Lazich and GOP Rep. Michael Kuglitsch, both of New Berlin. Kuglitsch received about $6,000 and Lazich received about $4,300 from real estate and construction interests between January 2011 and December 2014.

Kuglitsch’s top contributors from the real estate and construction industries between January 2011 and December 2014 were David Schmidt, of Grafton, a C.G. Schmidt construction company executive, and his wife, Tracy, $1,000; Roger Dibble, of Brookfield, a general contractor with Venture Development, and his wife, Karen, $1,000; and Associated Builders and Contractors’ state political action committee (ABC PAC), $750.

Lazich’s top real estate and construction industry contributors between January 2011 and December 2014 were the Realtors Association of South Central Wisconsin PAC, $1,000; ABC PAC, $500; Todd Rasmussen, of Big Bend, a contractor with Affordable Heating & Air Conditioning, $500; and Ralph Gorenstein, of Milwaukee, president of Bell Property Management, $500.

Wisconsin drops to 35th among the 50 states in the pace of job creation in the full four years of Gov. Scott Walker's first term, has consistently lagged behind under Walker's "Open for Business" strategy, bad press over  failures at his flagship jobs agency, the WEDC, to follow state and federal law.

GREEN BAY - While the rest of the country has made a huge recovery from the economic crash of 2008, the State of Wisconsin has consistently lagged behind with Gov. Scott Walker's "Open for Business" strategy.

According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report today, in the four years from 2011-'14, when the United States posted a 9.3% gain in private-sector jobs, Wisconsin created jobs at a rate of 5.7%, an increase that gives Wisconsin a rank of 35th among the 50 states in the pace of job creation in the full four years of Gov. Scott Walker's first term.

The data released last Thursday morning from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are based on a quarterly census of American employers that makes them the most accurate and definitive figures available. The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which tracks jobs and wages in rolling 12-month increments, is published every three months.

The U.S. hit its lowest point of the recession early in 2010, meaning the four-year period of 2011-'14 effectively encompasses most of the economic recovery from the worst national downturn since the Great Depression.

By the end of 2014, Wisconsin had failed numerically to return to its pre-recession employment peaks, before the financial market meltdown in mid-2008. By contrast, the United States had regained and exceeded its pre-recession employment peaks by the end of 2014.

By December 2014, Wisconsin posted 2,400,139 private-sector jobs, still below 2,412,898 in December 2007. By contrast, the U.S. had 117.7 million private sector jobs in December 2014, higher than 115.1 million in December 2007.

Walker continues to campaign outside of the state touting his "Wisconsin Comeback" which portrays his business development policies as a huge success, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

To compound his credibility problems, Scott Walker has been plagued with bad press over the failures at his flagship jobs agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), to follow state and federal law.

A series of non-partisan audits beginning in 2012 show WEDC lost track of $56 million worth of taxpayer funded loans and found that the agency lacked basic internal accounting controls. The quasi-public agency has also written off more than $7.6 million in loans, to include a $500,000 loan to a troubled company owned by a major donor to Walker’s campaign.

The Wisconsin State Journal investigation also revealed  a forgivable taxpayer WEDC loan of nearly $700,000 to a Sheboygan company planning to build a combination helicopter and corporate jet, even though they had no experience in aircraft manufacturing and underwriters hadn’t reviewed the company’s finances.

Walker's "Open for Business" strategy has mainly consisted of giving huge tax breaks to the very wealthy to make "Wisconsin attractive" to new business development. Unfortunately for Walker, Wisconsin dropped to dead last among the 50 states in the latest business startup index published by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

***

Journal Sentinel report By John Schmid and Kevin Crowe. Journal Sentinel reporter Craig Gilbert in Washington, D.C. contributed.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about one of the sticking points in state budget negotiations, the Transportation budget. She shares information about consequences of borrowing, consequences of delaying road rehab and ways to find savings. She calls for a comprehensive audit of the DOT to help inform lawmakers and the public on ways to wisely invest transportation dollars.

MADISON - “Senate leader on budget deal: ‘I don’t know where we are at’” was the headline of a recent Associated Press story on the budget deal. The story went on to report there’s “no agreement yet on how to pay for transportation projects…”

While the Senate leader gathered up votes, I gathered up a few studies to understand if all this borrowing was necessary.

Here’s what I found:

Transportation spending is about $6 billion - 8.5% of our total state budget. About 40% of that comes from the federal government.

Last April, the budget committee received good news that low fuel costs meant residents were driving more and gas tax money is up – by about $13 million over 3 years.

But that’s nowhere near the amount necessary to cover the problems the governor created for legislators when he decided to borrow $1.3 billion for transportation spending.

Debt costs are expected to chew up almost a quarter of all transportation funds by the end of the coming budget. Large increases in borrowing is causing concern. To lower debt, legislators must reduce spending or increase revenue. The governor’s own Secretary of Transportation suggested many ways to increase revenue in his nearly 600-page budget.

But if my Republican colleagues don’t want to take action that might look like a fee increase, what else can be done?

Many in the Capitol are talking about cutting spending. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) asked DOT officials what this might mean. One possible consequence of cutting road rehab money is an increase in road roughness – as measured by a federal standard.

In 2001, 9% of Wisconsin roads scored in poor condition for roughness and the DOT now estimates 17% of roads scored poor. With a $500 million cut to the transportation budget residents will see an increase to 32% of roads in poor pavement roughness over the next ten years. Maybe this is not what citizens want.

Another option is to be more efficient with our transportation dollars. I suggest we audit the DOT to find ways to improve efficiencies. The last truly comprehensive audit of DOT was done by the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) was in 1997. In that review, auditors raised questions about the effectiveness of outsourcing engineering to private firms.

Quality measures showed that DOT staff engineers had higher quality project design than outsourced engineers. Studies I reviewed showed use of these outsourced-engineers dramatically increased over the past two decades.

For example, spending on private construction engineers was only 8% of all construction-engineering costs in fiscal year 1987-88. Ten years later this spending jumped to a third of all dollars spent on construction engineers. By fiscal year 2009-10, three quarters of all dollars spent on construction engineers was spent on private firms.

Data I analyzed from a 2009 limited-scope review by LAB showed a 68% cost increase per project over 5 years for projects that involved private engineering consultants.

Further, a 2009 report to the State Engineering Association found use of outside consultants didn’t save the state money; in some cases private engineering firms cost up to 19% more than in-house state engineers. This study also recommended a comprehensive review of the role of consultants in state projects.

Increased use of internal staff instead of outside consultants is just one example of how to save money. The DOT Secretary and the Governor did request and receive 180 new engineering positions in the last budget. Unfortunately, I’ve heard from DOT staff that pay and benefits at private engineering firms are significantly better than DOT making it hard for the state to keep good staff.

Another concern is a program that allows contractors ‘flexibility’ in use of construction materials if they ‘warrantee’ the construction. A 2011 LAB report showed that DOT staff did not make inspections of over half of warrantee projects during the warrantee period; over a third of projects inspected didn’t meet DOT performance standards and in 6 projects that didn’t meet DOT performance standards, regional offices could not document that contractors performed required repair work.

These are just a few findings over the past few decades.

Any transportation ‘fix’ will be short-term until Wisconsin can get spending under control. To do that, legislators and the public need detailed management information – the kind that can only be obtained through an audit by the nonpartisan LAB.

MADISON - If you want to keep Social Security and Medicare safe and sound, work for college affordability.

If you want urban mass transit, work to bring cell phone signals and Internet connections to every rural doorstep.

If you want public workers to be respected and valued, work to make the minimum wage a living wage and create new protections for nonunion workers in the private sector.

Focusing only on what you want won’t get you what you want. Your wish will be society’s command only if those you need standing with you and voting with you get what they want too.

The political landscape is littered with single-issue groups with enormous clout. Each is on an island, not concerning itself in the least with what’s happening on the next island over. Even the very strongest of them – like the once-mighty teachers unions – can find themselves suddenly isolated and vulnerable. We need each other. City dwellers need rural folks. Seniors need teens and twenty-somethings. White collar professionals need blue collar laborers. Otherwise the billionaires will keep on winning.

Organizations or institutions devoted to the common good are hard to find. Political parties should be so oriented, but in this era of legal bribery they are preoccupied with accommodating each individual interest group. They seem to think if you add up enough special interests the sum total will equal the public interest. It never works out that way.

We live in an age when the dominant political philosophy is me-firstism. The idea that greed is good and selfishness begets productivity has been pounded into us daily. We’re taught the illusion that each of us is self-made and that we can make it through life without ever needing another’s help, thereby freeing us from any sense of responsibility for the well being of others. In reality, this philosophy only makes us a nation of cats, totally dependent on others but fully convinced of our own independence.

The answer to me-firstism is to think we first. If you want to save Social Security, work for college affordability. We’re all in this together.

MADISON - While the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) did not meet this week to finish working on Governor Walker's 2015-17 state budget, both the Assembly and Senate were in session on Tuesday.  Below you will find a summary of our legislative action.

It is expected that JFC will reconvene next week to take up the outstanding state budget issues including taxes/revenue, transportation and the proposed Milwaukee Bucks arena.  Once the JFC finishes their work on the state budget it will go to the Legislature, where each house will have to pass the same version of the bill before June 30 (the end of the fiscal year).  The unfortunate reality is that this budget hurts the people of our state and doesn't reflect the priorities of the people, which include investing in our public education systems and our children.

GOP Eliminate 48 Hour Waiting Period for Handguns

In 1976, the Wisconsin Legislature passed legislation that would require a "cooling off" period between the purchase and delivery of a handgun.  Governor Patrick Lucey proudly signed the bill into law, stating the bill was designed "to help prevent crimes committed in a moment of passion or fit of rage that so often result in senseless tragedies among family or friends."  Not only does current law protect victims of domestic abuse, but it protects individuals who are contemplating committing suicide.

While I strongly spoke out against repealing the 48 hour waiting period, I also spoke out in favor of closing the "gun shop loophole" and requiring background checks on all purchases of guns, including at gun shows or private sales.  A 2012 survey by a Republican pollster showed that 82 percent of gun owners - including 74 percent of NRA members - supported background checks for all gun sales.  Some of the lowest female homicide rates in the country are found in states where background checks are required for all purchases.  If we want to reduce the epidemic of gun violence, we need background checks for all gun purchases.  I will keep advocating for commonsense gun safety measures.

Clean Air Regulations

While most of us have gas furnaces, there are still families across Wisconsin that use wood heaters.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), scientific studies have linked particle pollution exposure associated with these heaters to serious health problems including irregular heartbeats, nonfatal heart attacks, aggravated asthma and decreased lung function.

On Tuesday, the Assembly passed Assembly Bill 25 which forbids Wisconsin's DNR from promulgating a rule or enforcing new federal standards for wood burning appliances.  I voted against this proposal because having clean air and water should be one of our most important objectives.  We should allow the DNR and the EPA, the experts on these issues, to do their jobs.  Republicans seem to continue to disregard science in promulgating these harmful policies.

Last-Minute Vote Ends SAGE Program As We Know It

For years, schools across Wisconsin have participated in the Student Achievement Guarantee Program (known as SAGE) that provides additional aid to schools with the understanding that they maintain an 18-1 or 30-2 student-to-teacher ratio.  We all can agree that smaller classrooms with manageable class sizes provide our educators and our children with the best chance for success.

As Republicans continue to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars from our public schools to support private schools or provide corporate welfare to campaign donors, class sizes have begun to balloon and districts will look for any additional funding possible to keep their doors open.  Tuesday's bill essentially ends SAGE as we know it by eliminating the requirement that districts maintain SAGE classroom ratios to collect aid.  Don't let the GOP rhetoric fool you, this is a bill that is not in the best interests of our school children.

20-Week Abortion Ban Passes State Senate

As many of you can recall, last week I updated you on the status of the 20-week abortion ban that was passed out of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services on a party-line vote.  On Tuesday, the State Senate passed this dangerous bill on a party-line vote.  The debate raged on for several hours and despite the medical community's vocal opposition to this ban, which threatens women's health and lives, Republicans passed the legislation without blinking an eye.  Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has not indicated whether the Assembly will take this legislation up for a vote, but if we do, I promise you I will be ready!

As always, if you would like more information on any of these issues or have questions on any other legislative issue, please do not hesitate to contact my office directly at 608-266-5342 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Craig/Jarchow bill transfers all legislative oversight of the executive branch and the fraud, waste and abuse hotline to two partisan leaders. Why would legislators want do away with the LAB? There are so many examples of how the exemplary and award-winning work of the Legislative Audit Bureau saved taxpayer dollars.

MADISON - Republican Representatives David Craig (R-Big Bend) and Adam Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) have authored a bill to entirely eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) and the legislature’s Joint Committee on Audit as well.

Under the proposal, the independent audit bureau would be replaced by inspectors general who would provide auditing services to all state agencies with more than 100 employees. The inspectors general work under each department head, but are directed to audit their agencies and/or programs by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Majority Leader. Both are Republicans.

The LAB has had a long history of independent audits of the Executive Branch. Governors of both parties have wished it would go away, fearing reviews they could not control.

The timing of this bill is especially curious coming on the heels of the extremely critical audit of the Walker Administration's WEDC, which has been rife with mismanagement and perceived cronyism.

Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma), a frequent spokeswoman for progressive values on these pages and ranking minority member of the Joint Committee on Audit, harshly criticized the bill this morning.

“The breadth of the Representatives’ ignorance of the LAB activities and processes is staggering,” Vinehout said. “Their bill shows a complete unfamiliarity with the skills of auditors, the efficiencies in government that LAB staff helped create and the fraud, waste and abuse that auditors discovered and further prevented through their oversight.”

“The Craig/Jarchow bill transfers all legislative oversight of the executive branch and the fraud, waste and abuse hotline to two partisan leaders,” Vinehout said. “Their bill embeds auditors in the agencies making them ripe for corruption by executive staff and partisan leaders.”

Recent audits of economic development programs and Medicaid transportation provided lawmakers with critical and budget timely information. Last year’s audit of the Supervised Release program showed that the Department of Health Services was spending more for inmate transportation than the Department of Corrections.

“Legislative actions should be based on accurate information,” concludes Vinehout. “There are so many examples of how the exemplary and award-winning work of the Legislative Audit Bureau saved taxpayer dollars. All I can ask is why would legislators want do away with the LAB?”

Timing is especially curious coming on the heels of the extremely critical audit of the Walker Administration's WEDC, which has been rife with mismanagement and perceived cronyism. "Having an employee audit their boss is essentially a joke," said one veteran agency manager.

MADISON - Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin on Monday were circulating a bill that would eliminate the state's independent Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB).

GOP sponsors of the bill said the state would be better served by auditors working within state agencies.

Under the proposal being circulated among GOP lawmakers, the independent audit bureau would be replaced by inspectors general who would provide auditing services to all state agencies with more than 100 employees, according to analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Since its creation in 1966, the LAB has had a long history of independent audits of the Executive Branch. Governors of both parties have wished it would go away, fearing reviews they could not control. But none before Gov. Scott Walker has seriously attempted to kill it.

The existing audit bureau is a free-standing watchdog office that operates independently of the agencies it reviews. The bureau audits the practices of state agencies in addition to their books under the oversight of a bipartisan Legislative committee.

Having internal "inspectors" who report to individual department heads would essentially mute any effective audit function within state agencies, according to one 33 year veteran agency manager. "Having an employee audit their boss is essentially a joke", said our source. "Anyone really trying to be independent would quickly find themselves looking for work. That's why the audit function must be beyond the reach of the executive."

Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) agrees. In a statement issued Monday, Barca said of Rep. Dave Craig’s proposal to eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau:

“In a session filled with bad ideas, this is one of the worst in terms of adversely affecting the taxpayers' long-term interest.

“One of the greatest strengths of the Wisconsin Legislature is having nonpartisan service agencies like the Audit Bureau, Fiscal Bureau and Reference Bureau. Through these agencies, citizens can be assured they are getting the pure facts and that the information released is not being clouded by partisan judgment or political spin.

“Changing the nonpartisan, award-winning Legislative Audit Bureau into partisan appointees continues the Republican efforts to reduce oversight of state government. The move would allow for more partisan and special-interest influence and further erode Wisconsin’s tradition of clean, open and transparent government.

“The timing is especially curious coming on the heels of the extremely critical audit of the Walker Administration's WEDC, which has been rife with mismanagement and perceived cronyism. Taxpayers deserve more oversight and accountability, not less.”

***

During his time in the legislature, Rep. Barca has twice co-chaired the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout writes about action by the Legislature’s majority party to eliminate the non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) annual financial audit of the UW System. The action is a recipe for corruption and is akin to eliminating the watchdog over the taxpayers’ money.

MADISON - “Suspend current law…requiring the Legislative Audit Bureau to conduct an annual financial audit of the UW System. Instead, require the UW System to contract with an independent accounting firm,” read the motion introduced by Senator Harsdorf and Representative Schraa.

Recent action by a majority of the state’s budget writing committee not only kicked the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) out of the UW System but also approved a process to get rid of state purchasing laws at the UW and waive the state’s bidding process for some UW building projects.

The motion effectively throws Wisconsin taxpayer controls out the window for a significant portion of the state budget. The UW System 2-year budget is over $11 billion – about a 7th of the entire state budget.

To justify suspending the LAB’s annual UW audit, the Harsdorf/Schraa motion required UW officials to contract with a private accounting firm.

This action kicked out the watchdog and replaced it with a goldfish.

Private accounting firms count things. They can tell us money was spent and the books were balanced. But their reports won’t tell us about how the money was spent and whether or not the spending was in students’ and taxpayers’ best interest.

Since its creation in 1966, financial audits are a primary responsibility of the Legislative Audit Bureau. In the past two years, the LAB completed 26 financial audits – including the audit opinion of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) of state operations.

In a recent letter to the Co-Chairs of the Legislative Audit Committee, State Auditor Joe Chrisman explained: “In conducting financial audits, LAB follows professional auditing standards issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as generally accepted government auditing standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States.”

The LAB financial auditors adhere to the same standards as private firms. They are required to be independent and sharpen their skills and knowledge through continuing education. Every three years the National State Auditors Association subjects the LAB to peer review. State law prohibits any meddling or outside influence with audit investigations and protects whistleblowers with strong confidentiality rules.

The LAB has extensive experience auditing the over $6 billion annual UW System budget.

Over the last 8 years or so the LAB reported on the following: how the UW allocates state tax money and tuition to campuses; the process followed to assess the financial reporting of entities like the UW Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF); overpayments for retirement contributions and health insurance (some of the health insurance contributions were for employees no longer with the UW); audit differences including financial reporting errors by the UW System; changes in financial activities of the UW including an increase in unrestricted net assets; and internal controls.

The UW does not hire the LAB. Auditors answer to the State Auditor who answers to the Legislature, who answers to the people. No private firm involved.

The LAB answers questions my colleagues, taxpayers and I most often ask: What’s going on? How is it working? Can we do things better?

Kick out the LAB? Doing away with state procurement policies on contracting and hiring private firms? Doing away with some bidding rules? Contracting with a private auditing firm who knows nothing about the complex accounting and operations of the UW?

When I reviewed the Harsdorf/Schraa motion, I was left with a serious question: Why?

Recently Representatives Craig (R-Waukesha) and Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) drafted a bill to entirely eliminate the Legislative Audit Bureau and the Legislative Audit Committee. They want to create an Inspector General for each state agency over 100 employees. They transfer all legislative oversight of the executive branch and the fraud, waste and abuse hotline to two partisan leaders. Their bill imbeds auditors in the agencies making them ripe for corruption by executive staff and partisan leaders.

The breadth of the Representatives’ ignorance of LAB activities and processes is staggering. Their bill shows a complete unfamiliarity with the skills of auditors, the efficiencies in government LAB staff helped created and the fraud, waste and abuse auditors discovered and further prevented through their oversight. All I can ask is why would legislators want do away with the LAB?