DAILY WISCONSIN

Wisconsin

Gov. Evers, Legislation, Legislature, Speaker Vos, State Government, Wisconsin

Lazy dog’s not learning any new tricks

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos complains that Governor Tony Evers isn’t being bipartisan by vetoing their tax bill.

First rule of bipartisanship….having a bill named essentially the same thing…isn’t being bipartisan. Ya know? Plus you knew your bill would be vetoed when you passed it. It wasn’t going to accomplish the things the governor aims to do. It wasn’t sustainable. It was outside the budget process. It was rushed. It was another attempt to co-opt the governor’s platform. You do know that he is moving you left? I wrote about that!

Via Robin Vos Doesn’t Understand How Bipartisan Works! @ Blogging Blue.

GOP, Gov. Walker, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Cruz

Any assistance Walker can render Cruz is in line with Walker’s stated goal last fall of defeating Donald Trump.As recently as March 7th, The Daily Caller was reporting that Walker was weighing whether to endorse a candidate before the Republican Primary. Walker also told The Daily Caller, “And I think for the candidates I might be inclined to endorse, nobody would be surprised in that, I haven’t endorsed, [but] I’m probably handily more aligned politically with the two senators — Cruz and Rubio, but I’m not going to make an endorsement one over the other.”

Via Wigderson: Scott Walker Needs To Endorse Ted Cruz @ Right Wisconsin.

Economy, Wisconsin

How bad it’s recently been in Wisconsin

Not that this should surprise you, but it’s not good, as the state has lost serious ground in recent months, losing private sector jobs in each of the last 3 months. Since January 2015, Wisconsin has grown jobs at less than half the rate of the U.S., and is also (yet again) the worst in the Midwest.

Private sector job growth, Jan 2015- Jan 2016
Mich +2.25%
U.S. +2.21%
Iowa +1.73%
Ohio +1.71%
Ind. +1.68%
Minn +1.27%
Ill. +1.10%
Wis. +0.93%

Via Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse: National update shows how bad it’s recently been in Wisconsin.

DNR, Environment, Wisconsin

Plain Talk: State of environmental protection would upset Gaylord Nelson

A recent story in the Wisconsin State Journal described how the current leadership of the DNR is hurriedly putting together a reorganization of the department that many fear will reduce the department’s ability to keep tabs on potential polluters. That is coming on top of several laws passed in the state Legislature’s most recent session that will harm our state’s waters.

And that’s on top of a gradual reduction in DNR staff, including educators and foresters, and decimation of the department’s Science Bureau. And that’s still on top of the Walker administration’s directive to the DNR to sell off some of the land preserved by the Knowles-Nelson fund.

Via Plain Talk: State of environmental protection would upset Gaylord Nelson @ madison.com.

Legislation, Legislature, Wisconsin

Stalled?

Madison —Senate Republicans likely won’t act Tuesday on bills to eliminate a deductions cap on student loan interest, fine so-called sanctuary cities and let Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele turn over debt collection for the county over to the state.

The bills weren’t on a tentative agenda for Tuesday’s planned final session that was released by the office of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), leaving the proposals with almost no time left as the session draws to a close. The Senate calendar will be approved by the end of Monday.

Via Senate likely to stall bills on sanctuary cities, college loans @ JSOnline.

Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

Still bad 

And adding an average of 2,700 jobs a month in Wisconsin is less than half what we should be adding if we want our job growth to keep up with the rest of the country, and it was even worse in the 6 months before then. This means the Walker jobs growth has blow up wide in since this time last year, getting bigger by more than 32,000 private sector jobs, and reaching over 103,500 jobs during the 5-year reign of error known as the Age of Fitzwalkerstan.

Via Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse: New job benchmarks reiterate same story- Wisconsin staying behind.

Transportation, Wisconsin

The road-builders’ dreams

Driven by an administration that is in thrall to the road-building lobby while starving transit, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation gins up color-coded, buzzword-laden data and despair about what it calls increasing major highway congestion – – motorists’ inability to enjoy “free flowing” fantasy-land traffic conditions in or near Milwaukee and Madison which, to be honest, larger cities would kill for.

Via The Political Environment: Fresh WisDOT propaganda serves the road-builders.

America, Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Still Far Behind America on Jobs

You may have seen the headlines from the latest release of the “gold standard” jobs report – the BLS’s Quarterly Census on Employment and Wages (QCEW). And as I predicted earlier this week, Wisconsin fared quite poorly.

Wisconsin continues to lag behind much of the nation in creating private sector jobs.

Figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday show the state’s growth rate during the 12 month period that ended in September of last year was 1.2 percent, compared to a national rate during that time period of 2.2 percent.

Wisconsin was listed as 36th among the states for the pace of job creation, adding 29,616 private sector jobs during the reporting period.

36th in the nation is bad enough, and is virtually no different than the 37th place Wisconsin was in for the last QCEW survey, which carried into June 2015. Perhaps just as bad is the fact that we continued to lag most of the Midwest in private sector job growth in this report, ending up 6th out of 7 states.

Via Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse: The “gold standard” shows Wisconsin still well behind our neighbors.

Radio, Wisconsin

WPR Discards Michael Feldman

When Michael Feldman got to Wisconsin Public Radio on Thursday, he was called into a meeting, only to learn that the station was ending the 31-year run of his comedy quiz show, Whad’Ya Know?

“It was a done deal: You have three months to clean out your desk. I was surprised,” says Feldman. “I was sort of in a coma.”

The press release had already been written, announcing a final live show on June 25, with a blank space where Feldman’s comments would appear.

Via “I wasn’t ready” @ Isthmus.

Economy, Employment, Wisconsin

Dead wrong on claim Wisconsin jobs are “picking up steam”

We get to see where Wisconsin matches up with the rest of the country on Wednesday, and if the last report is any indication, there is no reason to think the state isn’t much different than the 37th in the nation status it had 3 months ago. In addition, the Wisconsin DWD’s pre-release of the QCEW [Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages] numbers also indicates that Wisconsin’s month-to-month job totals will also go down when those figures are benchmarked to the QCEW as part of the January 2016 jobs release on Thursday.

Via Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse: J-S is dead wrong in claim Wisconsin jobs are “picking up steam.”