Uppitywis Blogs

We've been seeing more and more of this throughout the Walker administration - Public hearings that really don't qualify as public hearings. Yesterday's Foxconn bill public hearing was, as is typical now, stacked. Invited spearkers (meaning those in favor of the bill) spoke for eight hours, from 1:30 to 9:30, and then the public was allowed to testify.

By that point, of course, most of the public had gotten the message, thrown up their hands, and had gone home. Exactly the intended effect. These are not public hearings, they are GOP press conferences with a few questions from the public tacked

Both Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker were elected in 2010.

Both have made restoring a manufacturing base in their states their stated top priority and in the name of this priority have severely weakened worker, environmental and consumer rights to get there. 

Both have at least one "safety glasses" photo op in a manufacturing plant at least once a week.

However, the results for each couldn't be more stark:  According to the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which Scott Walker refers to as the "gold standard" for its accuracy, Michigan has added 1

Here we go again - emergency legislation for something that really requires some thought - or at least reading the bill. The Governor has ordered up a special legislative session tomorrow morning to consider the "Foxconn Bill" to offer money, tax breaks, and the ability to run over the environent in Southeast Wisconsin.  Somewhere. We'll figure out all that stuff later, the important thing is to hand everything we can over to Foxconn so we can serve them better. 

You might want to read the attached bill.  I have nothing against bringing jobs to Wisconsin, but this is a mighty cost. Money I can

By Senator Kathleen Vinehout   Great News! A big tech company called Foxconn is coming to southeast Wisconsin and bringing with it a lot of new jobs. The new company will build a big factory and make flat screens for computers.   The Governor tells us the company will create 13,000 jobs that pay nearly $54,000. Other businesses will benefit because the company will buy things from Wisconsin businesses.   But, as Paul Harvey used to say, “Here’s the Rest of the Story.”   For its part, Wisconsin will pay $3 billion in tax credits and other subsidies over 15 years to the company. Tax credits are

All of Wisconsin is apparently agog over the Foxconn plant announcement that is coming this afternoon. Still, color me skeptical. Rumors are that Wisconsin is offering a huge tax break to Foxconn in return for building the plant, and the state has certainly paved the way by stomping on unions and generally making the living wage a past dream, something that Foxconn is certainly going to appreciate. But rumors abound that the state is offering somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000 per job in tax "bounty" for the plant. I'm not sure that the state will be able to actually agree to pony up a

By

Senator Kathleen Vinehout

 

An older man contacted me recently with a problem. A visit to the doctor left him with thousands in unpaid bills. Medicare deemed the tests “routine” and not a “medical necessity.” But the gentleman was told, for his occupation, the tests were absolutely necessary.

 

He was left with a medical bill costing more than his 2017 income.

 

The top-notch staff at the Department of Health Services (DHS), discovered the man was likely eligible for Medicaid. But the man wasn’t interested.

 

The constituent relations department within DHS has been a godsend over the years, helping

A press conference is being held to announce information on the Senate's verrsion of the state budget.  Live on Wiseye's Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/WisconsinEye/  -- looks about ready to start.

By

Senator Kathleen Vinehout

“My father-in-law is losing his health insurance,” Pam told me. She stopped to chat as we perused the booths at the Stockholm Art Fair.

Stockholm, population 66, has one of the best art fairs in western Wisconsin. Judging by the license plates, the fair is high on the list for Minnesotans too.

The 44th annual fair was held on the grounds of the city park overlooking Lake Pepin, the widest spot in the Mississippi River. Over 100 artists were eager to share their health care stories and sell their creations. There were few bugs. Weather was warm, but not too hot. Colors

So, we're now a couple weeks and counting past when the state budget in Wiscosnin is due. At least we've managed to avoid a complete state shutdown, unlike a number of other states in the past month. But cruising along on past allotments isn't an answer. Once again we are seeing that although the current state administration is capable of winning votes, and keeping total control over the government, one thing they are genuinely terrible at is governing. 

Government requires discussion and compromise. We currently have a crop of legislators who are schooled in the "my way or the highway" form of

By

Senator Kathleen Vinehout

 

A tall man stopped me in the hall of the Capitol. “Can’t you just increase the gas tax?” he asked me. “I’m here to ask my Republican Senator to increase the gas tax. We need to fix the roads.”

He smiled. Then said, “Hi, my name is Steve. I’m a Republican. I just don’t think it’s conservative to keep borrowing to maintain the roads. We’ve got to pay for what we spend.”

Steve was earnest in his desire to find a solution to the road budget. I’ve heard similar concerns from folks attending my recent town hall meetings.

Many people asked me to raise the gas tax. This tax is

By

Senator Kathleen Vinehout

 

“As far back as WWI connecting soldiers with nature and farming has been used to treat the invisible wounds of war,” Mr. Brian Sales recently told members of the Senate Agriculture, Small Business and Tourism Committee.

 

“Back then it was called shell shock. Today it’s called PTSD. No matter what it’s called, its effects are the same and what was true then is true now. Veterans need help and help is what I am here to talk about.”

 

In a bipartisan effort to bring more veterans into agriculture, Senators Testin, Ringhand, Representatives Goyke and Brooks introduced

Okay, llet's be honest. Gerryymandering is an American tradition. Whatever party is in power has always tried to gain the upper hand by organizing congressional districts to suit their needs. Packing and cracking of districts has happened for a very long time, and it helps to keep the winning party in power over the long term.

But something has changed. The ability to use computer power to set district boundaries (and the will to use them for that purpose) has resulted in districts in Wisconsin that make it next to impossible for party power to change in the local district. We see it time after

By

Senator Kathleen Vinehout

 

“Do you still milk?” I asked Jim at a recent gathering. “No,” he told me. “My son tells me the most help I can be is to stay out of the way,” he joked. We both agreed that was hard. Dairying gets in your blood.

 

June is dairy month. A time to celebrate all we love about ‘America’s Dairyland’ – home to 1.28 million dairy cows, which is more than one cow for every five Wisconsinites.

 

Reminiscing with an old dairy farmer, you realize the love of cows and farming never really goes away. The smell of newly mowed hay or the glistening dew on the field of newly emerging

By

Senator Kathleen Vinehout

 

In the next few weeks, state lawmakers are voting on how Wisconsin spends money over the next two years. The choices legislators make will affect our communities and our lives.

 

Lawmakers are working off a spending plan submitted by the Governor earlier this year. Changes have already been made to his proposal.

 

For example, the budget writing committee removed much of the new money for the University of Wisconsin System. Big spending cuts in the last budget forced, among other things, a reorganization of UW-Extension, which may leave local communities without their

This is the first forum sponsored by the recently-rebooted Chippewa Valley League of Women Voters chapter. This session is a presenation by Andrea Kaminski, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, and Jay Heck, Executive Director of Common Cause. The session was followed by a lively Q&A session. There were over 75 in attendance at the meeting, which is a great start for the local chapter. For more information on the LWV in Wisconsin, including information on how to join, see the link below. Since the chapter locally is new, it is an At-Large chapter, meaning you will

By Senator Kathleen Vinehout   Our state spends a great deal of money on economic development. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) is responsible for overseeing much of the taxpayer money that goes to job creation.   A recently released audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) found that “WEDC cannot be certain about the number of jobs actually created or retained as a result of any awards that ended.”   By law, WEDC is required to report jobs created or retained. The agency meets the requirement through reports posted on its website. However, auditors found these

This is the town hall meeting that Kathleen Vinehout and Dana Wacs held on May 20, 2017 in Eau Claire, WI. They covered a large range of different topics, mostly concentrating on healthcare and the transportation budget. A lively discussion follows.  There were some equipment issues in the midst of recording this so it is recorded on two different cameras. I've attempted to even up the video quality and sound levels a little bit - but didn't completely succeed. Hoping to be able to afford a little bit of equipment upgrade as part of the Wis.Community project.

Just a quick note.  It's my intention to, some time in the next few months, move Uppity Wisconsin over to be one of the communities in WIs.community .  My goal here is to have one less web site to maintain, and to help out with the growth of the Wis.community platform.  This isn't going to be quick, it's currently a fairly low-level activity for me.  In general the goal here is to make the move as transparent as possible, and to have the site still appear at https://www.uppitywis.org and have all the blog posts appear in the same place.   So this willl probably not happen for a few months -

Sheriff David A Clarke is leaving Milwaukee County and Wisconsin.

Now the bad news -- he's leaving to take a position as assistant secretary of Homeland Security. 

I am at the moment trying to imagine the working relationship between Clarke and John Kelly.  The Trump administration becomes more bizarre by the moment and continues to aim toward being dysfunctional. We'd been hearing rumors of this for month but it was hard to imagine  that this would actually happen, even with President Trump.  Perhaps, though, the county's sheriff's office will start to receive proper attention, and peole will

At an April 30 town hall, U.S. Rep., and Republican, Glenn Grothman, was asked if he would protect funding for the Environmental Protection Agency. His answer was stunning.