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March 17, 2010

The Wednesday Update

March 17, 2010  Volume 4, Number 11  IN THIS ISSUE:  Battling the High Speed Drain; Hope, For a Change?

March 17, 2010 Vol 4, Number 11	Wednesday Update
In This Issue: 1. Battling the High     Speed Drain 2. Hope, For a Change? 3. It's All an Act	Battling the High-Speed Drain Club for Growth is on the air this week, with radio ads in Racine and Milwaukee encouraging opposition to high-speed and commuter rail boondoggles. The ads name State Sen. John Lehman and State Rep. Cory Mason (both D-Racine), saying “they can’t spend our money fast enough.” Lehman and Mason “supported spending $800 million dollars on a high speed train no one will ride. Now they want to spend another quarter billion on a commuter rail line. And the state can’t even afford to fill our potholes,” the ad says. The objective is to build participation in a town hall meeting March 23 at the South Hills Country Club near Racine. Senior Fellow Randal O’Toole of the CATO Institute is scheduled to present findings from his extensive research in urban growth and transportation, and to analyze the implications and likely costs of the proposed KRM project. State Rep. Robin Vos (R-Racine) will be on hand to give participants an update on relevant legislative issues. Click here for more information or to make your reservation for the March 23 event. Hope, for a change? In a Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) poll conducted last week, 57 percent of respondents said Wisconsin is on the wrong track but they’re more worried about the country as a whole. Sixty-two percent said the U.S. is on the wrong track. As for jobs being created or saved by the blizzard of tax dollars thrown at the economy in “stimulus” packages, the folks aren’t buying it. Just 10 percent say the economy has improved, 56 percent say it’s gotten worse in the past year and 38 percent of those polled say they or someone in their family lost a job or had hours cut back in the past year. ObamaCare? Sorry, 37 percent want it, 55 percent don’t. But it’s not all negative. Jim Doyle seems to have improved his standing by announcing he’ll go away. The Governor garnered a 48 percent approval rating, up sharply from the mid-30s recorded last year when it was assumed he’d seek another term. In the race to succeed Doyle, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker leads the wide-open race, by four-points (36-32) over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Walker has a big lead in the Republican primary, 46-27 over former Congressman Mark Neumann.  Undecided voters are the key to the U.S. Senate contest. Tommy Thompson—who has not announced a candidacy—beats Russ Feingold 51-39 but a crucial nine percent were undecided. But here’s the most interesting data in the hypothetical Thompson-Feingold matchup: Independent voters are gravitating toward the Republican, the same trend that elected two new GOP governors and flipped the Massachusetts Senate seat earlier this year. It’s All an Act Maybe the Clean Energy Jobs “Act” deserves more credit for truth in labeling than we realized. A long roster of Wisconsin job-creators have figured out it’s all an act and they’re making sure state lawmakers know it. More than two dozen associations representing every kind of Wisconsin employer sent a memo to the Legislature warning that the “costly and prescriptive mandates” of the Act will drive up energy prices “at a time when businesses and homeowners can least afford it.” Credit them for keeping their eye on the ball better than their friends in the utility business, some of whom are eager for a compromise and a few choruses of Kumbaya. Never mind the rate payer. Thankfully the business associations have zeroed in on the fact that any compromise would still include “the most expensive and economically damaging policies.” Specifically, “the renewable portfolio standard and energy efficiency surtaxes will be tremendously expensive, and will result in double-digit increases for Wisconsin utility customers,” the memo says. For the record, that renewable portfolio standard, often presented as a benign idea “we can all support,” would run up costs of $15 billion for wind energy facilities. Wind that is only reliable about one-third of the time. Whether the handful of legislators who are actually enthusiastic about this nonsense can drag the rest into serving up an Earth Day present for the enviro-socialist lobby, is yet to be seen. If common sense prevails, a good share of credit goes to Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce who coordinated last week’s joint memo, and the broad array of business and industry groups who are unwilling to sell out their members.