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September 02, 2009

The Wednesday Update

September 2, 2009  Volume 3, Number 33   IN THIS ISSUE: Voting Yourself Out of a Job; Transportation Fund Out of Gas

September 2, 2009 Vol 5, Number 33	Wednesday Update
In This Issue: 1. Voting Yourself      Out of a Job 2. Transportation       Fund  Out of Gas 3. Temperatures Fall     Taxes Rise 4. Cashing in on Kids	Voting Yourself Out of a Job Wisconsin has recently been treated to a Keystone Cops performance by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union (IAM), which seems intent on putting its own members out of work. The story by now is familiar: employees of Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac voted down an offer to keep 800 jobs from moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma. Realizing that they had just voted themselves out of jobs, union members began calling for another vote – but IAM headquarters in Chicago immediately shut them down. A day late and a dollar short, Governor Jim Doyle issued a statement claiming he had done all he could to keep Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac. Doyle outlined demands that Mercury Marine create and retain 2,700 jobs and maintain a significant presence in Fond du Lac for 12 years. In exchange the state would provide unspecified financial incentives. Doyle said he couldn’t release details of the offer because “doing so would likely put Wisconsin at a competitive disadvantage with other states.” This from the same governor who recently signed a $186 million business tax hike, driving long term employers like Harley Davidson and Briggs & Stratton out of Wisconsin. Transportation Fund Runs Out of Gas This week the Wisconsin transportation fund registered a deficit of almost $50 million. To close the gap transportation officials proposed shifting $33 million from highway rehabilitation and maintenance funds. The Legislature's Joint Finance committee rejected the plan. According to Wispolitics.com, JFC co-chair Mark Pocan wants to see the full impact of federal stimulus dollars on the state’s transportation spending before approving any cutbacks. It is precisely because Governor Doyle raided the segregated transportation fund to pay for other programs that the fund is running a massive shortfall. Between 2003 and 2009, Doyle used over $1.3 billion in one-time money from the transportation fund to fuel non-transportation related spending. Doyle’s solution for the shortfall is a new tax on oil companies that has twice been rejected by the legislature. Wisconsin Temperatures Fall - Taxes Rise When the state budget passed several months ago, we were bombarded with propaganda from liberal politicians who told us it was a great bill which closed the $6.6 billion deficit, “cut state spending,” and created jobs. But when cigarette and telephone taxes went up yesterday by $415 million, you could have heard a pin drop in Madison. All totaled, Doyle’s budget raised taxes and fees by $2.1 billion including: $310 million from a 75-cent per pack cigarette tax increase $287 million by creating a new 7.75% income tax bracket for state taxpayers $242 million by cutting in half the tax exemption for capital-gains investments $105 million from a 75-cent monthly fee on all telephone lines Cashing In on Kids The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had an outstanding investigative report on Latasha Jackson, a 32 year old single mother who stole hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars by running a phony child care program. According to the report:   It was a couple years after the inception of the state's welfare-to-work program, and demand for day care providers was great. So it didn't take long for Jackson to build her business. By 2004, she was receiving more than $350,000 a year from the Wisconsin Shares program, with state approval to care for 67 kids in a new center near N. 24th St. and W. Capitol Drive. She moved to a nice home in Waukesha County, a few miles from where she would later build her mansion. By 2006, her business had more than doubled to $830,000 a year in public child-care funds and more than 100 children reportedly enrolled. There is no way to know how much of that money was earned legitimately. Throughout the years, regulators received complaints from people accusing Jackson of falsifying documents and billing for kids not actually in her care. And, inspectors cited her repeatedly for not keeping accurate attendance records. Inspectors also found workers at the center didn't know the names of the kids or the number of children under their watch. Regulators also investigated allegations that workers were using drugs, watching pornography and that Jackson left the children in the care of a young teenage boy. In all, from 2001 to 2007 inspectors cited Jackson for more than 150 violations. On at least five visits, inspectors found Jackson's attendance records were inaccurate, at times listing children present who were not in her care. Yet they continued to pay her.   Despite an extensive history of violations, Jackson collected millions, helping pay for her 7,600 square foot mansion (with both an indoor swimming pool and an indoor basketball court) in North Milwaukee. We can probably expect the same shoddy oversight when millions of dollars of “stimulus” money are pumped into child care programs later this year. And these folks want to take over our health care system?