Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Marriage Amendment Backfired, Right Finally Admits

Finally, buried in a bunch of rationalizations and smoke, an admission that maybe the marriage amendment did actually help reelect Jim Doyle, and defeat its architect, John Gard, something Paul predicted back in July.  Largely blaming "fate," GOP Assembly staffer, 2001 Assembly candidate, and  "influential" conservative Baraboo blogger Lance Burri admits that:

...the marriage amendment, which may have spurred Democrat success in places where student turnout – fueled by massive anti-amendment efforts – brought more-than-usual Democrat votes to the polls.

You think?

Conceding that Iraq was also a factor, Burri looks back:

So, back in May, and June, and July…perhaps we should have anticipated more fully the effects of the marriage amendment... 

But could we have known then that Iraq and the President’s numbers were going to drag Republicans down, come November? Could we have honestly predicted that the Bush administration – with all their Rovian strategery – wouldn’t turn that around somehow?

No.  Not in July.

Funny, it was exactly July that Paul predicted that the amendment would backfire on the Republicans. And it was just about weekly all last year that Paul pointed out that Iraq and Bush would drag Republicans down.

Andrew Gordon of the UW-Madison Coillege Democrats responded to Burri and got right to the point:

This was not outside of GOP control. They could have controlled this by resisting the temptation to score political points by having Wisconsin take a vote on the lives and families of gay people. Republicans had control of the state legislature, and had the ability to rise above this kind of political pandering.

But they didn't, and it backfired. But to say that it wasn't in GOP control is absolutely asinine. Republicans wrote the amendment. Republicans passed it with their legislative majorities. Republican candidates proudly trumpeted their bigotry, but it didn't bring them any election day triumph. Tough luck. When you gamble and lose, at least accept the blame.

On the bigger picture, Gordon also nails it:

In the end, it was this strong record of failure that cost Republicans in November. It's shocking that GOP talking heads still haven't figured it out. The Democratic Tsunami didn't come out of nowhere. Republicans made it, and lost because they consistently made wrong decisions on pretty much every issue. To blame it on fate avoids accepting any responsibilities for the shortcomings and failures of the last 12 years. It also means that the GOP still hasn't learned anything, which only bodes well for maintaining and increasing our majorities in the future, because Democrats - unlike Republicans - will craft a record of results for the American people.

- Barry Orton

Smashing Good News for Wisconsin Business and Labor: WMC Stands Mute

Quietly slipping under the radar this election season was a finding in October that ranked Wisconsin quite favorably on workers' compensation premium rates. Conducted by the state of Oregon's Department of Consumer and Business Services, Wisconsin, when ranked against all states and the District of Columbia, was 35th, improving from 33rd in 2004.

As the study notes: 

Employers can reduce their workers' compensation rates through accident prevention, safety training, and by helping injured workers return to work.

North Dakota in 51st place and Indiana in 50th led all states.

Let's remember this the next time WMC whines about the cost of doing business in Wisconsin or about 'unfair' safety regulations that benefit workers, and in turn, the employers.

While we are at it,  Morgan Quitno Press, which is in the state and city ranking publications business, ranked Wisconsin the 14th Most Livable State in 2006.   Morgan Quitno also has ranked us the 8th Smartest State for 2006-07.  They use twenty-one factors ranging from student-teacher ratios, to testing, to graduation rates. We beat all of our neighboring states; Iowa by a little, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan by a lot.

I am not sure how accurate these rankings are, but one thing I am sure of is that my buddies at WMC never told you about them.

Municipal Lobbying: The Mequon Approach of Denial

Barry Orton did a post last week which evoked considerable comment, Mequon Quits League of Wisconsin Municipalities; Cuts Off Nose To Spite Face:

The League's positions on legislation, which are a result of the state's municipalities' consideration of what best protects their collective interests, apparently are too liberal for a majority of Mequon's City Council.

The Mequon position was vigorously defended several times by  John Wirth, Mequon Common Council, District 4. When all was said and done, the rationalization came down to this:

It is not simply because of the positions the League takes, but more importantly because tax dollars should not be used for lobbying. League lobbying would be no more justified if the League adopted conservative positions...

...When governmental entities get into the lobbying game and use tax dollars to do so, they in effect involuntarily force their constituents to belong to that lobbying group. Those constituents can't quit the group. They are forced to have their dollars devoted to causes with which they disagree...

...No one forces people to join AARP, the NAACP, the NRA or the Democratic or Republican Parties. No one forces anyone to be a road builder or to join the road builders' lobbying group. (emphasis added)

Sorry John, but that is what government does in every function, whether it is regularity, distributive, or redistributive:

• None of us can pull out of the funding of public education, kids or not.
• When the legislature decides to name some new state bird, song, or insect, you cannot refuse to participate in the cost.
• When the federal government spends billions of dollars to kill, maim, and torture in Iraq, you and I can join together to oppose such barbaric behavior, but we cannot withhold our tax dollars spent on it. (Actually we can, but the IRS will get us in the end.)
• No bid contracts to thieves like Halliburton.

Our form of government is the evolution of the social compact that emerged from the Magna Carta. It is based on an agreement that we are all in this together.  We have a right, even an obligation, to challenge government programs and policies, but we do not have the right to opt out. Our form of government does not provide a list of government functions like a restaurant menu. Lobbying, like fire service, public health, and snow plowing, are all services Mequon can choose to provide.

Fine, if you want to pull out of the League for political reasons, (that is what Madison's present mayor foolishly did with the United States Conference of Mayors), but do not use a bogus argument that attacks the fundamental nature of our government. You pulled out because you do not like the policies.  Say so.

Local Government: Merger or Consolidation

This weekend both Madison newspapers covered the issue of local governments working together to provide better services at reasonable costs.  The Capital Times covered the merger of several fire departments. Merging Fire Departments Tough, but Payoff is Good:

Despite a national buzz in recent years about the benefits of cooperation, those who have tried it know that any government consolidation is an arduous process. But for fire departments, who would be asked in merger to blend something much more personal than trucks and stations and nozzles, the idea is particularly challenging.

On Sunday, the Wisconsin State Journal examined 'renting services.' Small Town Faces Big Police Decisions:

DEERFIELD - In a move some say strikes at the heart of what it means to live in a small community, the Village Board is considering disbanding its police force and contracting with the Dane County Sheriff's Office to patrol the village.

Both articles focus on the emotional issues, loss of community identity and tradition.  Both articles focus on the economic benefits and the hope that the pooling of resources will provide higher levels of service.

Here is what is missed in these discussions:

• In consolidation or merger, one of the parties often uses the resources of the other to cover administrative expenses, and does not provide the expected level of services. To offset this, the provider should err in providing higher levels of service.
• In merger, the objective of services is often forgotten. Combined with the fervor of merger and the loss of administrative responsibility, major functions wither and the community suffers.  A perfect example of this is the merger of the Dane County and City of Madison Health Departments.  The loss of public health nurses devoted to Madison neighborhoods is devastating.  Their loss of participation the Neighborhood Resource Teams is one reason that gang and violent crime rose so rapidly in the last three years.
• There is the cherry-picking.  The urban center, Milwaukee, Madison, Oshkosh, and Green Bay has to provide a full compliment of services.  Madison taxpayers do not have the right to opt out of the highest level of fire service for high rise buildings, the Civic Center, Monona Terrace, or the extraordinary cost of dealing with drifters, most with emotional or drug dependency problems, who collect on State Street. Yet adjacent communities can pick and choose which services to share.

In anticipation of the critic who says Madison does not have to take care of the drifters, I remind you that more than one arson fire was started by a drifter who was purchased a bus ticket to Madison by another local unit of government and disappeared into the night.

Common Sense Drought in Stevens Point Kills "Urinetown"

The high school students in Stevens Point will miss out on of the most enjoyable, humorous productions of the past twenty years, Urinetown: District says goodbye 'Urinetown,' hello 'Music Man'

Administrators there axed plans for high school students to put on a play called “Urinetown.”

They wanted to find something more wholesome as a replacement and chose “The Music Man.”

School Superintendent Bette Lang said she found the show’s title questionable, but her final decision to nix it was based in her belief that productions at the high school should be age-appropriate for as many students as possible in the district. (emphasis added)

In the opening of Urinetown, wise-beyond-her-years Little Sally describes the water shortage when she is interrupted by Officer Lockstock.

Officer Lockstock: Whoa there. Not all at once. They'll hear more about the water shortage in the next scene.

Little Sally: Oh, I guess you don't want to overload them with too much exposition, huh?

Officer Lockstock: Everything in time, Little Sally. You're too young to understand it now, but nothing kills a show like too much exposition.

Little Sally: How about bad subject matter? Or a bad title? That could kill a show pretty good.

Obviously the folks in Stevens Point will never get the joke. And no one in Stevens Point ever shared Everyone Poops with their four year old.

Anyone old enough to appreciate the Music Man is old enough for Urinetown. Unless, of course, they never did the pee dance and they believe this planet has an unlimited supply of fresh water.

Update: Disclosure- Rachael played Little Sally in the University of Michigan production of Urinetown.

Mifflin Street Co-op: Food for the Revolution Link

Here is the link to the History of the Mifflin Street Community Co-operative.

Mifflin Street Co-op: Food For the Revolution

A few years ago I turned up at a fund raiser for the Mifflin Street Co-op, and spent several hundred dollars on a few shares of stock signed by some fictional revolutionary named Delgado and an old banner from The War At Home.

From 1966 until 1969 I shopped at the White Front Grocery at the corner of Mifflin and Basset. That winter of 68-69, when word came that the Caruso family was going to close the business, a dozen of us decided it was time to form a food cooperative.

The rest is history. And the history was not always pretty, but the Co-op served as a barometer measuring the status of the Madison left for many years. From the first Mifflin Street Block Party in 1969, which was not sponsored or organized by the Co-op, to the welfare demonstrations, to the struggles against dangerous drugs, it reflected the concerns of the neighborhood.

The fights over carrying soft drinks, tobacco, meats, non -organic food products, processed food and anything digestible or indigestible seemed to never end.  In fact, at some point, there was at least one member of the Mifflin Street Co-op who opposed the sale of every consumable food product offered to the public in the past thirty years. Cleaning products, dog and cat foods, and, of course, beer were included in the frays.

The end of the Co-op does not trouble me. There are other platforms and more important battles to wage.  That the Mifflin Street Co-op was a vehicle to unleash in those struggles is not insignificant.  But the energy to fight for justice, safe food, and neighborhood strength can be waged in other forums.

The Co-op will survive in principle.  There is its offspring, the Willy Street Co-op, and such deserving individual successes like Golden Produce. The real lore of the co-op was co-op workers like Bob Golden driving to Chicago to purchase fresh produce with a few hundred dollars. He usually came back with the intended lettuce and grapes (if there was no boycott that month) as well as the spinach, peaches and ginger.  But the real adventure would be the items not on his shopping list, fruits and vegetables that most members had never seen, let alone tasted.

You probably noticed that the link to the Co-op website works but there is not much there. If you go to the history of the Mifflin Street Co-op you will find nothing but a notice that it is under construction.  A significant partial history used to be available in a PDF but it has disappeared. How appropriate. 

I still have my membership card.

 

Political Thanksgiving

The conclusion of the analysis of the "thumping" Democrats gave Republicans this month by The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg sums up the sentiment at many of our Thanksgiving tables this year:

...It has been obvious for some time that, as President of the United States, George W. Bush is in very far over his head. He does not know how to use power wisely. He will now have a Democratic Congress to restrain him, and, perhaps, to protect him—and us—from his unfettered impulses. This may not be the Thanksgiving he was looking forward to, but the rest of us have reason to be grateful.                          

- Barry Orton

Mequon Quits League of Wisconsin Municipalities; Cuts Off Nose To Spite Face

Last week the City of Mequon decided to drop its membership in the League of Wisconsin Municipalities,   The League's positions on legislation, which are a result of the state's municipalities' consideration of what best protects their collective interests, apparently are too liberal for a majority of Mequon's City Council.  Boots and Sabers' Owen Robinson thinks it's a great idea.

Although I suspect Robinson's difficulties with the League's positions are generated primarily by the League's steadfast opposition to TABOR, his list of reactions to their specific positions is illuminating.  Where the League favors "comprehensive health care reform," Robinson sees "socialist health care."  Where the League supports elimination of some tax exemptions to reduce the property tax burden on homeowners, Robinson sees a plot to increase taxes on business.

The League will do fine without Mequon.  Once they leave the League, what Mequon will have to do without are the League's comprehensive legal reference services, its training courses for local officials, its ordinance library, its publications, and its mutual insurance. 

Will Mequon save real money by this move?  Doubtful.  What Mequon has done is designed to show those lefties in Madison.

The League's Board of Directors are Mayors and Council members from such socialist strongholds as Ashwaubenon, Lancaster, West Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Lodi, Wausau, Oakdale, Ripon, Neenah, Fall Creek, Milwaukee, Neilsville, Superior, Manitowoc, and East Troy.

What does this move remind you of?  Right, Ozaukee County's vote to cut its UW-Extension funding to show its disapproval of UW-Madison hiring Kevin Barrett to teach that course on Islam. Where is Mequon, again?  Oh, Ozaukee County.  Got it.

- Barry Orton

UW Tuition: The Final Word from John Allen

The University of Wisconsin Alumni Association published  Priced Out of the Promised Land by John Allen, associate editor, in its Winter, 2006 issue of On Wisconsin.

Allen provides a comprehensive examination of the increase in tuition, admission policies and the impact of state reductions in funding.

Significant contributions from Allen to the discussion include:

• Governor Doyle's Wisconsin Covenant: “The idea is simple,”he said, “but the impact is far-reaching. All eighth-graders in the state will be given the chance to join the Wisconsin Covenant. If they pledge to stay in school, take challenging courses, stay out of trouble, apply for state and federal financial aid, and maintain at least a B average in high school, we’ll do our part and guarantee their [families] a package of financial aid that lets them walk through the doors of one of our UW campuses.”

• To Sara Goldrick-Rab, an assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the School of Education and a faculty affiliate for the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, the plan is a “grand idea. But,” she says, sensing danger in the ambiguities, “it needs cash and clarification.”

• Still, the Covenant recognizes an important, if inconvenient, truth: the price of attending a UW System school is rising at an alarming rate.

• The median family income in Wisconsin, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is $46,351. But according to the chancellor’s office, the average family income of a new UW Madison freshman is nearly twice that —about $90,000.

• During the ensuing decades, the UW developed a formula for how high tuition ought to be. “The traditional ratio is that the state pays about 65 percent of the cost of running the university, and students pay 35 percent,” says Freda Harris, the UW System’s associate vice president for budget.

• From 1995 to 2005, as UW-Madison’s budget expanded, the state’s contribution in general-purpose revenue (money that isn’t earmarked for a specific program and goes to meet ongoing expenses such as salaries, benefits, and building upkeep) decreased. In 1996 it was $256.9 million; in 2006 it was $255.1 million.During the same period, tuition receipts more than doubled from $156.6 million to $314.1 million.

The article leaves the reader with these conclusions:

• The UW charges too much for tuition for in and out-of-state students because the state does not provide adequate funding.
• Without more state funds, the UW must admit more out-of-state students to meet revenue needs or most raise the tuition for in-state students. In either case, the UW is pricing itself out of range for families of modest means turning the school into an institution where poor kids are not welcome.
• Private schools like Princeton, despite their higher tuition, have more low-income students because of the need-based assistance those kids receive.
• There are significant numbers of Wisconsin students from low income households who do not get into the UW because they do not have the academic credentials. These students are bright enough but they do not have the academic tools because they come from school districts with limited resources.

Ironic conclusion: The conservative legislators, with school districts with low property tax bases, who are reducing public spending on secondary and primary education are reduce the possibility that their constituent's children will get into the UW Madison, or any other UW campus. These revenue strapped communities are reluctant to pass school spending referendum and cannot keep their kids competitive with districts like Madison which are likely to allow the district to exceed the revenue caps.