Paul Soglin: Waxing America

WMC Begins To Unravel

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) is in the very early stages of an epic collapse. For some time, years, they will be a major political force in Wisconsin. The re-election of Louis Butler to the Wisconsin Supreme Court is not a certainly and WMC may defeat a thoughtful, knowledgeable jurist within the next year.

For several months I have talked to business leaders in the Madison area. The message is evident. The one-pony WMC show of no taxes and electing right-wingers at all costs is beginning to take its toll on the membership.

Now come the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association (WTBA). They are a separate business organization from WMC but the two groups have overlapping membership.

WMC was running ads supporting the oil lobby and attacking Governor Doyle's proposed tax on gasoline as a means of funding transportation infrastructure.

WTBA had enough, and in an unprecedented move, is now running their own radio spots (if I transcribed it correctly):

...A state report says the five largest oil companies made more than $113 billion dollars last year. That's about $310 Million dollars a day.

The State's Chamber of Commerce (WMC) is running ads and wants you to believe that doing nothing is good for Wisconsin.

You know better. It is time for Wisconsin to turn the tables on big oil.

Governor Doyle's state budget currently calls on big oil to pay a percentage for every barrel of oil coming into Wisconsin..and..he'll prohibit oil companies from passing the cost on to consumers...

We know that public investment in infrastructure is critical to a healthy economy. We must build schools, transportation systems, public parks, and convention centers. Some of us might disagree on how much must be spent on roads versus rail or schools versus parks but we make the connection that public investment is a critical step towards leveraging private investment.

WMC is a strong healthy organization that will be a major influence in state and local politics. But with education and alternative voices, responsible business and community leaders can break its stranglehold on the private sector wallets that fund a reckless and dangerous agenda. An agenda that is dangerous for Wisconsin citizens, the economy, and businesses.

Fast-Tracked Wisconsin "Video Competition" Bill: "Sitting on a Siding, Stinking"

It's been quiet, almost too quiet, regarding the progress of AT&T's favorite bill, AB 207, the "video competition"  legislation you're all sick of hearing about. This bill, once on the fast track, has been, in the words of a  State Senator I'll leave nameless, "sitting on a siding, stinking." 

Meanwhile, there's been further noise about Joe Wineke's lobbying for AT&T:

The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram doesn't like Wineke's position or the bill:

Wineke is chairman of the state Democratic Party, a job that should keep him busy enough. That he also should carry the water of a huge, out-of-state corporation should anger voters who want political figures as divorced from corporate pockets as possible. And Democrats deserve a spokesman who advocates party ideals such as standing up for the little guy and supporting local control, not one who twists party members' arms to vote for a bill that mainly benefits out-of-state behemoths.

The Capital Times thinks Joe's wrong:

... it is with some regret that we note Wineke's boneheaded decision to accept a $2,000-a-month contract to lobby on behalf of the AT&T communications conglomerate at a time when AT&T is trying to ram through the Legislature changes in cable TV regulations that would harm consumers, undermine local control and stifle public access programming.

The AT&T-backed proposal is a classic example of everything that is wrong with how government now works in Wisconsin. The bill was written not by legislators, but by lawyers and lobbyists for a corporation that will benefit from its enactment. It is opposed by just about everyone who is serious about lowering cable rates, reforming flawed regulatory policies and fostering democratic media discourse. It is backed primarily by AT&T, which is busy making campaign contributions to legislators and hiring former legislators as lobbyists.

In spite of what the Cap Times and some County Chairs say, Wineke won't quit.

Bill Kraus offers Fightingbob readers a half-strength defense of Wineke.

Meanwhile, remember those "TV4US" binders with all the names of their supporters that landed on legislator's desks?  Tt seems some of the names were of legislators in opposition to the bill.  Uff Da!

- Barry Orton

Urban Poverty

I found Rick Esenberg's series on the Urban Right (it starts here) fascinating. Here is a response to a number of issues he raises in his first six parts:

• I agree that the liberal response to urban poverty with welfare in the 1960's was a mistake. We cannot transition families off welfare, until it is replaced with the appropriate job readiness, health, and employment programs.
• In future posts I hope we can discuss The Truly Disadvantaged by William Julius Wilson. Rick's thinking is very much attuned to this liberal black sociologist who is often confused by both the Left and Right as a conservative.
• Snitching: it is dishonorable to snitch for the purpose of wrongfully incriminating others and to protect one's own ass. It is dishonorable to withhold information that would lead to the arrest and incarceration of criminals who take the lives of innocents and/or pose an on-going threat to the community. To withhold information under those circumstances is cowardice, not honorable.
• Rick is so very correct on sentencing. It must be examined from a number of perspectives which includes the economic impact and the effect on the family and community of keeping potentially productive individuals incarcerated for too long a time. In post #2:
  • We need to reexamine, as many conservatives have begun to do, sentencing practices in drug crimes. In forging ties to African-American pastors who are fighting a lonely battle against family breakdown and the erosion of civility, we must not only share and support their promotion of traditional morality, but listen to their concerns regarding the need for expanded economic opportunity. Our proposals to address the latter certainly need not resemble traditional welfare, but we may need to accept that they will cost money.
• In his Urban Right, part 3, Rick asks:
  • Here are my questions. They aren't rhetorical. I really want to know.
    
    If you are on the left, do you really think that people who believe that taxes are too high (or need not be raised) or who think that organic market solutions are often preferable to government mandates, are being inappropriately divisive? Do you believe that people who, on balance, regard law enforcement as a good thing and not a threat or who see street violence as largely the product of cultural factors and a matter of individual responsibility as opposed to a mechanistic response to economic forces, are "hateful?" Are those who have come to believe that racial preferences perpetuate, rather than ameliorate, racial division excessively inflammatory?
  • Here are my answers. No, people concerned about high taxes are not inappropriately divisive if they share other societal values and they are not selfish. When the mantra is 'lower taxes' without regard for the larger society, the social compact, and the quality of a myriad of services from fire protection to public education or investment in public infrastructure to protection of public health all suffer, then we have a problem. Lower taxes, like all community values, must have a reference point and there must be a balance of competing interests.
  • On the issue of crime, I am in complete agreement with you. I also think that there is a responsibility by all citizens to repeatedly state that violence is unacceptable and that it is a moral obligation to speak out against it.
  • Speaking of racial preferences is not inflammatory. That said, Affirmative Action (AA),  can function without quotas or preferences. The essence of AA is to encourage people to apply and make it clear that whether it is for education or employment, the application is welcome and will be treated fairly. It means that jobs will be posted and advertised widely so that all have knowledge. And it means that job requirements and qualifications that are not relevant to the position will be removed.
• I believe that urban violence is driven by poverty and a culture of despair. Eliminating poverty will go along way to change that culture, which will in turn, motivates others to move beyond poverty.
• In Part 4, Esenberg writes:
  • Gurda (echoing a common refrain of the Journal Sentinel editorial board) refers to the drop in "good" (commonly meant to refer to manufacturing) jobs. I think that the degree to which people were paid large amounts of money for low-skill labor in the past has been overstated but, in any event, the decline in manufacturing employment has been going on for 30 years.
    
    There is not, as Gurda writes, a shortage of good jobs. There is a shortage of good jobs that require little education and nominal work skills. The problem for the "the able-bodied young men gathered on the street at midday" is not that they are ready for opportunities that society has failed to provide for them, but that the cultural milieu in which they have been raised has left them unprepared for the opportunities that exist.

                              Rick:  we must really look at The Truly Disadvantaged, especially the sections where Wilson argues precisely that point. There is the challenge: we must either raise the level of education and/or raise the level of all the qualities that fall under the category of 'job readiness.'

Milwaukee: The Urban Underclass and Public Policy

When I wrote:  An argument was made to me a few years ago about the successes in education and employment of low income black families that moved into relatively quiet and affluent suburbs: their success is attributed to reconnecting with the black middle class. A new standard was set.

Rick Esenberg wrote: ...the argument often goes like this: In the segregated inner city of the past, black lawyers and doctors lived in the same neighborhoods as poor people. Discrimination prevented their escape,...I don't disagree with that, but, ironically, this suggests that the problem is an unfortunate result of the civil rights movement...

Now it is time to turn to William Julius Wilson,The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy.  At page 56

However the argument that associates the increase of social problems in the inner city with the crystallization of underclass culture obscures some very important structural and institutional changes in the inner city that have accompanied the black middle- and working-class exodus, and leaves the erroneous impression that the sharp increase in social dislocation i the inner city can simply be explained by the ascendancy of a ghetto culture of poverty. The problem is more complex.

More specifically, I believe that the exodus of middle- and working-class families, from many ghetto neighborhoods removes an important"social buffer" that could deflect the full impact of the kind of prolonged and increasing joblessness that plagued inner-city neighborhoods in the 1970s and early 1980s, joblessness created by uneven economic growth and periodic recessions...the very presence of these families during such periods provides mainstream role models that help keep alive the perception that education is meaningful, that steady employment is a viable alternative to welfare, and that family stability is the norm, not the exception. (emphasis added)

More on Wilson on poverty and welfare in the coming weeks.

Yes, the civil rights movement, providing middle- and working class blacks a way out, did contribute to a vacuum of leadership in the inner city. But I doubt anyone would turn back the clock and undo the civil rights movement and the confrontation with the ugly face of Jim Crow.

That the welfare system contributed to the problem is also unchallenged in this corner.

Before we move on to solutions, which I think, in part, are found in the works of John McKnight,  we ought to look carefully at what Wilson (and Esenberg) say about employment, the ned for public education that works, the need for jobs that do not require high levels of education, and utilizing existing resources- asset building.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) Survey Missing

Each year WMC conducts a survey of its members. Last year we analyzed the survey WMC Membership Survey An Eyeopener: Outright Liars which was linked here   WMC Survey 2006:

WMC has reached new heights (or is that depths?) in disingenuous press releases. With their own survey in tow showing that their business members rank taxes at the bottom, they publish the document with an introduction that is simply false.

This past month I waited for the 2007 WMC survey. While links to previous years' surveys are here, all WMC reveals about this year's survey is a press release on May 1, 2007, Wisconsin Manufacturers Confident About Economy .

Unable to examine the survey to provide you with the usual sound analysis and insight you expect from Waxingamerica, the best I can do is provide excerpts from their press release along with my pithy comments:

• Wisconsin manufacturers are expressing confidence in the state’s economy . Pithy comment: After years of bashing the Doyle Administration, we finally get a shred of honesty from an organization that delights in attacking hard working people who are making the economy better for everyone, not just a few.
• WMC conducted the online survey of 400 manufacturing CEOs from among its 4,000 members to celebrate May is Manufacturing Month, with 68 completing the survey at www.wmc.org. Pithy comment:  68 out of 4,000 members participated in this survey.  That represents less than two percent of their membership and certainly less than 1% of all Wisconsin's employers. Maybe we ought not to take this survey so seriously.
• Over 55 percent report involvement in education and training partnerships in their communities. Pithy comment: I hope that includes supporting both worker training and development as well as public education.

Rowen: Keep the Urban Discussion Going

Jim Rowen, The Political Environment, thinks that there might be some usefullness to Rick Esenberg and me continuing the discussion.

Esenberg - - Soglin: Blogging Debate Worth Following

Rick Esenberg, one of my compadres on Eric Von's 1290-AM "Backstory" roundtable on Thursday afternoons (solid, professionally-run AM talk radio, by the way), has been posting on his blog a series of commentaries about urban problems.

I have found it a useful and high-minded effort, regardless of the portions with which I disagree...

I'm up for it. Ground rules: nothing about the Wiscosnin Supreme Court or other bloggers.

Urban Right: Headings Are Correct

For some time Rick Esenberg has posted on the role of conservatives in tackling urban problems. His most recent post, Urban right, pt 6: Why we need to be in on the debate contains salient points with which I agree and some which I disagree.

This is, of course, the traditional argument from the left. At root, the problem is economic. Give people what they need and the violence will stop...I have to admit that my initial reaction to these arguments is often less than civil... While I believe that the culture is now the larger problem, poverty did help to create that culture and it is poverty that makes its consequences so devastating...

...As I have said before, I am probably willing to spend more on anti-poverty programs than most conservatives. I am a Santorum and Brownback type of guy. But it won't help to spend that money unless the programs are designed to control urban violence now, encourage the recovery of a culture of marriage, inculcate traditional values (as opposed to the kind of multi-cultural divisiveness that we see too much of now), and create economic opportunities that are not "made" by the government because those will not last and will not be very robust.

Rick, allow me to make part of your argument for you.

Historically, poor communities, while less safe than wealthy communities, have not always been violent. Similarly, there are many once wealthy, or at least middle class neighborhoods, that fell to the onslaught of both violence and poverty. The very neighborhoods in Milwaukee with the highest violence are examples of the latter.

Many fine neighborhoods with a culture that respected and valued work, community, family, education, and in some instances faith, fell under the pressure of poverty and crime. Good people lived there.  They had the culture and the values.

What they did not have was the will. They lacked the will to fight as their community was challenged.  Some gave up and fled sooner than others. 

We call it middle class flight.  It is not white flight; it is not black flight. Anyone with the resources and the means left.  And with it, went many of the moral standard bearers. A vacuum was created and a culture of violence filled it.

As the middle class blacks left for the same reason as their white counterparts, they took with them the leadership that is needed in the public schools, the playgrounds and the workplace.

An argument was made to me a few years ago about the successes in education and employment of low income black families that moved into relatively quite and affluent suburbs: their success is attributed to reconnecting with the black middle class. A new standard was set.

No, economics are not the only solution; economics alone does not guarantee a safe community, but it sure plays a hell of a role in providing one.

Families with economic success, families with a step up the economic ladder are stakeholders. They have an interest in exerting their will to set the moral standards and enforce them. But it can be a very lonely battle if one feels isolated, has children who may succumb to drugs and violence, and there is no help from the outside.

Disclosing McBride

The right side of the Cheddarsphere is reacting to Jessica McBride's losing her WTMJ radio gig by blaming the lefty bloggers who criticised her, and finding ways to attack them.  The most recent took aim at Jim Rowen, who, like many others, have found McBride an easy and obvious target.

In the spirit of full disclosure:

• In my college days, I knew one of Jessica McBride's relatives, Joe.
• Jim Rowen and I have been friends for forty years.
• I served on a political panel with Jim's father, Hobart, a columnist for the Washington Post.
• I know Susan McGovern and I have been to her homes in Madison and Washington D.C.
• I supported Senator McGovern and hold him in the highest esteem.
• My bicycle cost more than $800.
• One of my daughters attends the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and took a course from Jessica McBride.
• Another McBride relative wrote an excellent article on Milwaukee poverty.
• I have written several posts about Jessica McBride, including, Channeling Jessica McBride, which is very funny.
• I like the White Sox and hate the Brewers.
• Though I hate the Brewers, I go to several of their games each season, especially if I can get free tickets.
• I have little use for Mark Belling, though I do find Charlie Sykes instructive and, at times, entertaining.
• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel needs a boost.
• I own three dogs and four cats.

That said, I like Jim Rowen and really don't care what happens to Jessica McBride. 

It makes sense that McBride's work be evaluated in its entirety. Yikes.

(The best source for all things McBride is "Wallah!")

Madison Grow Up or Grow Out -Take Three

Brenda Konkel notes that development is more complicated that simply grow up or grow out. Point well taken.

But no matter how complicated the matter, as a community, if we do not build up, we will build out.

This is even more critical for the near-east side neighborhoods if they wish to preserve neighborhood elementary and middle schools. As Baby Boomers continue to reside in the area as empty nesters, housing for families who wish to populate the schools with their kids becomes more of a scarcity.

Just as we must grow up or grow out, we must build family housing in older areas of the city and that requires density. Condos are nice and so are small subsidized apartments. They are not enough.

What we need is three and four bedroom apartments, which are very expensive to build.  They also require more parking and larger yards.

The transportation element, as Konkel notes, is critical. There is no way of properly planning a city unless land use planning, transportation planning , and tax policy are carefully blended. While I agree with Konkel that, "we don't want to wait for the great trolley vs commuter rail debate to be settled," I disagree that, "The alternative is to do a traffic impact study project by project."

The city had a decade to address and study these transportation issues.  These are issues that are bigger than any one developer, or any one neighborhood. This requires a city response, a city financed response, consistent with the Transportation 2020 Plan.

Konkel reports that:

The idea discussed at the meeting on Saturday morning was to create a transit overlay district that would take the current thinking in transit and parking plans and incorporate them with the land use plans. (emphasis added)

This is an example where the will to succeed must prevail. A transportation plan sufficient to resolve the East Washington BUILD plan must be conducted, now.  The delay means greater construction costs, further impediments to family housing, and a continued threat to neighborhood schools. Development must move forward while studying continues.

If Saturday's 'idea' is to solve the problem, great. If it is a time consuming affair that will take months just to consider, phooey.*

Every public officeholder, elected and staff, should feel a sense of urgency and needs to be committed to action.

*phooey. A technical term used by urban planners to describe anything they do not like and call kill with delays. Derived from the Latin, phoothus, meaning to fool someone by wasting time. As in "I can build Rome in a day," which is met by the reply,"Phoothus."

To Help End Poverty, Fund the "Wisconsin Shares" Childcare Program

Wisconsin and its families are facing a crisis. A critical vote is scheduled for Tuesday, May 22 when Joint Finance takes up funding for Wisconsin Shares, the only good thing that came out of so-called 'welfare reform.'

If this program is not properly funded, there will be waiting lists for low-wage working parents who rely on the childcare assistance to maintain employment, there will be a freeze on rates providers receive (Why the heck would they then accept kids receiving Shares subsidies if they can't even earn market rate payments?), decreases in eligibility, and increases in co-pays.

For all the progressives out there this program means a lot to anyone committed to: improving the condition of working parents, addressing poverty  and fixing our state's  overall economic well-being. Imagine the costs to local communities if parents can't get Shares anymore and lose their jobs; or if child care providers with high numbers of Shares families no longer get these payments.

While Governor Doyle proposed that the first recommendation of cutting the program $14 million be changed to 'only' $7 million in the first fiscal year, the entire program needs funding increases, not simply a restoration of last year's funding.

This is how we can end poverty. Let people get to work and help them in the difficult period where they have high child care costs relative to their low market wages. Cutting child care funding and ending the parents' involvement in the labor market is not how to build career ladders.