One Wisconsin Now

It looks like we can all expect the races for the state Assembly to get really ugly this year, primarily because Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) plans on buying up as much ad time as possible. Some observers expect them to spend as much as $7 million to keep their iron fisted control of the state Assembly and its agenda. Wisconsin is still recovering from the dishonest and disgusting attacks that they helped launch earlier this year against Louis Butler. Their actions helped draw very negative national attention to Wisconsin. The vast majority of independent observers condemned their actions in that race and the nonpartisan Wisconsin Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee described the WMC ads as “deceiving the public”. Why would we expect anything else from them when their gravy train in the Assembly may be at stake?

Whenever WMC prepares to spend record amounts of money to influence elections, they often send out their resident joke man Jim Pugh. It is his job to serve up the real whoppers that can sometimes get him laughed out of a room. His most often joke is that WMC’s nonstop flow of deceptive ads are merely an effort to “educate the public.” The Milwaukee Journal has reported the contents of a July fund-raising solicitation from WMC that appears to very clearly state their real goal for the fall, retaining Republican control of the Assembly. The story describes this as their “top priority.” It also reports that they would like to raise some $1 million by Labor Day to use for political ads that would serve that underlying goal. Flooding the public airwaves with deceptive ads is merely a vehicle for WMC’s real goal of maintaining their control over the Assembly.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today that all the usual business suspects are going to pump cash into an effort to fight the paid sick day referendum. The story further reveals that if they don’t get the result that they want on the referendum, that they will spend even more money by challenging the will of the people in the courts. So what is a person supposed to take from this news? That business interests are willing to invest their money in an expensive ad campaign and possibly a protracted lawsuit but not in their own employees and the public health? Are they really going to launch such an effort to keep some of the poorest workers in the city from having a benefit that most people take for granted?

The business interests involved in the fight against paid sick days list all of the same talking points that they have always used when asked to invest more into their employees and the common good. This story is no exception, once again they claim that requiring paid sick days will put people out of business and chase others businesses from the city. How many times have we had to endure this tired old argument? It is straight out of central casting but they have simply replaced the last issue with paid sick days.

Last Thursday I found myself at a press conference held by local McCain supporters. The topic was generally about the economy and “small business” and was hosted at a company that had just moved to Milwaukee’s Fifth Ward. When I arrived at the location I was given a packet of information and led to the waiting area for the press. While waiting, I shared an OWN press release with the media on how McCain votes have been a disaster for women and the economy in general.

First Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker spoke and then handed it off to the host CEO. The last scheduled speaker at the press conference was former State Senator Cathy Stepp. She largely focused on her business and how the out of control gas prices are hurting it. Frankly, I was surprised that she would make energy policy her central theme at this press conference given John McCain’s awful record in both the U.S. Senate and in recent policy statements.

In a 4-3 decision the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against the State of Wisconsin in the Department of Revenue v. Menasha Corporation case. Of all people, ethically challenged Justice Annette Ziegler wrote the majority opinion. Last year hundreds of Wisconsinites called for her to recuse herself from the case because it was a major priority for her benefactors at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Who could forget that they spent some $2 million helping to get her elected? That was more than she spent on her own campaign and almost more than both campaigns combined. She refused to recuse herself and now has delivered a big victory to her benefactors.

It looks like WMC just won a $265 million return on a $2 million investment in just one year. Unfortunately this special interest gain is a big loss for Wisconsin. During this troubling economy and a time of tough budgets, Ziegler’s decision gives us $265 million less to invest in schools, public safety, or to fix our crumbling infrastructure.

Although she chose to step down from many cases last year, oddly this was one that she refused to leave. At the time she said that she would only consider recusing herself if one of the parties in the case requested it. The person that was supposed to represent Wisconsin in the case was Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who also owes his current job to WMC’s deep pockets. Naturally Van Hollen didn’t cross them by asking for their latest installation to step aside. WMC really covered their bases on this one and it got what it paid for, meanwhile the rest of us just get the shaft.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the prospect of $200 a barrel price for oil by the end of the year. The price has shot up over the last 7 years but that increase has been much more rapid in the last six months. During that time we have seen it go up from $100 to $150 a barrel. If the price actually hits the $200 prediction, that will translate to well over $6 a gallon for gasoline at the pump.

The pain at the pump is only the beginning of the budget crunch for the average working family. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today that natural gas is also at a high for this time of year. Experts in that industry are predicting major sticker shock for energy customers, especially when we try to heat our homes in winter. Natural gas futures have jumped 82 percent since just the start of the year. The story reports that increases in the price of natural gas have already driven up electricity bills twice since March.

All of these costs are overburdening working families and impacting our already fragile economy. This is where the failed Bush policies of irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy, coddling Big Oil, and lacking a forward thinking energy policy has brought us. U.S. Senator John McCain has been a rubber stamp for those polices in the Senate. He supported Bush as much as 100 percent in 2008 and 95 percent in 2007. In addition, McCain now says that he will make Bush’s tax cuts for the rich permanent. Actually he will go even further by offering unprecedented tax giveaways to some of the biggest corporations in the country. Under this economic scheme, Big Oil would get some $3.8 billion in tax giveaways. To the average person, such a massive giveaway to the very industry that has us over a barrel makes no sense at all. To John McCain it’s just business as usual.

Last week it was reported that a Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) staffer condescendingly referred to the Epic Systems founder and well-respected progressive business leader as “that computer lady.” As a result the Institute for One Wisconsin launched an education effort this week questioning WMC’s attitude toward women and their history of opposing legislation that would have been helpful to both women and their families.

The online campaign includes a WMC Watch News Alert available at WMCWatch.org and a letter to the editor writing tool. Individuals can write a letter to the editor of their local papers expressing their outrage at both the dismissive WMC comments and their legislative positions that have been bad for Wisconsin women.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) have shown themselves to be little more than a partisan organization in recent years. Rather than simply representing business interests in the state, they have become hugely partisan and practically the funding arm for right wing candidates. Understandably, this increasingly partisan direction has concerned numerous businesses that did not sign up for such controversy. Partisanship has become one of the obvious faces of WMC, but in a recent story in the Isthmus, we may have seen a sign of something more troubling.

The Isthmus profiled Epic Systems, a Madison based software company that has not only grown to be one of the most important companies in Dane County but a powerhouse in both the state and country. While describing the many ways that Epic Systems has been leading their entire industry, the story also takes a look at the leadership behind Epic Systems and their great successes. No look at the company would be complete without mentioning the founder and CEO, Judy Faulkner. The story goes on to give a professional and rather personal profile of the force behind this giant success story. As part of that discussion, the story points out that Judy Faulkner is very forward thinking and progressive when it comes to public policy and other important issues. This certainly does not fit with the increasingly right wing partisan WMC agenda.

Today Paid Sick Days Milwaukee, a coalition of labor, educational and community organizations, delivered over 42,000 signatures to the Milwaukee Common Council. The effort was lead by 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women. They are asking the council to pass a requirement that all businesses in Milwaukee provide employees with paid sick day benefits. The council can either vote on it themselves or they could put the measure on the November ballot.

The proposed ordinance would require all private businesses in Milwaukee to give their workers one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Full-time employees for a large business would earn 72 hours a year. Smaller businesses (with 10 or fewer employees) would only be required to provide 40 hours a year in paid sick days. The days could be taken for illness, medical care for the worker, for their children, parents or any other person related to the worker.

One Wisconsin Now has launched a petition to Wisconsin’s Congressional Delegation demanding that they stand against Senator John McCain’s plan to giveaway $4 billion in new tax breaks to his friends in Big Oil. In 2006 Bush and McCain supported budget giveaways of $5 billion in tax cuts. This at a time when working people are struggling to pay $4-a-gallon gas prices and Big Oil companies are raking in records profits. One company pocketed as high as $7 billion in only one quarter recently.

According to a report from the Captial Times, “The unprecedented rise in gasoline prices helped put 2,600 General Motors employees out of work in Janesville.” That plant is scheduled to close as early as the end of 2009. It is pretty clear that the pain at the pump is spreading quickly to many other areas of our economy, especially in working family wallets. Take a moment to sign a petition to your representative in Congress! Tell them to reject the Bush/McCain policies of more tax giveaways to an industry that has devoured so much and given back so little.

U.S. Senator John McCain has proposed a gas tax “holiday.” This is a concept that has been universally panned by economists. The average consumer would see almost no savings. It seems clear that it is little more than a pander to people that are struggling with record gas prices. While John McCain offers only smoke and mirrors to the average American, all indications show that his feet are firmly planted on the side of Big Oil and their record profits.

Although he has said in past town halls (Rindge, NH, 11/18/07) that he would “oppose any tax breaks or good deals for the gas and oil industry…” his current tax plan does the exact opposite of what he promised last year. McCain’s plan would actually give the top five oil companies $3.8 billion a year in tax breaks. Further, McCain has consistently voted against windfall profits taxes for Big Oil and has voted against taxing them in order to provide rebates to severely strapped consumers.

Once again John Torinus has written a column trying his best to minimize the serious violations of Justice Annette Ziegler. Like Ziegler, Torinus is willfully ignoring many factors in the unprecedented decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to discipline one of their own. Once again he fails to inform readers of his own conflict while at the same time putting hypocrisy on full display.

John Torinus again failed to tell his readers that he is hardly an objective viewer of the Ziegler scandal. He is a long-time board member for corporate lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). They shattered all kinds of records by spending unprecedented millions to get Ziegler elected. They not only spent more than Ziegler did on her own campaign but they spent more than both campaigns combined. To present his severely biased views of the Ziegler scandal without making full disclosure of this conflict is deliberately misleading.

In an editorial today the Tomah Journal highlights a case that came before the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week. The case involved the family of a three-year-old boy suffering from brain cancer and a large HMO. The same day that the court slapped fellow Justice Annette Ziegler on the wrist for her willful violation of ethics rules, the court narrowly ruled for the family of the young boy. In a surprise to no one Ziegler dissented favoring the corporation.

The editorial reminds its readers that the state’s corporate lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), spent unprecedented millions on her campaign. Even in the midst of facing a Judicial Conduct Panel last year over her conflicts, she still refused to step off a case involving her benefactors at WMC. It should be no surprise that she ruled against the young boy and his family and for the big corporate interests.

Although John McCain claims the mantle of “reformer” he has chosen to surround himself with lobbyists for all sorts of questionable interests. We also know that John McCain has admitted that he still needs an education when it comes to the economy. Given those two facts, why would anyone be surprised that he chose Phil Gramm as his teacher. He is not only a former colleague but he has also been a lobbyist for the mortgage industry. MSNBC is reporting that while Gramm was advising John McCain about his economic policy, he was also being paid by a Swiss bank to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis.

When Phil Gramm chaired the Senate Banking Committee, he wrote and passed deregulatory legislation in multiple industries. Some economists point to both this and general lack of enforcement as not only a key reason for the mortgage crisis but also for its spread to other sectors of finance. Given this history it shouldn’t be a surprise that John McCain has proposed even more deregulation and nothing of substance to help individuals that are struggling.

Wispolitics is reporting that a deal has been reached on a budget repair bill. They report that the deal would use $209 million from tobacco securitization payments and would delay $125 million in school aid payments into the next biennium. The compromise would also close a corporate tax loophole being used most notably by the largest corporation in the world, Wal-Mart. Wispolitics is reporting that addressing this loophole will add $15 million in revenue to the state budget.

Holding large corporations accountable by closing this loophole is a good start, but there is a much larger corporate loophole that still looms. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue estimates that the “Las Vegas Loophole” costs the state $260 million a year. In using this tax loophole corporations set up dummy corporations in places like Nevada to avoid paying their fair share in Wisconsin. Closing this one corporate loophole could have solved our current budget gap all by itself.

Corporations take full advantage of our state’s infrastructure and other assets. They should also take full responsibility at tax time. The time of shortchanging the State of Wisconsin and passing the buck to individual taxpayers should end. Closing the “Las Vegas Loophole” would have not only solved our short term budget issue but also the long term inequality that is currently built into our tax system.

During the month of May Labor 2008 will kick off its biggest mobilization effort. Union activists all around this country will be talking to union households about Sen. McCain’s anti-worker record. In Wisconsin people will be busy recruiting for member-to-member walks and phone banks. The walks begin Saturday May 10th in Milwaukee and May 17th in Wausau, Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Eau Claire and La Crosse.

Much of the effort will focus on John McCain’s healthcare plan and how it leaves Working Families on Their Own. Soaring health care costs are forcing wages down for people lucky enough to have insurance. Another 47 million are uninsured. Although John McCain says he intends to combat rising costs, his proposals protect insurance company profits at the expense of working families.

Guess who is involved in yet another lawsuit against the State of Wisconsin? Why it is Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce of course! They have filed a lawsuit, along with other business interests, against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Apparently they want the DNR to suspend rulemaking on new pollution limits for power plants. They claim that they are not challenging the merit of the proposed rule. Instead their feathers are ruffled over what sounds like a very technical issue.

WMC claims that they were not given notice of the proposed rules before the start of the rulemaking process. Some might consider this to be using a legal “loophole” or a “technicality” just to undermine the new rule. Are they willing to rush off to court and sacrifice public health and the environment because of a “technicality”?

That’s funny, for some reason I thought they were against legal “technicalities” and “loopholes”. In any case, someone should call WMC and tell them to stand up for the environment and public health - not technicalities! Heck, if someone had the cash, they could even run a scary ad about it.

John McCain fancies himself as a great reformer of our campaign finance system. Unfortunately he does not seem to be obeying some of his own rules regarding his own campaign travel. He had a stated policy of not using aircraft of companies with lobbying interests in Washington for campaign travel. The Boston Globe identified campaign reimbursements to at least 10 corporations for private jet transport. Unfortunately, he is not only violating his own internal policies on the issue, but he is also violating at least the spirit of a relatively new campaign finance law that he himself supported.

The New York Times reported this weekend that John McCain used a corporate jet owned by a company headed by his wife. For five of the seven months, the plane was used almost exclusively for campaign-related purposes. The campaign paid a total of $241,149 for use of the plane during the seven month period. According to the New York Times analysis, that is approximately what it would cost to charter a similar jet for only a month or two at the most.

On Wednesday Democrats and some Republicans in Congress tried to pass a discrimination bill. It would have allowed employees more time to sue if they were being discriminated against in pay. The bipartisan effort was unsuccessful because of an almost exclusively Republican filibuster. Even if the measure would have passed, it would have also faced a promised veto from the President.

Specifically at issue was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. It allows employers to continue paying their employees in a discriminatory fashion for the workers’ entire career if the employees don’t dispute their pay within the first 180 days. Prior to the ruling, most people understood that the 180-day limit was intended to apply to any paycheck not just the very first one. It can be difficult for employees to find out what other co-workers are making within the short time frame outlined in the Supreme Court decision.

We already know that the centerpiece of John McCain’s plan for the economy consists of massive corporate tax cuts and continuing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. While he has been so focused on tax policy lately isn’t it strange that he continues to delay the release of his tax returns? It looks like “straight talk” ends where his personal fortune begins.

Could it be that McCain is trying to separate his recent populist talk on the stump with the fact that he is one of the richest members of Congress? He owns nine homes worth an estimated $13 million. His wife is estimated to have a $100 million stake in Anheuser Busch, a corporation that her father helped run. Can it really be a surprise that he is so out of touch with the average person? Should we really be shocked that he would push policies the benefit the most elite in our nation?