Posts Tagged ‘Governor Doyle’

Debating the Supreme Court Ruling on Gov. Doyle’s Fund Raid

This week’s installment of “That’s Debatable,” is a disagreement over the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the state’s budget transfer from the Patients Compensation Fund.

Each week, the website WisOpinion.com asks two veterans of Wisconsin policy and politics, Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now and our own Brian Fraley (a Director at the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy) to engage in exchanges on a topic of their choosing.

From Fraley’s entry, this week:

Quick everyone. Don’t look at the Supreme Court ruling that served as a denouncement of Governor Doyle’s fiscal mismanagement. Look at the fuzzy bunny over in the corner! Or that shiny object over there! Your debate tactics mirror the Doyle/Barrett campaign plan. And I don’t think it will work. To somehow spin this ruling into a negative for Walker? No one is buying it, Scot.

You can read the entire exchange here.

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Posted in mi perspectives | July 25, 2010 | | No Comments

Wisconsin Supreme Court Affirms Property Rights, Rebukes Governor Doyle

MacIver News Service | July 20, 2010 [Madison, Wisc...] In a 5-2 opinion released today, the State Supreme Court has affirmed the property rights of doctors and other health care providers. The Court, in a majority opinion by Justice David Prosser, ruled against the state’s transfer of $200 million from the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund.

“Because health care providers have protected property interests in the Fund, we conclude that § 9225 of 2007 Wis. Act 20 is unconstitutional because it authorizes an unconstitutional taking of private property without just compensation.”

The ruling, which Capitol observers say is a stunning rebuke of the Doyle Administration’s budgeting practices, reversed a lower court ruling and will force the state to reimburse the $200 million to the Fund. The State of Wisconsin currently has only $45 million in projected reserves on their books.

“Governor Doyle and his legislative followers broke a promise to families and the medical community when they raided the fund,” said State Representative John Nygren (R-Marinette). “This raid has already driven up health care costs and is now going to contribute to an already huge state budget deficit.” 

State law requires doctors and hospitals to contribute to the fund to pay for medical malpractice claims that exceed the $1 million paid by private malpractice insurance. Until the raid, the fund has helped keep malpractice insurance costs lower than most  other states.

In October 2007, the state legislature approved a proposal from Governor Jim Doyle to balance the state budget by transferring $200 million from the Fund to pay for ongoing state operations.

The Wisconsin Medical Society filed suit. After losing their case in Dane County Circuit Court, the case was appealed. The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April of this year.

“We are extremely gratified with today’s Supreme Court ruling because it is a great victory for patients, their families and health care professionals across Wisconsin,” said Wisconsin Medical Society President Thomas Luetzow, MD. “This ruling sends an important message that the Fund is not a piggy bank. The raid was wrong, and justice has been served.”

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Posted in News | July 20, 2010 | | 3 Comments

Key Deadline Friday in Wisconsin’s Race to Implement Obamacare

By Bill Osmulski
MacIver News Service

[Madison, Wisc..] The Doyle Administration is moving quickly to have Wisconsin be one of the first states to implement a health insurance exchange, which the recently passed national health care reform requires of all states by 2014. The effort faces a key deadline this Friday.

The national “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” has given all states four years to establish an AHBE (American Health Benefit Exchange), although more than a dozen states have sued to prevent implementation of the law on various Constitutional grounds.

Currently Wisconsin manages it’s various health care services through a computer system called CARES (Client Assistance for Re-employment & Economic Support). CARES handles over a million transactions a day.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services regularly awards contracts to maintain and enhance that system. Despite no federal or state mandate that it do so, DHS has mandated that the next contract awards will require the vendor to “develop, operate, maintain and enhance an automated system that will support the AHBE.”

The request for proposal was released on May 13, and requires potential vendors to explain how they will comply with federal regulations and provisions for the AHBE.

Yet, the RFP also states “Federal regulations have not been published at the time of the development of the RFP and state business requirements and system requirements have not yet been created.”

However the vendor designs the AHBE, Doyle’s DHS has demanded it “must build upon the existing CARES System architecture or a direct, viable, and sustainable interface with that architecture.”

When the vendors’ proposals are scored, their plans for the AHBE will count towards 10 percent of their total score. The deadline for proposals is this Friday, July 16th. The contract would start on September 1, 2010.

Currently the CARES workload for the state’s vendor is split between 20 percent maintenance and 80 percent development/enhancement. DHS asserts incorporating the construction and maintenance capacity for a health care exchange will not require additional state resources and that the maintenance/development workload ratio will be unchanged despite the addition of the AHBE

The current CARES vendor is Deloitte Consulting L.P. The total fixed monthly price for its services is $110,000. The actual hours invoiced per year are: 146,498 in 2009, 140,808 in 2008, and 121,933 in 2007. DHS allows 25,000 billable hours per month. There are currently 2,000 active CARES workers comprised of state, county and contracted staff.

Other potential vendors who were present at a demonstration on June 2, 2010 include Adobe Systems, Benefit Focus, Ceridian, CGI, Choice Administrators, Compuware, Connecture, ConnnextionsHealth, Dell, IBM, IO Datasphere, Strategem, and Vision IT.

See this video for our previous reporting on this issue.

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Posted in News | July 13, 2010 | | 2 Comments

State Cherry Picks Unemployment Numbers

MacIver News Service [Madison, Wisc...] The numbers don’t lie when it comes to Wisconsin’s unemployment situation, but they tell different stories depending on who is reporting the news.

Last  week the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel all had vastly different interpretations of May’s unemployment figures.

The State of Wisconsin emphasized 40,000 new jobs were created in May and the unemployment rate was 7.7%. Meanwhile the Journal Sentinel reported the state lost 7,900 jobs and the unemployment rate was 8.2%. The Associated Press asserted that 40,000 new jobs were created and there was an 8.2% unemployment rate.

The reports are different because the organizations were working with two distinct sets of numbers. When the state collects unemployment figures each month, it compiles the data by seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted. Seasonally adjusted numbers take into account seasonal workers (like those who work in tourism or landscaping), while the unadjusted numbers show the total number workers in the state.

Economists prefer to work with the seasonally adjusted numbers, because they say it provides a truer picture of the economy. Those are the numbers the Journal Sentinel focused on in its story about May’s unemployment. The state focused on the not seasonally adjusted numbers, which painted a rosier picture of the state’s economy.

“The Doyle Administration’s spin on the recent jobs report masks a reality that’s all too clear to economists, employers and those underemployed or out of work. Government jobs and short-term stimulus work are no substitute for the private industry prosperity we desperately need to help Wisconsin families and businesses thrive long-term,”said Senator Alberta Darling, R-River Hills.

DWD does not always lead with the not seasonally adjusted numbers in its monthly press releases. Sometimes the seasonally adjusted numbers are more positive, and that’s what the state leads with.

In fact, May was the first month this year that DWD focused on the non-seasonally adjusted numbers. The last time DWD went with not seasonally adjust numbers was in December.

Both sets of numbers usually appear in the state’s press release, but the less appealing numbers are buried in the story.

When we take into account the seasonal adjustment, instead of adding 32,000 private sector jobs, the Wisconsin economy lost 7,900 private sector jobs in May. The net change from a year ago is a loss of 37,400 jobs in the private sector.

In seasonally adjusted terms, 3,700 jobs were lost in in the hospitality sector in May and 6,700 jobs were lost since last year. In non-adjusted numbers leisure and hospitality may have added jobs in the last month, but there is still a loss of 7,500 jobs since last year.

Overall, in May Wisconsin’s economy (both private and public sector) added 1,600 jobs in seasonally-adjusted terms, as opposed to the “tens of thousands” that the governor claimed.

The discrepancy has touched off a political tussle.

“Sadly, the Democrats here in Wisconsin made it clear they’re much more worried about their own jobs than the 100,000-plus jobs we’ve lost under their leadership,” said State Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus. “They’re trying to pretend their actions don’t have consequences, and now they’re finding out that they can’t ‘spin’ the economy into recovery.”

An official with the Doyle Administration didn’t dispute the private sector job loss numbers, but did issue a statement chastising the reporting done on the matter.

“Several media outlets misrepresented state employment figures released yesterday by the Department of Workforce Development,” said Deputy Administration Secretary Dan Schooff on Friday. “The figures reported yesterday relating to state government employment and hiring used by the federal Department of Labor can be easily misconstrued. In the most recent report they indicated that the state hired 2,900 new employees (not seasonally adjusted). They also indicated that the state hired 3,100 new employees (seasonally adjusted), as was reported by several media outlets.”

The MacIver News graphic below shows the first sentence in the Department of Workforce Development’s monthly unemployment press releases for the last six months, which shows the Administration does not have a standardized way of reporting unemployment figures.

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Posted in News | June 21, 2010 | | 2 Comments

Nass Says UW Hire Was Political Favor

MacIver News Service [Madison, Wisc...] The ranking Republican member of the Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee is calling the recent hiring of a top Doyle aide by the University of Wisconsin System ‘innappropriate,’ ‘unethical,’ and ‘immoral.’

State Representative Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) today blasted the selection of Department of Administration Secretary Michael Morgan as the new Senior Vice President for Administration and Fiscal Affairs for the System. 

“It’s immoral and unethical to give somebody a job that cost taxpayers and students about $345,000 annually in salary and benefits without having them compete against other qualified candidates,” said Nass. “Frankly, giving away a public sector job in this manner with compensation amounting to 1/3 of a million dollars annually ought to be illegal.”

Nass is particularly disturbed that the University System president hired Morgan to be a senior administrator over the UW System’s fiscal affairs.

“President Reilly’s decision to hire Morgan, without a formal selection process, is about throwing a life-preserver to a Democrat using taxpayer and student funds,” Nass said. “Mr. Morgan is the second most responsible person behind Doyle for the disastrous management of state finances. He has red ink all over his hands for leaving the state with a $4 billion deficit and financial decisions that will devastate our state’s economy for many years to come.”

Tom Anderes resigned the position to accept an offer from the University of Arizona on April 30th.

A representative for the UW System said when the job became vacant the System wanted to move quickly to fill this critical position and that his hiring was not a political favor.

“It created a vacancy that we weren’t expecting that needed to be filled quickly by someone who could hit the ground running,” said David F. , Executive Director of Communications and External Relations for the UW System. “Michael Morgan did not come looking for a job from the university nor did anyone come to the university looking for a job on his behalf.”

Giroux said Morgan was recruited because of his experience and knowledge of both the UW System and state government.

“President Riley reached out to Michael Morgan personally to see if he’d be interested in this opportunity. He accepted,” said Giroux “We didn’t post the job and appoint a search committee. We didn’t spend tens of thousands of dollars for a national search. We didn’t revisit the salary. We kept the salary frozen at its current level.”

Nass says despite the fact the position officially became open in April, Reilly has known about this possible vacancy since late last year. The Republican lawmaker believes a formal search should have been conducted and that the decision to hire Morgan should be reversed.

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Posted in News | June 17, 2010 | | 2 Comments

Debating the State of the State

Each week, the website WisOpinion.com asks two veterans of Wisconsin policy and politics, Scot Ross of One Wisconsin Now and our own Brian Fraley (a Director at the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy) to engage in exchanges on a topic of their choosing.

In this week’s installment of “That’s Debatable,” Fraley and Ross debate the significance and value of the MacIver News Service.

From Fraley’s entry:

[T]his week’s speech was a metaphor for Doyle’s tenure as governor: An uninspiring piece devoid of bold solutions and ignorant, or worse yet ambivalent, to the harsh realities facing Wisconsin families and businesses… Face it, Gov. Doyle limps out of the East Wing with sky high joblessness and the state’s economy in a shambles. His big push for reform at MPS dies among infighting in his own party. His DNR can’t manage the white-tailed deer hunting season. He’s pushing for a jobs-killing global warming bill right at the same time the world is discovering the Earth is entering a period of prolonged cooling.

You can read the entire exchange here.

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Posted in mi perspectives | January 29, 2010 | | No Comments

Legislators React to State of the State

MacIver News Service

[Madison, Wisc...] Governor Jim Doyle did his best to stay optimistic during his eighth and final state of the state address, despite the dismal economic situation facing Wisconsin.

Over the last year Wisconsin has lost 163,000 jobs and the state faces an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent. The state government is facing a $2.71 billion deficit, an 8.4 percent increase over last year’s deficit.

Doyle addressed the budget situation early in his speech. He explained how state agencies have been cut 10 percent, workers have been furloughed, and 3400 state positions have been left vacant. However, that still has not been enough.

“I will have to make another round of difficult cuts,” said Doyle, hinting at an upcoming Budget Adjustment Bill. “But we will make these cuts as we have made them before –protecting education, health care, and public safety, and protecting the middle class against tax increases.”

On the topic of jobs, Doyle pointed to three specific efforts: the Wisconsin CORE Jobs Act, the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority, and the Clean Energy Jobs Act.

After the speech, Joint Finance Committee Co Chairman, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, told the MacIver Institute “

I thought the Governor did a good job, and really showing the successes this legislature has had in trying to create jobs and attract companies here, despite the really terrible federal economy.”

In regard to the Clean Energy Jobs Act, Doyle pointed to several Wisconsin green technology firms that would benefit directly from that legislation. Some of those included Tower Tech, Nature Tech, Energy Performance Specialists, Johnson Controls, and Orion Energy.

“None of these Wisconsin companies would be producing these jobs without good government policy and renewable energy standards,” Doyle said.

The Governor also wants to offer businesses some relief with their energy expenses with a new program called the Wisconsin Green to Gold Fund.

“By streamlining existing state resources, we are creating a new $100 million revolving loan fund for manufacturers to reduce their energy costs,” said Doyle.

At the same time, the governor also suggested eliminating the Uniformity Clause, which mandates that property be assessed the sam, without regard to how it is utilized.

“So tonight, I am calling on the Legislature to begin the process of amending our Constitution … so we can direct property tax relief to where people need it the most – on their homes,” Doyle said.

Finally Doyle addressed education reform, specifically in Milwaukee. He wants Milwaukee’s mayor to have the power to appoint the MPS superintendent, which has been a controversial issue within the Democratic caucuses.

“Only this Legislature can make this change. If you do not act now, you will be picking up the pieces of a broken school system within a few years and failing children who desperately need your help,” said Governor Doyle.

Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) later said, “He’s got a civil war going on with it in his own party. He tried to paint it [The MPS debate] as partisan. It’s not partisan at all.”

After the speech, the MacIver Institute caught up with several state lawmakers to get their reaction to the speech. Click on any of the names below for their thoughts on the Governor’s 2010 State of the State address.

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills)

Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) 

Rep. Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee) 

Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) 

Rep. Michael Huebsch (R-West Salem) 

Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) 

Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan)

Rep. John Murtha (R-Baldwin) 

Rep. Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater) 

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison)

Sen. Fred Risser (D-Madison)

Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) 

Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) 

Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma) 

Rep. Robin Vos (R-Racine) 

Rep. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) 

Rep. Leon Young (D-Milwaukee) 

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Posted in News | January 26, 2010 | | 1 Comment

Wisconsin Unemployment Rises

Workforce Development.

That’s the WD in the acronym DWD.

More abysmal numbers from the DWD.

Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Roberta Gassman announced today that Wisconsin’s unemployment rate for December was 8.3 percent, up 0.4 percentage points from November’s final rate.

The national rate for December was 9.7 percent, up from 9.4 percent in November. The Wisconsin rate is 2.5 percentage points higher than one year ago, when the rate was 5.8 percent.

and

From November to December, total Wisconsin non-farm jobs decreased by an estimated 30,800 to 2,722,800. Goods Producers lost 16,400 jobs, while Service Producers decreased by 14,400 jobs over the month. Among Goods Producers, Construction jobs decreased by 14,300, and Manufacturing jobs, by 1,700. Job losses among Service Producers were led by Government, down 7,300, and Professional and Business Services, down 5,200. Over the last 12 months, the data showed a decline of 120,700 Wisconsin non-farm jobs.

Goods Producers were down 56,200, mostly in Manufacturing, which was down 42,700. Service sector jobs declined 64,500 over the year, led by Professional & Business Services, which lost 16,800 jobs.

The December survey of Wisconsin households showed 35,600 fewer employed than in November, and 137,300 fewer employed than one year ago. Wisconsin’s civilian labor force was down 23,300 to 3,013,700 in December and down 66,400 from December 2008.
Adjusted Data

The seasonally adjusted Wisconsin unemployment rate for December 2009 was 8.7 percent, up 0.5 percentage points from November rate of 8.2 percent. The December 2008 rate was 5.9 percent. The national seasonally adjusted December 2009 rate was 10.0 percent, unchanged from November.

So, back to WD…

What is Wisconsin’s grand plan for Workforce Development?

Well, the Governor now wants us to raise the costs of producing and using energy so we can create a few potential green jobs while further jeopardizing the few real manufacturing jobs we have left.

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Posted in mi perspectives | January 21, 2010 | | 1 Comment

Reason to be Concerned About State of Wisconsin Highways

The Reason Foundation is out with their 18th annual Highway Report, which looks at the cost and quality of state-owned highways across the country.

The study finds over half of all state-owned highways across the country are congested and 25 percent of bridges are deficient or functionally obsolete.

Since 1984, per-mile total disbursements on state highways have increased by 262 percent. In 2007, U.S. states spent over $109 billion on state-owned highways, a 10 percent increase over 2006. But not everyone is getting their money’s worth. Taxpayers in New York, Hawaii, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island and Alaska have the worst-performing highway systems in the nation.

The Reason Foundation study examines state highway systems in 11 categories, including congestion, pavement condition, fatalities, deficient bridges and total spending. The annual report is based on information that each state reported for the year 2007

How did Wisconsin fare?

At first blush, we appear to be in the middle of the pack. We rank 21st in efficiency and cost effectiveness.

But note, we fell considerably between 2000 and 2007.  Yet another ranking where we are headed in the wrong direction.

Moreover, we are one of only ten states whose highways are worsening despite the state spending more than the national average on its roads.

With the continuing raids on the transportation fund and the emergency (and temporary) patch work of the zoo interchange, expect Wisconsin’s rankings to plunge even further when Reason conducts their next report in 2010.

A mixed-bag, but getting worse. Could be Wisconsin’s motto for so many areas, not just state highways.

Add this to the “Legacy of Jim Doyle” file.

By Brian Fraley
A MacIver Perspective

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Posted in mi perspectives | December 21, 2009 | | No Comments

Government as a Growth Industry?

The saddest nugget taken from this payroll data^ from the Department of Workforce Development…

Wisconsin now has more government jobs than manufacturing jobs!
(438,200 to 435,800)

In the past month Wisconsin has added a net 4,900 government jobs and lost 3,000 manufacturing jobs. In the last year, we’ve lost a whopping 46,000 manufacturing jobs.

Add this to the “Legacy of Governor Jim Doyle” file.

The Department of Workforce Development’s only jobs plan seems to be the printing and distribution of oversized checks given to displaced workers for job retraining programs.

We have a publicity-shy Department of Commerce whose strategy seems to be to take as low of a profile as possible.

There is no coherent economic development or jobs agenda coming from those running this state.

And now the Governor wants to impose a series of global-warming proposals that will make it even more expensive to manufacture anything and everything here.

Sigh.

The private sector, not government, is the engine for economic recovery.

*from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

By Brian Fraley
A MacIver Perspective

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Posted in News, mi perspectives | December 18, 2009 | | No Comments

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