Posts Tagged ‘Wigderson’

Wisconsin Advances an Amazing Education Reform Measure

By James Wigderson
Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

Parents in Wisconsin had a tremendous victory last week when the legislature passed a change in the state’s open enrollment law making it easier for students to transfer from one school district to another. The change in the law expands the traditional window for parents to participate in the open enrollment program from three weeks to three months. The change in the law also includes a compromise that allows for year-round transfers of students between school districts if the students are welcomed and if the parents find it necessary.

These changes in the open enrollment law were a tremendous victory for supporters of public school choice in Wisconsin and the victory was the highlight of the annual “School Choice Week.”

The expansion in the allowed open enrollment time also comes at a time of renewed energy in reforming education under Governor Scott Walker and the legislature. Under ACT 10, the school districts in Wisconsin have greater flexibility in setting the work rules, including expected hours in the workday and with seniority.

The sweeping changes of ACT 10 are also allowing school districts to experiment with merit pay. As the MacIver Institute recently reported, the Cedarburg and Hartland-Lakeside School Districts will be among the first to try merit pay to see if it improves student performance.

The governor has also announced new legislation is coming that will rate all schools on proficiency and student progress, create a teacher and principal evaluation system, and implement the Read to Lead proposed reforms.

This is a dramatic change in direction from when school choice was on the defensive during the Jim Doyle era. Then Doyle and the teachers unions tried to prevent public online charter schools from using open enrollment, effectively shutting them down. When that was unsuccessful they capped enrollment just as they fought raising the caps on enrollment in the Milwaukee Choice Program.

The compromise legislation that just passed allows parents to move their children to another school district under the open enrollment program year-round provided the resident school district agrees it is in the child’s best interests. However, if the parents are unable to get the approval of the resident school district, they can appeal to the state Department of Public Instruction whose determination of what is in the child’s best interests would be final.

As a parent of two children in elementary school I understand the need for options. I went through a situation myself when it was no longer in my children’s best interests to continue in our ‘home’ public school district after it became clear that my newspaper columns for the Waukesha Freeman had made some unprofessional teachers hostile toward my kids.

Unfortunately I was not made aware of the situation until well after the open enrollment period had ended. It was too late for us to consider an online charter school in another district or switching my oldest son to a neighboring district. There was no way I could allow my children to be deprived of a proper education with parental involvement in their activities, so I had to make the decision to switch them to a private school. I might have made a different decision had those options been available to me at the time. Thank heavens we were able to afford it.

We can all imagine other scenarios under which a parent may discover, at an inconvenient time for the school bureaucrats, that the school system is inadequate for their child. For example, a child may find that the district’s reading program is incompatible with the child’s needs. While it may work for other children, for some reason it doesn’t work for that child, and the parents discover that it isn’t working after the school year has started. Wouldn’t it be preferable to move that child as soon as possible into a district that has a reading program more tailored to that child’s needs?

Before the passage of SB2, parents would have to wait until the following February to pursue other public school options for their kids, and would have to wait until the following September before their child would get into a new public school.

Thanks to SB2, students will no longer be able to be held captive by arcane regulations or an occasional inconsiderate administrator.

This is at the heart of the school choice movement—giving parents the ability to make the proper educational choices for their children.

There is still work to be done when it comes to educational choice. Just last week the National Alliance for Charter Public Schools ranked Wisconsin 36 out of the 42 states with public charter school laws. Wisconsin was faulted limiting the authorizers of public charter schools to local school boards and a few universities. They suggested Wisconsin needs a board that can authorize charter schools statewide.

However, the latest expansion of public school choice enrollment statewide, year wide is welcome news for parents looking for the best educational opportunities for their children. How fitting that this news came during School Choice Week. Kudos to Governor Walker, who is poised to sign SB2, and to members of both parties to voted for this reform.

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Posted in Breaking news, mi perspectives | January 30, 2012 | | No Comments

Price of (Legal) Drugs Subject of Bipartisanship in Madison

By James Wigderson
 Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

The legislature may soon be on drugs. As a topic, I mean. A bipartisan group of legislators wants to repeal the minimum markup law for prescription drugs in Wisconsin, making Wisconsin the 46th state in the country to allow retailers to sell drugs for below cost. It would be a free market approach to lowering health costs for many in Wisconsin.

In other states, large retailers like Target and Walmart are able to sell commonly prescribed prescription drugs for only four dollars. Under Wisconsin’s Unfair Sales Act that price for many drugs is illegal because the four-dollar price is below the retailer’s cost.

The proposed bill, SB 360, would exempt prescription drugs from the Unfair Sales Act. The bill passed the state assembly last year only to die from inaction by the senate. This time around, the assembly is waiting to see if the senate will take up the bill before they act on it. There has been a public hearing on the bill in the Senate Committee on Health.

In a very tense political season, it’s rare to see a bill that has such bipartisan support. Republicans State Representative Bill Kramer (Waukesha) and State Senator Leah Vukmir (Wauwatosa), and Democratic State Senator Tim Carpenter (Milwaukee) and State Representative Jon Richards (Milwaukee), are the sponsors of the bill.

In an interview Monday night, Kramer explained that they took provisions to protect “mom and pop” retailers from predatory pricing from his proposed legislation to end the Unfair Sales Act and added it to Richards’ and Carpenter’s bill from last year that would have repealed the Unfair Sales Act for prescription drugs.

“We’re taking a play out of the liberal playbook. We’re doing a little incrementalism. Last term it passed it passed the Assembly on a voice vote but it wasn’t taken up by the Senate,” Kramer said. “So this year we’re going to have the Senate act first. And then once they pass it we should have no problem in the Assembly.”

Asked if he was concerned if the recalls could bog the bill down, Kramer said, “Always concerned what the Senate is going to do. That’s why we’re not going to waste our time in the Assembly until we know that the Senate has passed it.”

At the public hearing, Kramer said that most of the questions seemed to come from Democratic Senator Jon Erpenbach who was “hung up on” the question of what happens when an insurance company’s co-pay is more than the cost of the prescription drug.

“I said, ‘Well, then I’m probably going to pay four dollars and I’m not going to tell my insurance I’ll send them another six.’ He was really, really hung up on that.”

When Erpenbach raised the question came up how the smaller pharmacy retailers would not be able to match the economies of scale of the larger retailers and therefore would not be able to compete, Kramer did not dispute the point.

However, Kramer said the law wasn’t helping anyone anyway. “Later testimony from one of the ‘mom and pop’ pharmacies basically said, ‘When I started there were 17 independent pharmacies,’ in the county he was from, ‘and now there’s two.’

“So Leah (Vukmir) asked him, ‘So, how is the current law helping you?’

“He said, ‘It’s really not.’”

Kramer said Vukmir asked, ‘So if we repeal it, you’re not losing anything? But we’re putting in these other protections about predatory pricing and using loss leaders to drive up the price on everything else. Don’t you think that would be better?”

“He replied, ‘Yeah, actually it does sound like it would be better.’ So if that testimony means anything then it sounds like the opposition does not have a leg to stand on.

“Walmart and Target have $4 generic prescription drug plans in 45 states, and I think hopefully by the end of the year Wisconsin could be the 46th,” said Kramer.

Asked who else would be opposed to the bill, Kramer said the Wisconsin Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association is registered against the bill. “They’re afraid of a slippery slope,” he said. “If we get prescription drugs then next we’ll go after gasoline.”

Asked if that wasn’t ultimately the goal, Kramer said, “That’s my goal. It would be my goal to go after gasoline and alcohol and tobacco and everything else right now. But I just don’t think we have the votes to get it done so this we get something.”

“We took a lot of the language from the bill that we’ve had in the last two terms so we get to try it on this one (issue),” Kramer said. “So it will be a little familiar I would think when we bring it back again when we think we can get more.”

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Posted in mi perspectives | January 25, 2012 | | Comments Off

Democrats Turn Waste, Fraud and Abuse Commission into Partisan Issue

By James Wigderson
Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

Governor Scott Walker’s Waste, Fraud and Abuse Commission (WFAC) has issued their report and found a potential $445 million in savings for Wisconsin’s taxpayers annually. But as if to prove Weiss’ Law, Democrats in Madison are already complaining about the report.

Weiss’ Law was named after former New Berlin School Board member Matt Weiss who made the observation, “Nobody ever thanks you for not spending money.” Given the history of past efforts to root out waste and fraud in government including the Grace Commission and other commissions and reports, Weiss knew what he was talking about.

The Commission identified $82.6 million in local government savings and $373 million in state government savings annually. Hardly small change.

Some of the savings identified are already being implemented, such as changes in overtime for correctional officers. Those changes were made possible by the reforms in Act 10, which allowed the state to set the work rules outside of collective bargaining.

Other changes were spurred by the release of the interim report last year. For example, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services is examining how they will implement Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act program integrity provisions. They will also be contracting with private auditors to conduct audits of Medicaid suppliers on a contingency fee basis.

But what seems to have inspired the ire of the Democrats on the Commission, Democratic State Representative Mark Pocan and Democratic State Senator Chris Larson, was the emphasis by the commission to focus on the waste, fraud and abuse in programs for the needy.

In an interview with WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee, Larson said, “Where they go after people who are receiving food stamps and quest cards. They wouldn’t do the same thing for contracting or where money’s going to for the economic development corporation.”

But as the commission’s report makes clear, even as the amount of assistance spending has dramatically increased in Wisconsin, the amount spent on rooting out fraud has dramatically decreased. The report says, “At the same time benefit spending and recipient levels have risen, funding for recipient fraud prevention and detection has dropped.  In 2002, state spending on recipient fraud detection and program integrity efforts was $2.7 million. Between 2004 and 2009, funding to identify and 22 prevent recipient fraud decreased by 76 percent, from $2,340,000 to $561,892, while at the same time program eligibility expanded and new public assistance programs were created.”

As for why the Commission did look for savings in assistance programs, as Willie Sutton was famously misquoted, “That’s where the money is.” The Commission identified that increasing program integrity for assistance programs would result in $177,000,00 in savings.

Even Pocan and Larson recognized that’s where the money is in their alternative report. They suggested hiring more front line staff and administrative efficiency could result in $116.8 million to $177 million in savings each biennium.

One of the Commission’s recommendations for stopping fraud was the requirement of a photo id for aid recipients using Quest debit card for FoodShare. As the Commission says in the report, there have been a number of high profile cases of Quest card fraud, including the re-selling of Quest cards for cash. Requiring a photo id at the register (the same requirement if writing a check or purchasing decent cold medicine) would deter the reselling of Quest cards and their unauthorized use.

Pocan and Larson consider requiring a photo id to be an unnecessary burden on the state’s poor. Apparently the poor need not apply to assist Pocan’s and Larson’s fellow Democrats’ “Recall Processing Strike Force,” which also requires a photo id of participants.

Pocan and Larson also misstate in their report that the commission did not consider the question of using more in-house engineers at the Department of Transportation. “Unfortunately, these conversations were not part of the commission process.”

Actually, the question was dealt with quite extensively in section F on pages 50 – 57, including the Legislative Audit Bureau report that Pocan and Larson cite in their alternative report. The commission pointed out that the LAB report did not look at contractors vs. in-house engineers in the larger sense of continued pay and benefits even after a project was completed, only on the cost for a particular project to make the comparison. The Commission pointed out there was actually conflicting data and called for more study of the issue, even as the DOT is adding more in-house engineers to address the imbalance.

Perhaps that was because Pocan and Larson were in a hurry to try to score other partisan points. Seemingly forgetting the purpose of the commission, which is to ultimately reduce the burden on the taxpayers, as part of their alternative report on Waste, Fraud and Abuse, Pocan and Larson actually called for a tax increase on Wisconsin businesses. They complain that with the tax breaks given to businesses under Walker, “Wisconsin will loose (sic) $212 million in lost revenue.” Larson and Pocan call for raising taxes on Wisconsin businesses $46.4 million in the current biennium and $80 million in the biennium to follow.

But Pocan and Larson saw their alternative report as an opportunity to actually add back more waste in government spending. They call for the return of regional transit authorities that would raise taxes on local communities for passenger rail projects.

And if that was not enough, they also call on the state government to beg the federal government for the money for “high-speed rail.” While they see the $800 million in lost federal revenue, they are ignoring the long-term costs of the project and the likely additional burdens to the taxpayers.

California was a supposed beneficiary of Wisconsin’s refusal of federal stimulus “high-speed” rail money, but they are experiencing buyer’s remorse. California voters in 2008 approved selling $9.95 billion in bonds for the train’s costs. Recent polling indicates that the same referendum would not pass today. Costs are ballooning and the bonds aren’t selling.

Now the CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Roelof van Ark, and the Chairman of the Board, Tom Umberg, are stepping down as calls mount to abandon the wasteful project.

Judging from the alternative report, Pocan, who made headlines last year claiming the state was not in a fiscal crisis, seems bound and determined to send Wisconsin back into one. The alternative report is a reminder of the thinking that led to the state’s fiscal crisis before the reforms enacted by Governor Scott Walker and the legislature in 2011.

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Posted in News, mi perspectives | January 17, 2012 | | 4 Comments

Credibility of Doctors in Fake Sick Note Scam Forever in Question, Attorney Says

By James Wigderson
Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

One of the more controversial stories to come out of last year’s protests in Madison was the handing out of notes excusing people from work by several doctors right in the Capitol Square. Working out of a tent, the doctors advertised they were handing out medical excuses to the protestors.

First reported by the MacIver News Service, the story of the doctors handing out medical excuses for missing work to protestors in Madison in such a brazen fashion made national news.

Many of the protestors were public school teachers who had been warned they could face disciplinary action for unexcused absences. Mass absences by teachers caused several school districts to close during the protests in February.

The Madison School District closed for four days as a result of the unplanned absences. An investigation by the Madison School District uncovered 84 teachers used what they considered fraudulent sick notes.

Spurred by reports from the MacIver Institute and other organizations about the doctors handing out excuses to the protestors, investigations were launched by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and by the state Medical Examining Board into the doctors’ conduct.

The state Medical Examining Board disciplined seven doctors with a reprimand for poor record keeping and issued a warning to two other physicians. The board found that they could not determine whether a proper evaluation was done of the patients to justify handing them a medical excuse.

The UW School of Medicine and Public Health had a number of employees involved in handing out medical excuses at the protests but denied any involvement by the school. After an investigation, they told the Wisconsin State Journal that at least a dozen doctors were disciplined for their actions on the mall. The discipline “range from written reprimand to loss of pay and leadership position.”

A further investigation by the Wisconsin State Journal revealed that ten more doctors who were not disciplined by the state also signed sick notes that the district considered fraudulent for Madison School District teachers.

One of the people who saw the tent with doctors handing out medical excuses that day was Milwaukee-based personal injury attorney Kelin Olson.  Despite serious concerns about what he perceives as an anti-trial lawyer bias among Republicans controlling Madison, Olson attended an Americans for Prosperity Rally with family and friends before walking around the Capitol Square to check out the protests.

In an interview Saturday, Olson described his reaction when he saw the tent.

“My first reaction was, I can’t believe they’re doing it so openly. Really, I cannot believe they were so ballsy to just stand there. They’re wearing lab coats, they’ve got clipboards and they’re walking up to people saying, `Do you need an excuse?’”

Comparing them to, “street hawkers,” Olson was shocked at how casual it was.

“They were joking about, `Oh, no, Scott Walker’s got you so stressed you need a day to relax.’ I felt like this was a hippy festival and this was a big joke like you’re going to Woodstock and they’re writing prescriptions to stay off the brown acid or something.”

“I was like, really? You guys are professionals and you have a certain trust from the people of Wisconsin to do the right thing – and this isn’t the right thing. And maybe in their mind they thought it was but it clearly wasn’t the legal thing to do.”

In Olson’s practice as a personal injury attorney, one of the questions that he has to deal with is the credibility of witnesses. In the interview, Olson was asked about that issue with the doctors involved and how it would affect his decision making as an attorney.

Regarding the School of Medicine’s lack of openness regarding the discipline of the doctors involved, Olson said he understood that many disciplinary situations are kept confidential by employers.

However, “If I was going against a doctor in a legal proceeding I would want to know if he participated because it goes to his credibility as a witness. So that’s where my concern would come in.,” Olson said. “If I had a malpractice action or something against the UW doctor and if I didn’t think he was being truthful about what happened, I would want to know if he had lied in the past. Because that’s evidence of character, that’s evidence of, people that commit fraud, that’s a crime you can tell a jury about because it goes to the person’s veracity or credibility.”

“If there’s a doctor who is willing to lie about this, what else is he willing to lie about? People say that it isn’t that big of a deal but it’s still committing fraud.”

Whether Olson would feel comfortable using any of the doctors involved as witnesses, he said that while he would have to interview the doctor, it would be something that could benefit the other side. “If they have been disciplined for fraud, that would be something that I would want to know as an attorney because it does go into whether they would lie to benefit themselves or someone else.”

“Whether or not I would use one of them it depends on the person, depends on the situation, depends what I needed them for. I might, but then again I’d rather not have to deal with that issue.”

Olson also explained that it would depend on the venue. “If you’ve got a jury of people that supported the protesting, you may not mind that you’ve got this doctor because they may give him more credence. So it’s a two-edged sword.” Olson said that Madison, for example, would be more forgiving of the doctor’s actions, while he definitely would not want them as witnesses in Waukesha or Washington County.

In an article for Atlantic Monthly, Dr. Ford Vox said of the physicians handing out the excuses, “They’ve managed to belittle a public trust between physicians, employers and patients.” He added, “These doctors sacrificed a slice of the medical profession’s credibility for a political cause. Was it worth it?”

They also damaged their personal credibility in ways they might never have imagined. Just ask a lawyer.

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Posted in mi perspectives | January 3, 2012 | | 3 Comments

Wiggy: No fan of wind farms

By James Wigderson
Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

A new wind farm is complete in Columbia County and it will soon be killing more birds than a Sarah Palin Thanksgiving photo op. Or, for you heavy metal fans, more mosquito-eating bats than Ozzy Osbourne ever killed.

It’s the largest wind farm in Wisconsin, 90 turbines spread over 17,000 acres of farmland. It is expected to generate 162 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 45,000 homes.

WE Energies was expected to spend $363.7 million on the project, although it appears to have come under the target set by the Public Service Commission. Of course, the over $300 million in cost will soon be passed on to electricity rate payers as soon as 2013.

To be fair, WE Energies did not build the wind farm because it hates birds, bats or ratepayers. Nor did it build the wind farm because the company wanted to build a giant ice ball thrower.

And it certainly did not build the windmills because wind energy is cheaper than the alternatives. Because it is not.

The wind farm was built as part of a plan to increase WE Energies “renewable energy” portfolio. The company is mandated by the state of Wisconsin to increase its use of renewable energy sources from less than three percent of the electricity generated by WE Energies to 8.27% by 2015.

The mandated renewable share of total generation must be at least 6 percentage points above the average renewable share for WE Energies from 2001 to 2003. It’s part of a statewide renewable energy mandate of 10% by 2015.

Wind power is the most popular choice for filling the renewable energy mandates as it is closer to coal-generated electricity than other forms of renewable energy. However, wind is still unreliable in capacity because wind, while free fuel, is unreliable in providing a steady quantity, especially at peak demand times. As a previous report by the MacIver Institute has shown, Wisconsin is not even a good candidate for windmill siting, increasing the unreliability of wind power for our state.

Ironically, according to one environmentalist group, Clean Wisconsin, the windmill farm may not even further the goal of the renewable energy mandate, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, because WE Energies will still be reliant upon the coal-burning power plants for primary electrical generation.

Because wind is not a reliable source of energy here.

Renewable energy does not come cheap. If renewable energy were cost competitive, power companies and energy consumers would not need a mandate to prefer renewable energy sources over coal, oil and natural gas.

As the U.S. Energy Information Agency indicates in its 2011 Annual Energy Outlook projections, coal is already dropping as a share of the nation’s energy mix. However, it is naturally occurring due to the lower costs of natural gas generated electricity, including lower infrastructure costs.

The growth in renewable energy as a percentage of the nation’s energy portfolio (to 14% by 2035) is because of state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requirements and federal tax credits.

It could be even worse. During the last session of the legislature, Wisconsin narrowly avoided imposing a new renewable energy mandate of 25% by 2025. Bipartisan opposition to the mandate, largely due to the weak economy, prevented its passage.

But as we have seen, the desire of the government to support a so-called green economy continues despite the costs to the public. Perhaps we can expect Department of Energy bureaucrats to tour the new windmill farm in new Chevrolet Volts.

Somebody has to buy them.

After all, President Barack Obama’s administration set a goal of one million electrified vehicles (including advanced hybrids) on the road by 2015. So far the Chevy Volt is going to fall short of the company’s goal of 10,000 vehicles sold by the end of this year, and USA Today reports interest in electric vehicles is declining.

After $3 billion in subsidies, Americans are showing that the only silent vehicle that doesn’t consume gas in which they have an interest is Santa’s sleigh at Christmastime. Good thing he managed to avoid the new windmill farm… this year.

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Posted in mi perspectives | December 29, 2011 | | 4 Comments

The Milwaukee County Board: Much Ado About Nothing

By James Wigderson
 Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

But soft, what through county budget breaks? It is for youths, 65 grand the sum. Now is the budget of some ill content, made glorious spending by this son of Abele. To be, or not to be? That is the question on December 15th.

Put money in thy purse, Milwaukee County. For in Milwaukee County when an agency spends money slower than anticipated, members of the County Board consider it found money rather than an already-obligated expense.

Milwaukee County’s judiciary committee voted 5-2 to spend $65,000 to start a new program to take some juvenile offenders and sentence them to perform in plays written by William Shakespeare. The money comes from a new intake program that was slow in implementation. The obligation isn’t gone, but the money hasn’t been spent yet. So why not whip a little Shakespeare on the urchins? That other bill will just be dealt with later, just like other bills in Milwaukee County.

The program is modeled after a Shakespeare in the courts program in Massachusetts. It was the idea of now-retired Judge Paul Perachi. Claims of the program’s success may be much ado about nothing. When Perachi was asked about the program’s success rate by Voice of America news, Perachi said, “Even if we only have a few, it is worth it.”

That might not live up to the public’s expectation of success for dealing with juvenile offenders. Far from the comic exploits of Jack Falstaff as a thief, the prospective participants will have committed such crimes as assault, breaking and entering, and even assault with a deadly weapon. These stories are less about unfortunate thieves named Pistol than they are about thieves with pistols.

Taxpayers might wonder, along with Sheriff David Clarke, just what the youthful offenders might learn from Shakespeare? Jealousy and spousal murder from Othello? The proper way to organize a gang stabbing from Julius Caesar? Suicide and mass slaughter in Hamlet? Gang loyalty and violence from Romeo and Juliet? Rape and mayhem from Titus Andronicus? Lord, what fools these mortals be!

It will make the program participants’ future court appearances interesting.

“Your honor, my client would like to say a few words in his defense.”

“Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call”

Clarke’s wrong, of course, about complaining about the Eurocentric nature of Shakespeare. “If some conservative or Republican came up with an idea like this for black and Hispanic delinquents the Left and their elitist ilk would cry  `racism.’  They would say that forcing that old white guy Bill Shakespeare, or any English Literature or other Euro-Centric arts, on minority urban kids is culturally insensitive and doesn’t take into account their urban upbringing or experiences.  What next, teaching them Latin?”

All the world’s a stage and Shakespeare is a great teacher in any culture, as anyone who has spent time immersed in his works would know. I hereby sentence Clarke to several hours of community service to be spent watching and discussing Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood as “punishment.”

The commitment to new spending comes at an odd time for Milwaukee County, where conflicting priorities actually means the layoff of county sheriff deputies. As Clarke said in his press release criticizing the idea, at a time when the county is cutting back on deputies on the county buses, the $65,000 could mean an additional deputy back on patrol.

While Supervisor Gerry Broderick has indicated to the media that he hopes to secure private funding for the program, as of now the obligation appears to be solely on the county and the taxpayers. Perhaps Broderick should have lined up the private money first.

Then again, perhaps instead of sending juvenile delinquents to act out Shakespeare, we could send a few Milwaukee County Board members. Who among them couldn’t use a little, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be?”

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Posted in mi perspectives | December 5, 2011 | | Comments Off

Wigderson’s Take on: Proposed Hoan Bridge Bike Path

By James Wigderson
 Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

It’s the $9.4 million question, or possibly we could be playing for ten times that amount. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) will stop taking comments this Wednesday on whether the planned rehabilitation of the Hoan Bridge on Milwaukee’s lakefront will include a pedestrian and bicycle path. They will make a decision by the end of the year.

Design Sketch Courtesy of WisDOT

The Wisconsin DOT has actually come up with five different proposals for the proposed bicycle path. The most expensive idea is to build an additional path to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian traffic above the existing bridge. The price tag on that idea is $95 million.  Even the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin is not in support of that idea.

Other alternatives include building another elevated bridge to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians for $84.4 million, widening the existing structure for $76.4 million, or closing down one of the north bound lanes to create the bicycle and pedestrian path down the center of the bridge for $27.5 million.

The least expensive plan has drawn the endorsement of the Bicycling Federation of Wisconsin for practical political reasons. This plan would shut down the right northbound lane on the bridge, construct a concrete barrier to protect bicyclists and pedestrians from automobiles, and would cost $9.4 million. The price tag is practically a bargain considering the proposed alternatives.

Connecting a bicycle trail from Chicago to Sheboygan, and possibly as far as Door County, over one of the most iconic landmarks in Wisconsin, is a long time dream of bicycling fanatics. You thought Cubs fans were obnoxious before, wait until we’re spending tax money just to allow them to slow down traffic.

That’s exactly what the two less expensive plans would do – slow down traffic. According to the Wisconsin DOT, using their growth models they anticipate traffic flow would deteriorate to an “F” rating by 2035. Just like in high school, an “F” rating isn’t very good.

Bicycle path proponents like to point out that the average speed would be reduced to 50 mph, the current speed limit on the bridge. While this may be correct, they act as if the times when the traffic does not achieve the average is not a big deal. As the Wisconsin DOT points out, the drop in average speed is because of the increased density of the traffic, creating more unsafe conditions for motorists and decreasing the reliability of the Hoan Bridge as a connection for commuters to the larger interstate traffic system.

The commuter that finds the traffic route unreliable may have to make more drastic considerations than the recreational bicyclist who enjoys bicycling the Hoan for the view. A person who depends on the Hoan to connect to I-94 for a job in Wauwatosa or Menomonee Falls is not going to feel good about watching bicyclists occupy an entire traffic lane if their daily commute may be severely curtailed randomly, or if they themselves are the subject of the morning accident reports.

Commuters placed in such a situation may have to consider whether living in Bay View and points south is worth it, or if there is a preferable alternative that promises an easier commute.

The ease of commute is not just a hypothetical situation for the Wisconsin DOT to consider. As the draft executive summary of the bicycle path feasibility study says of the “F” rating, “The latter result is below WisDOT’s acceptable design year standard of LOS ‘D’ for Milwaukee County freeways. These conditions would worsen over the 50+ year life of the investment.”

Making matters worse for commuters dependent on the Hoan Bridge, the creation of a combined pedestrian/bicycle path on the Hoan Bridge will actually add to the period the bridge is being repaired.

The Wisconsin DOT also notes that response times by emergency vehicles using the Hoan Bridge will get worse as a result of the higher traffic density.

The traffic impediment would be below the DOT’s standard, and would only get worse. The bicycle and pedestrian path would defeat the entire purpose of having the Hoan Bridge in the first place. This is what is considered the politically feasible plan.

Let’s also put the price tag of the proposed bicycle and pedestrian path into some perspective. The cheapest plan is $9.4 million. That one bicycle project would cost nearly as much as the city of Milwaukee intends to spend ($11.3 million) on it’s entire bicycle infrastructure plan for the next ten years. The $9.4 million only sounds reasonable when compared to the fantastic numbers of the other options. Remember, we’re talking about a 2 mile bike path here.

In addition to the infrastructure costs of adding a bicycle lane, the Wisconsin DOT will also be responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the bicycle path, including snow removal. Unless, of course, the bicycling enthusiasts in favor of the path across the Hoan Bridge plan on volunteering to shovel the snow from the bike path themselves. (Remember kids, no shoveling salty snow into the lake!)

The maintenance of the bicycle and pedestrian path across the Hoan Bridge will also require periodic shut downs of the remaining right lane of traffic. Let’s face it, only a very few of the most avid cyclists will endeavor to scale the windy incline of the Hoan during the (generously) four months of Milwaukee’s harsh winters.

Of course, it’s not like there is not already an alternative to bicycling the Hoan Bridge. Bicyclists are already expected to use nearby 2nd street to get to and from downtown. Granted, the view from 2nd street isn’t nearly as impressive as it is from the top of the Hoan Bridge, but at least on 2nd street you get a nice view of the bridge.

Proponents of the bicycle path love to point to other iconic bridges that have mixed use. However, the Hoan Bridge was not built for mixed use. It was built for automobile traffic. The Wisconsin DOT has a responsibility to defend the bridge’s primary function, especially given the price tag for the proposed recreational use and it’s hindrance of vehicular traffic.

It’s unfortunate federal and state requirements of considering mixed use traffic for transportation projects except in extraordinary circumstances cause the state to have to go through this exercise. However, it’s hard to imagine that extraordinary circumstances are not readily apparent in the case of repairing the Hoan Bridge.

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Posted in mi perspectives | November 29, 2011 | | 5 Comments

The Milwaukee County Board’s Unquenchable Thirst for More Spending

By James Wigderson
 Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

Because of Milwaukee County’s sheer size in terms of population and impact on the state’s economy, what happens to Milwaukee County is of interest to everyone in Wisconsin. Making Milwaukee County government even more interesting to the state is current Governor Scott Walker, the former Milwaukee County Executive. Walker is still having an impact on county government in his legacy and as the governor.

The recent budget struggle between the current county executive gives us some insight into the nature of the beast that is Milwaukee County government. Despite a change in the county executive’s office, including in political orientation, a pattern of spending growth driven by the county board continues.

Walker’s successor in Milwaukee, County Executive Chris Abele, may come from the opposing side politically, but Abele tried to follow in Walker’s footsteps by proposing a county budget with zero increase in the tax levy despite a $55 million budget deficit. Among the items cut in the budget, parks positions and the sheriff’s budget.

Abele also took advantage of Governor Scott Walker’s collective bargaining reforms by making changes to county employee health benefits. Abele’s budget estimated $25 million in savings by putting county workers on a single health plan with higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles.

Just like when Walker was the Milwaukee County Executive, the county board was not willing to pass a budget without spending increases. They proposed a $6.25 million tax levy increase. Included in the spending were modifications to Abele’s plan to reduce the county’s health care costs, $ 3,098,817 more added to the tax levy. In addition, they created a wellness program that would cost the county an additional $434,663.

Among the other items, the county board decided to employ security guards in house rather than outsource them, a point of contention between them and Walker, an additional $418,183. No fight is ever too old to re-fight again. However they did not have the votes to hire cleaning people rather than continue to use an outside vendor.

If you want a peek inside the county board’s thinking, County Supervisor Eyon Biddle, Sr recently criticized Abele for supporting a new County Comptroller position, accusing Abele of caving in to “special interests.” “In this case, the Greater Milwaukee Committee is a special interest group trying to undermine County government. I hope that, in the future, the County Executive will work with the County Board, rather than against us, when considering items that alter the structure of County government.”

Biddle was the supervisor who attempted to amend the county budget  to have county buildings cleaned by county employees, and was successful in getting rid of the private guard service at county buildings.

In the minds of the Milwaukee County Board, the only special interests are those in favor of controlling spending, not those who are in favor of more county spending.

However, fans of the county-owned fish hatchery will be sad to learn that this highly fought-over item may finally be passed into private hands. Abele planned to discontinue operation of the fish hatchery in 2014. The county board put into the budget to enter into discussions for the Hunger Task Force to lease the operation from the county. We only have two more years to see if it actually happens.

Intent on proving “it’s déjà vu all over again,” County Board Chairman Lee Holloway issued a statement after the board passed their version of the budget, “Even though we have a new County Executive, this budget reminded me of what we were handed in previous years. Because of the tax levy freeze, Supervisors were forced to do all the heavy lifting.”

Again, just like when Walker was the county executive, Abele used his veto power to bring the budget back to a zero increase in the levy. Abele issued 23 vetoes, including the increased spending for employee health care. Abele also vetoed money restored to the budget for park patrols by the sheriff’s office ($1,551,991) and aid to local municipalities for emergency medical services ($722,527).

Unsurprisingly, Holloway and the county board overrode 18 of Abele’s vetoes, increasing the tax levy by $5.8 million. Abele’s veto of the wellness program was sustained, but out-of-pocket health care costs for county employees are still lower than what Abele had proposed. The county board also had the votes to restore the $1,551,991 for the sheriff’s office and the $722,527 for local emergency medical services.

These events seemed like a replay to Holloway, too, only more so. “The County Board this afternoon voted to override more than 78% of County Executive Abele’s budget vetoes. This is higher than the percentage of vetoes overridden during Scott Walker’s eight years as Milwaukee County Executive. There really isn’t a nickel’s worth of difference between these two Executives,” Holloway said in a statement following the veto overrides.

Actually, Abele may have a few more nickels in his pocket than Walker, but the result is the same. If Abele thought that bringing county spending under control would be easy, he just learned the hard way that regardless of who is in charge the county board has a thirst for more spending.

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Posted in mi perspectives | November 22, 2011 | | Comments Off

Two-Faced Barrett or Evil Twin?
Milwaukee’s Mayor on Ohio, Wis. Act 10

By James Wigderson
Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

Last Tuesday, voters in Ohio reversed an attempt to curb collective bargaining privileges for government employees. Unlike in Wisconsin, Ohio voters can petition to put acts of the legislature on the ballot for approval. Also unlike Wisconsin, Ohio never had a chance to implement the collective bargaining reforms to see the law in action. The Ohio law also imposed far greater concessions on public employees than Wisconsin’s new reforms. Finally, the Ohio law covered law enforcement and firefighters, allowing opponents to attack the law using public safety as an issue.

Despite those differences, opponents of the changes to collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin have claimed the Ohio experience gives momentum to the upcoming recall effort.

Getting caught up in the giddiness was city of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. In a press release on the Wednesday following the Ohio election, Barrett said, “Yesterday, Ohio citizens from every walk of life resoundingly rejected the extreme measures Governor Kasich took in eliminating the basic rights of workers. Here in Wisconsin we have seen that same extreme attack.”

He continued, “Governor Walker should do the right thing and immediately restore workers rights to organize and bargain in good faith. End this attack now and focus on creating jobs and getting Wisconsin’s economy growing.”

Readers of the press release might be forgiven for wondering if celebrated nice guy Barrett suddenly acquired an evil twin.  Barrett has not only used the changes in collective bargaining to manage the city of Milwaukee’s budget, he actually complained that the new law did not go far enough.

During the debate over the collective bargaining changes, Barrett complained that the law did not include police and firefighter unions. While protesting that he supported the ability of government employees to bargain over benefits, in a letter to legislative leaders Barrett wrote,

The Governor’s bill does not reduce the costs that middle class taxpayers in Milwaukee will pay for police and fire pension and health care benefits. The City will be forced to continue to pay the entire employee contribution for police and fire pensions, missing out on savings of approximately $14.4 million annually. This is compared to the pension savings from other unions and general city employees that will only total $8.3 million annually. In addition, all other unions and general city employees will pay 12% for their health care benefits, while the average police and fire employee will continue paying less than 4%.

More shocking, is the impact that excluding police and fire employees will have on the continuing costs of retiree health care that will primarily be paid by Milwaukee’s middle class. For non-protective service unions and general city employees, the average post retirement health care liability is $50,214. This is the amount that taxpayers now pay for each non-protective service union member and general city retiree before they become eligible for Medicare. That amount will be significantly reduced because of the 12% insurance contribution the Budget Repair Bill provides. Contrast that to the average post retirement health care liability for firefighters of $136,469 and police officers at $123,272.

Barrett described the retirement benefits for police and firefighters as “Cadillac” and added,

“Although active fire and police employees comprise only 39% of the City workforce, their retiree health care costs account for nearly two-thirds of the City’s $959.6 million unfunded post-retirement health care benefit. It’s unfortunate, but the Governor believes that these costs are a burden middle class Milwaukee taxpayers should be forced to bear.”

So on the one hand, Barrett said he could get government employee unions to make the concessions necessary to balance the city budget. On the other hand, Barrett complained that the change in the collective bargaining law did not include police and firefighters, and as a result the unions that retained their collective bargaining privileges kept “Cadillac” benefits.

It’s even more interesting that Barrett complained about the “Cadillac” benefits and the continued bargaining privileges of the police and firefighter unions when one of the major reasons the Ohio law was defeated was the inclusion of the police and firefighters. Barrett cheered for the result, even though he opposed in Wisconsin the provision that defeated the change in collective bargaining privileges in Ohio.

In fact, Barrett had previously praised Ohio for including police and firefighters in the collective bargaining changes.

“Republican Governors in Ohio and New Jersey who are facing similar budget crises have moved to increase public employee contributions for health care and pension as well,” Barret wrote previously. “However, unlike Governor Walker, those Governors have chosen not to exempt police and fire unions from the collective sacrifice that must be made to bring state and local finances under control in this economy.”

Barrett did use the changes to the collective bargaining law to his advantage in the city of Milwaukee budget process. The city of Milwaukee expects to save at least $25 million per year from the employee health benefit savings. Perhaps Barrett would like the taxpayers in the city to give back the savings so he can have a clear conscience?

Or perhaps those savings were why, when the Democratic members of the state senate stalled the state budget repair bill containing the collective bargaining changes by leaving the state, Barrett challenged the Republicans to pass the changes separately. Ironically, the Republicans followed Barrett’s advice by passing what is now known as Act 10, the law that Barrett incredulously now claims he wants to repeal.

At least, if that press release was sent by the real Tom Barrett.

But just who that is, is anyone’s guess.

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Posted in mi perspectives | November 14, 2011 | | 1 Comment

Democrats Push Pedal Power as Solution to Budget Woes

By James Wigderson
Special Guest Perspective for the MacIver Institute

State Representative Brett Hulsey has found a way to solve all of our state budget problems. Everyone, get out of your cars. No really, get out of your cars and ride a bicycle.

In his press release, Hulsey cites a new study that says, “replacing short driving trips with biking would benefit the upper Midwest, including Wisconsin, by saving at least $3.8 billion, saving 1,000 lives, and cutting traffic by one-fifth or 20%.”  Good to know someone on Hulsey’s staff knows 20% is the same as one-fifth. Probably homeschooled.

If only Governor Jim Doyle had known about bicycles. He, and Representative Hulsey, might never have had to raise taxes in Doyle’s last budget.

There is, of course, one small catch. When the study says, “replacing short driving trips with biking” they mean 50% of the trips less than or equal to eight kilometers. In American English, that’s almost five miles on your SUV’s odometer.

My wife’s trips today to the grocery store, Menards hardware store and for take out pizza all should have been on her bicycle. But of course that wouldn’t work. It’s hard to carry the latest Christmas outdoor decorations from the hardware store on the back of a Schwinn, even with a basket. Two gallons of milk, cereal for a week, bacon, eggs, bread, and light bulbs weren’t going to fit on the back of the bike, either. As for the carry out pizza, that might have worked. Just leave the two-liter of soda and the breadsticks behind.

So we were 0-3. Actually we were 0-4 if you throw in the trip to the corner gas station to fill the car’s tank for the week.

That sounds like a lot of trips and that’s the point. Even if she had been able to make those trips by bicycle, she would not have been able to make all the trips because of how long it would have taken her.

That means somebody else would have needed to make 4 trips today by bicycle to make up for the Wigderson family. I’m sure the elderly couple next door could have taken bicycles to church today.

It sure as heck wasn’t going to be me. If I took a bicycle everywhere I went, I wouldn’t be able to use my cell phone. The gasping for air would get me arrested for making obscene phone calls.

If my wife’s trips today were impossible to make by bicycle, imagine what they would be like a month from now. Do Trek bicycles come with a snowplow accessory?

Of course, somebody on Hulsey’s staff should have pointed out the absurdity of ever hoping that Wisconsinites would abandon their cars for 50% of their trips less than five miles.

The authors of the study don’t offer policy prescriptions that would make Wisconsinites and others in the Midwest suddenly get on their bikes and ride 50% of the time for short trips. They only point it is out that it’s possible if we become more like the Netherlands. No wonder Democrats are in love with windmills.

They do let the cat out of the bag by letting us know that converting car lanes to bicycle lanes can cost as much as $50,000 per city block. Portland, OR, spent $10,000 per block on a ten-block stretch of city streets to close a lane to cars and open it to two-way bicycle traffic. The city of Chicago, in the fiscally unsound state of Illinois, just spent $140,000 to make a bike lane on four city blocks, including a bridge.

But the authors are hopeful that cities in the Midwest can become more like their Dutch counterparts because some cities are already “bicycle friendly,” including Milwaukee. Part of being bicycle friendly is making the roadways safer for bicyclists, measured in the mortality rate of bicyclists. If Milwaukee builds a lane across the Hoan Bridge that “friendly” rating might go down.

Milwaukee recently committed to a plan to become even more bicycle friendly. They are going to spend $11.3 million over the next ten years to create more bicycle lanes, and that does not even include land acquisition. The city’s goal is for a bicycle to be used for 5% of all trips less than five miles by 2020.

That’s a long way from Holland’s bicycle use, and certainly nowhere near the 50% that the study’s authors hoped for. Perhaps the Milwaukee Common Council should pass a law requiring residents to wear wooden shoes and plant tulips.

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Posted in mi perspectives | November 7, 2011 | | 7 Comments
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