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Budget, Daily Bread, Fair Maps, Gerrymandering, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 7.7.25: ‘Bipartisanship’ in Wisconsin Is Simply the Vulnerability of the WISGOP Under Fair Maps

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Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:24 and sunset is 8:35, for 15 hours, 11 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1928, sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor’s 48th…

Budget, City, Daily Bread, Gov. Evers, State Government, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 7.3.25: Vos Admits That Worry Over National GOP Policy Compelled WISGOP Deal With Evers

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Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 88. Sunrise is 5:21 and sunset is 8:36, for 15 hours, 15 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 57.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1863, the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates in Confederate defeat…

Budget, Daily Bread, Speaker Vos, State Government, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 6.25.25: It’s Not a Wisconsin Budget Negotiation, It’s Another WISGOP Display of Bad Faith Claims

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Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 82. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 20 minutes of daytime. The moon is new with 0.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1950, the Korean War begins when North Korea invades South Korea. One reads…

Budget, Daily Bread, State Government, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 6.5.25: Seeing Once Again That Wisconsin’s Not a Bipartisan Environment

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Good morning. Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon, with a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:30, for 15 hours, 13 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 72.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Public Arts Commission meets at…

Budget, Daily Bread, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 2.17.25: $4,300,000,000

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 7. Sunrise is 6:48 and sunset is 5:29, for 10 hours, 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 78.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 4 PM, the Police and Fire Commission meets at 6 PM, and the Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1801, a tie in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President and Burr Vice President by the House of Representatives.

Even today, $4,300,000,000 is a lot of money:

As Gov. Tony Evers puts the finishing touches on his next state budget proposal, projections show Wisconsin is expected to see a surplus of around $4.3 billion. 

It sets the stage for a familiar battle, with the Democratic governor calling for investments in priorities like education and child care and leaders of the Republican-controlled state Legislature calling for tax cuts.

The $4.3 billion projection comes from an analysis by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, which suggests state tax revenues will be nearly $895 million higher than expected throughout the next two-year budget cycle. The report credits that to a national economy that grew faster than expected in 2024 and modest increases in state sales tax revenue.

While the surplus is large, it’s not exactly new. Two years ago, Evers and lawmakers began the budget cycle with a projected $7 billion surplus. And even after they passed a new budget that increased spending and cut some taxes, the state ended last fiscal year with $4.6 billion in the bank.

See Rich Kremer, Wisconsin surplus projected at nearly $4.3B as Evers prepares next state budget, Wisconsin Public Radio, February 14, 2025.

There’s been no grand deal for the surplus these last few years, and regrettably the past is the best predictor of what’s to come.

‘Aqua tweezers’ manipulate particles with water waves:

Budget, Daily Bread, Legislature, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 12.23.24: Four Billion’s a Lot of Money to Be Left Unused

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:23 and sunset is 4:25, for 9 hours, 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 43.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1688, as part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to France after being deposed in favor of his son-in-law and nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.

The State of Wisconsin has both a general fund surplus and a rainy day fund, with the surplus now at $4,500,000,000. It is, after all, a lot of money:

Gov. Tony Evers announced Friday that Wisconsin’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, which is published by the Department of Administration, recorded a $4.5 billion positive balance in the state’s general fund at the end of the 2023-24 fiscal year. 

In addition to the general fund, the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund — or “rainy day” fund — ended the fiscal year at the highest level in state history with a balance of $1.9 billion. The rainy day fund has set a new record every year since Evers took office in 2019.  

“For thirty consecutive years, our state’s checking account ran at a deficit. Thanks to our efforts to pay down our state’s debt and work across the aisle to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, Wisconsin has never had a deficit since I took office,” Evers said in a statement. “This is great news for the people of Wisconsin and our state’s economy.” 

The balance in the general fund — a budget surplus — will likely be a major point of discussion next year as Evers and lawmakers begin work on the state’s next two-year budget.

See Baylor Spears, Wisconsin’s annual financial report records $4.5 billion budget surplus, Wisconsin Examiner, December 21, 2024.

The inability of lawmakers to agree on a plan for the use of the general fund surplus is unsurprising. These are the men who gerrymandered, backed grossly wasteful projects, pretended a pandemic was safe, and endorsed election conspiracies for so long as conspiracists did not level accusations in their own direction.

Honda and Nissan start merger talks in historic pivot:

Honda and Nissan have started talks toward a potential merger, they said, a historic pivot for Japan’s auto industry that underlines the threat Chinese EV makers now pose to some of the world’s best known car makers.