Whitewater’s Community Development Authority represents a specific part of the Trump tax bill as beneficial to this city. (See press release 1, press release 2.) For today, looking at the bill generally, it’s bad for America: it’s a sham reform instead of a beneficial restructuring, and it makes this country’s outlook worse. Benjamin H. Harris and Adam…
City
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Politics, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
More About that Trump Tax Bill
by JOHN ADAMS •
In the spring, Whitewater saw two Community Development Authority press releases touting a specific part of the Trump tax bill. (See press release 1, press release 2.) In response, this website replied (1) with a link to a Congressional Budget Office study implying that, overall, the Trump bill will boost incomes for foreign investors but not…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC
The Next Guest Speaker
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last winter, the Greater Whitewater Committee, a local 501(c)(6) business league, invited Matt Moroney (a longtime Walker operative) to speak to residents on Foxconn’s many supposed benefits. The Daily Union‘s longtime stenographer correspondent dutifully and uncritically reported on Moroney’s remarks. See A Sham News Story on Foxconn. Over the years, key leaders of this business league have served…
City, Film
Film: Wednesday, August 1st, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Beat the Devil
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Wednesday, August 1st at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Beat the Devil @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building: “Beat the Devil” (Action/Adventure/Comedy) Rated G; 1 hour, 29 minutes (1953). Written by Truman Capote, directed by John Huston, and bankrolled by Humphrey Bogart’s Santana Productions, this is a…
CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Education, Local Government, Marketing, Mendacity, Politics, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Tony Evers, WEDC, Wisconsin
Redefining Reality
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tony Evers, State Superintendent of Public Instruction and candidate for governor, has a new video about a political effort to redefine reality. The video is about Scott Walker, but it might as easily have been about any number of local politicians in Whitewater or other small Wisconsin towns, with tax breaks for out-of-towners and cronies…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, July 31st, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Black Panther
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, July 31st at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Black Panther @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Ryan Coogler directs the two-hour, fourteen-minute film: “After the events of Captain America: Civil War, King T’Challa returns home to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve…
Bad Ideas, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, Trump, Uncategorized, WEDC
Foxconn’s (Overwhelmingly) Low-Paying Jobs
by JOHN ADAMS •
Residents of Whitewater (or at least the ones attracted to corporate welfare) had a chance this winter to hear a state operative extol the benefits of billions in public money for Foxconn. The local 501(c)(6) business league, the Greater Whitewater Committee, brought in a guest speaker to tout the project. See A Sham News Story on…
City, University, UW System
The UW System & Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s simply stating the obvious to report that Shrinking tuition revenue, growing expenses put UW campuses in potentially precarious position: A gap is growing between how much money University of Wisconsin System campuses collect in tuition and how much they budget for costs directly tied to educating students, such as faculty pay and advising. That raises serious questions about what…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, July 24th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Leisure Seeker
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, July 24th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of The Leisure Seeker @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Paolo Virzì directs the one-hour, fifty-two-minute film: “Traveling in their family Leisure Seeker vintage recreational vehicle, John and Ella Spencer take one last road trip from Boston to the Hemingway…
City, Laws/Regulations, University
The Limits of Messaging
by JOHN ADAMS •
UW-Whitewater quadruples parking without a permit fine Whitewater, like many small towns, is marketing mad: claims, professions, insistence, publicizing, and declarations exceed actual conditions. Newly-increased fines over Whitewater’s available parking spaces on campus illustrate this problem. The local campus is large, relative to the non-campus parts of the city, and that places pressure on both…
City, Film
Film: Wednesday, July 18th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Loving Vincent
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Wednesday, July 18th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Loving Vincent @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman direct the one-hour, thirty-four-minute animated biography: A year after the death of the artist, Vincent van Gogh, Postman Roulin gets his slacker son, Armand, to hand…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, July 10th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, All the Money in the World
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, July 10th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of All the Money in the World @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Ridley Scott directs the two-hour, twelve-minute biography crime drama: Rome, 1973. Masked men kidnap a teenage boy named John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer). His grandfather,…
Business, CDA, City, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records 2
Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Grocery)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday’s post addressed open government aspects of an unrecorded council meeting. See Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Open Government). This post will consider a slide presentation from the unrecorded Whitewater Community Development Authority presentation of 6.19.18 on grocery store recruitment. Embedded immediately below is that slide presentation, and a link to the 5.19.16 Perkins supermarket…
Bad Ideas, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, Trump
Foxconn’s Bait & Switch
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s a groundbreaking ceremony for (a much smaller) Foxconn today. This very morning one reads confirmation – yet again – that taxpayers’ billions for Foxconn are paying for a project that’s now a giant bait & switch. Rick Romell reports Foxconn scales back plans for its first factory in Mount Pleasant: The Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing…