The Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters’ November 2012 Newsletter has arrived, featuring articles and a calendar of upcoming events. This latest edition is available as a link on my blogroll, and is embedded below. Upcoming events: December 9th (Sunday) Event: League Holiday Dinner with WHS Madrigal Singers, Making Democracy Work award presentation Where: Whitewater Country…
City
City, Daily Bread, Open Government
Daily Bread for 11.8.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Thursday in the Whippet City brings a cloudy morning with gradual clearing thereafter, and a high of forty-nine. We’ll have 9h, 58m of sunshine and 10h, 58m of daylight. Today in Whitewater, will will be a joint meeting of Downtown Whitewater, the Chamber of Commerce, and Tourism Commission at 6:45 PM. It follows…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Elections
Beautiful Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Film
Wednesday, 11.7.12, Seniors in the Park Film: A Separation
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Wednesday at 12:30 PM, there’s a free showing (with complimentary popcorn & beverage) of A Separation, an Academy Award & Golden Globe winner! This film, in Farsi with English subtitles, speaks in a universal language about family, and the ties that bind and rein us in. A woman in Iran seeks a divorce from…
City, Corporate Welfare, Green Energy Holdings, Waste Digesters
The End of the Waste Digester Proposal in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Earlier this week, I posted about a closed-session agenda item of the Tech Park Board about ‘negotiations’ with Green Energy Holdings concerning a waste digester in the city. Of the scope of those negotiations I had no idea. As readers surely know, I think there are sound objections of municipal finance, community development, economic policy,…
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Press
Ceaseless Press Errors About the So-Called ‘Innovation Express’
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a recent story over at the Daily Union that repeats a prior distortion about thousands in public funds for a bus to cart a few private workers of multi-billion-dollar Generac to their homes far outside Whitewater after work. The whole proposal is an exercise in crony capitalism. I’ve written about the mistaken use of…
City, Corporate Welfare, Green Energy Holdings, Waste Digesters
The Tech Park Board and a Waste Digester
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bad leaders and ideas often go in only one direction: from bad to worse. One sees the truth of that in the agenda for today’s Tech Park Board meeting: 13. ADJOURNMENT to Closed Session, TO RECONVENE APPROXIMATELY 45 MINUTES AFTER ADJOURNMENT TO CLOSED SESSION, per Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1)(e) “Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public…
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget: Crony Capitalism
by JOHN ADAMS •
So a multi-billion-dollar corporation (market cap $1.77 billion) wants thousands of taxpayer-dollars from a small city to fund a bus the corporation uses to shuttle her workers to and from other towns where they actually live. The city being imposed upon is Whitewater, Wisconsin, a tiny municipality, like many others, struggling just to balance her annual operating budget. Whitewater’s situation involves juggling to find ways…
Business, City, Laws/Regulations, New Whitewater, Planning
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget: Downtown Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Under the 2013 draft budget, there’s the possibility of the City of Whitewater increasing the contribution for Downtown Whitewater, Inc., to compensate for the loss of funding via Tax Incremental District 4. While I’d surely rather the city didn’t prop up businesses, and I’d rather it didn’t fund just one area at that, I candidly…
City, Government Spending
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget (Tax Incremental Financing)
by JOHN ADAMS •
What’s tax incremental financing? It’s the creation of a tax district where a municipality spends public funds for improvements in roads, etc., to encourage private investment in that blighted area. The hoped-for revenue from that additional – incremental – new private investment goes to pay for the municipal spending on roads, etc. It’s an if-you-build-it-they-will-come…
City, Food, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Whitewater’s ‘Transient Merchant’ Ordinance is Only Half That
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater has a Transient Merchant Ordinance, at Chapter 5.28, et seq., of her Municipal Code, but the ordinance’s title is only half right. It’s not merely an ordinance that restricts food trucks’ sales, but also and necessarily consumers’ purchases. It’s part Transient Merchant Ordinance and part Consumer Restriction Ordinance. Each and every time a city…
City, Freedom of Speech
The Best Authority is a Good Argument
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a competitive marketplace of ideas – of left, right, center – each idea questioned and considered – the best authority is a well-reasoned position. Simple appeals to personal authority – of the kind that have been the foundation of Whitewater’s politics over the last generation – just aren’t good enough anymore. Who you know…
City, Government Spending, Local Government
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget (Overview)
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s budget season for the City of Whitewater, running into November, and in this post I’ll offer a few overview remarks. Subsequent posts will consider aspects of the budget in greater detail. The City of Whitewater’s Budget, not Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Budget. A bit of perspective — something lacking in past years — is in order.…
Business, City, Laws/Regulations
The Transient Merchant Ordinance
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a discussion at Common Council tonight of our “transient merchant ordinance.” The text under discussion is part of the agenda packet, at numbered pages 33 – 42. This current provisions of our municipal code are online as well. Council’s session begins at 6:30 PM in City Hall the Municipal Building.