Consider an invitation-only meeting, before a public one, in which appointed officials and perhaps a few corporate executives meet to discuss public financing of a deal mostly benefiting a few. One can say two things, with reasonable confidence, about a meeting like that. First, no one attends a meeting of that kind to dissuade others…
Corporate Welfare
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
Janesville & Generac’s Bus: Requesting Reductions
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
At Whitewater’s mid-November council meeting, Generac declared it would pay considerably less for a transit bus than Janesville Transit had projected (seventy-two percent less), and the city and university agreed to pay fifty percent less than Janesville Transit requested of them. Note to the city administration: multi-billion-dollar Generac easily got the better of those figures.…
Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Press
The Gazette‘s Laughable, Damage-Control Editorial
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
There’s an editorial at the Gazette today (http://gazettextra.com/article/20131122/ARTICLES/131129885/1034) predictably praising continued funding for Janesville’s transit bus to Whitewater. That there’s a bit of crowing in the editorial is unsurprising, but it’s more telling that it’s an error-prone essay that makes basic mistakes about Whitewater’s politics, and omits – perhaps intentionally – a description of the…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
The New Address
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
One reads a press release at Walworth County Today (http://walworthcountytoday.com/article/20131122/WC/131129921) about the relocation of an existing private business, iButtonLink, to the Innovation Center. Here’s where they were: Here’s where they’ll be: That’s a nice upgrade, to taxpayer-funded accommodations. It’s also a different definition of private accomplishment, I’d say.
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
The Bus Discussion @ Council Last Night: A Fiasco by Any Definition
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Update, 2 PM: A reader wrote today, asking why I seem relatively unconcerned about this vote (as a practical matter). That’s my omission: in the discussion last night, it’s clear that Generac plans to reduce funding in the future. Advocates of this project will have to find other corporate sponsors and make it work with…
Business, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Government Spending
The Bus: Bad for Whitewater Now, Far Worse for Whitewater Later
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
As I write – these last eighteen months now offering ample evidence – Janesville Transit’s bus to Whitewater has been a failure. It’s been used too seldom, at considerable public expense, mostly for a vast corporation that could easily pay its own way. And yet, and yet, conditions might be even worse were the bus…
City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Government Spending, Planning
Discussion about the Bus, 3.20.12 to 11.5.13
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I promised earlier a summary of principal arguments made about a (mostly) publicly-funded transit bus that benefits (mostly) one multi-billion-dollar corporation. Here’s that post, with a summary of points about the project at Whitewater’s Common Council sessions of 3.20.12, 11.20.12, and 11.5.13. For each date, I’ve included a link to a Vimeo page with a…
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
Common Council for 11.5.13 (Bus & Budget)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Update, 2 PM: Earlier today, in response to my email inquiry, I received kind messages in reply from City Manager Clapper and City Clerk Michele Smith, about posting online the documents I mentioned below. They’ve acted quickly and thoroughly to provide materials that others gave to them only at the last minute. It’s right to…
Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
The Empty Bus
by JOHN ADAMS • • 5 Comments
The Empty Bus from John Adams on Vimeo. Whitewater’s Common Council will tonight consider the performance of an often-empty Janesville Transit Bus that mostly benefits one multi-billion-dollar corporation. At the end of this post, readers will find links to prior posts about this failed project. I’ve also embedded the relevant documents from tonight’s meeting –…
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
Janesville Transit’s Ghost Bus
by JOHN ADAMS • • 8 Comments
It’s the month for Halloween, and just in time, Janesville Transit brings Whitewater a trick, but certainly no treat: a Ghost Bus. One may safely call it this, as it’s almost entirely empty after dropping riders off at multi-billion-dollar Generac, with those few passengers remaining being about as rare and difficult to see as the…
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
What Tires and Ages a City?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In my last post, I wrote about a survey that identified Whitewater as an especially youthful town (mind you, by median age, and only from CNN Money’s limited selection of small towns). Well, what would the opposite be like: what would age a town, and drive it into decrepitude? The sarcastic answer, of course, is…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Marketing, Planning
How You, Too, Can Be a Smooth-Talking, Super-Sophisticated Marketeer (Assuming You’d Be Foolish Enough to Want to Be One).
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Real marketing is a legitimate pursuit. By contrast, manipulative, smooth-talking, super-sophisticated men & women spend hours convincing others that the next big thing is, in fact, the Next Big Thing. They declare that millions of taxpayers’ money spent on white-collar projects, while truly needy people receive no benefit whatever, are Astonishing Feats of Global Significance…
Business, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Local Government, Planning
Bad Policy Cannot Hold the City
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government
Part 2: Hey, Walworth County, How About Buying Over-Priced, Half-Unsuitable Parkland with Taxpayer Money!
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I posted last week against a proposal for Walworth County to purchase nearly two hundred acres of overpriced, half-unsuitable parkland. Four days later, on Saturday, June 15th, the Janesville Gazette‘s editorialist wrote in support of the proposed purchase. For my original post, see Hey, Walworth County, How About Buying Over-Priced, Half-Unsuitable Parkland with Taxpayer Money!…