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Economy

Conservatives Against WEDC

Only a generation ago (not long, really), most conservatives would have rejected something like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s ineffectual, wasteful attempts to manipulate the economy for the benefit of a few insiders’ friends. Today, communities across our state are beset with any number of unctuous men hawking a kind of big-government conservatism, with false…

Wisconsin on Pace for Most Layoff Notifications Since WEDC Created

WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports Now I thought, as it’s what I have heard again, again, and again, that the WEDC was the Laser-Focused Semi-Private Job Creator of Wisconsin™.  How odd, then, to read that since the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s inception, Wisconsin is on pace for more job layoffs than…

WEDC’s Development Gurus Fail Again

All Whitewater has heard Chancellor Telfer, City Manager Clapper, and CDA Chairman Knight tout money from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation as though it were manna from Heaven.  We were supposed to see this money as they meant us to see it, as blessing and providence.  Meanwhile,  each time those officials flacked these public funds,…

In Support of the Complete Streets Initiative for Whitewater

This Tuesday, January 20th at 6:30 PM, Common Council will consider a Complete Streets ordinance (item O-3) for Whitewater. A Complete Streets program simply requires planners to consider bike and pedestrian travel, for example, when either building or reconstructing streets within our city. (I listened closely to discussion of the idea at our 12.16.14 Common…

Is Whitewater’s Public Infrastructure Undeveloped? No.

I wrote on Friday that I would consider a bit more about Whitewater’s 2015 proposed budget today. This post’s title frames how to think about the budget: the city’s fiscal condition is only a small part of the local economy’s condition. Important, to be sure, but also small.  Many city services are ordinary and commonplace…

The Proposed 2015 City of Whitewater Budget

The challenge of government is not fundamentally its cost, but its complexity, intractability, and most concerning of all its use of authority not as representative of residents but as self-interested action contrary to representation. A small rural town of fifteen-thousand, and it’s 289 pages just to list the town’s annual budget. There’s an anecdote about…

The New (But Old) Zero-Sum Game

Over at Rock Netroots, Lou Kaye makes this accurate observation about how most local communities’ officials understand development: For the most part, city leaders here [he’s referring to Janesville] and across Wisconsin not only believe that communities are in competition with one another, they vigorously support and fuel those concepts by carving out special slush…

The Book on Janesville

Amy Goldstein, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the Washington Post, is writing a book about Janesville after GM’s departure, entitled, Janesville: An American Story.  I’ve been awaiting the book, and recently (also happily) discovered publishing information about it, from PublishersMarketplace.com: Pulitzer-winning Washington Post reporter Amy Goldstein’s JANESVILLE: An American Story, following three families as the GM…

Rand Paul on Chamber of Commerce Republicans

Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, often moves (sometimes quixotically) between libertarian and conventionally conservative, Republican positions. Still, there’s unquestionably some libertarian in him, and in his libertarianism he shares a dynamic philosophy (if not party label) with a huge number of other Americans (about 22%, or just under one-in-four people).  Here’s what Paul, speaking…

Is this the city that you had in mind?

Consider this working definition of crony capitalism: Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of state interventionism. Crony capitalism…

Mr. Yvarra’s Campaign: Even More Deceptive Than Before

I’ve written previously about the contested race in Whitewater’s Fourth Council District, an election choice between Lynn Binnie and Paul Yvarra. See, on this topic, On Whitewater’s 4th District Council Race, and (about the Yvarra campaign) A Dodgy and Deceptive Campaign. In a statement to the Gazette, for their comprehensive election series, Paul Yvarra has…