Whitewater’s Common Council considered four budget items at length during her 11.13.12 session, of which the Emerald Ash Borer was the third. I’ll address that discussion in this post. I’m not an arborist. I did once own a bonsai tree, but my use of the past tense tells that tale. This is, however, a common…
Government Spending
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Budget: CDA & Bus
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Whitewater’s Common Council considered four budget items at length during her 11.13.12 session. I’ll address now the first two of those four, immediately below. The Community Development Authority Budget. Someday, one hopes, Whitewater’s Community Development Authority won’t require tens of thousands from the City of Whitewater’s general fund, as it does now, since the CDA…
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Press
Ceaseless Press Errors About the So-Called ‘Innovation Express’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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, Government Spending, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget: Crony Capitalism
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
City, Government Spending
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget (Tax Incremental Financing)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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, Government Spending, Local Government
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget (Overview)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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.…
City, Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s municipal administration released its draft 2013 budget to the public last Friday. I’ve linked to it below (where readers can review, download, or print the one-hundred fifty page document). Common Council will begin consideration of the budget tonight, with tonight’s discussion addressing a portion of the full proposal: Revenues-General Fund, Debt Service-Revenue and Expense,…
Government Spending, Laws/Regulations
Reason’s Nanny of the Month for August 2012
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Federal Government, Government Spending, Marketing
Why there’s Room and Reason to Reduce the Military Budget
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s much worry – but not reasonable worry – about the imposition of sequestration, across-the-board cuts to reduce overspending, on America’s military budget. Our fundamental security will always come from a healthy economy that fosters the economic growth and innovation that makes a professional, well-equipped military possible. Second, we would still have an unmatched military…
Education, Government Spending
Attack of the Prissy Administrators
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
People spend vast sums on public education, and some of that money’s wasted every time a principal or superintendent denies a valedictorian his or her diploma for saying the word hell in a commencement speech. Has that ever happened? Yes, at least once, and that’s once too often: Prague High School is withholding Kaitlin Nootbaar’s…
City, Development, Government Spending, Green Energy Holdings, Local Government, Open Government, Press
Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
This week, I’ve posted a series of general questions about a proposed deal with Green Energy Holdings for a waste digester. See, Preliminary & General Questions about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings and Questions for the CDA about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings. (For a comprehensive list of all posts about this proposal,…
Federal Government, Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
How Government Discourages Savings
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One often hears that Americans don’t save enough, but why is that? For a few, it’s probably the consequence of spending too much, conspicuously, to keep up appearances. For most people, though, that’s not true: the percentage of lavish, status-conscious spenders is a small part of most communities. One of the reasons Americans don’t save…
City, Corporate Welfare, Federal Government, Government Spending, State Government
The Innovation Express Generac Bus: ‘Public Transit Is Not Expected to Make Money’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
The ‘Innovation Express’ – even less efficient, more costly, and more unjustified as crony capitalism than anyone might have thought! There are two stories at the Janesville Gazette that do their damnedest to justify federal, state, and local subsidies ($83,005) for a bus that benefits principally a few workers from multi-billion-dollar Generac, but even cheerleading…
Business, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
The Generac Bus and Bottom-Shelf Messaging
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
More on a bad deal for taxpayers, but a bargain at their expense for one big corporation. I posted recently on addled messaging about the Generac bus from a weekly report of Whitewater’s city manager dated 5.11.12. Last Friday, 5.18.12, there was another announcement about the bus. That new announcement is really an admission of…