The use of government-issued New Market Tax Credits will bring Whitewater a Fairfield Inn and a building for the existing local campus to lease. Proponents of an ordinary hotel and a lease agreement for the university cannot offer any evidence that these projects will boost local individual or household incomes. What one can show –…
Local Government
CDA, City, Crony Capitalism, Culture, Distraction, Economy, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Marketing, Planning, Politics, Poverty, State Capitalism, WEDC
The Two Questions that Haunt Old Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Two questions haunt Old Whitewater (where Old Whitewater is a state of mind rather than an age or a particular person): What does it mean to be a college town? and What is meaningful community development? (There are other serious questions, but one can be sure – at the least – that these two have Whitewater…
City, Local Government, Open Government
Video of the Whitewater Common Council Session of 8.21.18
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater Common Council 082118 from John Adams on Vimeo. See also Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Open Government) and City of Whitewater session recording.
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Crony Capitalism, Development, Economics, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, State Capitalism, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way
A Tax Incremental Financing Review
by JOHN ADAMS •
Today at four o’clock, the Joint Review Board is scheduled to review Whitewater’s tax incremental districts. Views of tax incremental financing – especially in a place like Whitewater – are a good test of someone’s basic understanding of economic development. Indeed, the test reduces to a simple relationship: the more one contends that tax incremental…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Conflicts of Interest, Ethics, Local Government, That Which Paved the Way
Absurdity on Conflicts of Interest
by JOHN ADAMS •
In towns large and small, there may sometimes arise a conflict of interest between an official’s private interests and his public authority. The idea of conflicts of interest is not new, but it is so poorly understood that one would think it was as new as a kitten and as rare as a unicorn. A…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Free Market, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Politics, State Capitalism, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way
The Trump Tax Bill: The Illusory Pay Bump
by JOHN ADAMS •
In the spring, before and after a local election, the Whitewater Community Development Authority issued two press releases praising a part of the Trump tax bill as good for Whitewater. CDA executive director Dave Carlson presumably wrote the releases, and Larry Kachel, the CDA chairman, stars in one of them as offering gratitude for gerrymandered congressman…
America, City, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Local Government, New Media, Newspapers, Politics, Press, Resistance, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
‘A Free Press Needs You’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Following Trump’s repeated attacks on the press as the enemy of the people, hundreds of publications across America are today uniting in a defense of their right to free expression. The editorial board of the New York Times, in A Free Press Needs You, describes our heritage and the threat to it: In 1787, the…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Economics, Economy, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Politics, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
The Trump Tax Bill: Massive Federal Deficits
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Whitewater Community Development Authority’s press releases flacking a part of the Trump tax bill for Whitewater show only that they either don’t understand what the Trump bill means for America, or that they hope others won’t understand. (See press release 1, press release 2.) This bill will drive the federal budget deficit to astonishing and…
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…
CDA, City, Conflicts of Interest, Crony Capitalism, 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…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Crony Capitalism, Economics, Economy, Free Market, Local Government, State Capitalism, Trump, WEDC
The Mercantilist
by JOHN ADAMS •
Veronique de Rugy contends that one should take Trump at his word on trade. It’s doubtful that anyone should take Trump’s word for anything, but that’s too literal a reading of her claim. She’s right that, in effect, Trump truly opposes free trade no matter what he says: As we embark on a trade war, let’s…
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…
CDA, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records 2
Public Records Request of 6.26.18 (Open Government)
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Whitewater Common Council agenda packet of 6.19.18 promised a “report and update on grocery store recruitment,” but that session was only partially recorded, with no video or audio record of the grocery presentation. In response, I submitted a public records request of 6.26.18, about three topics: 1. Any audio or video recording of the…
America, Federal Government, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Politics, State Government, Trump
National Means Local, Too
by JOHN ADAMS •
Mike Allen, now of Axios, writes about how Trumpism has nationalized politics: Trump is even the story in local races A dilemma for news organizations in this epic era is that President Trump isn’t just the biggest story in politics. On many days, he’s the biggest story in business, the biggest story in media, the biggest…