Last week, Gov. Walker declined to answer Englishman’s question about whether he, Scott Waker, believed in evolution. Today, in the Journal Sentinel, one learns that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos does believe in evolution. (I’ll bite: I was raised in a liturgical, high-church tradition that taught that the theory of evolution was consistent with faith. I…
Wisconsin
Corporate Welfare, Education, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Labor, Liberty, Local Government, School District, University, WEDC, Wisconsin
Education: Substance & Spending
by JOHN ADAMS •
Following comments to yesterday’s post on proposed cuts to the UW System schools (Caution arrives late, doesn’t recognize its surroundings), here are nine quick comments about education. 1. Act 10 as a budgetary tool. This centrally-planned idea didn’t work. Reductions in public-union bargaining powers in exchange for the ‘tools’ to balance school and other public…
City, Elections, Politics, Wisconsin
Signs on Election Night
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are both statewide and local signs for how election races are going. Statewide, Jake of Jake’s Economic TA Funhouse (blogs often have inventive names) is right that, short of an improbable collapse for the major-parties’ strongholds, the areas to watch are the counties that have supported both Walker (’10, ’12) and Obama (’08, ’12). …
Wisconsin
Resting
by JOHN ADAMS •
Planning, Politics, Press, Wisconsin
Goat-Level’s Not Enough
by JOHN ADAMS •
Political bloggers – left, right, libertarian, etc. – often find themselves critiquing the ill-considered proposals that government, business, labor groups, and a fawning press insist are for everyone’s good. That’s certainly true in Wisconsin – we have an active blogosphere running the whole political spectrum, and united (if in little else) at least in a…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Free Markets, Local Government, Wisconsin
The New (But Old) Zero-Sum Game
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
Elections, Wisconsin
The Voters’ 411 Guide
by JOHN ADAMS •
We’ve a statewide primary ahead on August 12th, and a general election for state & county offices and Congressional seats on November 4th. There’s a non-partisan online guide available at Vote411.org where voters can get election information for their respective addresses: Enter your address to find your polling place, build your ballot with our online…
City, Elections, Local Government, Walworth County, Wisconsin
The 2014 Wisconsin Spring Primary
by JOHN ADAMS •
Results from the Wisconsin Spring Primary are, mostly, now in. In Whitewater. I’ve commented on this race in email and online. The unofficial results (Binnie 152, Yvarra 30, Meyer 26) in the top-two primary show a marked gap between the incumbent and his challengers. In a primary that awarded the race to a candidate…
Art, Police, Press Release, Wisconsin, Writing
27th Annual Wisconsin Troopers’ Association Art & Essay Contest
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Law, Liberty, Local Government, School District, Wisconsin
How Many Rights for Whitewater?
by JOHN ADAMS •
How many rights do Whitewater’s residents possess? It’s a simple question, and there’s a simple answer: They possess all the rights of residency or citizenship, respectively, of Americans and Wisconsinites elsewhere. One may express this plainly: All of America, and all of Wisconsin, for all of Whitewater. There is no local practice, no old custom,…
Economy, Federal Government, Gluttony, Government Spending, Local Government, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, Walworth County, Wisconsin
The Crazy-Wrong Argument on Taxes
by JOHN ADAMS •
A succinct truth: money doesn’t grow on trees. Local government funds municipal projects in one of three principal ways: through local taxes & fees, local borrowing (debt in the form of bonds), or public money from other jurisdictions (grants from the state or federal government). These grants of state or federal public money are, themselves,…
City, Gov. Walker, Local Government, Politics, State Government, Wisconsin
The Failure of Inside-Out (Thanks in Part to Governor Walker)
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s never been sensible to believe that the center of civilization is 312 W. Whitewater Street, with people and events beyond shrinking markedly in significance as one gets farther from that supposed center. Under that theory, by the time one reaches Palmyra, one might as well be in the unexplored Amazon. Exaggerating the significance of…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Law, Official Misconduct, Open Government, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, Wisconsin
The Truth about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
by JOHN ADAMS •
A person should be able to make simple distinctions, as between the sensible and foolish, or practical and impractical. Sometimes those distinctions should be clear, and as stark as the difference between the contents of a sample cup and a glass of Chardonnay. You’ll hear a lot locally over the next few days about a…