Good morning,
Today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a sunny and cold day, with a high temperature of eight degrees.
Today at 4 p.m., a Joint Review Board meets to consider distressed status for tax incremental district 4. The agenda is available online. Here it is —
Whitewater
Tax Incremental Finance District No. 4
Proposed Distressed TID Designation for District No. 4
Joint Review Board Walworth County Wednesday – February 9, 2011, 4:00 p.m.
Whitewater Municipal Center Lakefront Conference Room (2nd Floor)
312 W Whitewater Street, Whitewater, WI 531901. Call to Order and Roll Call
2. Discussion and Possible Action on Joint Review Board Minutes from January 5, 2011
3. Consideration of Proposed Distressed TID Amendment for Whitewater’s Tax Increment Finance District 4
4. Consideration to Disband Whitewater Tax Increment Joint Review Board
5. Adjourn
No surprises here — designation of distressed status is a foregone conclusion. That’s bad policy twice over — on the merits, and as an endorsement of the many lies and half truths about the cause and the effect of a distressed district. I’ll post later this week on all this, as what’s happend to this district is a fine example of bureaucratic mediocrity and mendacity. It’s also rare — only a small minority of Wisconsin communities have debilitating problems like this.
Today’s an important day in American science and government — as the Wisconsin Historical Society recalls:
1870 – National Weather Service Authorized
On this date President Ulysses S. Grant signed a joint resolution authorizing a National Weather Service, which had long been a dream of Milwaukee scientist Increase Lapham. Lapham, 19th-century Wisconsin’s premier natural scientist, proposed a national weather service after he mapped data contributed over telegraph lines in the UpperMidwest and realized that weather might be predicted in advance. He was concerned about avoiding potential disasters to Great Lakes shipping and Wisconsin farming, and his proposal was approved by Congress and authorized on this date. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers, edited by Sarah Davis McBride]