Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon showers with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:26 PM for 15h 07m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 85.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1955, the U.S. Supreme Court expands on its Brown v. Board of Education decision by ordering district courts and school districts to enforce educational desegregation “at all deliberate speed.”
Wisconsin officials worry about a labor shortage, but fret not, as the WISGOP has a plan to market Wisconsin to out-of-state residents. If the WISGOP were to look around Whitewater, it would know that marketing against fundamental conditions does not work. Of the state effort, Anya van Wagtendonk reports GOP budget would spend $4M to attract workers to Wisconsin:
The state’s economic development agency would have to spend $4 million promoting the state as an attractive place to live, work and do business, under a measure approved by Republicans on the Legislature’s budget committee Thursday.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, or WEDC, a quasi-private state agency dedicated to growing Wisconsin’s economy and workforce, would be required to put at least $2 million of that money toward attracting military veterans.
“Folks that are considering leaving their military service, they have the option to go anyplace they want, because that is something that is funded by the military,” said Sen. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan. “It is a real benefit to our state to have this vibrant group of folks that are able, willing and ready to work.”
The $4 million set aside by Republicans would come from an economic development surcharge on corporations, which is the WEDC’s primary source of funding. It’s less than half the $10 million in state funding that Gov. Tony Evers set aside for talent development in his proposed budget, and it does away with new projects Evers proposed for the agency.
In the Republican-authored proposal, the WEDC would also have to evaluate how those talent development initiatives worked out, including how many veterans choose Wisconsin for their first post-discharge move.
Live, work, and do business,’ or ‘live, work, and play’ are played out.
For decades, truly decades, Whitewater officials have returned again and again to the bromide that Whitewater needs a marketing plan. They have failed, and will continue to fail, to market against reality. See The Boosters’ Big Capital but Small Society, Marketing Won’t Revive UW-Whitewater, Wasting Money on Whitewashing Marketing, and Whitewater’s Still Waiting for That Boom.
For Whitewater, the better approach is to describe the city as it is, challenges most of all, and invite people to join us in a program of renewal and renaissance.
It’s not a lack of intelligence that afflicts the boosters and the purveyors of toxic positivity, as nearly all people are sharp; it’s a failure of knowledge and values. They either don’t know that others can see through their flamboyant claims, or they value their promotions more than others‘ needs.
These types are either too confused or too selfish to be honest with others.
Marketing despite problems hasn’t worked for Whitewater, and it won’t work for Wisconsin. Four million or forty million will meet the same fate.
Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash
Elon Musk greeted with flattery during China trip: