Category: On Wisconsin

Story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Freeway Web site could have cost less: Rivals say they would cut price in half on $685,000 no-bid job.

That’s the Wisconsin Department of Transportation spending the better part of a million dollars for a Web site explaining how they’re going to rebuild a major interchange in downtown Milwaukee.

The contract, released last week to the Journal Sentinel, also includes $15,600 for 25 flights.

Where in Wisconsin do you need to fly at $624 a pop?

Meanwhile, the people sucking the government teat are pleased:

“We’re damn proud of this Web site,” said Brian Swenson, vice president of HNTB’s Wisconsin operations. “I know we’re taking a lot of heat and a lot of hits for it, but this tool is going to save people time and money when construction comes up here.”

It’s all about serving the public, ainna? At as high of a price possible from funds that the public cannot determine how to spend because it’s been taken from them by their elected and appointed betters for distribution liberally to their unelected, unappointed, and no-bid betters.

It has come to this: in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, Aurora Health Care wants to build a hospital, but some residents oppose it because a hospital won’t generate as much taxes as a business park in the same spot:

Others, however, argued that the prime parcel of town land should be utilized as intended in the master plan for a business park that would bring in more tax revenue than the non-profit hospital despite a pledge by Aurora officials to make payments in lieu of taxes to be negotiated with the town.

“I want every possible dollar that land could give for our town; I don’t think that it should be negotiated,” said Mark Lathers, adding that he cannot negotiate his tax bill.

Worse, it will:

Others who testified agreed with arguments made by officials of Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital that the planned 88-bed Aurora hospital would only duplicate services already offered by Oconomowoc Memorial and that would drive up costs for all area consumers of health care.

Unlike the business park, which will provide a whole new set of cubicle farms engaged in business activities and service offerings that will be unique to the area.

Meanwhile, some critics (and the parrots who report uncritically their assertions) explain how supply and demand works: More hospitals means higher costs!

Neil Coakley said health insurance costs are already skyrocketing and many in the health care industry blame Aurora for driving up prices – an assertion that Aurora officials have strongly denied.

Of course, Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital has the best interests of the community at heart:

Oconomowoc Memorial officials and representatives of a community coalition called Not Another Hospital said the Aurora hospital is not needed, that there already is a surplus of hospital beds in the area and that consumers would pick up the cost for additional surplus hospital capacity.

Competition is bad for the community.

In an age where cataclysmic attacks can yield thousands of casualties, I have nothing to offer to anti-competitive health care providers and those who love them, including residents who would rather have tax dollars for amenities like water parks or whatever the hell tchotchkes municipalities in Wisconsin waste taxdollars on than hospitals. Nothing but a hearty unwritten mandate and appropriate hand gestures.

Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lotsalager reminds citizens of their place regarding casino regulation:

It’s more important for the state to be able to regulate casinos than to let the public see the records, Lautenschlager’s opinion says.

The right of the state to earn revenue trumps the right of the public to keep tabs on what the state and the casinos are doing.

Because states’ rights, you know. Don’t think to hard on that, citizen; it’s a class C felony to reflect on the role of government.

My brother moves to LaCrosse, and the God-fearing people begin their flight.

Here’s what Wisconsin’s law officials have to say about the concealed carry law winding through that state’s legislature:

“I don’t like it,” Ozaukee County Sheriff Maury Straub said Wednesday. “Proponents say it’s for citizen safety. As sheriff, I know of very few people who have had to protect their lives or the lives of others by deadly force.

How many people who were unarmed do you know of who died when someone attacked them? I don’t remember Ozaukee County being that safe. Straub’s words could quite easily indicate that he doesn’t know of any because those people have not had the right to defend themselves outside of their homes. Also, keep in mind deadly force implied that the goblins got killed instead of just winged. Maybe the Ozaukee residents are good at shooting out kneecaps.

“It will give people a lot of false securities. Even though people can shoot at a paper target and take a class to learn gun safety, the bad guys are going to assume their victim has a gun and will be more aggressive and more violent,” said [Hartford Police Lt. Tom] Horvath, saying he was speaking only for himself and not the department.

What’s good for Britain is good for us, hey, loot? Of course, maybe if the goblins feared for their own lives, they’d perhaps think of another line of work.

Said Cedarburg Police Chief Tom Frank: “My initial reaction is, I’m not in favor of it because of the many situations in which police officers have contact with angry citizens.

“In many of those cases, citizens who have been arrested for various offenses have acted in a violent manner toward a police officer,” Frank said.

“I’m just fearful that with some people now carrying concealed weapons, the violence toward police officers could become a greater problem,” he said.

Frank has a valid concern. However, he’s weighing the safety of a few citizens (the police) against the majority of the citizens. Police would be safer, too, if they kept the general population sedated. Quick, someone legislate manditory downers for all!

Go read Boots and Sabers. Owen’s in Milwaukee, so he’s got a pony in this fight and he’s keeping us up to date.

My home state, Wisconsin, has passed concealed carry legislation. Boots and Sabers has the complete rundown.

Good luck, guys. I hope your state constitution says “Guns are good if the legislature says so.” Anything else, we’re learning in Missouri, means the State Supreme Court gets to make the law of the land.

In Wisconsin, a special study by the “Legislative Fiscal Group” has determined that cutting a program, that is, not spending state tax money on it, would really cost the state money! Shocker! The “Legislative Fiscal Group” urges the state to spendspendspend its way into savings. The story appears in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. By the way, do many journals really need guardians? What sort of dumb combined name is that?

The program costs $72 million dollars. By cutting this $72 million dollar program, the state will lose $8.4 million dollars in federal money that it receives to fund the operation. That’s the “cost” described in the hyperlink on the main JSOnline site and in the “Eliminating 4-year-old kindergarten will cost state, study says” subhead. That’s legislative math.

Legislative math uses proven Deadbeat Cousin Accounting. You know the accounting I am talking about. Cousin Ned, who has his get-rich-quick schemes and buys pseudo-muscle cars past the point of cost effective maintenance, who works a part-time job around his fiscally imprudent efforts, and who occasionally pops up to “borrow” money (the occasion he needs it). He could get a real job and start behaving like a grown up, but if he did, it would cost him that free money.

Our state and municipal governments might as well call themselves Cousin Ned. They buy a round of drinks and take people out to dinner when the economy’s going well or they win $80 on lottery scratch-off tickets, but when that $80 is gone, they still want to spend it, and that’s where you come in, dear cousin taxpayer.