| Doyle’s Last State of the State Address |
(WisPolitics)Capitol watchers are expecting a State of the State speech today that sums up Gov. Jim Doyle’s legacy and pushes for agenda items like green jobs, transit, health care and education as the Legislature moves toward the end of the floor session in May.
"He's going to use the speech to lay the groundwork for what his legacy is going to be," said one veteran Capitol insider.
Doyle is expected to tout his administration’s job creation efforts, including the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which grew out of his Task Force on Global Warming. An analysis from Doyle's administration said the legislation could create 15,000 jobs, though business groups dispute that and have already labeled it a job killer.
Doyle unveiled a new regional transit authority proposal this week that has buy-in from key southeast Wisconsin legislators and business owners, and his speech will likely stress the importance of commuter rail as a job creator and economic development tool, insiders say.
Also a part of the governor's legacy has been the expansion of health care coverage to uninsured residents. Doyle this week announced the expansion of state health insurance to childless adults. Wisconsin ranks second to Massachusetts in the nation for access to health insurance, with 98 percent of residents covered either by an employer, private or government plan.
The state’s quest for federal “Race to the Top” funding for education is also likely to get a message. Whether or not that will include Doyle's push for governance change in Milwaukee Public Schools is undetermined.
Doyle spent 90 minutes in the Senate Dem caucus last Thursday to talk about mayoral control, an unusual move for a governor who at times has seemed to be distant from legislators. Backers of the bill now feel the best bet to get a bill passed will be in the Senate.
"It was evident the votes were there, and the caucus believed the votes were there," said one source with knowledge of the meeting.
Backers of the plan continue to insist that Race to the Top notwithstanding, the fight isn’t over on MPS control. Four Milwaukee Dem senators on Thursday sent a letter to leaders in the Senate and Assembly requesting a compromise bill championed by Mayor Tom Barrett be brought to the floor for a vote.
"It's clear whether or not (Doyle) talks about it, this is a priority that’s not going away," said the source.
But some wonder if the Doyle machine is running out of steam as it heads into his last year in the East Wing. Last week, Doyle seemed to be giving an ultimatum to legislators to either pass MPS governance change or risk losing Race to the Top funds for all districts.
But that argument was undercut this week by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who said mayoral control will not factor in when applications are judged.
Observers also point to a scathing blog post this week from Rep. Mark Pocan, the chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, as further evidence of Doyle losing influence over leggies. Pocan called Doyle’s fixation on mayoral control “a Don Quixotic obsession” that “is on self-induced life support.”
“Governor, remember it was you who launched an inadequately laid out plan without the forethought of allies or a direction you were going,” Pocan wrote. “If there is fault to assess, that is where you should look. Perhaps you need to reassess the launch and execution of your ‘plan’ for mayoral takeover.” If Dem legislators ignore Doyle on MPS, observers wonder what else they may shy away from as they look ahead to a tough November election.
“Is the next casualty the climate change bill?” wondered one Dem observer. The speech is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight in the Assembly chamber. |
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| Is It 1994 All Over Again? |
(WisPolitics)Efforts to overhaul health care are blowing up on Dems, voters are angry and there’s a midterm election just a few months away. In some ways, it’s like 1994 all over again.
But several political vets interviewed this week say while there are some parallels between what’s happening now politically and the GOP wave that swept the country 16 years ago, it’s not the same.
That fall, Republicans in Wisconsin won six of the state’s nine congressional districts, the GOP turned a 52-47 minority at the start of the 1993-94 session into a 51-48 majority, and Senate Republicans emerged with a 17-16 majority.
Tommy Thompson also crushed Dem Chuck Chvala for his third term with more than two-thirds of the vote, though all was not lost for Dems. Then-Attorney General Jim Doyle easily won re-election, as did U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl.
One Republican operative said a key difference between the two elections is the fact the GOP has yet to outline a cohesive agenda. In 1994, Rep. Newt Gingrich and Republican leaders put forth their Contract With America and rallied behind a series of core principles.
Republicans had also been out of power for so long by 1994 that the public didn’t blame them for any of the nation’s problems. Now, polls show voters don’t think much of either party.
“The difference is Republicans have yet to articulate our agenda on a national level,” the operative said. “We also are lacking messengers to deliver our agenda on a national level. There’s no Newt Gingrich or Dick Armey or Steve Largent or J.C. Watts or some of the folks that helped deliver the ’94 message.”
One longtime Dem said another difference is everyone was mad at one political party 16 years ago, while the mood now seems to be more anti-establishment. Republicans have won races like the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate and the governor’s offices in Virginia and New Jersey.
But Dems won the special election for New York’s GOP-leaning 23rd House district in a three-way race last fall and another recently in Virginia for a state Senate seat that had been held by the Republican who was elected attorney general in November.
“This is a pox on everybody,” the vet said.
“I think the Republicans are making a big mistake if they think this is just focused on the Dems.”
One Republican argued what’s going on now is unprecedented and beyond what happened in 1994, in part because of the intensity behind the anger.
“There were issues in ‘94, but the president has gone much further left,” the Republican said. “I think we have a more serious economic situation that really makes anything else other than the Depression look like a serious bump in the road.”
The Republican also had a word of caution for the GOP.
“Republicans did not win in Massachusetts Tuesday. Independents won, and Democrats lost,” the Republican said. “Republicans may win races just by being the alternative.”
One Dem vet said part of the party’s trouble in 1994 was members in the House who had become “absolutely moribund, mastodons, just extinct.”
The party had been in power for so long and had produced so little of late that voters punished them. Republicans aren’t in as good a position now as they were then.
“They haven’t rehabilitated their images yet,” the Dem said. “They don’t have a Newt Gingrich. They’re a badly splintered party.
“That doesn’t mean the Democrats aren’t going to take some big losses in 2010.” |
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| Rural Districts Face Problems Similar to MPS |
(WisPolitics)High school dropouts are a big concern to Rhinelander School Board member Ron Counter Jr. So is homelessness, joblessness, teen pregnancy and substance abuse among students and their families.
Webster School District Superintendent Jim Erickson says 70 percent of students in his poverty-stricken area qualify for free or reduced lunch. Student participation in extracurriculars is low and sometimes students skip classes, too, saying they have to work to earn money instead. That’s too bad, he says, because his budget is so tight that his district can only offer basic subjects – students aren’t skipping “extras” – they’re missing out on math and science and history.
Milwaukee seems far away to districts in mid- to northern Wisconsin, but the issues affecting Milwaukee Public Schools hit surprisingly close to home.
School administrators and school board members attending a statewide educational conference in Milwaukee this week heard a strong call from State Superintendent Tony Evers to rally for education reforms in the troubled Milwaukee Public Schools, saying widespread unemployment and social ills in the state’s largest city and manufacturing hub hurt the state’s overall economy. They’ve heard a similar call from Gov. Jim Doyle, who says support for major reforms at MPS will be key to winning federal education dollars for everyone in Wisconsin through the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative. Unless a change in Milwaukee schools’ governance is approved, Doyle warned last week, all state districts could suffer in their hopes of attracting federal “Race to the Top” dollars.
Those from outlying school districts say they agree that MPS needs help. In fact, they’re hoping they can also benefit from any solutions or assistance that may result. A prevailing feeling at the conference was of a growing awareness of the MPS crisis, along with support for helping MPS -- but also a sense that Milwaukee’s problems are not unique to its urban area or demographics.
“Maybe we can learn from Milwaukee -- in many respects, we have similar needs and wants,” said Mark Elworthy, administrator of the Wisconsin Heights School District in Mazomanie, about 20 minutes west of Madison.
Despite the calls to give the mayor control of the district, most representatives of outlying Wisconsin districts said they did not know enough details about a proposed mayoral takeover of MPS to comment. News coverage in their areas tends to be local in focus, or, in the case of northwestern districts, more likely to include news from Minneapolis/St. Paul, they said.
But Randy Freese, superintendent of the Belleville School District in Dane and Green counties and whose daughter is an MPS teacher, offered this opinion: "So what?" he said. "That's what I say about mayoral control: So what? I don't get it. How would it make anything different?"
"Sounds to me like just one more layer of government," agreed Roger Hillebrand, a Belleville School Board member. Various school board members said they’re dealing with their own problems, but may be able to find ideas in anything MPS uses to succeed.
Rural districts say the message is getting through that the state needs to pay attention to Milwaukee school problems.
“There used to be a sense of ‘We don’t care what happens in Milwaukee,’ but now there’s a sense that what affects Milwaukee’s economy does affect us in rural areas,” said Dave Polashek, Oconto Falls district superintendent.
Still, rural districts say they’re struggling with the same issues – with less financial support than Milwaukee.
“There’s not a lot of difference between rural poverty and urban poverty,” said Mike Roberts, who sits on the Rhinelander School Board.
What frustrates Roberts, however, is that state funding is based on the area’s relatively high property values, while ignoring its high poverty rate and accompanying social problems.
“Just because we’re on a lake, property values are high,” he said, “but many properties are vacation homes that are owned by absentee homeowners. We get basically the same funding as Whitefish Bay (an affluent Milwaukee suburb) yet our average family income is less than $30,000, whereas Whitefish Bay’s is more like $100,000.”
Rhinelander has had to cut its school budget by $8.3 million since 2001, resulting in cuts of some 140 positions. Board members say if voters don’t approve a referendum next month that asks permission to exceed the revenue spending cap by $1.5 million for the next three years, another 15 positions will likely be lost and three schools will close. The loss of funds is happening at a time when families are most in need, Roberts says.
Like big cities, small towns are increasingly seeing poverty spanning multiple generations of families. Teen pregnancy – and its effect on graduation rates – appears to be a common concern, along with underage drinking and drug use.
“We’ve got very young women having babies and having babies with multiple partners,” said Debra Durchslag, president of the Rhinelander school board. Too often, such teens grew up in homes where parents didn’t complete school and don’t stress the need for a diploma.
“Our graduation rate has been a focus for us,” said Stoughton School Board member Fred Hundt, whose district is in a primarily rural area of Dane County. “About six or seven years ago, we had a real problem with it. The arrow points back toward the homes and if there’s a value on education. Some kids face a home environment where there might be drinking, drugs, lack of employment and so on. Eventually, it becomes too much for a kid to care, but vices like smoking, drinking and fornicating become more important than attending classes.”
John Ashley, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, said perhaps MPS can learn from strategies used by rural districts. “There’s a lot of opportunity for Milwaukee to see what other districts have done to be successful,” he said.
Stoughton has developed alternative methods for students to achieve equivalency diplomas. Oconto Falls used charter funding to create two alternative high schools, one aimed at teen parents, and the other for students who have been expelled or “are guilty of expellable behavior.”
In Siren, a truancy intervention program has been established in which community volunteers visit homes to try to solve the problem in a non-threatening manner and reduce the need for police and court involvement.
“The state as a whole needs Milwaukee (schools) to succeed,” Ashley said. “But if Wisconsin is going to be competitive, it’s critical to have a statewide solution.”
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| State Tax Collections Still Down |
(Wheeler)General Purpose Revenue (GPR) tax collections through December are 4.4% lower than a year ago. Adjusted individual income tax collections are down 5.4% for the year, even though there was a 3.8% increase in December compared to the previous December. General sales tax collections are down 7.5% when compared to a year ago, with December collections just slightly (0.6%) less than a year ago. Corporate tax collections are up 9% for the year, while excise taxes are up 12.6%. All other GPR tax collections are down 6.6% compared to last year at this time.
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| Kanavas Will Not Seek Re-election |
State Senator Ted Kanavas has announced he will not seek re-election this fall. The Brookfield Republican won a special election for the 33rd Senate District in the summer of 2001 and has held the seat since. He was considered a potential candidate for governor this year, but he opted against a run.
Thanks for listening and, as always, thank you for your efforts on behalf of Wisconsin school children. For up-to-date reports on legislative activities, please visit the SAA’s website at www.wsaa.org.
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