Scott Walker Is Bankrupting Wisconsin

The Governor of Giveaways:

Walker is using government to build the economy, and on a scale that has never been equaled in Wisconsin history. No governor in state history, Republican or Democrat, has come close to spending so much in taxpayer dollars to subsidize one business, with the total handout for Foxconn now at nearly $4.1 billion. In fact, no government in America has ever spent this much money to subsidize development by a foreign business. 

Under Walker, it’s almost as though the private sector can no longer function without government handouts. The state handed out subsidies to 59 companies in 2017 alone.

And the amount of subsidy keeps growing. Walker, is spending eight times more tax dollars per job created for Foxconn than he was previously spending, as the Journal Sentinel found. But the actual total of $315,000 per job spent on Foxconn’s promised 13,000 jobs is 12 times higher than Doyle spent per job (about $25,000) for Mercury Marine and 217 times higher than Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson spent ($8.25 million for 5,700 jobs) to subsidize General Motors In Janesville in 1988.

Go read the entire article. Walker and his Wisconsin Republican cronies have no clue regarding economic development or the economy. They are simply dutiful little soldiers using Wisconsin taxpayers' dollars to enrich their cronies and campaign contributors.

This is not leadership. This is not governance.

You Can Run But You Can't Hide

If Scott Walker has billions for Foxconn, millions for Kimberly-Clark and millions in corporate tax cuts and other giveaways, he can find the money for special elections.

It's called representative democracy for a reason...and we need each representative in his/her respective office.

This stalling has nothing to do with money and everything to do with the fact that Democrats have momentum on their side and Scott Walker and his Republican cronies don't want to lose anymore seats.

Republicans are petty, vile, selfish pigs.

Sunday Reading

To Get Into The 1%, You Need Adjusted Gross Income Of $480,930
Wisconsin Attorney General Open To Allowing Guns In Schools
Citing Costs, Some GOP Governors Refuse To Hold Special Elections
New Spending And Tax Cuts To Cost More Than $700 Million Under Actions By Wisconsin Lawmakers
WisGOP Pre-Election "Cut And Borrow" Spree Will Hurt Us After November
The NRA Was Waging War On Facts Long Before The 'Fake News' Boom
Supplements Are A $30 Billion Racket - Here's What Experts Recommend
The Governor Of Giveaways
Eminent Domain May Be Use To Acquire Land For Foxconn From Holdouts
On The Link Between US Pay And Productivity

Income Inequality

Train Of Consequences

Back in 2010, the Feds were going to give Wisconsin $810 million for train projects in Wisconsin.

Fed To Take Wisconsin's High-Speed Rail Money, Give It To Other States

The Obama administration is taking back the $810 million awarded to Wisconsin for train projects after Republican Gov.-elect Scott Walker made it clear he will not waver in his opposition to the project.

With almost all of the money now going to 13 other states, Walker lost a high-stakes gamble — played throughout his campaign for governor — that he could persuade Congress to redirect the money to fix Wisconsin’s crumbling roads and bridges. Federal officials repeatedly said that wasn’t an option, and the money would be sent to rail projects elsewhere.

Now, instead, Wisconsin will have to come up with $195 million for expansion of the Hiawatha service.

Expanding Amtrak Service To Chicago Would Require $195 Million In Track Upgrades

Funding for the expansion of Hiawatha service would come from a combination of federal and state sources, but could also include private investment. Rao acknowledged one of the challenges the project faces is there’s no current federal funding opportunity for the department to apply for. 

The department applied last fall for a roughly $250 million federal grant to support the expansion of I-94. The Foxconn special session legislation authorized around $250 million in state bonding for the project, but required the DOT receive federal funding as well before spending any of the money. 

A decision on the federal grant is expected later this year. The DOT’s estimated schedule has the mainline I-94 work being completed in 2019 and 2020. 

If a federal funding opportunity did emerge for the rail project in the near future, it could still be five years before the project is complete and operational, Rao said.

Another great policy decision from Scott Walker and his Wisconsin Republican cronies.

Wisconsin's Public Sector Is Smaller Than Most States'

[source]

Weekend Reading

Born-Again Fiscal Hawks Turn Into Doves
The Economy Is Soaring, And Now So Is The Deficit.
GOP Abandoning The Free Market
Kimberly-Clark Proves Tax Giveaways Don't Stop Layoffs
Wisconsin's Public Sector Is Smaller Than Most States'
Jeff Bezos' Quest To Find America's Stupidest Mayor
Foxconn Package Cost Wisconsin Eight Times As Much Per Job As Similar 2017 State Jobs Deals
Let's See How Low The Unemployment Rate Can Go
How Progressives Can Criticize Trump’s $7 Trillion Deficit Without Preaching Austerity
Why American Workers Aren’t Getting A Raise: An Economic Detective Story

17 WTF Items From Donald Trump's Budget

'Morally Bankrupt' Budget: After $1.5 Trillion Gift to Rich, Trump Demands $1.7 Trillion in Safety Net Cuts

Black Label

How Obama Was Treated or: Republicans Are A Bunch of F*@#ing Racists!

Walker’s Work Rule Makes No Sense

Two-thirds of FoodShare recipients are blind, elderly, disabled or children and can’t work.

About two-thirds of the people who get help from FoodShare cannot work. They are blind, elderly, disabled or children. Of the one-third left, nearly half are already working. Most folks are working part-time, low wage jobs. They want more hours, but can’t get them...

I began to wonder, who’s working here and at what cost to taxpayers? Do we know if this program works? Has it been evaluated? 

In brief, I learned that Wisconsin moved to a voluntary FSET program in 2008. In 2013, lawmakers asked for a yearly evaluation of the program. Walker vetoed the evaluations. In 2015, money was budgeted for a program evaluation. However, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, by May 2017, no evaluation was completed. When I asked where was the $850,000 budgeted for evaluation, no one could answer the question. 

Why wouldn’t the state want to know if the program is working? When I finally obtained the fiscal estimates, I began to see a very different story of who works and who pays. 

If all 10 special session bills are enacted, the implementation and ongoing costs will be nearly $240 million in the next budget. In eight of the 10 bills, the state will pay a significant amount of new money to outside contractors. For example, mandatory FSET participation and incentive payments would add almost $50 million for the FSET contractors. 

Many of the bills will allow the contractor to collect public money for program changes not currently allowed under federal law. The state will seek special permission from the Trump administration to make the changes. 

Now, I see a new story. Private contractors stand to gain. Governor Walker has new initiatives he can brag about across the state. New employees will work for the now wealthier contractors. 

But is Wisconsin Working for Everyone who is hungry, in need of health care, or child care – not so much. All of the organizations focused on helping the working poor testified against the bills.

Lead For Brains

The Milwaukee Common Council, as of late, has been feeling their oats. They've been piling on the Mayor regarding any issue that arises. Specifically, the most recent dustup involves the Milwaukee Health Department and its management of the city's lead abatement efforts.

As any grandstanding, self-absorbed, petty bunch of know-nothings that the Common Council is, they used this latest instance for personal gain and political points rather than trying to solve the problem.

This spectacle has caused some to wonder, Mayor Barrett’s Power in Decline?

The council refused to approve his appointment of Paul Nannis as interim health commissioner. Worse, it was clear Nannis was rejected simply because he was “the mayor’s proxy,” as Nannis put it, meaning any choice of the mayor’s would have been rejected. But even worse, the council came up with its own choice, Patricia McManus, for interim commissioner and proceeded to approve her 13-1, with only Ald. Terry Witkowski objecting. Morever, some council members seem open to sticking with McManus for the rest of Barrett’s term, meaning any attempt by the mayor to appoint a permanent commissioner could be blocked. 

This was an unprecedented, all-out rebellion against the mayor. Some question whether the council’s action of appointing its own interim choice is even legal.

Yes, suddenly Mayor Barrett became inept and he, personally, "dropped the ball" with regard to lead pipes in the City.

Barrett then proposed Nannis as interim replacement, which seemed like a no-brainer, as Nannis had previously served as commissioner and could hit the ground running. “Initially, I thought it was a logical choice,” Ald. Bob Bauman says. 

Except that Nannis was a good friend of Barrett’s chief of staff Patrick Curley. And a longtime ally of Barrett’s. And had been a consultant who had earned $556,000 since 2008 doing work for Baker’s department, which suggested Nannis might be too close to Baker as well. Not to mention that Nannis didn’t disclose he had done this consulting when meeting with members of the council’s Public Safety and Health Committee. For council members seeking objective answers about problems in the health department, Nannis seemed all wrong, and the choice suggested Barrett was tone deaf on this issue. 

“The mayor didn’t recognize soon enough how much trouble he was in,” Witkowski says.

More like, the Mayor didn't realize the Common Council would use a City health issue to leapfrog to some political points for themselves.

To propose that Mayor Barrett doesn't want to replace lead pipes or to prevent any health issues concerning such is ridiculous. Suddenly Mayor Barrett has turned into some cold-hearted tyrant, hoping for a health crisis involving lead pipes for his City?

The lead pipe issue is well-known. As with all issues in our 'subsidize the rich and the let the rest go without' paradigm of public policy, this is a money issue. As in, we need $750 million to replace the lead pipes within the City.

This is the same Common Council that wants to keep giving raises to the Police and Fire Departments every year, even though these two departments already take up nearly 90% of the entire City budget. These are supposedly the visionaries that are going to lead us forward?

So...Barrett's pick was thrown to the wayside and the Common Council has selected their own choice.

The council voted 13-1 on Tuesday to approve McManus’s appointment. Ald. Terry Witkowski, who asked pointed questions about her previous public health work, cast the lone ‘no’ vote. Ald. Michael Murphy abstained. Murphy said he didn’t agree with the speed at which the council moved forward with a new appointment.

Patricia McManus is the president and chief executive officer of the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin. No biography or credentials for McManus were available on their website.

But, what we do know about McManus is that she believes the science in still out on vaccines.

“I don’t think the answer is yet there. I mean, there’s still people who believe it," McManus said on "The Forum" talk show on WNOV-AM (860). "And so I don’t know. I think the science is still out. I think that’s a decision that these families are going to have to make on their own at this point.”

Um, no. The science isn't out on that topic. So, if being friends with the Mayor's Chief of Staff kept Paul Nannis from holding the position, ignorance of vaccine science should definitely keep McManus from holding the position.

"Unfortunately, she couldn't be more incorrect," said James H. Conway, a pediatrics professor at University of Wisconsin-School of Medicine and Public Health. "The science is clear and has been reviewed over and over not just by the CDC, but by NIH and numerous studies. The information is clear that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine does not cause autism."

Maureen S. Durkin, a professor of public health and chairman of the department of population health sciences at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, said, "The scientific evidence is very clear at this point in showing no association between childhood vaccines and the risk of autism."

And officials at the National Institutes of Health referred to a statement on the institute's web page: "No link between autism and vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury-based compound, have been found."

And, as with every fart that is heard in Milwaukee, Alderman Tony "Backdrop Boy" Zielinski had to weigh in:

Milwaukee Ald. Tony Zielinski applauded her track record of helping increase transparency on the city’s lead issues. 

“If we’re going to get someone who is going to turn that department around, we need someone with a track record of standing up to the health department and saying, ‘You were wrong,'” he said.

Well, Mr. Zielinski, you were wrong...again. So, just as you are so willing to point the finger at everyone else in the City, hopefully you can take some of your own medicine and admit this was an ill-informed and bad decision on your part and the 12 other council members that voted for McManus. And, it surely signals that you are definitely not ready to be the Mayor of Milwaukee.

How about our political operatives work together to try and solve this problem? They need to devise a way to fund this crucial infrastructure initiative. Those who've made mistakes should be held accountable. But, beyond that, the focus should be on resolving the primary issue here - replacing lead pipes in the City of Milwaukee. This is no time for grandstanding and political opportunism.

For Further Reading:
Role of vaccination in the sustainability of healthcare systems

Vaccination greatly reduces disease, disability, death and inequity worldwide

The Economic Value of Vaccination: Why Prevention is Wealth

The True Cost of Not Vaccinating Your Children: Reviving a Dead Disease

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Vaccines

The high costs of not vaccinating

The So-Called "Skills Gap" Is Complete Bullshit

Another "skills gap" crusader:

LaSalle Network CEO Says There's a Huge 'Skills Gap'

Such a good little soldier for the privileged.

Too bad reality doesn't comport with that tripe.

The Myth of the Skills Gap

The problem is, when we look closely at the data, this story doesn’t match the facts. What’s more, this view of the nation’s economic challenges distracts us from more productive ways of thinking about skills and economic growth while promoting unproductive hand-wringing and a blinkered focus on only the supply side of the labor market—that is, the workers.

A Recession-Era Economic Myth Goes Up In Smoke

Throughout the slow recovery, journalists from major papers made a cottage industry of finding CEOs complaining that their hiring searches were coming up empty. Conservative commentators chalked up high unemployment to a so-called “skills gap”: companies needed more qualified workers, they insisted, than were currently on offer. 

But something wasn’t right. If companies really needed qualified workers, why weren’t they raising wages to attract them? Or why weren’t they lowering their qualification standards or offering training to less experienced new hires? If companies really did have jobs that desperately required filling, they would have been working harder to fill them.

Don’t Blame A ‘Skills Gap’ For Lack Of Hiring In Manufacturing

This “skills mismatch” theory is a favorite of corporate executives and the think tanks they fund. But it is based on scant evidence. Individual companies may be struggling to fill specific jobs, but the data shows little sign of an industrywide shortage of skilled workers. In fact, it’s not clear that companies are really trying hard to fill many of these jobs at all.

Talk of a skills gap in the labor market is 'an incredible cop out'

But is there really a skills shortage? If so, why have median wages been stuck in a rut for so long? Why aren’t companies investing more in training and labor-saving equipment? Why aren’t they asking workers to work longer hours? It doesn’t add up, says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal think tank in Washington.

The persistent myth of the “skills gap”

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman calls the skills gap a “zombie idea” that won’t go away despite being routinely debunked. The reason has less to do with ignorance than with power. After decades of rising inequality and an eroding labour share of income, the skills gap mythology downloads blame onto workers and costs onto government. Jim Stanford, writing in the pages of Academic Matters, puts it well: “According to this worldview, the biggest challenge facing our labour market is adjusting the attitudes, capabilities and mobility of jobless workers…The problem is with the unemployed.” The skills gap takes the onus off employers to pay decent wages and train workers, blaming labour market failings on workers instead.

For Further Reading:

The Mythological Skills Gap

The Zombie Skills Gap Meme That Won't Die

It's About Job Shortage, Not Skills Crisis
It's Not Structural Unemployment
Manufacturing
Structural Unemployment: The Data Doesn't Match
Varieties of Unemployment

Skills Shortage Sham

More Skills Gap Crap

Is There Really a Skills Gap?

The Skills Gap Is a Myth

Trump's Tax Cuts: Reshaping The Economy For The Worse.

We're beginning to see how this giveaway to the rich will destabilize markets, increase deficits/debt, increase borrowing costs, cause a reduction in services and/or an increase in other taxes or fees.

The money has to come from somewhere. This is a society we are running here, people. Polices, road, bridges, air, water, schools, hospitals, buses, trains, airports ... paying for it is the bedrock of living in a society. 

If our current society has benefited a select few with the means to own yachts, jets, multiple homes and on and on, those select few can afford to return the favor to society by paying more in taxes to help the society continue to thrive and flourish. 

We cannot continue to poison the planet and pretend it's going to work out for the better. Continual deregulation only helps polluters and financial swindlers. We cannot continue to believe the mythology that is supply-side economics. Since, Republicans dropped this turd of an idea on society in the late 70s, early 80s, income inequality has risen, workers' rights have declined and wages have stagnated. Power to the people? More like, power taken from the people.

So sad to see a helpless country strong-armed by the will of such ignorance, led by a blow-dried, burnt, slovenly buffoon. 

For Further Reading.

Are Trump's tax cuts backfiring on Wall Street?

TRUMP'S TAX CUTS, FEAR OF EXPLODING DEFICITS AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THE U.S. NATIONAL DEBT

“IT’S A PONZI SCHEME”: WALL STREET FEARS TRUMP’S DERANGED TAX PLAN COULD KICK OFF ECONOMIC EUTHANASIA

How the Trump Tax Cuts Would Reshape (and/or Break) Our Economy

U.S. tax plan could cause sugar high, then economic slump

How The Federal Reserve Could Rain On Trump’s Tax Cut Parade

Tax Cuts, Growth and Debt

IMF chief warns Trump's tax cuts could destabilise global economy

The Power Of The Bubble

Republicans have been giving credit, for any positive news regarding the economy, to Donald Trump since he took office.

Yet, the recent 1,600 point plunge in the Dow is Barack Obama's fault. That's Sean Hannity's conclusion.

It must be so comfortable in the Republican bubble. They're always right and everything works out as they predict it will...or so they say. They get credit for everything good...at least they always credit themselves. Anything bad is obviously the Democrats' fault...and on this one, there can be no debate.

Buying Jobs Appears To Be The Scott Walker Job Creation Strategy

Looks like Scott Walker's jobs plan for Wisconsin is to merely bribe companies into staying and/or coming.

With another election right around the corner, alongside Walker's disgraceful record on jobs, he's going all-in with Wisconsin taxpayer money and buying all the jobs he can, at any cost.

He now wants to give Kimberly-Clark money to retain jobs in Wisconsin. Walker wants to work with the Legislature to approve an increase in the tax credits available for job retention from 7 percent in current law to 17 percent.

Seems Walker's plan is to run up the bill for Wisconsin taxpayers, under the guise of job creation, buying jobs for the State, just in time for his next campaign.

Trump Makes History

Dow Plunges Nearly 1,600 Points In Biggest Intraday Point Drop In History

U.S. stocks plunged in highly volatile trading on Monday, with the Dow industrials falling nearly 1,600 points during the session, its biggest intraday decline in history, as investors grappled with rising bond yields and potentially firming inflation.

Republicans, Back In Power, Running Up The Tab, Again

The U.S. government is set to borrow nearly $1 trillion this year, an 84 percent jump from last year

The U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this fiscal year, according to a documents released Wednesday. It's the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year.

In a report this week, the CBO said tax receipts are going to be lower because of the new tax law.

Homeownership

[source]

Taxpayer Investment In Sports Is A Massive Waste Of Public Dollars

Windfall For Super Bowl Hosts? Economists Say It's Overstated

Does Hosting The Olympics Actually Pay Off?

Sports, Jobs, & Taxes: Are New Stadiums Worth the Cost?

Publicly Financed Sports Stadiums Are A Game That Taxpayers Lose

Here’s How Much Money the NFL Rakes in From Taxpayers

America's Priciest National Pastime: Sports subsidies aren't worth the cost to taxpayers.

Should the Federal Government Be Funding Private Sports Stadiums?

Stop The Subsidy-Sucking Sports Stadiums

The Hidden Costs of Stadium Subsidies

How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers

America Has A Stadium Problem

Not So Prime

Unfulfilled promises: Amazon fulfillment centers do not generate broad-based employment growth

What this report finds: When Amazon opens a new fulfillment center, the host county gains roughly 30 percent more warehousing and storage jobs but no new net jobs overall, as the jobs created in warehousing and storage are likely offset by job losses in other industries. 

Why it matters: State and local governments give away millions in tax abatements, credits, exemptions, and infrastructure assistance to lure Amazon warehouses but don’t get a commensurate “return” on that investment. 

What we can do about it: Rather than spending public resources on an ineffectivestrategy to boost local employment (luring Amazon fulfillment centers), state and local governments should invest in public services (particularly in early-childhood education and infrastructure) that are proven to spur long-term economic development.

Foxes Watching The Henhouse

Good to see that the powerful conservatives of the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission are presently destabilizing the department they claim is beyond reproach and that they love so much.

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward A. Flynn blasted the two-part search process for a new police chief, calling it a “cockamamie approach” that could disrupt the order and stability of the police department, in an exclusive interview with Urban Milwaukee. 

Flynn said he had never heard of doing a search for an interim chief “like you’re selecting a permanent chief,” followed by a second search for the more permanent leader. 

The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission (FPC) has been conducting a search for interim chief for which 10 candidates applied and three finalists were chosen today: Inspector Michael Brunson, Assistant Chief James Harpole and Capt. Alfonso Morales. 

“They are pitting senior command staff against each other and basically destabilizing the department while everybody in the department is trying to back the person they think will win,” Flynn says. And that process could be repeated when the search for a permanent chief occurs.

Weekend Reading

Trump Again Sues Over Property Tax Bill For Jupiter Golf Course
The U.S. Can No Longer Hide From Its Deep Poverty Problem
Good News: Wages Are Up
Experts Say This Is The Ideal Retirement Savings Timeline
The U.S. Drops Out Of The Top 10 In Innovation Ranking
The Right Question About Inequality And Growth
A New Map For America
An Unwelcome Tax Surprise Could Soon Lurk In Your Paycheck
Big Money Rules
President Trump's First Year, In 14 Metrics
Kansas Provides Compelling Evidence Of Failure Of "Supply-Side" Tax Cuts

Not In My Backyard

Bay View is in a tizzy over a recent outbreak of burglaries and vandalism.

Smashed windows, stolen goods, and on and on. None of that is fun or fair. But life's not fair. Being born into and living in poverty isn't fair. (Yes, I know, this isn't all impoverished youths. Some of it is, no doubt, dirtbags being dirtbags for entirely different reasons.)

The answer to increased crime isn't "we must cut everything except for the police." Yet most of what passes for discussion on this matter is - "more police!"

The police and fire departments in the City of Milwaukee already garner nearly 90% of the entire City budget!

Milwaukee also has twice as many police officers as similar sized cities.

The answer isn't more money for police and more police.

Why don't we try policies that benefit education, health care, infrastructure and those most in need? Rather than giving millions and billions to the Brewers, the Bucks, Foxconn, Harley Davidson, Mercury Marine, etc. How about the ridiculously rich of the community help to teach the under-educated, provide transportation options to available jobs and arrange gainful employment? Having such a privileged place in society, how about helping to be part of the solution, rather than just pointing fingers, screaming about the problem and only seeing "lock 'em up!" as the solution.

How can we ask working-poor and working-class people to pay taxes for Foxconn billionaires and then lose our shit when some poor kid steals or ruins something nice? Can we devalue life any more? Oh, such a lovely, caring Christian country. Give to the rich, take from the poor and then get all bent out of shape when the poor person decides they'd like a piece of the pie, too. If you think this is making American great again, you're a fucking idiot!

The other sad part of this drama (as it plays out on neighborhood groups on Facebook among the victims of robbery or vandalism) is how the same people decrying the increase in crime, didn't give a shit when it was happening in other parts of town. Then, it was somebody else's problem.

But now that their shit is getting stolen, we all need to pitch-in to buy more police to protect their shit...no matter the cost. Suddenly these bastions of conservatism, low-taxation and a hands-off government, now they're full-blown socialists dependent on the government to protect their property. Costs no longer matter. Spend whatever it takes!

Are we under some delusion that we can hire a police officer - without any increase in taxes - for every street, every alley, every block and that, somehow, we're going to eliminate all bad things?

Too much of my taxes already go toward the Pentagon and the local police presence. More men (88% of officers are men) walking and driving around carrying guns doesn't solve any of these problems. It just squeezes budgets with increased police costs.

If you don't solve why people aren't working, why the jobs aren't there, we're just continuing a cycle of crime and incarceration. If you don't give a person something to live for, a reason, something to have some sense of self about, what do you expect from that person? How do expect that person to function in society?

All we ever hear about is how high taxes are. Taxes must be cut. They are such a burden. Politicians get elected promising to cut taxes.

Yet, somehow more money needs to appear so we can police our way out of the problem. How much are you willing to have your taxes raised?

Those of you that feel more police are the answer, start sending those checks to the City. The tax return you're about to get - send it to the City. The next raise you get at work - fork that amount over to the City. You get the point - put your money where your mouth is. Services (like the police...especially the police) cost money.

We already pay too much and have too many police. If you'd like to double-down on this always-more-police experiment, you know where to send the money.

Misplaced Priorities

$750 Million To Replace Lead Pipes

That's the estimate for replacing lead pipes in the City of Milwaukee.

The city currently has identified 77,585 lead service lines, roughly 46 percent of all the 169,816 service lines in the city. The lateral pipes connect properties to water mains and are owned by the city until they reach the property line. The split ownership structure complicates their replacement, with the city facing substantial legal issues in using city funds to replace privately-owned pipes. 

The city stopped using lead on their portion of the lateral in 1951, with private contractors banned from doing so in the early 1960’s. Multiple studies of properties from the interim decade — 1951 to early 1960s — have found that less than five percent of those laterals contain lead.

And, after many unwanted diseases and deaths, I'm sure we'll have all the pipes replaced by around 2050 or so, maybe. Or maybe Milwaukee can be the next Flint.

Yet, we've found more than $250 million for Miller Park, $241 million for Lambeau Field and at least $250 million for the new Milwaukee Bucks arena. And there's also the hundreds of millions Wisconsin has found for corporate welfare.

But we can't find the money to replace the water infrastructure which impacts nearly 10% of the State's population?

For Further Reading:
Why Your Stadium Sucks: Miller Park
Documents show Bucks' $524M arena cost goes beyond arena, includes professional fees

Milwaukee Bucks' New Arena is a Multimillion Dollar Mistake

The City’s Real Costs for Bucks Arena
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan has had terrible consequences for residents’ health

10 Things They Won't Tell You About The Flint Water Crisis

Study Confirms How Lead Got Into Flint's Water