The Call Is Coming From Inside The House

Karen Madden, of the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, recently reported, Wisconsin Roads Third-Worst In Nation. 

The numbers mark a dramatic decline in road quality. As recently as 11 years ago, Wisconsin's roads ranked No. 22 in the nation, and their deterioration affects almost every industry and motorist in the state, according to the study commissioned by the Local Government of Wisconsin Institute. 

Poor roads in the Milwaukee area cost drivers $700 a year in extra vehicle repairs, according to the study; in the Madison area, road conditions cost drivers an additional $615 in annual tire wear, maintenance and accelerated deterioration. Nationally, substandard road conditions cost drivers an average of $377 per year, the study found.
The primary culprit: State budget cuts that have slashed the amount of money dedicated to repairing both state highways and local roads, which has left fewer than half of Wisconsin's roads rated as "good" or better, the report found. 

The numbers come as no surprise to Emily Wattson, a 48-year-old Wisconsin Rapids woman who recently hit a pothole in Rudolph and wrecked the suspension on her 2008 car. 

"I paid more than $500 to get it fixed," Wattson said. "It threw the car out of alignment, ruined a tire and did some other stuff. 

"I don't think anybody is doing anything about the roads." 

Bad roads hurt manufacturing, farming and transportation, three industries that are vital to Wisconsin's economy, according to the Local Government Institute study entitled Filling Potholes: A New Look at Funding Local Transportation in Wisconsin. The group is a coalition of members of the Wisconsin Counties Association, League of Wisconsin Municipalities, Wisconsin Towns Association and Urban Alliance. 

The study found that if the state's roads aren't brought back into good condition, it could harm Wisconsin's struggling economy, which is rebounding from the Great Recession more slowly than other states in the Midwest. Companies that are considering moving to Wisconsin could choose to relocate in states with better infrastructure that doesn't cost them as much in annual repairs.

Yet, Republican Wisconsin legislators are proposing cutting road projects. (Which is understandable for any new road projects. But with the conditions of the current roads we have, it's borderline criminal to not repair them.)

If Wisconsin actually wants to be "open for business" we need to be maintaining, repairing and improving our infrastructure to attract businesses and workers. Defunding rail and road projects, alongside suppressing worker wages through union-busting, does nothing to improve the long-term health of Wisconsin's workforce or its built environment.

Despite all their bluster, Republican policies are actually hurting Wisconsin in every way possible. Wisconsin can't keep cutting off its own nose to spite its face.

It Was The Best Of Times, It Was The Worst Of Times

From the Milwaukee Business Journal:

Another Walker term generates 'euphoric' response from business community (Nov 4)

Fewer Milwaukee-area employers believe economy will improve in next six months: Marquette-ISM Report (Oct 31)

How can both of these simultaneously be possible?

If employers don't see economic improvement on the horizon, why is the business community so "euphoric" over Scott Walker's reelection?

Another term of crony capitalism is on the way.

Hucksterism, WEDC-Style

Jim Villa, president and chief executive officer of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW), opined, WEDC the Right Model for Job Creation and Economic Development.

[How much weight should we give the insight of Mr. Vella? I don't remember the CARW mentioning anything about the housing bubble that cost our economy $8 trillion (and this is supposedly in their area of expertise). Thus, his prognostications and policy prescriptions should be taken with a heavy dose of salt.]

If you've been paying attention, you know that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WECD) is a disaster.

Villa opens with the ludicrous claim, "Wisconsin's economy has already made significant progress." Implying that since Scott Walker turned the Commerce Department into the quasi-private WEDC, Wisconsin's economy has been humming along. Yet Lisa Kaiser recently reported, "The new data showed that Wisconsin’s private sector added just 24,305 new jobs between March 2012 and March 2013, growing 1.1%, well below the 2% national job growth during that period."

Despite this reality, Villa declares, "CARW believes that the WEDC model is the right direction for growing Wisconsin's economy and job creation." If we're following this logic, pissing into the wind is also a fantastic idea.

Mr. Villa continues on explaining why the Commerce Department needed changes. They were "unable to focus." They needed to separate economic development programs from regulatory programs. The WEDC would "better serve the needs of the private sector job creators in a more accountable, efficient and effective manner."

As we've seen, WEDC has served the private sector with untraceable corporate welfare. Although, accountable and efficient are not the adjectives I'd use to describe such malfeasance. In fact, the WEDC has been anything but accountable and efficient.

Plus, doesn't it make sense that an agency monitor it's programs (including implementation and regulation)? Doesn't separating these activities into different entities create needless bureaucracy and inefficiencies?

Villa then trots out the 'just like Indiana' right-wing mantra. It's supposedly well-known that Indiana is a booming economy. [Tumbleweeds roll past]

As I wrote, back in December 2010,

Indiana is the 16th most populous state, it ranks 37th in per capita income. The unemployment rate in Wisconsin is 8.5%, it's 10.1% in Indiana... If we look at median household income, Indiana ranks 32nd and Wisconsin 21st. GDP change between 2006-2008 was -0.6 in Indiana (ranking 41st), -1.5 in and +0.7 in Wisconsin (ranking 27th). Indiana is primarily performing worse, yet we should follow their lead?

Indiana is instituting more crack-pot right-wing policies, but that hasn't translated to an economic paradise like the proponents claim.

Villa then admits, "There have been challenges during the transition." But he continues on, using WEDC numbers, to claim large investment and job creation due to WEDC. Yet, the Wisconsin Legislative Bureau found,

Government agencies have incomplete data on the impact of economic development programs they administer. 

In the 2007-'11 period, state agencies administered 196 economic development programs, according to the report. But state auditors said it was difficult to determine how many jobs actually had resulted from the programs.

Villa thinks WEDC will lead to "business expansion within the state." Yes, by having this untraceable slush fund, Walker and his right-wing cronies can provide corporate welfare without the public's knowledge. Ah, the not-so-free-market strategy of poaching. Using the untraceable WEDC funds to bribe businesses away from other states.

Mr. Villa closes stating, "Tremendous strides have been made since the formation of WEDC." Wisconsin improved two spots (from 42nd to 40th) in the latest Tax Foundation rankings. Tremendous!

This cabal of right-wing hucksters sure does stick together. Each using their platform to support and echo talking-points. We just need to make sure and take the time to burrow through these weeds and see their claims for what they really are - self-serving bullshit.

For Further Reading:
Rewarding Failure: The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
WEDC Not Good Model For Deploying Scarce Resources

Business Tax Climate Bull

The Tax Foundation reported Wisconsin dipped to 43rd, among the 50 states, in its business tax climate ranking.

The Tax Foundation said Wednesday that the state's rating is likely higher than its analysis originally showed. 

"We received some feedback from reporters and legislators about Wisconsin's place in the index, and would like to make some clarifications about the state's ranking this year," the foundation said in a statement late Wednesday afternoon. It had released its index on Wednesday morning... 

State Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) raised concerns about the ranking when it was released, arguing that with the tax law changes, there is no way the state's tax climate for business worsened.

Last year Wisconsin ranked 42nd. This year's revised ranking is 40th.

The top 10 states in 2014 are Wyoming, South Dakota, Nevada, Alaska, Florida, Washington, Montana, New Hampshire, Utah and Indiana.

Not really a murderers' row of dynamic economies. Plus, these 10 states only account for 13.6% of the United States population.

Matthew Yglesias looked at the correlation between employment, business friendly tax codes, and wages. 

There is a weak negative correlation between business friendly tax codes and wages. 

And a weak positive correlation between business friendly tax codes and employment-to-population ratio. 

In sum, it's a nothingburger. I note that this would confirm the results of a useful Thumbtack survey which found that licensing policies drive business-friendliness but taxes don't.

Scott Walker is a Republican hopeful for the 2016 presidential election (not to mention he also has to run for governor in 2014). The party can't allow one of their poster boys to have a record (yet again) demonstrating the failure of supply-side, trickle-down, tax-cutting, deregulatory policies.

To the conservative echo chamber. All hands on deck. Republicans need to make sure their water carriers look good in the media. They do this by making sure all the editorials, reports, and talk show appearances regurgitate the same manufactured storyline - cutting taxes and deregulation work. 

Enter the Tax Foundation. A right-wing, anti-tax, anti-regulation interest group masquerading as an unbiased think tank. Of its founders, two were General Motors executives, one was president of the Standard Oil Company. Funny how the policies the Tax Foundation support also happen to benefit the businesses of it's founders.

Thus, when bad news slips out, to the backtrack machine. Oops. Scott Walker is actually improving things. He's been such a lightning bolt, Wisconsin's business climate moved two whole spots! 

Business climate rankings have been found to be meaningless. The money and time involved in producing and propagandizing such could actually be put to productive use. 

Lastly, why are "business-friendly tax codes" a good thing? Corporate profits are at an all-time high, yet wages continue to stagnate. How much more business-friendly do we need to be? Where's the worker-friendly policy rankings?

For Further Reading:

Grading Places: What Business Climate Rankings Tells Us

Business Climate Rankings Mislead
Tax Foundation and Competitive Environments: more bunk!
Tax Foundation--up to its usual nonsense
Tax Foundation Figures Do Not Represent Typical Households’ Tax Burdens

Wisconsin Reading

Amid 1,000 Layoffs In Wisconsin, Scott Walker Gets No Love From U.S. Chamber 

Other critics, though, say the job cuts suggest that waging war on public-sector worker unions, cutting funding for public education and proclaiming the state “open for business” won’t magically turn Wisconsin into a new economy powerhouse. 

“What it says to me is that political rhetoric is irrelevant,” says Jack Norman, past research director at the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future. 

Norman says companies make hiring and other decisions based on demand for their products and whether they can do business better in a different location. The effect of government policies is somewhere on the fringe, he says. 

On the other hand, Norman says one could argue the cuts to public worker take-home pay and other cost-savings measures under Walker have actually made Wisconsin’s economy worse. Here is a graphic showing job growth in Wisconsin before and after he took office. 

“I think we’re seeing a local version of the austerity vs. investment debate going on across the capitalist world,” says Norman. “And right now, some countries are getting rid of their austerity policies because they aren’t working.” 

Wisconsin Business Tax Burden Ranked No. 35

Just Follow The Streetcar Track Of Money

Republicans Move To Kill Milwaukee Streetcar

Light rail from downtown Milwaukee to Waukesha? Republicans at the state killed it. 

Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail? Republicans at the state killed it. 

Extending the Amtrak Hiawatha Service to Madison at 110 mph (with stops in Brookfield and Watertown)? Republicans at the state killed it. 

Building a maintenance base for trainsets the state had already purchased from Talgo? Republicans at the state killed it. 

Rebuilding the train shed at Milwaukee Intermodal Station? Republicans rejected federal funds to fix the non-ADA compliant shed and are now left with a situation that will cost Wisconsinites millions. 

A streetcar starter system in downtown Milwaukee? Republicans killed it. 

The common link? All the projects were proposed by Democrats, had a presence in the City of Milwaukee, and involved steel wheels on steel rails. 

Since becoming Governor in 2010, Scott Walker will have effectively rejected over $1 billion in federal money for rail transportation projects. The loss of high-speed rail funds to connect Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee represent $823 million. The KRM funds would have beenat least $140 million. Assuming Walker (who has made clear his opposition to the Milwaukee streetcar) ultimately supports the amendment proposed by the Joint Finance Committee, he will also be rejecting $54.9 million for the Milwaukee Streetcar, which is the last of a $289 million 1991 federal grant.

In Rail-Free Wisconsin, More Good News Selling-Points

Alternatives Offered To Gov. Scott Walker's Proposal To End Residency Rules

The Fiscal Bureau reports that case law is on the side of Milwaukee on the subject of residency, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court and various state courts "have tended to uphold the constitutionality of the municipal residency requirements, generally siding with the public interests of governments and its policy reasons for such requirements."

State Budget Panel OKs Residency Rule Based On Distance

Sweeping aside a 75-year-old City of Milwaukee residency ordinance and others like it, Republicans on the Legislature's budget committee voted Thursday to allow police and firefighters to live at least 15 miles outside of any community in the state and bar utility ratepayers from having to bear any costs for a proposed streetcar in the city - potentially killing the project. 

On several votes Thursday, the Joint Finance Committee loaded up the state budget with policy items that had little to do with Wisconsin's finances. Many of the other policy items also limited the powers of local governments, such as a measure barring them from regulating the size of sodas.

GOP fakes up a controversy over the UW system's financial reserves

Opposition Group Zones In On Walmart's New Berlin Plans (Other Walmart reading: 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Facts Are In And Paul Ryan Is Wrong

Midweek Reading

Assessing State Business Climate Indexes
Demand Answers On Tax Fairness
New Year Brings More Cuts In State Funding For Schools
The State Of Working Wisconsin 2012
Will Austerity Cure Economic Woes? Or Is Public Investment The Answer?

The Gazoo Government

I happened to stumble across Turner Hall's 4th Street Forum this morning while flipping through the channels. Eric Isbister, CEO Gen Met Manufacturing, was part of a panel discussing Wisconsin's "business climate." Mr. Isbister obviously read his Republican business climate talking-points before going on the show. Government needs to get out of the way, government needs to regulate less, taxes need to be lowered...but the government should be training people and providing an educated workforce for the private sector and helping to fill positions for these private sector companies when needed.

Despite decades of evidence to the contrary, Isbister believes Repulican policies are better for small business in the long-term. Jon Perr elaborates on the failure of Republicans policies over the years, based on numerous economic indicators.

It's as if private-sector CEOs see the government as Gazoo, from the Flintstones. A magical entity that can appear only when you want and whom will make whatever you need happen and then go away.

The Fiscal Policy Institute has found, States with minimum wages above the Federal level have had faster small business and retail job growth. Raise The Minimum Wage has more on wages across the country. One would hope the U.S. would be trying to increase the wages, and thus the quality of life, for it's citizens.

Public sector compensation was a convenient scapegoat of the right-wing to blame for our recession. But, as the Center for American Progress has shown, State budget deficits are not an employee compensation problem. The Great Recession has crushed budgets all around. The busting of the bubble and subsequent lack of demand are the real culprits.

Empirical evidence has been quite clear - cutting taxes does not lead to economic, income or wage growth, nor does it lead to job creation. Lane Kenworthy has done international comparisons and found higher taxes aren't necessarily bad for the economy. Kenworthy has also discovered that the tax burden on the top 1% is lower now than it was in the 1970s. Alejandro Reuss also explains that lower tax rates do not increase government revenue, as conservatives illogically claim. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that higher state taxes bring more revenue, not more migration.

The "business climate" talking-point is merely an extension of the mythology that is trickle-down, neoliberal, supply-side economics. Another fable the conservatives can spin to claim regulation is burdensome, taxes are too high, and government is always to blame. People need to, finally, realize the right-wing has basically made this stuff up. The real world just doesn't match up with the stories Republicans are selling.

Looking at the evidence, reality does appear to have a liberal bias. It's time for all of us to stop giving equal time, equal weight or the benefit of believing their views are based on rational or reasoned analysis, to these Republicans fairytales of how the world works and what helps it work best.

The Business End

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

Taxes are at their lowest level since 1950.

Corporate bonuses are back at record highs.

Corporate profits are at historic levels.

And yet, the media is telling us how Obama has been mean to business, how he needs to "make it up to them," and how he needs to mend his relationship with business. Sadly, Obama seems to be feeding right into the myth.

Whatever happened to the responsibility of the private sector and it's role in our country? They seem to put all their effort into taking, but little effort into giving back. Their (effective) taxes are ridiculously low and their profits are historically high. What more do they want?

Still, somehow, for some reason, Obama must do more for business?

For Further Reading:

Corporate Media Push Wrong Story On Obama's Business Relationship

The Tax Cut Nobody Heard Of

Deja Vu

Tom Still, at the Journal, has a whopper (and laughable) wish list for business growth. We'll take this steaming pile one turd at a time.

He begins with a defense of tax cuts and the wealthy. He wants us to ignore increasing unemployment, poverty, inequality, wage stagnation, increasing health care costs, declining retirement coverage, amongst the many other hardships the bottom 99 percent face. He finds justification because a select few earning the most also happen to pay a lot in taxes. The funny part is when he states, "They [the rich] already pay their fair share and help keep the economy humming." Indeed, nearly 10 percent unemployment, foreclosures, and increasing poverty - that's humming along.

Next free trade is given boosterism. Here the typical right-wing talking-points are on display. Free trade, no strings attached, is good policy...damn the evidence. Luckily more reasoned analysis is out there - Jobs With Justice and Economic Policy Institute.

The University of Wisconsin system, we're informed, will get the "freedom to manage its own resources." Which means they will be responsible for more of their own costs. Slowly spinning our UW system into a quasi-privatized entity. Again, as is the problem with everything in life for right-wingers, the system has too much regulation from the state. Running the university system like a business will produce much better results. (Yes, I'm trying to hold back my laughter, too.) Just look at how great this privatization scam has worked for the economy.

Now we get to the magical world of venture capital. As I've written earlier, "Josh Lerner, of Harvard, has found the number of exceptional venture capitalists is very small. Harold Bradley, of the Kaufmann Foundation, believes venture capitalists have plenty of money, but allocate it very inefficiently, and therefore should not be receiving additional public dollars with the hope of boosting a local economy. Bradley and Carl Schramm, in an article for Business Week, write that the current focus on fees has promoted start-up flipping rather than nurturing." Another attempt of throwing those well-worn conservative talking-points -- entrepreneurial, venture capital, flexibility, etc. -- out there and seeing what sticks.

Mr. Still would also like Congress to reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research grant program. This is another area I find so hypocritically disturbing among conservatives. They bad mouth everything about government. They talk of how omnipotent business and the market are. But, for some reason, government money and initiatives are the crucial elements for so much of private sector progress.

It's 2011, but some things never change. Delusions and misinformation are out in full force to start the new year.

For Further Reading:

Incidence of Taxes

Progressive & Regressive Taxation in the U.S.

Wisconsin State & Local Taxes

Wisconsin Tax Exemption Devices

Hypocrite

Between 1997 and 2008, Ron Johnson's PACUR LLC paid no state income taxes, according to One Wisconsin Now.

And yet this charlatan - Ron Johnson - has the nerve (along with all the other fraudulent Republicans) to claim Wisconsin taxes are burdensome for business.

Ranking Rubbish

The meme - oft repeated by corporate hucksters with their hands out - about an improving "business climate" in conjuction with (the always necessary) tax cuts, leading to an injection of new jobs and companies, was given more ink by the Journal Sentinel recently.

And, as usual in this flawed prescription, the Tax Foundation is cited as the "business climate" authority. But, as shown here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, their methodology is sloppy, to say the least.

For Futher Reading:
Doing Business to Eliminate Worker Protections
Grading Places
Torinus' Taxed Reality
What Do Business Climate Rankings Really Tell Us?
Wisconsin: Open For Business

Levy Legitimacy

Douglas Kane has an excellent article clarifying the discussion on business climate, taxes, best places to live, job growth and quality of life.

Lower taxes do not result in a better quality of life nor larger business or job growth.

New Firms Are No Job Engine

John Torinus, of the Journal Sentinel, assures us that new firms are the key to our recovery. Encouraging new firms using the typical incentives (job credits, small business loans, investment credits, grants, using pension fund money for speculative investment, etc.), he believes, will create jobs.

He also uses the education-as-magic-bullet talking-point to paint the image of a miraculous market machine, infused with newly educated college graduates, encouraged by credits and grants, creating new firms, thereby growing employment.

Yet, Torinus even points out that one-third of young companies fail to make it through a second year; what he calls a "messy churn." But lets ignore that fact, it would expose the false premise concocted in the article.

As Doug Henwood notes, "Small firms pay less than large ones, are less likely to offer health, pension, or child care benefits, and are often more dangerous to workers. With few exceptions, they're not all that innovative technologically...37% of the labor force changes its employment status every year...new jobs do not sprout in the greatest numbers at either fresh start-ups or small firms...Smaller employers do generate plenty of jobs, but they also destroy them in great quantities. If you add together creation and destruction, no clear picture emerges."

The recovery hinges on the destruction of neoliberal policies and a reclamation of the public good.

Oblique Journalism

The Journal Sentinel has an inanely meandering editorial - Not a tax hell, but state still needs better revenue mix - pushing for decreased taxes, service maintenance, alongside "innovation and entrepreneurial spirit," hinging on increased educational outcomes. Many good talking-points and topics-of-the-moment, but the editorial is quite sparse on actual numbers, comparisons, evidence, or needed actions.

The editorial incorrectly opines, "...as the state's taxpayer base ages, the ability of these citizens to pay for the increased services they will need will be limited even as the number of workers supporting them will be fewer." This is the same reasoning used by those selling the Social Security crisis. As I've noted previously, tax issues are primarily problems of incidence not burden.

Should we remove our manufacturing machinery and equipment tax exemption? Should we discontinue funding projects like the Moderne and Miller Park? Should we raise taxes on the wealthiest? Should we increase capital gains and corporate taxation? Or should we continue to cut programs and services, to lower our quality of life?

People expect services, coinciding with an increasing standard-of-living (paid for with taxes). To simply state property and income taxes are too high (a nebulous statement unless some type of comparison or operationalization is provided), may sell papers, but it does not explain or contribute anything to the discussion.

And, to throw in the (paraphrasing) Education Will Save Everything slogan is pointless. "A smarter, better-prepared workforce, after all, would be better able to compete and command higher wages." The problem is not a lack of skills, it's a lack of jobs.

To keep pushing the "Wisconsin taxes are a major deterrent to businesses locating here" mantra also conflicts with reality. And, as I've stated before, "If, as a nation, we are so concerned with taxation, then we need federally standardized tax rules, equally written and applied to all states. Not our current hodge-podge of individually state-controlled breaks, bribery, and favoritism." If these are crucial matters to the progress and growth of our local and national economy shouldn't we be cooperating on a more federal level, rather than continuing to operate under beggar-thy-neighbor policies?

The Journal also implies years of arduous taxation, in general, has been holding Wisconsin back. Nowhere is there mention of Wisconsin's lack of a modern transportation infrastructure as a hindrance to business location decisions. Newsflash: Infrastructure matters to business.

But then the editors offer a stunning conclusion, "Political leadership should work to keep taxes in check and to put the property tax on a diet. More important, they should ensure that schools and other essential state services are able to meet their obligations." There you have it; circular logic at is best. No real point, no real insight. The Fourth Estate has no clothes.

For Further Reading:
America's Granny Bashers
Hands Off Social Security
Obama Suggests Defaulting on National Debt
State Comparisons

Faulty Foundation

Paul Soglin with an important post about why the media should stop reporting the Tax Foundation's nonsense. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has warned of the Tax Foundation's sloppiness on numerous occasions.

Torinus' Taxed Reality

John Torinus, Journal-Sentinel writer and CEO of Serigraph Inc., is at it again. He's complaining because his company can't completely avoid all forms of taxation in the State of Wisconsin. This is a well-worn theme of his.

It's really strange how business has morphed into entities that feel they have no social responsibility other than fattening their own pockets and rewarding their shareholders. One would think they might realize their long-term solvency and viability is tied to the health and performance of the country, and therefore, they might want to do all they can - pay taxes, plan long-term rather than short, minimize risky behavior - to support and strengthen such nationwide goals.

Torinus' undies are all in a bunch over an exemption from the state capital gains tax. Torinus claims this is, "one of the few tax advantages of doing business in Wisconsin." Governor Doyle took the exemption down to 40% in his budget. The Senate wanted to eliminate it altogether.

He always forgets to mention that his company, Serigraph Inc., paid no corporate income taxes in 2003 and 2004. And, I'm only speculating, has probably paid next to nothing since then. This is an onerous business tax burden? This would be laughable if the Journal-Sentinel didn't give this guy a platform to spew such nonsense.

The Tax Foundation found:
Wisconsin's 2009 Business Tax Climate Ranks 38th in the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index. The Index compares the states in five areas of taxation that impact business: corporate taxes; individual income taxes; sales taxes; unemployment insurance taxes; and taxes on property, including residential and commercial property.

The Institute for Wisconsin's Future released a report Exposing The Tax Hell Hoax, which attempted to put an end to this misinformation the business community continually puts forth in an attempt to pay nothing in taxes.

Torinus also smears state legislator Russ Decker, declaring him anti-business, because he doesn't feel the corporate community should be absolved of paying any taxes. Implying that, somehow, making businesses pay their fair share as proposed in the latest budget, is responsible for the 133,000 job losses over the last year. That's quite a jump in logic and honesty.

A larger counter-point can be extracted from his closing corporate talking points - we need nationalized standards of regulation and combined reporting. We need to put an end to the blackmailing site selection and the inefficiency of our zero-sum, beggar-thy-neighbor business and development policies.

Torinus complains about combined reporting, without offering the reader the details of what it actually is. Presenting it simply as an additional cost to business, rather than what it really does -remove a tax loophole inserted into state tax law by business lobbyists which shifted the tax burden onto homeowners and workers.

Torinus states, "The Democrats obviously have decided to play to union leaders and to the average voter and have turned a deaf ear to business." The reality is, the Democrats are trying to enact fairness and uniformity into our tax system, helping out average workers, and trying to make businesses pay their fair share.

He then [and you can almost feel the tears in his eyes] says,"Overall, the Democratic posture toward private employers is pretty punitive." Corporate taxation has declined 47 percent over the last thirty years. Homeowners have made up this shortfall. How much more disingenuous could a corporatist be in claiming this is punitive treatment? I'm sure Torinus is shedding just as many tears for the workers in the State whom have made up for all the taxes he is allowed to avoid.

For Further Reading:
Ralph Nader wrote an interesting article regarding the legally privileged status our corporations are allowed to operate under and the trajectory of such - Avoiding Corporate Liability.

Race To The Bottom

Bill Foy, a retired Menomenee Falls investment banker, opines in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Milwaukee is unappealing to business because of card check, prevailing wage standards, mandated sick leave, property taxes, and the Milwaukee Public School system.

Is this investment banker really preaching to us, "...look beyond our present, personal gratifications and to consider how best to sustain and grow our business base for our long-term benefit and that of our children"? Is that what the financiers were practicing these last 30 years? Was is that forward-thinking, love-the-children mojo that culminated in the destruction of the world economy in 2008 and the near-Depression conditions we're in now? It's funny to see businessmen, again and again, failure after failure, still telling the rest of us how everything ought to be.

The problem is that we don't have federal standards regarding incentives and development. If we did, we wouldn't need to worry about prevailing wages and such because that would be the national standard. A model of labor and business working in cooperation - producing needed products and services, equitably sharing in the gains, and exporting this policy worldwide with our trading partners - lifting all boats. As opposed to our current development policies which are seeing too many citizens' economic boats capsize. When did we decide an honest day's work wasn't worth an honest day's pay?

To say mandated paid sick days are part of the problem is disingenuous at best. How can sick days, a policy only developed in the last year, be part of a long-standing business impediment problem? Mandated paid sick day policies are not yet implemented. Some communities in the Milwaukee area have already banned them. Conversely, 9 To 5 has found no negative effects from the enactment of sick days; the results have been positive.

Card check is another policy that has not even been enacted. These conservative businessmen are afraid of things that aren't even there. More than serious business impediment issues, Foy's complaints seem to just be proactive griping - getting the typical business-friendly talking points out there to frame and steer the debate.

We have only exacerbated the public school issue by implementing various semi-privatization schemes. Following private-sector models have not led to school improvement - as with health care, retirement, the airlines, etc. - though its proponents demanded it would. This looting of the public coffers has allowed private agencies to divert funding from public schools to unsupervised, untested, and underperforming voucher schools.

And, as I've written about here before, focusing on property taxes as if they were the only taxes paid is just plain sloppy analysis and presentation. As if property taxes were the only taxes we had to worry about. Property taxes are also part of a much broader discussion: how immensely an important source of revenue they are, what they pay for, the tax incidence - who the burden falls upon, policies they support, and how they've changed over time.

If we continue to follow the lead of these Captains of Industry, these Free Marketeers, we're going to be a nation of Walmart workers. We're supposed to be leading the world with a smart, efficient, sustainable model of growth enabling a high standard of living. But since we became enraptured with The Market we're racing backwards toward lower wages, poor health care, and without any pension or chance of decent retirement. This seems to be the "growth" model Foy and his ilk want us to continue to pursue. Why wouldn't he? He and his bretheren have made out like bandits off such policies while the workers below them were the ones having to provide the sweat, take the cuts, and make the sacrifices.


For Further Reading:

The Institute for Wisconsin's Future has admirably reported on: a) the falsehood of Wisconsin as a "tax hell," b) how the corporate sector underpays taxes by $1 billion, c) many corporate tax avoidance schemes, and d) correcting the many myths about "burdensome" property taxes.

Obama Making Corporate Hacks Nervous

John Torinus, of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, wrote a Sunday March 23, 2008 article, Obama speech full of anti-business rhetoric, lambasting Barack's willingness to confront the business community. Everyone should know by now that in our fascist state, where corporate and government interests are one in the same, no such debate should be proposed.

Torinus asserts, "No Wisconsin corporate executive has been charged with corruption...that can't be said for political or religious leaders." He then goes on to say that these executives are actually trying to solve social problems. Hmmm, how are they doing this? By avoiding $1.3 billion in taxes yearly?

But Obama's premise wasn't merely a jab at Wisconsin's business sector, but at the entire corporate ethos, making Torinus' argument misplaced and illusory. Barack is referencing the likes of the Savings & Loan scandal, Long Term Capital Management, Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Anderson, CountryWide, et al. This isn't simply bad judgment by a few; this is the corrupt paradigm under which big business seems to operate these days.

Torinus then states that except for a few bad apples, corporate accounting is practically infallible, while it is government accounting that is full of fuzzy math. I'd have to agree this is true for the Bush administration, but not for most of government. Especially since the mid-1980s, more and more accounting gimmicks, which originated in the private sector, have come to light and have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

One of his best lines, also a complete distortion, is that none of this is really the corporate sector's fault, but the fault of Congress because they make the rules. The corporations are merely taking advantage of them. Remind me, though, who again is paying for these politicians to get elected? Oh, that's right, the same corporations dodging taxes, increasing the burden on average Americans, and then having their bought-and-paid-for politicians write legislation in their favor. Ethics no longer apply. Scapegoats are aplenty when accountability begins reaching up the hierarchy.

Another absurdity Torinus spews forth, "When a government runs red ink, it either prints more money or raises taxes and then stumbles on. Businesses go under." Actually this is not the case for the big ones, who have their political apparatchiks lobbying and legislating in their favor. They, as we've seen recently, have the Federal Reserve step in and bail them out, passing the bill of their speculation and mismanagement on to the taxpayers.

Also, sorry Mr. Torinus, the rich don't "carry a hugely disproportionate share of the tax burden." As a percentage of income earned, most states tax their low- and middle-income earners more than the rich. (Though, obviously, if his point was that a millionaire pays, in total dollars, more than a poor person...duh! But when we're talking proportions, a better measure to use is percentage of income paid. But as such an astute businessman, I'm sure he knew that.) And while we're at it, Wisconsin has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the U.S. The low, almost non-existent, corporate tax rate given to Wisconsin business is well known to Torinus. He is the chairman of Serigraph Inc., which paid nothing in Wisconsin corporate taxes in 2003 and 2004. He is also a board member of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (the lobby for Wisconsin big business), an organization where even when it's members pay no taxes at all still feel taxation is too high.

Please, Mr. Torinus, you and your ilk in the corporate community whom have benefited most from the largess of government over the past three decades, stop baldly lying and presenting a false reality about what a harsh environment you operate in. Stop repeating your same phony lines and baseless claims. The middle-class is disappearing, inequality is rising, unemployment and poverty are rising, CEO compensation is climbing, and the corporate tax rate is continually falling (along with any and all taxation on capital). Spare us your woe-is-me diatribes for the corporate sector.

For Further Reading:
Free Lunch and Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston
Big Box Swindle by Stacey Mitchell
The Great American Jobs Scam by Greg LeRoy
Tax Fairness Institute for Wisconsin's Future
White House For Sale