Category Archives: Congress

Walker: heading into the transportation funding abyss?

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Is Gov. Walker’s road-building binge going to keep Wisconsin mired in the budgetary blues?

His proposals to charge ahead with freeway creation and expansion all over the state never did make much economic sense — hey, gov, the economy will not be helped if trucks can get between cities on new freeways, but break their axles on ruined local roads — but they seem less and less reasonable when the federal highway trust fund is considered. Congress just can’t get a deal done on funding, which means that state taxpayers may end up funding more of the road binge than Walker and his gang are letting on.

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—A six-year $556 billion highway and transit construction program proposed by President Barack Obama is the latest casualty of Washington’s spending stalemate.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), who is leading talks on the issue, said Wednesday she is now considering a two-year measure that would freeze federal spending on road, bridge and transit projects at existing levels.

The White House had called for a six-year infrastructure bill in his fiscal 2012 budget in part as a measure to create jobs and boost the economy. But lawmakers haven’t agreed on how to pay for the bill, amid a broader debate over how to slash federal spending.

Ms. Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said “funding challenges” could require a two-year, $109 billion bill setting funding at existing levels plus inflation. The bulk, if not all, of the funding for such a bill would come from the federal gasoline tax. Lawmakers would still need to plug a $12 billion shortfall under that bill, because gas-tax revenue is falling.

Before charging forward with Walker’s highway binge…

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…consider this from Reuters:

Congressional Republicans looking to hold down federal spending are considering a transportation budget blueprint that would, at a minimum, be less than half the size of the plan advanced by the White House.

In fact, the base-line figure of under $240 billion would fall below what Congress approved in similar legislation five years ago for road, bridge and transit upgrades, according to sources with knowledge of the six-year plan.

The bill for budgeting transportation priorities in the states is just beginning to take shape within the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

And if the feds don’t come through, just how will Gov. Walker get the money for his wildly over-ambitious homage to his road builder masters?

City has $146.4 million in outstanding receivables

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The city was owed $146.4 million in unpaid taxes, fines and fees as of last year,  up more than $20 million from 2005, according to a new report from the comptroller’s office.

“A significant portion of the numbers I’m talking about will not be collected by the city of Milwaukee,” said Craig Kammholz, financial services director with the comptroller’s office.

Kammholz told the Common Council’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee that property taxes, which is the largest share of receivables, is the least problematic to collect. There is $29.9 million in current year delinquent taxes and $13.9 million in prior years’ delinquent taxes, he said.In 2005, there was $14.7 million in current years’ delinquent taes and $9.5 in prior years’ delinquent taxes.

The treasurer’s office, however, eventually collects about 99% of taxes due and fines and penalties cover the city’s costs, he said.

There is was $60.7 million in outstanding parking fines due the city in 2009, Kammholz said. That is down $6.1 million from 2005 because the city wrote off a large amount in fines that year, he said. About $30 million in unpaid parking fines were three years old or older last year, meaning they will be more difficult to collect. Often those fines are associated with cars with owners who are difficult to identify or locate.

The city also had $35.5 million in Municipal Court receivables outstanding last year and $6.4 million in miscellaneous receivables. Kris Hinrichs, Municipal Court administrator, said $14 million of the court’s receivables were considered past due. Those debts are referred to the collection contractor 14 days after they are due.

Federal accounting just a mess

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The federal government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to get us out of this recession, and promises to keep strict track of where it is going and how it is spent.

It’s just all those other trillions that the feds can’t fully explain.

Government bookkeeping is so bad that the Government Accountability Office can’t determine just exactly what our national fiscal condition is.

“Certain material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that prevented us from expressing an opinion on the fiscal year 2009 and 2008 financial statements other than the Statements of Social Insurance,” Acting Comptroller Gene L. Dodaro reported last week, adding that “Material weaknesses resulted in ineffective internal control over financial reporting (including safeguarding of assets).”

Makes you feel happy about paying those federal income taxes, doesn’t it?

Reading Dodaro’s statement makes you wonder why some of these people have jobs. The GAO, Dodaro said, can’t render an opinion on the government’s financial statements for three big reasons:

(1) serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD) that have prevented DOD’s financial statements from being auditable, (2) the federal government’s inability to adequately account for and reconcile intragovernmental activity and balances between federal agencies, and (3) the federal government’s ineffective
process for preparing the consolidated financial statements. In addition, the financial statements of the Department of Homeland Security and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for fiscal years 2009 and 2008 were not auditable or were not subjected to audit by agency auditors.

The federal government could not determine exactly how much in “improper payments” it was making, although the amount is estimated at $98 billion, nor could the government ”reasonably assure” that appropriate action is being taken to stop them.

The government also could not identify and resolve information security control deficencies or — ready for this one? — “effectively manage its tax collection activities.”

The GAO sounds a very loud warning that both parties in Congress have thus far elected to ignore:

Looking ahead, the federal government will need to determine the most expeditious manner in which to bring closure to its financial stabilization initiatives while optimizing its investment returns. In addition to managing these actions, problems in the nation’s financial sector have exposed serious weaknesses in the current U.S. financial regulatory system, which, if not effectively addressed, may cause the system to fail to prevent similar or even worse crises in the future. The current system, which was put into place over the past 150 years, is fragmented and complex and simply has not kept pace with the major financial structures, innovations, and products that emerged during the years leading up to the recent financial crisis. Consequently, meaningful financial regulatory reform is of utmost concern.

All this is really scary stuff, brought to the country by one of the most credible sources there is. Anybody in Washington listening?