The cherry on top of the scoop of outrage was the layout of the story’s jump. It was next to a jump of a story about 21 Milwaukee Public Schools nurses losing their jobs because Walker is proposing to cut a $1.5 million grant that helps pay for them.

A $250 million giveaway for big business vs. $1.5 million for nursing services for mostly impoverished children. Not a tough choice for the gov, apparently.

Nice package, JS.

Joint Finance Committee Cuts Energy Efficiency, Raises Energy Bills

MADISON — Today the Joint Committee on Finance unfortunately voted to reduce funding for Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s statewide energy efficiency program.  

On a party-line vote, the Republican members of the Joint Finance Committee rolled back the  budget for Focus on Energy to about $100 million annually.
 
In November 2010, the Public Service Commission proposed new energy savings goals for Focus on Energy, along with proposed budgets to meet those goals.  The energy savings goals and budgets were approved by the Joint Finance Committee in December 2010, when the Democrats were in the majority.  The approved energy savings goals and budgets, along with estimates of savings to consumers, were:

With today’s vote, the finance committee is essentially imposing an energy tax on consumers by cutting investments in energy efficiency.  Because every dollar invested in Focus on Energy reduces energy bills for consumers by at least $2.50, these cuts will likely increase future energy bills by at least $800 million. 
 
In addition, these cuts in investments in energy efficiency will also reduce the number of jobs that would otherwise be created by Focus on Energy.  Focus on Energy will not be able to serve all the customers that desire energy efficiency improvements.  More than 2 million residents and businesses have saved nearly $2 billion on their energy bills since Focus was created in 2001.
 
The vote to cut investments in Focus on Energy is another step backward for Wisconsin households and businesses, who will face higher energy bills if these cuts are ultimately included in the biennial budget for 2011-2013.

###
 
The Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin is a member-supported, nonprofit organization that advocates for reliable and affordable utility service. CUB represents the interests of residential, farm, and small business customers of electric, natural gas, and telecommunication utilities before the Legislature, regulatory agencies, and the courts. Full disclosure: I’m on the CUB board, but the organization does not have anything to do with this blog.

Her aide wrote back asking for my phone number and address (to ensure I was a constitutent, I assume) and said he would have Leah get in touch.

This was a more than a few days ago now, and i’m still waiting for Leah.

Hmm, wonder if it was the word “Milwaukee” in my address that led her to blow me off. Ah, well. The Story Hill Neighborhood Association has invited her to attend the quarterly meeting on Monday night to discuss the potential impacts of the proposed state budget.

And the odds of her showing up are… ?

It’s enough to gag a maggot, as my late, blessed mother would say.

Republican State Senators Joe Leibham (Sheboygan), Mary Lazich (West Bend), Neal Kedzie (Elkhorn) and Pam Galloway (Wausau) are sponsoring a resolution complaining that “states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government” even though it’s supposed to be the other way around under the US Constitution’s Tenth Amendment.

The four either do not see or do not care about the irony or hypocrisy in interfering so very heavily in local affairs while whining about federal interference in state affairs. They want the Senate to claim, on behalf of the state, “sovereignty…over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution.”

But wait! There is more!

The fearless foursome state “that this resolution shall serve as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers.”

Yeah, you tell ‘em!

And give local governments and public employees their rights back, too.

You can just hear those knees quaking in Washington, can’t you?

Then I think of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed 2011-13 budget and I think, “Oh, never mind.”

What a victory! Running over public employees, the Open Meetings law, and general respect for Wisconsin’s government all at once.

This will take years and years and years to repair.

It was a lesson in how not to behave.

Sickening.

The meeting at the Wauwatosa Public Library ended early. This photo is by Steve Brachman.

Gov. Scott Walker says he wants to “phase in” a repeal of income limits on students enrolled in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. From his budget:

The Governor recommends the following changes to the income eligibility requirements for the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program for students who did not attend a Choice school in the 2010-11 school year as either a choice or nonchoice pupil as follows: (a) repeal all income eligibility requirements to receive the state-funded tuition payment; (b) prohibit the participating school from charging tuition above the state payment for pupils with family incomes below 325 percent of the federal poverty level; (c) allow participating schools to charge tuition above the amount of the state payment for pupils with family incomes above 325 percent of the federal poverty level; (d) determine family income as it relates to the federal poverty level only at the time of initial application; and (e) require the participating school to cite the amount of the state payment in the letter of acceptance.

Let’s think about this one for a minute. Walker wants to repeal income eligibility criteria for anyone who did not attend a Choice school previously. That’s one helluva “phase.” (Plus, it is hard to believe that students enrolled in Choice schools this year will be ultimately exempted from this particular gravy train. Of course parents of the relatively few kids who wouldn’t qualify for the Choice subsidy will scream bloody murder, and it’s a good bet legislators will listen. )If this particular piece of budget goes through, look for it to be broader than it is.

Walker’s budget also would expand the Choice program to include any qualifying school in Milwaukee County.This is very, very, very bad news for city of Milwaukee property taxpayers. Here is why:

Each Choice student is publicly funded to the tune of $6,442 this school year, a figure Walker proposes in his budget to hold flat.

Of that $6,442, a generous $2,473.73 is deducted from MPS’ state aid. MPS levies property taxes to offset the state aid loss. This school year, city property taxpayers ponied up more than $50 million to pay for the Choice program.

Under Walker’s proposal, very, very, very wealthy kids would be eligible for the Choice program and would be able to go to school in the suburbs. For each of those kids, MPS would lose money from its (greatly reduced, under Walker’s proposal) state aid pot. The district in turn likely will raise property taxes to recover the money now subsidizing rich kids’ private school educations.

Thus, you have it. The school system charged with educating some of the poorest students in the state will be forced to subsidize the suburban private school tuitions of children from very comfortable or wealthy families. The district will be allowed to recover the money from homeowners in one of the poorest large cities in the country.

Meanwhile, kids living in Milwaukee County suburbs — even poor kids — would not be eligible to attend schools in their own communities under the Choice program. Suburban school districts would be spared the financial hit that Milwaukee residents will bear so that rich city kids can be subsidized at suburban private schools.

Huh. Go figure.

Full disclosure: I am an MPS employee. This blog is not controlled by the district administration or the School Board and the opinions expressed here are mine.