In Wisconsin, there’s no such thing as dedicated fund. Our state may set aside money for a specific purpose – but state lawmakers feel free to use that money for anything else, usually to bring the overall budget into balance.

The abuses of dedicated funds are widespread at the state and federal levels. The abuse is bipartisan, and the list is long:

            The most recent abuse, perpetrated just this week, involves the $10 surcharge you’re now paying when you renew your drivers license. That money was supposed to go into a dedicated fund to pay for license security upgrades. The upgrades are now on hold, the fee stays, the money that’s already been paid in will be used to close the current budget shortfall.

            Last year’s state budget was balanced, in part, with $71-million dollars taken from the state’s victims compensation fund. That money was supposed to be in a dedicated fund to cover medical costs for uninsured victims of violent crimes.

            Airlines pay a fuel tax into the federal Aviation Trust Fund. It’s intended to pay for airport infrastructure. Instead it’s used to offset spending from the federal government’s general account.

            And the biggest dedicated fund fraud of all: social security. When a politician tells you about your personal social security account, or the “social security lock box”, you should roll your eyes. Money that’s paid in gets spent in the general budget. The social security administration gets IOU’s from the federal government, which will come due as workers retire.

I bring up the fallacy of dedicated funds because another raid is coming – the state transportation trust fund is being eyed to help with the state’s current deficit. The only question is how much money will be taken. And this fund has been raided twice before: once by Governor Doyle two years ago, and once by Governor Thompson, to the tune of $400-million.

More on dedicated funds in tomorrow’s blog.

Chris Conley

Operations Manager-Midwest Communications, Wausau

5.14.08

Don’t let the West Virginia primary results fool you. The Clinton campaign remains on life support.

Here’s a daily campaign diary from Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/13/AR2008051302862.html?hpid=topnews

Waiving to supporters who don’t exist. Picking out a campaign aid as a ‘plant’ in a crowd. Manufactured support from unions. Many no-shows at her victory party. These are all the signs of a campaign that’s running out of steam.

Her rival is pivoting towards the general election and John McCain. The only question left is when will it end. Perhaps tomorrow, after basking in the fading light of tonight’s victory.

WSAU news staff

5.13.08

There was news late Monday of a deal on Wisconsin’s budget repair bill. The goal is to close a state budget shortfall of about $500 million.

The compromise that’s been reached seems reasonable enough:

·        No new taxes.

·        A delay on some $125 million dollars in payments to school districts around the state. (NOT a cut, just a delay in when the districts get their money. Payments expected this summer won’t come until the fall.)

·        No special assessment (tax) on hospital profits.

·        $97 million in fund transfers, probably from the transportation fund. This is much less than Governor Doyle had originally proposed.

·        An additional $69 million dollars in spending cuts.

·        No changes to the state’s just-expanded Badgercare Plus program.

A sign of a good compromise is that no one gets everything they want. That appears to be what’s happened. Republicans, democrats, and the governor have reached a deal that no one’s happy with, but everyone can live with. Final approval will come before the week is out.

Yet there are still some disturbing trends. First, the bitterness over last summer’s budget debate lingers, with leaders butting heads over the same issues that lingered a year ago. Second, the public – and most rank-and-file members of the legislature – were cut out of the debate. No one knew what would be in our out of the budget repair bill; and there will be less than 48 hours to review it before the voting starts. Finally, a "dedicated fund" in Wisconsin is meaningless. Money that was set aside for one thing is always on the table for other uses when it suits state leaders.

Divided government seems to be the status quo in Wisconsin. Political opponents who are able to work with each other in a timely manner seem to be in short supply.

WSAU news staff

5.12.2008

There’s something unseemly about Barbara Walters announcing her affair 30 years ago with Senator Edward Brooke. One has to wonder if this is more about selling her new book than it is about easing her conscience.

Her take is that it’s no big deal. It happened a long time ago. (There are many people who may not even know who Brooke is. He was the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate, and hasn’t served in Washington since 1978.) She even explains in her Oprah interview the taboo of a white woman with a black man in the 1970s, and how the whole affair could have been damaging to them both. The real damage – of course – is to basic journalistic standards.

Serious reporters don’t have sex with the people they report on. Then again, from Barbara Walters more recent work on The View and various celebrity specials it’s hard to think of her as a serious reporter today. Apparently she wasn’t then, either.

Chris Conley

Operations Manager, Midwest Communications, Wausau

5.11.08

Today is national train day. It’s the anniversary of the driving of the golden spike in Promontory, Utah in 1869, marking the completion of the first transcontinental rail route.

I’m a regular train rider. It’s a unique way to see the country.

The train is also an important and often neglected part of our nation’s history. Railroads were the economic engine that allowed the United States to expand westward. Our nation’s agricultural bounty and manufacturing prowess would not have come to fruition with covered wagons and dirt trails. Railroads are also forgotten as important cogs in our victories in both world wars. Posters in the 1940’s declared “tanks don’t fight in factories!”

A business colleague of mine who flies a great deal tells me that airplanes have become busses with wings. Post 9-11 security has made the airport a headache. Even so, if you’re a ‘time is money’ person an overnight train trip from Chicago to New York can’t compare with a 3 hour flight. Although the days of the Pullman sleeper and dinner served on fine china in the dining car over, you can still book a private compartment and have a microwave dinner that closely approximates what’s served at Applebee’s on any number of cross country trains.

Today’s trains are not what they once were. Amtrak is a government-owned railroad that leases space on tracks owned by freight railroads. Overnight trains tend to be late. The service from an Amtrak crew member is closer to what you'd get from a DMV clerk than a flight attendant.

But the view from the window makes up for the modern train’s timekeeping and service problems. The rails come within a few feet of the Hudson River on your approach to New York City. You see West Point across the river. The train climbs from green fields into the Rocky Mountains at Raton, New Mexico along a path that used to be traveled with mules and backpacks. Philadelphia’s skyline glistens in the twilight while the 140-mile-per-hour Acela express roars by. Miles of amber waves of grain spread out as the Empire Builder travels across the Dakotas each night. Unless you’ve taken the train, you haven’t seen these things. Theses scenes are part of our living history. I’m often left with a feeling of God’s mighty hand passing over our great nation.

Chris Conley

Operations Manager-Midwest Communications, Wausau