Last week, Gov. Tony Evers reminded us of what a terrible governor he is though a string of vetoes upholding his support of policies that lead to higher crime and dumber kids. Before the week had ended, Evers used his veto pen again to affirm his support for policies that enable vote fraud and disenfranchise every legal voter.
While some political junkies might give Evers some latitude for vetoing good bills for political advantage, he did it at the expense of good governance and a better Wisconsin. He is willing to have another year of sloppy, questionable, possibly fraudulent elections as long as he thinks it will benefit his political ambitions.
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Governor Evers has supported the wholesale subversion of Wisconsin’s election laws during the pandemic because he thinks it had benefitted Democrats like himself. His continued support for policies that enable and encourage sloppy and fraudulent election practices is a statement on his character.
— Prohibited anyone other than the voter, an immediate family member or a legal guardian from returning an absentee ballot. That issue is currently pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with oral arguments scheduled for next week.
— Barred the spending of private money on the administration of elections. Republicans have cried foul over $8.8 million in grants Wisconsin’s largest and most Democratic cities received in 2020 from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a group funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Grants were also awarded to smaller, majority Republican cities.
Republicans are trying to get around the veto by putting the ban in the state constitution. That would require approval by voters as early as next year.
— Bar election clerks from filling in any missing information on a voter’s absentee ballot envelope. Trump had argued that thousands of ballots where clerks filled in missing information on the outside envelope should be discounted, but courts rejected his argument. The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission had advised clerks for years that filling in the missing information was OK.
— Require the bipartisan elections commission to hire Republican and Democratic-aligned attorneys to work with commission members and offer what would likely be contrary legal advice. Nonpartisan attorneys currently work for the commission.
— Give the Legislature control over guidance delivered to local election clerks by the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission.
— Limit who can identify as indefinitely confined, a status that allows for absentee ballots for those who can’t get to the polls due to age, illness or disability.
— Require the state to conduct checks to ensure that registered voters are United States citizens.
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News this week:
Everyone assumes that Gov. Tony Evers will just veto any bills that the Republicans in the Legislature send to his desk. Evers does not want to give the Republicans any wins in an election year. But while the media and the public ignore Evers’ vetoes as the expected result of political gamesmanship, they are whitewashing just how terrible our governor is.
One bill that Governor Evers vetoed would have reshaped the Police and Fire Commissions for Milwaukee and Madison to require employee representation. The Police and Fire Commissions are the civilian boards that govern the police and fire departments. Under current law, all of the commissioners for boards in Milwaukee and Madison are appointed exclusively by the mayors of those cities.
Among other reforms, the bill that Evers vetoed would have required that one member of each board would have had to been selected from a list put forth by the employees of the police and fire departments through their unions. Essentially, the bill would have required that the employees of these organizations have one voice on the boards that govern their organizations. Evers vetoed the bill to make sure that the mayors’ commissions are not forced to listen to their employees.
Another bill that Evers vetoed would have rescinded a very simple regulation to allow rural communities to recruit and retain more people for emergency medical services. After lengthy discussions with rural EMS providers, the Republicans passed a bill to make the National Registry of Emergency Technicians exam optional. This simple deregulation would have removed this barrier for rural EMS providers to recruit medical personnel while still allowing them the tools to ensure quality services. Evers’ refusal to make government regulations a little more flexible means that rural communities will continue to have this barrier that limits their ability to fully staff their emergency services. A third bill that Evers vetoed would have made the age of admission for early grades equal for government and school choice schools. Under current law, a government school can allow a child to enter pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, or first grade if they are younger than the prescribed age through use of an early admission policy. This is very simply to allow children who are ready for the higher grade to join that grade even if they are a little younger than the required age. This is often used for those summer babies who missed the Sept. 1 age cutoff by a smidge but are able to join their peers.
This tool for early admission is not allowed for children who participate in any of the state’s school choice programs. The bill would have permitted choice schools to have the same rules as government schools. Governor Evers is and always has been a passionate advocate for forcing all kids to attend their local government school even if that school is failing them. Evers’ goal is not education. His goal is to ensure that the government school bureaucracy continues to have an endless supply of tax dollars pumped into it.
Perhaps worst of all in this batch of vetoes, Governor Evers vetoed a bill that would have made it easier for law enforcement to prosecute rioters when they tear down our cities. It is not easy to forget how Governor Evers reacted too slowly to the riot in Kenosha as rioters set downtown Kenosha on fire and roiled the city in waves of violence. Kenosha was merely the worst of the riots that plagued other Wisconsin cites and are sure to happen again.
After those riots, it was difficult for law enforcement to hold rioters accountable under current law. Americans love a good protest and to use civil unrest as a means of political action, but there is a line where civil unrest becomes a riot. That line is when people start destroying property and assaulting others. The problem is that Wisconsin law, unlike many other states, does not have a clear definition of what a riot is. The bill that Evers vetoed would have clarified Wisconsin law to define a riot and the penalties for people who participate in a riot.
Evers’ veto of this bill signals that he will continue to tolerate rioters when they burn down the next city. It is part of a pattern of behavior with Evers as he continues to tolerate the everyday criminals who are wreaking havoc on Wisconsin’s cities every day. As crime soars and more people fall prey to violent criminals, Evers looks for more ways to coddle criminals.
Evers’ vetoes remind us of what a terrible governor he is. As long as he is in office, Wisconsin will have no employee representation of PFC boards, fewer EMS personnel for rural communities, dumber kids who are forced to attend schools that are not working for them, and more violent crime. Evers is making his positions clear. Are you listening?
Everyone assumes that Gov. Tony Evers will just veto any bills that the Republicans in the Legislature send to his desk. Evers does not want to give the Republicans any wins in an election year. But while the media and the public ignore Evers’ vetoes as the expected result of political gamesmanship, they are whitewashing just how terrible our governor is.
[…]
Evers’ vetoes remind us of what a terrible governor he is. As long as he is in office, Wisconsin will have no employee representation of PFC boards, fewer EMS personnel for rural communities, dumber kids who are forced to attend schools that are not working for them, and more violent crime. Evers is making his positions clear. Are you listening?
When President Joe Biden was advocating for his American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) early last year, he stressed the urgency of the matter. He said, “We’re in a national emergency, and we need to act like we’re in a national emergency.” Over a year and 7.9% inflation later, Governor Tony Evers is using the ARPA as a gigantic re-election slush fund as he hands out our money in dribs and drabs for maximum personal political benefit.
The $1.9 trillion ARPA was passed by Congress without a single Republican vote and signed by Democrat President Biden. In an economy that was already roaring back to life after the pandemic, many feared that printing another $1.9 trillion and dumping it into the economy would spark inflation that could erase all of the gains made by Americans. Those fears are being realized as I write.
The other fear that many Republicans has was that the ARPA was structured to be a re-election fund for Democrats. Those fears are also being realized. Among other things, the ARPA doled out $350 billion to states and local governments to be spent largely at the sole discretion of the chief executive. Wisconsin received over $2.5 billion to be spent by Gov. Tony Evers. Despite overwrought lamentations by both Biden and Evers about the pandemic emergency, Evers still has not allocated all of that money after more than a year. Far from speeding the emergency money into the pockets of Wisconsinites who were allegedly suffering from the effects of the pandemic, Evers has been hoarding billions of our dollars. Why? He was waiting for it to be closer to the election. Just since the beginning of February, Evers has announced the allocation of over $628 million from the ARPA. Reading through the governor’s press releases, one would think that he was cutting a personal check instead of allocating the taxpayers’ money.
In order to maximize the political benefit, Evers is taking great pains to spread our money around the state. There is $7.9 million for a dental clinic in Appleton, $6 million for a clinic in Tommy Thompson’s hometown of Elroy, a $4.3 million grant for Neenah, $2 million for low-income housing in Madison, $9 million for a Community Outreach and Engagement Center at Beloit College, $119,000 for Prairie du Chien to host a historical celebration, $250,000 for a parking lot for the Paine Art Center and Gardens, and on, and on, and on. It is Halloween and Evers is handing out the good candy that we bought.
Most infuriating is the $50 million that Evers allocated last week as an “investment in safer communities across Wisconsin.” After years of denigrating law enforcement and ignoring the victims of an increasing rate of violent crime — including dragging his feet to quell the violence in Kenosha — Evers is smart enough to read the writing on the wall. Crime is up. The public is angry about it. Supporting law enforcement is a winning issue this year and despite his lengthy history of supporting criminals, Evers is using our money to pretend that he supports law enforcement. It is as insincere as it is deceitful. Evers has not been willing to support policies that would reduce crime or lock up more criminals, but he is willing to throw a blizzard of our own money into our faces in an election year to distract us from his own legacy of supporting criminals.
Does any of this seem like it is reacting to a pandemic emergency? Establishing a pilot program to expand operations of two courtrooms to evenings for one day a week in Milwaukee? $29,640 for a chain link fence in the grandstand area of the Ozaukee County Fairgrounds? $100,000 for the village of Oregon to install public art?
Is this really what pandemic relief looks like? Is this not just government spending that could have been made in 2000 or 2010 or 2030? What emergency are we solving for? Why did this require an inflation-fueling emergency bailout? Or was the American Rescue Plan Act just a re-election fund for Democrats like Tony Evers to use to curry favor with voters in an election year?
While Evers’ actions are transparent, they are also effective. Spreading around taxpayer cash to buy loyalty and support is a time-honored tradition in American politics. It works and Republicans should not underestimate its power. Republicans have already lost once to Evers after underestimating him. They would do well to remember that lesson.
In order to maximize the political benefit, Evers is taking great pains to spread our money around the state. There is $7.9 million for a dental clinic in Appleton, $6 million for a clinic in Tommy Thompson’s hometown of Elroy, a $4.3 million grant for Neenah, $2 million for low-income housing in Madison, $9 million for a Community Outreach and Engagement Center at Beloit College, $119,000 for Prairie du Chien to host a historical celebration, $250,000 for a parking lot for the Paine Art Center and Gardens, and on, and on, and on. It is Halloween and Evers is handing out the good candy that we bought.
Most infuriating is the $50 million that Evers allocated last week as an “investment in safer communities across Wisconsin.” After years of denigrating law enforcement and ignoring the victims of an increasing rate of violent crime — including dragging his feet to quell the violence in Kenosha — Evers is smart enough to read the writing on the wall. Crime is up. The public is angry about it. Supporting law enforcement is a winning issue this year and despite his lengthy history of supporting criminals, Evers is using our money to pretend that he supports law enforcement. It is as insincere as it is deceitful. Evers has not been willing to support policies that would reduce crime or lock up more criminals, but he is willing to throw a blizzard of our own money into our faces in an election year to distract us from his own legacy of supporting criminals.
Does any of this seem like it is reacting to a pandemic emergency? Establishing a pilot program to expand operations of two courtrooms to evenings for one day a week in Milwaukee? $29,640 for a chain link fence in the grandstand area of the Ozaukee County Fairgrounds? $100,000 for the village of Oregon to install public art?
Is this really what pandemic relief looks like? Is this not just government spending that could have been made in 2000 or 2010 or 2030? What emergency are we solving for? Why did this require an inflation-fueling emergency bailout? Or was the American Rescue Plan Act just a re-election fund for Democrats like Tony Evers to use to curry favor with voters in an election year?
While Evers’ actions are transparent, they are also effective. Spreading around taxpayer cash to buy loyalty and support is a time-honored tradition in American politics. It works and Republicans should not underestimate its power. Republicans have already lost once to Evers after underestimating him. They would do well to remember that lesson.
Funny. Of course, I would like a competent, proactive, conservative governor. I couldn’t care less about their gender, race, ethnicity, disability, or hair color. We have a grey man now and he’s a disaster.
Evers also at the event said he wants to see a woman Wisconsin governor, but only after he’s done serving.
While Evers didn’t mention former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, the only woman gubernatorial candidate in the race so far, he said Wisconsin is not short on strong, qualified women who could be the state’s next leader.
“I’m hopeful after my days are done as governor of the state of Wisconsin that we have a candidate that will take that mantle, Republican or Democrat,” he said. “Let’s make it happen.”
Kleefisch, who was not at the event, took to Twitter to respond to the guv’s call.
“Last October, I was proud to announce a $45 million investment into addressing the cycle of violence and crime that for too long has gone uninterrupted. But I said then and I’ll say it again today that violence is not a foregone conclusion. It is not inevitable. There is more we can do, and this is another public health crisis that deserves our attention and our action,” said Gov. Evers. “So, today, we’re building on the investments we announced last fall and investing more than $50 million in grants to support local and tribal public safety agencies, to bolster crime prevention strategies, and to help alleviate the pandemic-related backlog of criminal cases across Wisconsin.
“Today, I’m announcing we’re investing nearly $19 million for local and tribal law enforcement agencies in every corner of the state. Whether it’s training, recruitment bonuses, community policing needs, or technology, these funds will help our local and tribal law enforcement agencies address their community’s specific public safety needs. At the end of the day, folks, from investing in mental health support and diversion to getting folks a fair and speedy trial, to bolstering re-entry programming, we’re going to follow the science and use evidence-based, data-driven strategies to build a safer, fairer Wisconsin for everyone.”
Last week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court handed down its ruling regarding Wisconsin’s decennial political redistricting. The majority of the court decided to adopt the maps drawn by Gov. Tony Evers. While the subject of redistricting puts most voters to sleep and the end result of the ruling is unimpactful for most Wisconsinites, the court’s action sheds a bright light on the state’s befuddling high court and the rank insincerity of politicos everywhere.
The redistricting process happens every decade after the annual census in completed. The purpose of the process is to redraw all of the political boundaries to reflect population changes that have happened since the previous census. Given that the process directly impacts every politician in the state, except those who are elected statewide, politicians get very worked up about it. Almost nobody else cares even though they should.
The rules for redistricting are fairly simple: Draw lines that create political districts that are roughly equal in population, contiguous, and do not discriminate against anyone on the basis of race or other distinctions protected by the United States Constitution. In Wisconsin, the state Constitution also requires that each Senate district contain three Assembly districts and respect municipal boundaries. The politics of redistricting are far more complex.
In Wisconsin, redistricting is done through the regular legislative process. The Legislature meets, listens to public input, gets feedback from constituents, debates, argues, harangues, amends, and eventually passes a bill with the new district lines. From there, the governor either signs the new lines into law or vetoes them. If the Legislature and governor are controlled by different parties, which has happened more often than not in Wisconsin during redistricting years, the result is usually that the governor vetoes the redistricting law and the whole thing ends up in court. That is what happened this time. When the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided to take the case about redistricting, which is their duty, the majority decided to ask interested parties to submit their own maps and the court would pick whichever one caused the “least change.” Through this invented rubric, subsequently tortured into “core retention,” the court chose Governor Evers’ maps. The result is that Wisconsin’s legislative districts still lean heavily in the Republicans’ favor, but not quite as much as if the court chose the maps debated and passed by the Legislature. It is impossible for anyone to draw maps that favor Democrat majorities because the liberals in the state have decided to overwhelmingly live together in a couple of relatively small geographies instead of fanning out across the state to live with people who are not like them.
The ruling by the high court was written by Justice Brian Hagedorn. As the only man on the court, Hagedorn has taken it upon himself to be the court’s fulcrum with three conservative women justices on one side and three leftist women justices on the other. What is impossible to discern is any guiding judicial philosophy by Hagedorn. It is not fair to call him a juridical conservative or a judicial liberal because his decision making is not consistent enough to divine a coherent philosophy.
In reading the decision written by Hagedorn, which I encourage everyone to do, it reminded me of something written by a high school sophomore. His childlike arguments were not rooted in law or precedent, but in his own personal sense of fairness. He whimsically brushes away law when admitting that his invented, “parties struggled with reconciling it (the court’s invented “least change” rubric) with the United States Constitution, Wisconsin Constitution, and Voting Rights Act.” They struggled to reconcile it because it is unreconcilable, yet Hagedorn persisted.
There are two major things wrong with Evers’ maps — one legal and one political. The legal problem is that, as Hagedorn’s ruling explains in great detail, Governor Evers determined district lines based on race. Using race to decide district lines is unconstitutional unless it is done to remedy a previous racial injustice, which no one has alleged. In this respect, Evers’ maps are a clear violation of the 14th Amendment.
When the 14th Amendment was written after the Civil War, it was designed to prevent racist white citizens from bottling up black citizens into a few districts to minimize their political power. Yet, this is precisely what Evers and Hagedorn did. Evers used racial considerations to create one more majority-black Assembly district by diluting black Wisconsinites’ voice in other districts.
The political problem with Evers’ maps is that he created them in the first place. The purpose of using the legislative process to create the maps is to ensure that they receive all of the scrutiny and visibility that the legislative process requires and allows. The Legislature’s maps were created in the light of day, debated, tweaked, and passed. Governor Evers’ maps were created in his office by a group of faceless, nameless people who were probably not even wearing masks.
In a republic where the people are supposed to have a voice, one solitary white man in a black robe has chosen a map drawn by another solitary white man in a gray suit. Nobody else even had a seat at the table. That is not how representative government is supposed to work.
The decision has already been appealed to the United States Supreme Court. In the end, the resulting district lines will matter little to anyone who is not vying for public office, but the process by which we arrive at these decisions matter is we are to preserve our civil rights.
Given that the process directly impacts every politician in the state, except those who are elected statewide, politicians get very worked up about it. Almost nobody else cares even though they should.
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The ruling by the high court was written by Justice Brian Hagedorn. As the only man on the court, Hagedorn has taken it upon himself to be the court’s fulcrum with three conservative women justices on one side and three leftist women justices on the other. What is impossible to discern is any guiding judicial philosophy by Hagedorn. It is not fair to call him a juridical conservative or a judicial liberal because his decision making is not consistent enough to divine a coherent philosophy.
In reading the decision written by Hagedorn, which I encourage everyone to do, it reminded me of something written by a high school sophomore. His childlike arguments were not rooted in law or precedent, but in his own personal sense of fairness. He whimsically brushes away law when admitting that his invented, “parties struggled with reconciling it (the court’s invented “least change” rubric) with the United States Constitution, Wisconsin Constitution, and Voting Rights Act.” They struggled to reconcile it because it is unreconcilable, yet Hagedorn persisted.
There are two major things wrong with Evers’ maps — one legal and one political. The legal problem is that, as Hagedorn’s ruling explains in great detail, Governor Evers determined district lines based on race. Using race to decide district lines is unconstitutional unless it is done to remedy a previous racial injustice, which no one has alleged. In this respect, Evers’ maps are a clear violation of the 14th Amendment.
When the 14th Amendment was written after the Civil War, it was designed to prevent racist white citizens from bottling up black citizens into a few districts to minimize their political power. Yet, this is precisely what Evers and Hagedorn did. Evers used racial considerations to create one more majority-black Assembly district by diluting black Wisconsinites’ voice in other districts.
In November 2020, Governor Evers announced the creation of a $10 million “COVID-19 Pandemic Response Nonprofit Grant Program” to distribute federal COVID relief dollars. This grant program was not established by the Legislature and, further, the Wisconsin Department of Administration failed to follow the legal rulemaking process when establishing standards for grant applications. This is unlawful.
In the years prior to Governor Evers taking office, state agencies routinely followed the rulemaking process for grant programs established by the Legislature.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin: Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin received $1.4 million from the “COVID-19 Pandemic Response Nonprofit Grant Program” and $1 million in February 2022 from the “Equitable Recovery Grant Program.” The grants to Planned Parenthood in 2020 and 2022 reveal more legal problems than those outlined by the failure to follow state law on rulemaking.
Criteria established by the Wisconsin Department of Administration for applicants to the Nonprofit Grant Program bar entities that “have received funding from another CARES Act program.” Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin received CARES Act funds from the Paycheck Protection Program – violating the terms of the Wisconsin DOA grant.
The February 2022 “Equitable Recovery Grant” of $1 million to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin does not have the CARES Act funding restrictions. But this grant, like others, runs up against a state law that prohibits “federal funds passing through the state treasury as a grant” awarded “wholly or partially or directly or indirectly” to a pregnancy program that (1) “provides abortion services,” (2) “promotes, encourages or counsels in favor of abortion services,” or (2) “makes abortion referrals.” Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin meets all of the above criteria, making each of these grants unlawful.
WILL is requesting more information from Governor Evers to determine what legal authority the administration is relying on to make grants that appear to be unlawfully created, unlawfully administered, and allocating federal funds through to an entity that state law has established explicit and clear prohibitions.
MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers announced today that he has granted another 30 pardons, bringing his total number of pardons granted to 337 during his first three years in office. Gov. Evers has now granted more pardons during his first three years in office than any governor in contemporary history.
MADISON – Democratic Gov. Tony Evers offered a plan Wednesday to repeal a tax on businesses even though he vetoed legislation to do just that less than two months ago.
Republicans who control the Legislature called the move hypocritical. Evers said he was offering a better plan to end the state’s personal property tax than the one he vetoed, which he has said was drafted in a “haphazard” fashion.
“This legislation will continue our efforts to support businesses and families as they bounce back from the pandemic while ensuring our local governments have the aid they need to remain whole,” Evers said in a statement.
Republican Sen. Duey Stroebel of Saukville, a longtime backer of the effort to end the personal property tax, said the way Evers rolled out his plan “has all the hallmarks of political cover and not serious legislating.”
Bob’s story is the kind of story happening all over America and in Wisconsin in cities where politicians and activists are tearing down civil order. Under the destructive belief that crime is a symptom of social ills in which the criminals are the greatest victims, the leftist push for deincarceration, no bail release, decriminalization, record expungement, and, most recently, defunding the police is rotting the core out of America’s cities.
The crime issue is not about the criminals. It is about the victims. It is about the vast majority of good people who get up every day, follow the rules, go to work, raise their children, volunteer in their neighborhoods, and write out their story in the history of their community. These are the people who suffer when criminals are loosed to savage cities. These are the Bobs who are the heart and soul of their cities and are being forced to consider leaving their beloved cities to the free-range criminal horde.
These are the people who Governor Tony Evers forsook when he vetoed the “Fund the Police” bill passed by the Legislature. In a move to push back against the “defund the police” movement, the bill would have simply reduced state aid to local governments that choose to defund their police by the same amount and redistributing the money to other local governments. While it would not have prevented local governments from defunding their police, it would have discouraged it and prevented state taxpayers from subsidizing local government leaders who are actively turning their communities over to criminals.
Wisconsin needs strong cities, but no amount of money or public policy can fix a city that has been eviscerated by crime. When the social fabric is rended and civil order collapses, the good people that Wisconsin’s cities need to thrive will simply leave. All that will remain is a wasteland of missed opportunity.
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week:
Gov. Tony Evers has made it clear through his veto actions that he wants as many people to continue to receive unemployment benefits for as long as possible despite the abundance of available jobs in the state. A report last week from the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau demonstrates just how poorly Evers’ Department of Workforce Development is serving the people
When the pandemic first took hold and the government forced hundreds of thousands of people into the unemployment line, the wave of people crashing into the unemployment system was unprecedented. We learned last September just how badly the DWD handled the crisis.
At the height of the unemployment crisis, only 0.5% of the calls placed by the DWD were being answered. The DWD failed to respond in any meaningful way. They maintained their normal business hours and the call center was only open for 39.58 house per week until late May when it slightly extended its hours.
The performance of Evers’ DWD during the governmentimposed unemployment crisis was so bad that even Governor Evers seemed to admit the failure when he forced the DWD secretary to resign last September. One might have taken such an action to indicate that Evers was finally becoming a competent leader and would fix DWD to serve the people of Wisconsin.
Unfortunately, if there is anything that Tony Evers has shown throughout the entirety of his elected career, he is not a competent leader. Spurred by complaints to the state’s Fraud, Waste, and Mismanagement Hotline, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau investigated multiple allegations that the DWD’s administration of unemployment insurance program was still suffering from delays and mismanagement. The hotline reports included many issues including delayed payments, call center wait times, insufficient assistance, and the failure to comply with state statutes and federal program requirements.
The LAB found that the issues with the call center’s effectiveness were consistent with their findings in January. Based on the continuing complaints, the DWD still has not corrected for the issues even though they have been continuing for over 15 months.
The LAB also dove into the data regarding the DWD complying with certain federal requirements and found that the DWD was woefully out of compliance. One of the requirements imposed by the federal government as a condition for the state to receive funding for the unemployment insurance program is the DWD is required to provide a prompt appeals process for individuals who are denied unemployment benefits. The federal rules require that the state issue appeal decisions for 60% of appeals within 30 days and for at least 80% within 45 days.
The DWD met that standard until May of 2020. Beginning in June 2020, the DWD fell to less than 50% of appeals decided within 45 days. That temporary failure to comply was understandable given the crush of unemployment claims at the time. Unfortunately for Wisconsin’s unemployed, the DWD’s appeals process steadily worsened to the point that as of May 2021, only 17.5% of appeals were decided within 45 days and only 10.2% were decided within 30 days.
The LAB’s report cites one example of how poorly DWD is managing appeals. In September of 2020, a Wisconsinite filed an appeal after being denied unemployment benefits. The DWD did not schedule an appeal hearing until March of 2021 — 26.5 weeks after the appeal was filed. The hearing partially reversed the denial, but then DWD dragged their feet again and did not issue a payment until May of 2021. For this unemployed Wisconsinite, it took almost nine months for the DWD to fix its incorrect denial and make it right. That is an unconscionable delay that has real consequences for the people on the other end of the DWD’s apathy.
Wisconsin’s unemployment crisis has long-since ended. The state is now facing an employment crisis where there are more jobs available than people willing to work them. But if Governor Evers is going to insist that Wisconsinites continue to receive unemployment payments even when there is work available, the least that one should be able to expect is that his DWD would competently run the program. Unfortunately, competence is too high a bar for this governor to meet.
“For 52 years, Kathy and I haven’t missed a State Fair—except for last year, of course—and we’ve shared some of our favorite memories here, including eating our fair share of Wisconsin cream puffs,” said Gov. Evers. “Getting shots in arms is a critical part of making sure our state and our economy continue to recover, so we’re thrilled to partner with the folks at DHS and the Wisconsin State Fair to provide cream puffs to all those who get their COVID-19 vaccine at the state fair clinic on-site this year.”
Let me get this straight… Evers is very concerned that people who are not vaccinated will catch and/or spread the virus. So he invites the unvaccinated to come to a massive public event, get a shot, and then wander around before the shot will be effective. Won’t that spread more virus? Shouldn’t he be encouraging the unvaccinated to stay away and get vaccinated BEFORE they go to events like this? Instead, he is encouraging more unvaccinated people to attend the State Fair than might otherwise attend.
Unfortunately, if there is anything that Tony Evers has shown throughout the entirety of his elected career, he is not a competent leader. Spurred by complaints to the state’s Fraud, Waste, and Mismanagement Hotline, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau investigated multiple allegations that the DWD’s administration of unemployment insurance program was still suffering from delays and mismanagement. The hotline reports included many issues including delayed payments, call center wait times, insufficient assistance, and the failure to comply with state statutes and federal program requirements.
The LAB found that the issues with the call center’s effectiveness were consistent with their findings in January. Based on the continuing complaints, the DWD still has not corrected for the issues even though they have been continuing for over 15 months.
The LAB also dove into the data regarding the DWD complying with certain federal requirements and found that the DWD was woefully out of compliance. One of the requirements imposed by the federal government as a condition for the state to receive funding for the unemployment insurance program is the DWD is required to provide a prompt appeals process for individuals who are denied unemployment benefits. The federal rules require that the state issue appeal decisions for 60% of appeals within 30 days and for at least 80% within 45 days.
The DWD met that standard until May of 2020. Beginning in June 2020, the DWD fell to less than 50% of appeals decided within 45 days. That temporary failure to comply was understandable given the crush of unemployment claims at the time. Unfortunately for Wisconsin’s unemployed, the DWD’s appeals process steadily worsened to the point that as of May 2021, only 17.5% of appeals were decided within 45 days and only 10.2% were decided within 30 days.
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week.
A few weeks ago, Governor Tony Evers held back Wisconsin’s economic recovery by vetoing a bill that would have ended the federal enhancement for unemployment benefits early. Last week, Governor Evers compounded his putrid decision by launching another wasteful donothing economic development government program with the taxpayers’ money.
The data coming out of other states continues to show the foolishness of Evers’ veto of the bill to end enhanced unemployment benefits early. The principle is very simple. If you want people to do more of something, then pay them more to do it. In this case, the federal government, in a moment of misguided altruism, is sending money to states to pay people more money to stay out of the workforce.
The economy is groaning out of the government-enforced recession in fits and spurts with some sectors roaring and others continuing to struggle. One of the most pressing problems in many sectors is that employers throughout the country are struggling to find workers to fill their open jobs. With an unemployment rate of 3.9% and a labor participation rate of 66.3%, most of Wisconsin’s employers are having the same problem.
For the states that ended enhanced unemployment payments in early June, they saw a 33% decline in new jobless claims compared with 4% in states that are still paying people more to not work, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Those states that withdrew in late June saw a decline of 12%. Those that withdrew in July saw a decline of 10%. Every week counts when it comes to economic recovery. Even better, the labor participation rate in those states that withdrew in June increased by 0.25%. People are getting back to work faster in those states and more people are reentering the workforce. Evers’ decision to keep the enhanced federal unemployment payments through September will keep Wisconsin’s economy dragging behind other states.
As a tacit acknowledgment of his damaging veto, Evers announced last week that he would spend $130 million in federal COVID relief funds for workforce development to help with the worker shortage.
Of those funds, $100 million will be spent on a “workforce innovation grant program to encourage regions and communities to develop leading-edge, long-term solutions to the workforce challenges the state faces.” In other words, a bunch of unelected government bureaucrats are going to hand out your money to groups and businesses that can meet whatever version of “solutions” meets the liberal definition of “leading-edge.” Expect that money to go to things like green energy and education initiatives that are run by people who give money to Democrats.
$20 million of your money will go to subsidize “employment and skills training opportunities with local employers.” The remaining $10 million will for to “provide workforce career coaches.” This money will be used to pay people to teach unemployed people how to work as if it is the responsibility of the taxpayers to pay to train people to work.
There are already dozens of programs like this in every community in Wisconsin, but Evers seems to think that one more will do the trick. The fact that he is spending tens of millions of dollars that will be doled out at his administration’s discretion is a convenient political advantage the year before he seeks reelection.
With all of this spending, however, Evers admitted that the impact will not be felt any time soon – if ever. Speaking to reporters in Green Bay last week, he said that the initiatives “will be a fall enterprise.” While Wisconsin’s employers are struggling right now, Evers jumps to the rescue with a plan that will not even begin until the trees take on their autumnal hues.
In these two decisions we see the liberal mind of Tony Evers at work. Faced with a worker shortage that is retarding Wisconsin’s economic recovery and causing irreparable damage to many Wisconsin businesses, he vetoes the partial solution that would have had immediate effect and saved taxpayer money in favor of dumping $130 million of taxpayer money into the pockets of political allies for a solution that might begin to help sometime next year. In Evers’ calculation, spending taxpayer money to purchase political favor is more important than solving the state’s problems.
As a tacit acknowledgment of his damaging veto, Evers announced last week that he would spend $130 million in federal COVID relief funds for workforce development to help with the worker shortage.
Of those funds, $100 million will be spent on a “workforce innovation grant program to encourage regions and communities to develop leading-edge, long-term solutions to the workforce challenges the state faces.” In other words, a bunch of unelected government bureaucrats are going to hand out your money to groups and businesses that can meet whatever version of “solutions” meets the liberal definition of “leading-edge.” Expect that money to go to things like green energy and education initiatives that are run by people who give money to Democrats.
$20 million of your money will go to subsidize “employment and skills training opportunities with local employers.” The remaining $10 million will for to “provide workforce career coaches.” This money will be used to pay people to teach unemployed people how to work as if it is the responsibility of the taxpayers to pay to train people to work.
There are already dozens of programs like this in every community in Wisconsin, but Evers seems to think that one more will do the trick. The fact that he is spending tens of millions of dollars that will be doled out at his administration’s discretion is a convenient political advantage the year before he seeks reelection.
With all of this spending, however, Evers admitted that the impact will not be felt any time soon – if ever. Speaking to reporters in Green Bay last week, he said that the initiatives “will be a fall enterprise.” While Wisconsin’s employers are struggling right now, Evers jumps to the rescue with a plan that will not even begin until the trees take on their autumnal hues.
Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week.
I hate group projects. How many times have you heard that statement or uttered it yourself ? When a group project involves a group of people voluntarily coming together to achieve a common goal, they can be terrific. But more often, group projects like those in school entail a hodgepodge of people with different motivations, varying work ethics, and suspect integrity who are thrown together to accomplish an assigned task.
Every group project seems to have “that guy.” You know the one. He’s the lazy slacker with a bad attitude. He shows up to the first couple of meetings for the group project. He offers a thought or two, but they are terrible. He then proceeds to bash everyone else’s ideas before retreating to sulk for the rest of the project. He doesn’t contribute anything meaningful and disappears for days or weeks at a time. The rest of the group gives up on him and finishes the project without him.
When the project is presented and is well received, that guy is suddenly everywhere. He is taking credit for the work and acting as if every great idea were his. With shameless audacity, that guy shoves his colleagues out of the way to bask in unearned adulation for work that was not only someone else’s, but that he actively maligned. In the great state budget group project, “that guy” is Governor Tony Evers, and his budget project teammates in the Legislature are justifiably piqued at his behavior. When Governor Evers first proposed his budget in February, it included a massive 12% spending increase that needed a tax increase of $1 billion to support it. Evers argued that Wisconsin needed to tax and spend more than ever in order to fund, “the future we dream.” Several weeks ago, the state announced that unprecedented tax collections would potentially result in a massive surplus in tax revenue in the state’s coffers. Governor Evers was quick to trumpet that every dollar of that surplus should be plowed into even more government spending. For his entire tenure in office, Evers has advocated for more taxing and more spending at every turn.
As the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee finished its work on the budget a month ago, the Republicans included a $3.3 billion tax cut. Not a single Democrat on the committee voted for the tax cuts. Instead, the Democrats lambasted the tax cuts as a missed opportunity and a sop to the rich.
When the final budget that included those tax cuts was passed by the Assembly, only four Democrats voted for it. In the Senate, only three Democrats voted for the final budget. Democrats slammed Republicans for passing tax cuts with Democrat Senator Chris Larson going so far as to accuse Republicans of, “kicking the dust in the faces of our kids.”
Yet after all of the scorn and derision that Evers and the Democrats threw at Republicans for cutting taxes, Evers was first to step to the front of the class and claim credit for them. When he signed the tax-cutting budget (after reducing the tax cuts with his veto pen), Evers took credit while declaring, “I’m providing more than $2 billion in tax relief and cutting taxes for middle-class families at a time when our economy and families need it most.”
Gone were the lamentations about not spending money. Absent was any acknowledgment that Evers had actually proposed a tax increase in his budget. Missing was a hint of credit for the Republicans who actually wrote and passed the budget that included the tax cut. Even though Evers vociferously opposed cutting taxes every step of the way, he was quick to take credit for them when they proved popular.
In every possible way, Governor Evers is “that guy.” After his initial budget proposal that included a tax increase, he sulked in the corner and threw insults at Republicans as they crafted a real budget. When the work was done and included really popular things like a huge tax cut, Evers took credit for the good work. He did not even have the common decency to admit that he opposed the tax cuts or give credit to the people who did the hard work to include them.
Just like when Evers was caught multiple times plagiarizing the work of others during his tenure as the state school superintendent, Evers has demonstrated again that he has no scruples about taking credit for the work of others when he thinks it will serve his personal ambitions. His inability to give even a little credit to others or admit when he was wrong reveals an insecure man of poor character. He is the guy that nobody ever wants on their group project.
