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By Keegan Kyle and Brandon Raygo Voters all across the communities and neighborhoods in the Madison Metropolitan School District widely supported the district’s two referendums this month that will raise property taxes for decades. (more) But in the affluent village of Maple Bluff, on the eastern shore of Lake Mendota, voters expressed more aversion to hiking taxes […]
Stephen L. Miller In the final month of the 2024 election, the national media existed in another solar system from the country for whom is tasked at reporting accurate, unbiased and truthful information. The final month started with Jeffrey Goldberg and the Atlantic attempting to regurgitate their anonymously sourced “suckers and losers” hit against Trump from 2020. […]
Corrinne Hess Voters in 137 school districts were asked to approve increased funding for schools. A preliminary analysis by the Wisconsin Policy Forum found 107 referendum questions passed, while 30 failed. Ari Brown, a researcher with the Policy Forum, said the outcome is better than expected, but shows that overtime school district have gotten better […]
Kayla Huynh: “We are spending more revenue than we have to spend,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said. “We have a lot of work to do. Regardless of the outcome next Tuesday, we have to have some strategic direction moving forward.” “We need to be sustainable. There’s no doubt about this,” he added. “It’s frustrating to have […]
Abbey Machtig: “We are spending more revenue than we have to spend, therefore we are going to be spending one-time (reserve) funds …” Gothard said Monday. “We have a lot of work to do. Regardless of the outcome next Tuesday, we have to have some strategic direction.” Notes and links on the Fall $600,000,000+ 2024 referendum, […]
Abbey Machtig: Student/adult ratio for the school construction projects included in the referendum: Orchard Ridge 3.92 Toki Middle School: 4.84 Gompers Elementary: 4.56 Black Hawk Middle: 4.24 Anana Elementary: 4.5 Crestwood elementary: 4.78 Sherman Middle: 4.0 Shabazz City High: 4.0 Cherokee Middle: 4.96 Sennett Middle: 4.64 Notes and links on the Fall 2024 referendum, here. […]
Dave Cieslewicz: And, of course, all of the underlying reasons to send the school board a message about their priorities and their performance are still very much there. This is a district with some of the lowest test scores and some of the highest absenteeism rates in the state, a district where the racial achievement […]
Judith Davidoff & Liam Beran: Soglin opened the news conference at the Park Hotel noting that the room contained an array of “unconnected” folks who are “connected by their concern for the city.” Audience members included former Alds. Nino Amato, Dave Ahrens and Dorothy Borchardt; Lisa Veldran, who led the city council office for 30 […]
WILL: A calculator with current and future property taxes – notwithstanding other, ongoing assessment and mill rate increases. Much more on Madison’s well funded K-12 $607,000,000 Fall 2024 tax & $pending increase referendums, here. More. A summary.
Wisconsin State Journal: But taxpayers deserve a more detailed accounting of how the extra $100 million would be spent. The district has been increasing staff despite flat enrollment and a projection for declining enrollment. Moreover, it already has a higher concentration of teachers and staff — one employee for every 6.4 students — than surrounding […]
Nicholas Garton and Danielle DuClos If the referendum next month passes, one proposal estimates a homeowner with a property value of $457,000 would pay about $3,330 in taxes to the city — a $313 increase from the current year. If the referendum fails, the other budget proposal estimates the same homeowner would pay around $3,100 […]
Liam Beran: As part of her answer, Pellebon said that “‘affordable housing’ is not affordable.” The audience of around 40 people erupted into applause. The reaction at the Sept. 19 forum reflects just how expensive and inaccessible housing has become in Dane County, Wisconsin’s second-largest county. The county’s severe housing shortage has forced action from a state flagship university […]
Abbey Machtig: Of those 13 successful referendums, Madison residents still are paying for five of them. If voters approve two proposals from the district in November that together total $607 million, that number would jump to seven. Voters already have authorized the district to increase its spending limit by $72 millionthrough recurring, operating referendums approved during […]
Abbey Machtig: More referendum money would pay for an estimated $15 million increase in health care costs, and for new teaching and mental health staff. An additional pay increase for district employees also is tied to the operating referendum. The district and Madison Teachers Inc. already agreed to a 2.06% wage increase, in addition to […]
Abbey Machtig Last school year, the food and nutrition department used $1.5 million from the district’s general education fund to cover expenses. Another $2.9 million is set to be transferred this school year. “Those are dollars that we now don’t get to dream with in many ways,” School Board President Nichelle Nichols said Monday night. […]
Paul Fanlund: It is all about the many thousands of people who theoretically may want to live here one day. Who knows, by the time they all get here, the city might have become considerably less appealing. Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government are seeking substantial 607M+ tax and spending increases via referendum this […]
Wisconsin Policy Forum Gross property tax levies approved in 2023 by local taxing jurisdictions in Wisconsin increased by 4.6% statewide, which exceeded inflation and was the largest increase since 2007. —- Madison offers voters a $607,000,000 tax & spending increase on the November ballot… Close some Madison schools, and a no on the November Referendums […]
Dave Cieslewicz And the district’s argument in favor of what seems like madness? Enrollments may turn around some day. But that’s unlikely for two reasons. The first is that fertility rates are down and enrollment declines are an issue for districts all over the country. In addition, the COVID pandemic resulted in an increase in […]
Dave Zweifel: I remember writing a column a couple of years after the pool opened chiding a group of Madison alders who, during budget deliberations, were upset that the pool’s admission charges didn’t cover 100% of its annual costs. My column declared that a city that had just been given a first-class swimming pool for […]
David Blaska summary: Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government are seeking substantial 607M+ tax and spending increases via referendum this fall.
Chris Rickert: Fitchburg is allowed a 3.847% increase to its levy, the city said in the news release, which would bring the levy to about $32.6 million. A successful referendum would bump that increase to 11.01% and the levy to about $36.2 million. Baraboo… Madison’s well funded k-12 system and city government are seeking substantial […]
Abbey Machtig: The district administered a survey and held a series of input meetings earlier this year, which indicated mixed opinions from the public on referendums for this fall. That was before the School Board voted to place the questions on the ballot, and before the district shared the exact dollar amounts of the proposals and the […]
Liam Beran: In an interview after the meeting, Soglin said that he was opposed to the referendum. “It’s unnecessary,” he said. Soglin believes that the city should close this year’s budget gap using its rainy day fund and lobby the state Legislature next year for sales tax authority and increased payments for municipal services for state properties […]
Abbey Machtig: The two referendums total $607 million, making them the second-largest request of voters by a school district in state history. It comes in behind Racine’s $1 billion school referendum, which passed in 2020 by only five votes Lucas Robinson and Gayle Worland “Residents in Madison are likely looking at a higher cost of living across […]
CTUP: The Democrats are mighty nervous about Trump’s latest idea to stop the unfair taxation of Social Security benefits. Why? Because it turns out the policy is popular with voters over the age of 65. Unleash Prosperity’s lead piece in Fox Business this weekend notes that seniors who continue to work after they’re eligible for […]
Danielle DuClos: Child care in Wisconsin can cost more than college and eat up 18% to 36% of a family’s median household income, according to a report last year by the nonpartisan research group Forward Analytics. Statewide, providers are struggling with staffing after losing a quarter of workers in the last decade as demand for care remains […]
Lucas Robinson: At a crossroads in the struggle to balance Madison’s budget, the city will either rely on $22 million from a property tax referendum or $6 million in cuts to city services, according to two versions of a five-year budget unveiled by Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. Rhodes-Conway is touting the referendum plan as a long-term […]
Lucas Robinson: At a crossroads in the struggle to balance Madison’s budget, the city will either rely on $22 million from a property tax referendum or $6 million in cuts to city services, according to two versions of a five-year budget unveiled by Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. Rhodes-Conway is touting the referendum plan as a long-term […]
Abbey Machtig Administrators are recommending Sennett Middle School and Cherokee Heights Middle School be replaced with new buildings. The same goes for several combined schools that share the same location: Shabazz City High and Sherman Middle; Black Hawk Middle and Gompers Elementary; Toki Middle and Orchard Ridge Elementary. The district would also renovate Anana and […]
By: A.J. Bayatpour State education officials said Friday administrators for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) knew the district was facing a reduction in state aid as early as late March. Those adjustments from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), now estimated to be somewhere between $35 million and $50 million, will make up for overpayments MPS previously […]
By: A.J. Bayatpour State education officials said Friday administrators for Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) knew the district was facing a reduction in state aid as early as late March. Those adjustments from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), now estimated to be somewhere between $35 million and $50 million, will make up for overpayments MPS previously […]
Abbey Machtig: Past spending decisions combined with current revenue estimates leave the district with an estimated $40 million shortfall, Assistant Superintendent of Financial Services Bob Soldner told the Wisconsin State Journal. District could renovate, build new schools The district appears to be leaning toward building several new schools with potential referendum dollars rather than renovating […]
By: Jenna Wells “Talk to the people who are paying for the referendum,” Spiker said. He also wants to see a 25% reduction in their $252 million referendum. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce is calling for a full suspension. “The Milwaukee Public School Board needs to immediately announce that they are not moving forward […]
Jessica McBride & Jim Piwowarczyk State School Superintendent Jill Underly’s executive director, the powerful leftist ex=campaign operative Sachin Chheda, donated to the committee working to push through a $252 million Milwaukee Public Schools referendum at the same time DPI was failing to tell the public that the district had not turned in key financial data as far […]
Allison Garfield: The 2024 operating budget — which mostly goes toward staff salaries and benefits — totaled $405.4 million. Adding on to that seems like reckless spending to Randy Bruegman, a former fire chief in California who moved to Madison in 2018. The city’s focus “should be on identifying areas where cuts can be made,” […]
Abbey Machtig So far, feedback on the referendums has been mixed, with some residents supporting funding operational costs and smaller building renovations. But district administrators said others were unsure about the feasibility and cost of a 20-year referendum. About 60% of survey respondents said supporting the district to invest in a 20-year facilities referendum was either a […]
Zac Schultz: Here’s the amount Fort Atkinson receives from property taxes: The school district could promise a $6.5 million increase for the next three years wouldn’t raise taxes because they’d already increased their levy by $7 million the year before to prepay an old construction loan. It’s called defeasance, and it’s one of the only […]
WILL: The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) released its latest report, Piercing the Fog: Shedding Light on School District Referenda in Wisconsin, which uncovers various transparency problems with Wisconsin’s referendum process that costs taxpayers millions of dollars every single year. The report also calls for significant reform to Wisconsin’s referendum process to give […]
Abbey Machtig For many Wisconsin school districts, the spring primary election was a last-ditch effort to patch their growing budget holes and fund new construction with referendum dollars. While 62 school referendums passed statewide this spring, proposals from four Dane County districts on the April 2 ballot failed. These districts now face tough budget cuts […]
Corrinne Hess: Wisconsin voters were asked to approve more than 100 school district referendums in February and April. But with an approval rate of only 60 percent, voter fatigue appears to have set in. Voter approval rates of school district referendums hovered around 50 percent for most of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Starting […]
WTMJ: @WTMJSteve was joined by @SenStroebel and @JacobJCurtis and they discussed the response. Listen to the full Political Power Hour: wtmj.com/political-powe… —- More.
Debbie Kuether Be sure to watch all 15 parts of the Aisha Carr deposition. Very Different than her recent media appearances.
Rory Linnane: When Milwaukee Public Schools turned to city voters for more funding in 2020, it was smooth sailing. The dynamics are different this year as the district asks voters for more funding April 2. The 2020 referendum passed with 78% of the vote, providing the district with up to $87 million in annual funds as […]
WILL: Recently, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) proposed a $252 million annual referendum that will raise taxes on those in the city in perpetuity. The question will be put to voters on the April 2 ballot. The district claims that, without the passage of the referendum, a 13% cut in schools and a 26% cut in central office […]
Rory Linnane: At the same time, the biggest reason funding for MPS has dropped, the report says, is that MPS doesn’t have as many students as it used to. That’s partly because there are fewer children in the city, and partly because of the growth of non-MPS schools, like independent charter schools and private schools […]
Wisconsin policy Forum: Join us Friday, March 22, for our popular virtual event series, Forum Friday! This installment will focus on the April 2 referendum that will ask city of Milwaukee voters whether the Milwaukee Public Schools should be allowed to exceed state revenue limits by $252 million annually after a phase-in over four years. […]
John Schlifske Imagine that there is a barber or salon where you’ve been going to get your hair cut for years. However, over time the quality of the haircut has been declining. A few years ago, the owner told you he was increasing prices so that he could invest in his store and do a better job. You […]
City Forward Collective: Milwaukee’s vitality hinges on a robust K-12 school ecosystem — and that includes a thriving Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). However, recent announcements from the School Board paint a daunting picture — a projected budget shortfall exceeding $1.2 billion over the next five years, including a staggering $200 million gap looming for the […]
Abbey Machtig: The Madison School District is in the middle of two referendums approved by voters in 2020. The $317 million capital referendum has gone toward building a new elementary school and funding significant high-school renovations. The smaller operating referendum gave the district an additional $33 million to work with over four years. Despite this […]
Scott Girard: The work at La Follette, led by Findorff Project Engineer Courtney Cates, features a new gym, weight room and “athletics entry” space that includes concessions and a trophy case. That entry area will also feature pieces of the wood floor from the current spectator gym, which will be turned into classroom space, and […]
Scott Girard: The one that stands out to Findorff Senior Project Manager Peter Saindon, who is overseeing the project, was a pack of cigarettes stuck in concrete from the original construction. “I don’t know if the cigarettes (are) in it or not but just we’re looking at it like, ‘That had to have been 100 […]
Luke Berg: The District’s “Fact Sheet,” under the “How much will it cost?” section, put the following statement in bold and a separate box, indicating that this was the net effect voters needed to know: “A levy rate increase of $.13 would equate to $13 for a $100,000 home and $26 for a $200,000 home.” […]
In Wisconsin, approximately 83% of school referendums were approved yesterday, totaling $1.7 billion. The ten largest approved referenda are shown below–including one in Waunakee for $175 million. pic.twitter.com/nxjy4YownG — Will Flanders (@WillFlandersWI) November 9, 2022
Wisconsin Policy Forum: Despite the highest unemployment rate on record earlier this year and the absence of tens of thousands of students from school buildings since March, unofficial results show Wisconsin voters approved school referenda this month at near record rates. The results speak particularly loudly given that they happened in a high-turnout election and […]
Christian Britschgi: The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the service sector, made millions unemployed, and forced many of us who still do have jobs to work remotely. Fortunately, we now have a perfect solution to all this economic dislocation and disruption: a new tax on working from home! This week, the German financial giant Deutsche Bank […]
Luke Templeman: For years we have needed a tax on remote workers – covid has just made it obvious. Quite simply, our economic system is not set up to cope with people who can disconnect themselves from face-to-face society. Those who can WFH receive direct and indirect financial benefits and they should be taxed in […]
Scott Girard: With wide margins of success on recent ballot measures, the Madison Metropolitan School District’s $350 million questions were almost certain to pass ahead of Tuesday’s ballot count. Four years ago, the district’s operating question won by a 74.2% to 25.8% margin, while a capital referendum the year prior passed with 82.2% of voters […]
Scott Girard: Immediately, the operating referendum approval means district officials can implement the “passing referendum budget,” which includes $6 million in extra funds. That will go toward initiatives including early literacy, Black Excellence and a slight base wage increase for staff. The School Board passed two versions of the 2020-21 budget Oct. 30, one for […]
Chris Rickert: “There’s no room for dialogue. There’s no room for compromise,” he said. “It’s happening across the country. It’s not just Madison.” Every single day I am proud that I refused an endorsement interview with this trash ass publication. Omg, they really just are unapologetic piece of shit excuse for journalism. And don’t come […]
Samara Kalk Derby: Mark Paradise made the tough decision to close Sunroom Café on State Street, even though, at age 67, he said, he had a least two more good years to give it. That was also the number of years he had left on his lease at the sunny, second-floor restaurant at 638 State […]
Jordan Weissman: Seven months into the coronavirus crisis, the states with the most severe unemployment in the country all seem to have one thing in common: They vote blue. In September, just eight states had jobless rates that were significantly higher than the nation as a whole, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each […]
Kelly Meyerhofer: Facing a coronavirus-induced “budget crisis” that exceeds $300 million, UW-Madison announced on Monday another round of furloughs and pay cuts for the first six months of 2021. “We are not out of the woods yet,” Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a message to the campus community. “The pandemic will affect UW into 2021 and […]
Progress Times: According to a new analysis of public data by Texas 2036, almost 250,000 students, representing four percent or more of all Texas students, are missing from Texas schools, and only two out of every five Texas students are receiving in-person instruction. Based on a review of new data from the Texas Education Agency and […]
Katy O’Donnell: Because the crisis has hit some places and industries much harder than others, it’s difficult to get a clear, big picture of the market’s troubles — one reason lobbyists have struggled to convey the urgency to policymakers. Some assets have been wiped out, while others are thriving. Hotels and retail, which together make […]
cbpp: More than 4 in 10 children live in households that struggle to meet usual household expenses, our analysis of Census Bureau data released today finds. Along with other data showing that hardship has significantly worsened due to COVID-19 and the recession that it spurred, the figures underscore the need for policymakers to agree on […]
Wisconsin Policy Forum: As we noted in our first Madison budget brief last year, Wisconsin’s capital city relies heavily on a single source of revenue – local property taxes – that is limited by state law. Because of these restrictions, the proposed budget would increase 2021 property taxes on this December’s bills by one of […]
Lindsay Christians: “It’s not an economic environment or a political environment for a business like mine to stay open,” Warnke said. “The government can’t get its stuff together. We can’t control the pandemic, and it’s getting worse in Wisconsin. I’m looking at it, going … this might be the right time to gracefully exit, before […]
Stefan Sykes: The number of Americans living in poverty grew by 8 million since May, according to a Columbia University study, which found an increase in poverty rates after early coronavirus relief ended without more to follow. Although the federal Cares Act, which gave Americans a one-time stimulus check of $1,200 and unemployed workers an […]
Madison LaFollette High School Saturday, 17 October 2020. 2020 Madison School District Tax & Spending Increase Referendum: David Blaska: Another election is approaching, which means the Madison school district has its hands out for more money. Time to do like Sister Mary Rosaria and slap that hand with a steel-edge ruler! The Madison Metropolitan School […]
Lauren Hepler: Exit California is emblematic of a growing number of online relocation companies marketed heavily on social media. They target prospective transplants who skew white, right and over age 30, though renters post alongside members in the market for million-dollar houses. Between photos of tidy brick facades, crystal-clear pools and recommended moving truck routes, […]
Philip Sprincin: What has San Francisco done with this wealth? Not much. The Municipal Transportation Agency (“Muni”), which runs the busses and metro, has struggled with failure after failure this year. The housing shortage in the city is so bad that it is driving people to live in cars and even boats. Homelessness is up […]
Elizabeth Beyer: Enrollment in the Madison School District has dropped by more than 1,000 students for the 2020-2021 school, the district said Friday. The decrease in enrollment is significant compared to the previous school year when the district lost only 33 students between 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The drop in enrollment could spell trouble for district […]
This postcard arrived in the mail recently: . . Yard signs supporting the 2020 tax and spending increase referendum have also begun to appear around Madison. . The signs include a website address: yes2investmsn.org. People and organizations mentioned on the website include: Julianna Baldo MMSD Student Zach Brandon President of the Greater Madison Chamber of […]
Joel Kotkin: “No Bourgeois, No Democracy” – Barrington Moore Protecting and fighting for the middle class regularly dominates rhetoric on the Right and Left. Yet activists on both sides now often seek to undermine single-family home ownership, the linchpin of middle-class aspiration. The current drive to outlaw single-family zoning—the one protection homeowners possess against unwanted […]
Foundation for Madison Public Schools [Board] recently spent funds on a pro 2020 Tax & Spending increase referendum Facebook advertising campaign. The advertisement. The advertisement includes a reference to https://yes2investmsn.org The Foundation for Madison Public Schools lists $9,011,063 in assets at the end of 2019 (!) via FMPS’ IRS Tax Form 990 “Return of Organization […]
Jack Goldstone & Peter Turchin: Almost three decades ago, one of us, Jack Goldstone, published a simple model to determine a country’s vulnerability to political crisis. The model was based on how population changes shifted state, elite and popular behavior. Goldstone argued that, according to this Demographic-Structural Theory, in the 21st century, America was likely to get […]
AnnaMaria Andriotis: Until mid-March, Alysse Hopkins earned a comfortable living in Rockland County, N.Y., representing clients in foreclosure cases and personal-injury lawsuits. In a good year, the 43-year-old lawyer and her husband, Ian Boschen, 41, together brought in about $175,000, the couple said—enough to cover the mortgage, two car leases, student loans, credit cards and […]
Logan Wroge: The district has made it a priority to bring an elementary school to the racially diverse neighborhood where most students need to take long bus rides out of the area to attend Allis Elementary on the Southeast Side. About 450 elementary students live in the neighborhood bounded by the Beltline to the north, […]
Yihyun Jeong: Nashville could run dangerously low or “run out of cash altogether” just from the public confusion surrounding a referendum effort to repeal the city’s property tax increase, warns Metro Finance Director Kevin Crumbo. Crumbo’s remarks were made to Metro Council’s budget committee Monday, hours after Mayor John Cooper and other city leadership went on the […]
Yelp: The restaurant industry continues to be among the most impacted with an increasing number of closures – totalling 32,109 closures as of August 31, with 19,590 of these business closures indicated to be permanent (61%). Breakfast and brunch restaurants, burger joints, sandwich shops, dessert places and Mexican restaurants are among the types of restaurants […]
Scott Girard: The $317 million ask is among the largest in the history of the state, according to state Department of Public Instruction data. It is surpassed only by Racine’s barely approved $1 billion question in April, which won by five votes, and Milwaukee’s $366 million 1993 question that failed. [New Madison elementary school would […]
: Reschovsky and his colleagues predict Madison will see a 2021 revenue shortfall of between $55 million and $86 million. This is a lower-than-the-average percentage than other central cities but still significant. “One of the takeaways with respect to Madison is that relative to the 150 cities, Madison is going to be hurt less at […]
Charlotte Edmond: Germany’s largest trade union, IG Metall, is proposing its members call for a four-day week to offset economic pressures heightened by the pandemic. The proposal has had a mixed reception, with the German labour minister open to the possibility, while others are fundamentally opposed. The idea of a reduced working week has already […]
Logan Wroge: An advocacy group of Black leaders is opposing the Madison School District’s $350 million ask of taxpayers this fall, arguing the proposals are under-developed and the district hasn’t done enough to support African American children to get their endorsement on the two November ballot referendums. In a statement sent to some media members […]
Jeffrey Tucker: What becomes of government credibility in the post-lockdown period? There are thousands of politicians in this country for whom this is a chilling question, even a taboo topic. The reputation of government was already at postwar lows before the lockdowns, with only 17% of the American public saying that they trusted government to […]
Chris Hubbach: After a spring of pandemic lockdowns and a summer of uncertainty as coronavirus infections surged, working parents with school-age children now face what could be a year of online schooling, presenting a buffet of bad options. Sacrifice earnings and career advancement to stay home. Hire a nanny, if you can afford it. Lean […]
Steven Elbow: The coronavirus pandemic has a lot of people feeling boxed in. But for Michelle Possin it opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. Before the COVID-19 crisis, the 54-year-old recruiter for TASC, a Madison-based administrative services company, spent half her time at home and the other half in the office. But now […]
Binyamin Appelbaum: In Columbus, Ohio, judges have relocated eviction hearings to the cavernous halls of the city’s convention center, to ensure there’s plenty of space for the grim business of throwing families onto the street. In New Orleans, piles of personal belongings on sidewalks — “eviction cairns,” in the haunting phrase of Sue Mobley, a […]
Scott Girard: Options at the new school under the recommendation would include designating it as a Community School — the district has four of those now — or creating specific programming like social-emotional learning, social justice or environmental education. Other ideas could still be added to that list as the planning process continues. Teachers have […]
Oregon State University: A new study from Oregon State University found that 77% of low- to moderate-income American households fall below the asset poverty threshold, meaning that if their income were cut off they would not have the financial assets to maintain at least poverty-level status for three months. The study compared asset poverty rates […]
Daniel Greenfield: The police aren’t policing and the teachers aren’t teaching. While many vital services aren’t functioning, the useless machinery of the bureaucracy grinds on with no one to pay for it. Locked down businesses don’t generate revenues and the unemployed aren’t a tax base. Tax revenues in New York City fell 46% in June. […]
Mike Antonucci: Students of civics might think the California state budget is crafted by the elected representatives of the citizenry, who debate and amend proposals working their way through various committees, ultimately leading to a spending plan with majority support and the signature of the governor. All that happens, of course, but no budget makes […]
Elle Reynolds: As the White House and House and Senate leaders continue trying to decide how to distribute more deficit spending on items tagged “coronavirus,” Democrats have come under fire for pushing a $137 billion tax break for the wealthy. The proposal, which was also part of a 1,800-page bill the Democrat-led House passed in […]
Benjamin Purvis: One of the world’s major credit-rating companies fired a warning shot regarding the U.S.’s worsening public finances on Friday, just as lawmakers in Washington contemplate spending more to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on the country’s credit score to negative from stable, citing a “deterioration […]
Logan Wroge: The Madison School District will spend close to $500,000 out of the $8.2 million the district estimates it will receive from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to shore up its mathematics instruction for elementary and middle school students. Using CARES Act money, the district plans to: • Purchase […]
Logan Wroge: The Madison School District is eligible for up to $3.9 million. It’s the only district in Dane County that is eligible for money from this specific pot in the CARES Act. Costs continue to grow for local, state and federal taxpayers in the K-12 space, as well: Let’s compare: Middleton and Madison Property […]
Rebecca Martinson: Every day when I walk into work as a public-school teacher, I am prepared to take a bullet to save a child. In the age of school shootings, that’s what the job requires. But asking me to return to the classroom amid a pandemic and expose myself and my family to Covid-19 is […]
Alicia Adamczyk: Full-time minimum wage workers cannot afford a two-bedroom rental anywhere in the U.S. and cannot afford a one-bedroom rental in 95% of U.S. counties, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual “Out of Reach” report. In fact, the average minimum wage worker in the U.S. would need to work almost 97 hours per […]
Lucia Mutukani: “The numbers also verify that many people are leaving, or planning to leave, big cities as telecommuting becomes the norm for many businesses.” Housing starts increased 17.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.186 million units last month, the Commerce Department said. The percentage gain was the largest since October 2016. Data […]
Scott Girard: If approved, the district would be able to exceed the revenue limit by $6 million in 2020-21, an additional $8 million in 2021-22, another $9 million in 2022-23 and finally another $10 million in 2023-24. The referendum would allow the district to surpass the revenue limit by that total of $33 million in […]