Up Front: Closed Meeting Budget

The budget was passed by both houses after extended private negotiations among the leadership and individual members. In this segment of Up Front, Jay Heck, executive director for Common Cause Wisconsin, complains about the lack of openness and transparency in this process. See the video here.

I expect many legislators would argue that open meetings stifle the negotiation necessary to reach agreement on complex issues, such as the budget. Legislators need to give as well as get and public meetings make that difficult. The result might well be stalemate rather than transparency.

Others, such as Common Cause, would say that is exactly the problem. The private deals are not defensible on their own merits, and so can only be agreed too when the public is banned from watching. Or to put a conservative spin on it, the growth of government comes from the unwillingness of legislators to ever give up "goodies" and both earmarks and protected programs are the consequence. This holds whichever party is in control because the constituent pressures are so strong when it comes to local benefits.

My question: would "real" open meetings resolve anything? Would private deals just move to other venues (cell phone calls?). Are private goods given to individual legislators the necessary lubricant for legislation? And consider the alternative: Could a member of the Wisconsin legislature win election and reelection by consistently refusing to deal for projects or policies that are particularly beneficial to their districts? Should they try?

Up Front: Gov. Doyle's Job Rating and GOP Opportunity

Up Front's second story of the week. Governor Doyle's job approval ratings have fallen and two polls produced opposite results for trial heats against Scott Walker and Mark Neumann. Where does this polling put the Governor for a 2010 reelection campaign? What opportunities does this present to the GOP challengers? See the video here.

Let's take a look at Gov. Doyle's job approval ratings that are behind the comments on Up Front. First, overall approval and disapproval:

The amazing bit of this chart is how approval peaks just in time for the reelection in 2006. Up to the fall of 2006 the Governor's net approval was negative. It was the campaign that boosted him, whether through the quality of his campaign, a failure of Mark Green's campaign, or national pro-Democratic forces. Since the reelection, however, Gov. Doyle's approval has stayed in net-negative territory, converging only for a moment in late 2008 and since then plunging.

The decline in approval has come among both independents and Democrats. Republicans have never had a high opinion of the governor. But the drop among Dems as well as inds should be worrisome to the reelection staff.

As the story says, this opens an opportunity for the GOP, but it is one they have to find a way to exploit in the campaign, not one they can take for granted. Likewise, the Governor can campaign on handling difficult situations which in 2006 at least the public was willing to accept, even after the very difficult budgets of 2003-2004.

Question: How would you frame the campaign for either Doyle or the GOP? What is the strength for Doyle and what is the weakness for the GOP?

Up Front: Drunk Driving Legislation

This week's Up Front has three worthwhile features. First is the prospects for change in Wisconsin drunk driving laws. See the video here.

This is an interesting problem because law enforcement and public health are on one clear side but popular culture and economic interests are on the other. It is tough for any politician to challenge both popular culture and economic interests at the same time no matter how devastating the consequences of drunk driving. The two legislators, Rep. Jeff Stone, R-Greendale, and Rep. Josh Zepnick, D-Milwaukee, give a good perspective on the status of the legislation and the difficulties in passing it.

If you've not been reading it, you should look over the Journal Sentinel series on drunk driving and its consequences. I was disappointed that the series didn't win the JS a Pulitzer this year.

Questions: Is it a reflection of good democratic representation that our legislature is NOT passing this legislation? Assuming a popular culture that approves of excessive drinking and wants mild penalties for driving drunk, should democratically elected politicians support this public preference, even if the cost is several hundred often innocent victims killed per year?

States Turning to Last Resorts in Budget Crisis - NYTimes.com

States Turning to Last Resorts in Budget Crisis - NYTimes.com

Not news to anyone here, but the discussion (and the chart) of how states are coping with their budget problems is very interesting.

As I asked in an earlier post, how might we account for the variation in approaches to the budget crisis? The chart shows how many states have tried different things, but obviously there is a lot of variation. Why?

And a second question, which states have been hardest hit and which have escaped relatively lightly. Why the variation? Is it all economic or are there political differences across the states that also affect how states have been affected?

Up Front on the State Budget

The June 14th show featured a discussion of the budget with a variety of perspectives. Worth watching here.

How can the state raise sufficient revenue to pay for services while not discouraging business investment in the state or individual incentives? Do policies that encourage businesses benefit the citizens generally or do they provide private gains primarily to company owners? Should the state subsidize business in either case?

The left argues that state services must protect the needy and provide valuable public goods, such as health care, education and environmental protection. How can the left provide revenue for such policies when the growth in costs outstrip the growth in revenue sources? Is it possible to base taxes on out of state interests (e.g. gas companies) to shield state taxpayers? Or can minority interests (e.g. smokers, who make up only 22% of Wisconsin citizens) be taxed at high rates while majority interests (e.g. sales or general income taxes) are shielded?

"Interest Groups" dominate lobbying at the capital. The also provide the bulk of campaign contributions. There is much talk of limiting that influence by public financing of elections. But these groups also represent crucially important constituencies in the state-- teachers, manufacturers, construction companies, agriculture, taverns (<;-) ). When is an interest group a "special" interest, and when does it represent a critical component of the state's economy and population which deserves to influence legislation? How would state government look if legislators were free to ignore all interest group activity? Would representative government be better, worse, or essentially the same?

Democrats in Legislature split over capital gains tax break - JSOnline

Democrats in Legislature split over capital gains tax break - JSOnline

This split between the gas tax versus capital gains is quite interesting. The current split is between Democrats, rather than between the parties. Why?

What are these revenues for? Are they targeted to fund particular functions? Which?

What policy change was adopted several years ago that helped create the problem with funding this function?

How should particular functions be funded? Should the revenue be directly linked to the function or should all functions be paid for from the entire revenue pool?

Compare this with the traditional use of property taxes for K-12 education. How has education funding evolved over time? With what conseqences?

Democrats in Legislature split over capital gains tax break - JSOnline

Democrats in Legislature split over capital gains tax break - JSOnline

This split between the gas tax versus capital gains is quite interesting. The current split is between Democrats, rather than between the parties. Why?

What are these revenues for? Are they targeted to fund particular functions? Which?

What policy change was adopted several years ago that helped create the problem with funding this function?

How should particular functions be funded? Should the revenue be directly linked to the function or should all functions be paid for from the entire revenue pool?

Compare this with the traditional use of property taxes for K-12 education. How has education funding evolved over time? With what conseqences?

GOP nearing brink of generation gap - JSOnline

GOP nearing brink of generation gap - JSOnline

This is a good treatment of the partisan generation gap, including comment from Wisconsin's Rep. Paul Ryan.

What factors make it difficult for Republicans to appeal to 18-30 year olds?

Does Obama's success with that group mean that a generation has now been permanently won over to the Democratic party or can this change? FYI: Ronald Reagan won the youth vote very strongly. Young voters don't always go to the Dem or liberal side-- historically they go with whichever party is ascendent at the time. Does then mean the current pessimism about Republican chances with the young is overstated?

State budget deal bought with earmarks - JSOnline

State budget deal bought with earmarks - JSOnline

"Earmarks" have become a favorite topic of attack in DC and perhaps at home too. Why is that? Consider first why earmarks are so important to individual legislators. Consider second why legislators think attacking earmarks is good politics in light of your first consideration.

Recession pounds states' budgets

Recession pounds states' budgets

Not that this is news to anyone, but here is a round up of the situation in the states.

See also the details offered here:



How does Wisconsin compare?

Do any common trends emerge across states? If so what? If not, why are states adopting different approaches?