Even Matt Veldran can't ignore the people forever. After an intensive grass roots campaign to shame this arrogant county board supervisor, Veldran has finally placed the RTA commuter rail referendum on the Public Works Committee agenda. That committee meets Tuesday, August 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Room 351 of the City County Building.
At least 12 communities have already scheduled referenda of their own and more are considering doing so. My analysis is that Veldran couldn't stand the heat and The Kathleen wants to get ahead of those communities.
B.S. ALERT: Most of those communities enacted language that relieves them of the responsibility of holding their own referenda if the county holds one. We have to be on guard that The Kathleen, McDonell and Veldran don't substitute their own language for the straightforward language introduced by Supervisors Bill Clausius and Don Imhoff.
"Shall commuter rail from Middleton to the Town of Burke be funded by a half-cent (0.5%) increase in the sales tax?"
This is the language enacted by the dozen or more communities. Accept no substitutes! No weasel words. No "depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." No mumbo-jumbo.
I intend to deliver that message in person Tuesday afternoon. See you there!
Big Education, Big Gambling
The top two lobbyists in Madison are big-time supporters of Democrats: the teachers and the Indian gambling lobbies. So says the Government Accountability Board, which released these numbers for the first half of the year. Watch this: Ed Garvey won't make a peep!
1. Wisconsin Education Association $2,143,588
2. Forest County Potawatomi Community $1,916,892
3. Wisconsin Insurance Alliance $957,802
4. Altria Client Services Inc. $840,206
5. Wisconsin Hospital Association $819,671
6. Wisconsin Medical Society $697,296
7. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce $680,055
The trust factor
Mark McKinnon in The Daily Beast packs more facts into a smaller space than a frequent flyer in coach while explaining why voters will hand the GOP a crushing victory in November:
Unemployment is at 9.5 percent, there are 3.3 million fewer jobs than there were in January 2009, and bankruptcy filings have reached the highest level since 2005. The only sector growing is the government. Average compensation for Federal employees is now more than double that of private-sector workers. Sustenance programs for the poor are being raided to pay for public union jobs. And government is growing more invasive, controlling everything from light bulbs to lemonade stands.