A Bad week for the taxpayers of WI!

Someday we might actually have a republican party that is fiscally conservative instead of one that just plays pretend. Unfortunately this week is not that time. While there is much uncertainty if this bill will stop any voter “fraud”, one thing is certain:

First off, despite widespread opposition, the republicans are getting set to pass their \"Stop Wisconsinites from Voting Act\".this will cost the taxpayers of Wisconsin alot of money!

Wisconsin’s bill, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, would cost more than $5.7 million to implement. The measure would require voters to use a driver’s license, state ID, military ID, passport, naturalization papers or tribal ID at the polls. Student IDs would be allowed, but would have to include a current address, birthdate, signature and expiration date. Currently no college or university ID used in the state, including UW-Madison, meets those standards.

Secondly, Wisconsin was shut out Monday in its bid for $150 million in federal money to upgrade the Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line. This money, which was originally in the high speed rail money that the Governor turned down before he was sworn in. Shortly after the Governor turned it down(to appease the right wing hate radio shock jocks), he asked for it back, but the Obama administration said no. Scott Walker’s incompetence on these two issues alone will now cost the taxpayers of Wisconsin at LEAST $156 million and probably more.

Maybe one day soon, the Republicans will focus on actually creating jobs in the US! In the meantime tighten your belt, because we know who will shoulder this burden also!

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13 thoughts on “A Bad week for the taxpayers of WI!

  1. VOTER ID works successfully in other states and will work just fine here, and I still laugh out loud when you call it high speed rail when in fact the the drive from Madison to Milwaukee in a car would have been 3x faster than by rail. As for the Dumbo administration in DC now playing childish games with tax payer money, no real surprise there.

    1. I have repeatedly complained about the term high speed rail…I want true high speed rail to connect the major cities in the Midwest…

      Voter ID is a sham.

    2. Tell me, Notalib, exactly how many states have voter photo ID laws? I know the answer, but do you? Because if you knew the answer, you’d also know that the laws in those states haven’t been on the books long enough to prove one way or another that they have any effectiveness at all.

  2. how exactly does Voter Id work successfully in other states?

    when you give it back and then want it again who exactly is playing childish games?

  3. What about the Dumbo administration at Notalib’s house playing childish games on the internet? Anyone surprised?

  4. And add to the nearly $6 million cost to implement the law the probable tens of millions of dollars it will cost you and me, the taxpayer, for the state to defend this travesty in court. And to what end? Folks, voter fraud is already illegal. I’ll take a page from the gun lobby when I say, how about we enforce the laws that are on the books first before we infringe the rights of our fellow citizens. Works for them.

  5. The best way to prove its effectiveness nota would be to show us all of the massive voter fraud in the state and the need for it.

    I’ll wait for that link.

  6. Less than 30 incidents found during the 2008 Presidential General election despite Attorney General JB Van Hollen’s very careful over site of the election.

  7. More bad news for Wisconsin taxpayers. But I can understand why they refuse to pay their fair share

    State prison and health workers in Wisconsin continue to rack up big bucks in overtime, with more than 160 of them getting a salary boost of $25,000 or more in overtime over 2010, according to a Wisconsin Reporter analysis of state payroll data.

    Two of those workers earned a whopping six figures in overtime — overtime that alone amounts to about double the median household income in the state.

    And one state worker got enough overtime to make the list of the 10 highest paid employees in the state at nearly $365,000 in total pay.

    Despite a decrease in overall overtime spending in the taxpayer-funded Wisconsin state work force since the Legislative Audit Bureau reviewed state agencies’ use of overtime in 2008, overtime remains a reliable payday for many state workers. The LAB is scheduled to release a follow-up audit this spring.

    The state paid employees almost $52.8 million for overtime in 2010 — the equivalent of 1,200 workers making the average state salary.

    To put it another way, Wisconsin’s overtime tab is about the same as the budget as the state’s Environmental Improvement Program, which pays for wastewater facility construction and cleaning up contaminated lands.

  8. Nota you really are good at spouting the talking points. We had the same “problem” in Madison where some bus drivers made very good salaries approx$150k/yr and everyone was “outraged” then you look at it and see that they were driving almost 80 hours a week and getting so much overtime because Madison had not hired enough drivers.

    1. There are certainly situations where they can be penny-wise & pound foolish. My understanding of the Madison issue was that they used to have somebody (maybe more than one) paid to be on site, on call to cover when a driver called in sick. To the politicians & outside observers, on the face of it, paying somebody who ends up sitting and doing nothing some portion of the time looks awful, so they forced an end to that practice. As a result, when they either have to call in somebody or have somebody pull a double to cover, they end up paying over time & in aggregate, it cost more money than just paying somebody regular time. Obviously it depends on how often those situations arise – neither approach is always right or always wrong.

      But I’m guessing my takeaway from that is different than most here. It illustrates why many/most of these things should not be part of the workplace rules in collective bargaining. That sort of thing shouldn’t be something negotiated between the union heads and politicians in many cases, they’re too far away & looking for too universal of a solution when the best approach can vary significantly from place to the next. These are exactly the kinds of decisions that should be made as locally as possible – by the local management structure with input from the workers.

  9. true Locke i agree completely. i was just responding to Nota using a situation for political purposes when he has no idea whats really happening. We are still dealing with it in Madison because people make snarky comments about how much the bus drivers make to this day, even though 98% of them just make a decent living, the paper played it up like they were all millionaires.

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