Sex-predator treatment costs $141,400 per year
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, May 20, 2013
In 1993, when Wisconsin joined other states and enacted the law to commit Sexually Violent Persons about to be released from prison or a juvenile detention facility, there was no way of predicting treatment costs as high as they are today.
Garbage collector’s son makes mark at Capitol
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, May 6, 2013
In recent events in the state Capitol, Rep. Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield, has twice referred to growing up as the son of a Chicago garbage collector and Teamsters Union member.
Circus World fighting plan to be under Historical Society tent
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, April 29, 2013
Circus World Museum’s cash-flow problem has triggered this emotional debate: Should the Circus World Museum Foundation that has run it, and whose members have raised money and written personal checks to keep it afloat for about 54 years, continue to do so? Or should the historical treasure in Baraboo be run by the Wisconsin Historical Society?
Lang’s numbers run state Capitol
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, April 22, 2013
Whatever the May numbers on state finances show, they will be delivered—as they have been since 1977—to state lawmakers by Bob Lang, director of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau and the senior financial adviser to state legislators in the nation.
Schultz-Marklein primary will reveal future of GOP
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, April 15, 2013
Rep. Howard Marklein’s announcement that he will run for fellow Republican Dale Schultz's 17th Senate seat was surprising, coming 17 months before a potential primary. But it freed Marklein to raise as much campaign cash as possible from third-party conservative groups, starting now.
Capitol debate looms on abortion
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, April 8, 2013
There are so many different proposals swirling in the state Capitol that it’s too soon to know which ones Republicans will agree on, and either try to add to the 2013-15 budget or pass separately.
Stealth lobbying for Medicaid expansion
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, April 1, 2013
Just like health care groups in other states with Republican governors, the Wisconsin Hospital Association and Wisconsin Medical Society are quietly lobbying for some of the $4.4 billion in extra Medicaid dollars the federal government is offering the Badger State.
Gov. Walker flirting with presidential bid
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, March 25, 2013
During a visit this month to a rally in Washington, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker did all he could to make sure his name stays on all lists of Republicans who might run for president in 2016.
Help wanted in Wisconsin: Workers with 'middle skills’
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, March 18, 2013
On his Internet site, Gov. Scott Walker is blunt: “By 2018, 66 percent of Wisconsin’s 3.2 million jobs will require a high school degree or above, but below a bachelor’s. Despite that, only 25 percent of high school seniors want to attend a technical school.”
Exactly two years ago, Capitol chaos erupted
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, March 11, 2013
Two state Capitol reporters, Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, nicely summarized the 2011-12 political tsunami that swamped Wisconsin in their new book, “More Than They Bargained For.”
Contradictions infiltrate Gov. Walker’s budget
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, Feb. 25, 2013
The governor wants voters who will decide in November 2014 whether he deserves a second term to remember that he cut their income taxes, even if it creates a budget deficit only months later.
Recall controversies got attorney Haas promoted
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, Feb. 18, 2013
Michael Haas, new elections administrator for the Government Accountability Board, has three chapters in his career, and residents of Milton and Edgerton might remember parts of Chapter 2.
Have a go at your own state Build-A-Budget
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, Feb. 11, 2013
The state's estimated $419 million surplus and the $328 million expected growth in tax collections gives you—the Build-A-Budgeteer—about $747 million to spend next year. How will you spend it?
State has other ways to pay for highways
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, Feb. 4, 2013
Ideas the Transportation Finance and Policy Commission considered and rejected are important because the tax-and-free package it did endorse is the Capitol’s newest pinata. Everybody is taking a swing, trying to destroy it.
Walker may find many ways to slash state’s income tax
By STEVEN WALTERS - Monday, Jan. 28, 2013
Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican who leads the Assembly, Speaker Assembly Robin Vos of Burlington, say the tax cut should go to “middle class” taxpayers with taxable incomes of between $20,000 and $200,000 a year. Democrats say anyone with a taxable income of $200,000 isn’t “middle class,” but they can’t vote against a tax cut.
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