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City
council agrees with KPOW demands
Over 200 people demonstrated on June 15th in opposition to
privatizing Milwaukee’s water works at a City Hall rally.
The Milwaukee Common Council’s Steering and Rules Committee
agreed with the KPOW coalition (Keep Public Our Water) and
voted to put on hold a proposal to hire an advisor to help
the city solicit corporate bidders for a 99-year lease of
the Milwaukee Water Works. While today’s action will
temporarily stall the effort to privatize Milwaukee’s
drinking water, aldermen have made it clear that the proposal
may very well resurface, perhaps soon.
Hundreds
rally in Madison for school-funding reform
Several hundred people showed up in Madison, Tuesday, to
deliver a message to state government loud and clear: Enough
is enough. It’s time to change Wisconsin’s school-funding
system.
People from all over the state came together for the 10th
anniversary of the Walk on the Child’s Side, an event
first held in June of 1999 to draw attention to the effects
of the way the state funds public education. At the time,
walkers left Butternut and covered the 240 miles to Madison
to build support for funding reform.
Between 300 and 400 school board members, parents, students,
and educators walked from the University of Wisconsin Library
Mall to the State Street entrance to the Capitol for a brief
rally. The highlight of the noon event was the appearance
by a handful of legislators that resulted in an ovation from
the crowd.
» For more coverage of the Walk on the Child’s
Side, click
here
There was a short presentation about the impact
of state revenue decisions on local communities and schools
and the magnitude of the state budget deficit and proposed
cuts and revenue increases.
This was the first legislative forum sponsored
by the South Shore Citizens for a Prosperous Future which
is composed of a politically diverse group of business, labor
and religious leaders, local elected officials and retirees.
Both
residents and legislative leaders weighed in about ways to
preserve strong public structures and prevent increases in
local property taxes and fees. Ten revenue alternatives were
presented and there were frank answers to the following questions:
What, if any, revenue options on the handout
do you like more than cuts affecting
the community?
What, if any, revenue options on the handout
do you like less than cuts affecting
the community?
IWF seeks moratorium on
all tax breaks in the legislative pipeline
The Legislature should immediately stop work on the thirty
or more new or expanded tax breaks already introduced this
session.
There are two reasons for halting action on these proposed
tax credits, deductions and exemptions:
1. Given the budget crisis, it makes no sense to cut state
revenue. Some of the proposed tax breaks may be sensible proposals,
but with the huge cuts proposed in state services, this is
not the time to enact new breaks.
2. The nonstop proliferation of tax breaks over the past twenty
years has not only riddled the state tax base with holes,
but has led to an enormous increase in the complexity of Wisconsin’s
tax code and tax forms.
As anti-government groups gathered to protest taxes on April
15, IWF pointed out the ironic fact that tax costs are down
for most Wisconsin residents while vital services continue.
2009
is a good year for most taxpayers.
Gar Alperovitz inspires Milwaukee progressives
Gar Alperovitz (right) explains the need to gradually
reconstruct the current economic system while WEAC's
Ted Kraig and Attorney Sandy Edhlund look on.
Professor Gar Alperovitz, a notable writer and national leader
in the progressive movement, visited Milwaukee April 3 to
meet and talk to community activists and thinkers. Thanks
to support from Professor Marc Levine and the UWM
Center for Economic Development, Alperovitz spent the
day in Wisconsin. He presented to over 35 people at a breakfast
in the Milwaukee Public Market. He was also interviewed by
Cassandra Wilson and Joel McNally on WMCS radio and by Mitch
Teich for the Lake Effect program on WUWM Public Radio.
Alperovitz is the author of Unjust Deserts
and America Beyond Capitalism. He
believes that the current economic system is severely dysfunctional
with almost half of all the financial wealth in the United
States held by 1% of the population and an economic downturn
that hasn’t yet hit bottom. “We currently have
a haphazard, corporate-run system, but it could be a democratic,
community-run system without limiting innovation or profits.
There are thousands of employee-owned firms, neighborhood
corporations, municipal enterprises, state investment strategies
exploding at the grass roots level all over the nation,”
according to Alperovitz who posits that these new forms of
community-based development set the stage for a more democratic
and prosperous future. Alperovitz has established a website
— http://www.community-wealth.org/
—that serves as a clearinghouse for projects emerging
across the country pointing. For more information, see http://www.garalperovitz.com/.
Funding-reform
plan unveiled
The School
Finance Network, a coalition of nine statewide education
groups, just released its long-anticipated reform plan around
the state. For details on the plan and how to get involved
in the campaign to enact it, go to www.sfnwisconsin.org
Both
residents and legislative leaders weighed in about ways to
preserve strong public structures and prevent increases in
local property taxes and fees. Ten revenue alternatives were
presented and there were frank answers to the following questions:
