Sen. K. Vinehout's blog

“We really need concerned citizens to be our eyes and ears,” wrote DNR Storm Water Specialist Ruth King in response to citizen complaints about frac sand mines. “I am only a half-time employee and cannot be everywhere at all times.”

Ms. King’s appeal was reported in an article written by Kate Prengaman of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism who closely follows the growing sand mine industry.

“Nearly a fifth of Wisconsin’s 70 active frac sand mines and processing plants were cited for environmental violations last year,” wrote Prengaman. She quoted Air Management Specialist Marty Sellers who said he sent letters of noncompliance to “80 to 90 percent” of the sites he visited.

The DNR’s limited resources means some frac sand mines are not inspected or only inspected when citizens complained about the mine.

“There’s a heck of a lot of things they didn’t tell me when I signed on,” admitted the chief of the Governor’s lead jobs agency during a recent hearing before the Joint Committee on Audit.

Reed Hall, CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), spent several hours grilled by Audit Committee members. He agreed troubles existed but insisted WEDC was on a new track with plans to correct problems. Later in the hearing two lawmakers with experience as business executives provided solutions.

“I voted for WEDC and thought it was a good idea,” said Senator Tim Cullen, a former insurance executive. “Taking the best practices of the private sector and using them in WEDC was a good idea.”

“What’s happening to the UW reserve money?” the woman asked. She was concerned about criticism of the University of Wisconsin. “It seems like they want to attack the UW,” she told attendees at the Mondovi Town Hall Meeting.

A recent memo from the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) and the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) revealed nearly a billion dollars in what appeared to be reserve funds carried over from the last budget year.

Legislative leaders reacted by calling for a freeze on UW tuition. Other lawmakers want to cancel the promised $181 million increase to the UW. University officials cautioned most of the money was obligated to student financial aid or support of high demand programs like business and engineering. They say unrestricted does not mean uncommitted.

Nothing was clear except the UW’s so-called “unrestricted net assets” took a big increase in the past few years.

“Pardon my tardiness,” I told the crowd gathered at a Town Hall Meeting. “I spent 20 minutes stuck in the mud.” Rural folks nodded in understanding. Spring has turned many unpaved roads into mud.

Stuck in the mud is an apt metaphor for Wisconsin state finances.

Debts and deficits; GAAP and gaps; bonding and borrowing; all these terms make it hard to follow what’s happening with the state’s fiscal health.

Wisconsin cannot run a deficit. Unlike the federal government, every budget must be balanced. But what exactly does that mean?

Join me at a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the state budget. The two-year budget affects you in ways you may never have imagined.

There’s almost $70 billion in spending in this budget. The economy’s slowly improving; more money is coming in from taxes and fees. This budget spends about $3.2 billion more than the last budget

“This is the worst budget in over 30 years,” the Chippewa Valley Superintendent told me. “We’ve had worse spending cuts, but not a wholesale change in policy.”

Educators worry a dramatic increase in public money for private schools will threaten already cash-strapped local schools. The proposed state budget makes statewide a “voucher program” in which students from “failing” public school districts attend private schools with public money.

Private schools do not follow the same accountability measures as public schools. They do not report test scores, follow state curricular standards, nor do they receive the recently required public school report cards.

The Governor proposed a $78 million expansion of vouchers to school districts with at least 4,000 students and at least two schools that are near failing or failing on the school report card.

Critics fear the increased voucher program will drain money away from public schools’ resources and cause an increase in local property taxes. 

“Foster parents are special saints,” the Eau Claire woman told me. “They take troubled children and help them have a loving family.”

“I wish I had taken a shop class,” I told the high school student, “As a farmer, it would have helped me a lot more than the sewing class I took instead.”

Back when I was in school, before the Age of the Dinosaurs, young women didn’t take ‘shop class’. Today, schools don’t even call it ‘shop’. And women cannot only take the classes, they teach them.