The MacIver Report: Wisconsin This Week

It was a disappointing, but all too predictable, start to the state budget writing process last week. The Joint Committee on Finance began by tossing the governor's $120 billion budget proposal – choosing instead to use the current budget as its starting point. The current $100 billion budget. In other words, they don't plan to cut anything. Current spending is now locked in – and throughout the executive hearings this month, committee members will just be adding to the pile. How much more do they plan to spend? Well, that will depend on the new tax revenue estimates that are scheduled to come out this Thursday. Sen. Marklein wants to increase spending on public education and healthcare. He says the estimates will determine how high they can go. It would have been nice to see the committee start the budget at $0 and make every agency and program justify all its funding. Instead, it's just business as usual in Madison, and no one can say they're very surprised.

Bill and Michael walk you through three of the top issues playing out in Wisconsin state politics right now from a free market perspective. Get the latest lowdown on: the state budget debate, Democrat immigration enforcement opposition, and Democrat lawfare. Budget Stories: JFC Bosses Look to Evers-proof Next State Budget Schoemann: We Need to be Honest About Size, Cost of UW System JFC Democrats slam Republicans for Slashing Evers' Budget Budget Analysis: MacIver's Guide to the 2025-27 State Budget Budget '25: Transportation Analysis Budget '25: Children and Families Analysis Immigration: Wisconsin's Liberal Leaders Stand Against the Rule of Law Gov. Evers: "I've Never Encouraged or Directed Anyone to Break any Laws” Make No Mistake: Hannah Dugan is a Criminal | Video | MacIver The Mantra of Due Process Lawfare: Wisconsin A-G Joins Another Lawsuit Against Trump Administration

One of the secret perks of being governor is the ability to take foreign vacations on the taxpayer dime. Oh sure, officially they're called “trade missions,” and their purpose is to promote Wisconsin products overseas, but their results are nothing to write home about. Evers' first big trip was to Japan in 2019. Of course, he took his wife. There were 28 people in the delegation all together. Since then, total annual exports from Wisconsin to Japan have dropped 11%. That's $83 million a year. Agricultural exports even worse. They've plummeted by 35%. Evers choose Europe for his second vaca- trade mission. That was two years ago. He visited Belgium, a fast-growing market for Wisconsin goods – at least it was until Evers' visited. Since then, exports have dropped by 15%. Now, Evers just got back from a third trip. This one was to Germany, another hot market for Wisconsin goods. We'll see if it stays that way now that Evers stopped by to shake hands.

Mike gives an update on MacIver's research about Wisconsin's utility companies, their owners, and their efforts to expand their monopoly in Wisconsin. Also, against the backdrop of Germantown's controversial TID project, Bill gives a couple quick lessons for local officials on how TIF is supposed to function and where local revenue actually comes from. Finally, a story that should send shockwaves throughout society barely registered as blip on most people's radar. What it says about our culture that no one cares that the government is sterilizing people based on their income level.

If you make less than $48,000 a year, the state of Wisconsin will pay to have you sterilized. You heard that right. The state of Wisconsin actually has a program that sterilizes poor people. It's all part of the department of health services' family planning only services program, which falls under medical assistance. Apparently, this has been going on for the past 40 years. It flies below the radar because DHS never mentions it in its budget requests – and the department doesn't really keep track of it either. When the MacIver institute asked for the costs and participation numbers in its sterilization program, DHS said the records were buried its database and could not be easily retrieved. So, sinister and unaccountable. The whole idea of sterilizing poor people harkens back to progressive era eugenics programs, that sought to improve the gene pool. Wisconsin banned the practice back in the 1970s, but apparently, progressives simply rebranded it as “family planning.”

Wisconsin Republicans are coping with their Waterloo moment (losing the Supreme Court in the April 1st election) by doubling down on crony capitalism. They're rebranding the toxic ROFR bill as the Wisconsin Energy Reform Act. Meanwhile, they're shirking the fight for a responsible state budget. And speaking of Waterloo, the City of Waterloo has an authoritarian new policy masked as a concession to private property rights. Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas have all the details on this edition of the MacIver Report Podcast.

Nothing in life is simple or easy when the government gets involved. Take the city of waterloo Wisconsin for example. Not really a liberal place. Trump won there. But when some residents wanted to get backyard chickens – the city government lost its mind. Following months of committee meetings, draft proposals, hearings and debates, it finally hatched a plan. The city will issue up to six licenses at $50 each. There are 21 requirements. Seven different breeds are not allowed. And the best part – this is only a 2-year pilot program to figure out whether residents should be allowed to keep chickens or not. The city can pull the plug on the whole thing at any time. You might get all ruffled up about what's going in Washington or even in the state capitol – but this is a great example of what happens when you overlook what's going on in your own backyard.

What do you do when you wake up one morning and learn your local government is hell-bent on making a terrible decision. It could be anything – a bad real estate deal, an idiotic public works project, maybe it's a high-density housing project in your sleepy suburban downtown. I get calls about these things all the time, and I hate to say it, but it's usually too late to do anything about it. Sure, you might be able to flood the council chambers with enough angry residents to move the needle, but you're just throwing a “Hail Mary” at that point. You have to realize that when you elect someone to public office, you give them the authority to make decisions on your behalf. So, you have to make sure to elect the right ones up front. Then you have to attend their meetings regularly to make sure they stay on track. You can't just expect to pop in at the 11th hour and exercise a “citizen's veto,” because there's no such thing. I call these situations painful lessons in civics, and they're going to keep happening until conservatives start taking their responsibilities as citizens seriously.

No one ever questions the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) and with good reason. It is a non-partisan office of absolute professionals who serve as the legislature's official accountants. But they are dead wrong when they say that Gov. Evers' budget would raise taxes and fees by $2.6 billion. It's not even close. $2.6 billion is less than half of what it would actually be. The biggest omission is Evers' plan to increase hospital assessment fees by $3.3 billion to increase funding to Medicaid. Hospitals will, of course, shift those costs onto other patients who are not on Medicaid. That brings Evers' total up to at least $5.9 billion. There's even more to this story that you can apparently only get from the MacIver Institute.

Wisconsin is dealing with another mental illness outbreak, with drag queens campaigning for Crawford in Madison, Bernie Sanders' opening act signing vulgar songs about God, and Democrats arguing that there are just as many hermaphrodites in the US as redheads... MacIver's Bill Osmulski and Mike Lucas don't mince words about what's going on here, and why Republicans are playing defense despite overwhelming public support on these issues. They also talk about all the issues that will be impacted by the outcome of the state Supreme Court election on Tuesday. Hear about all that, plus a review of MacIver's biggest stories from the past month.

Two weeks ago, Bernie Sanders came to Wisconsin parading some crossdresser around who was singing the most vile and vulgar songs about God in front of cheering crowds of everyday liberals. Last week, a democrat representative from Ashland lectured republican lawmakers about how there are just as many hermaphrodites in the us as there are redheads. You would think stunts like these would alienate the left from the general public, and yet, they only seem to be getting bolder, louder, and crazier. That's probably because the right keeps voluntarily giving up ground to them. Bernie and his friends essentially got a pass on their outright blasphemy. No one dared correct that democrat in committee about her make-believe transgender statistics. For some reason, the right allows the lunatic left to set the terms, conditions, and definitions for all public discourse. Until they decide to get serious about pushing back – the culture war will continue to be a rout against rational thought.

Girls'/women's sports advocate Riley Gaines explains what's truly driving the transgender movement, why so many people are afraid to confront it, why Democrats are so committed to it, and how Republicans are finally growing a backbone to stand up to it.

The Wisconsin State Legislature debated the ROFR bill on Tuesday that would establish a monopoly in the private sector for Wisconsin-based electric transmission companies, and on this edition of the MacIver Report, Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas focus on one exchange between a lobbyist and the committee chair about "laissez faire, Adam Smith capitalism.” They also talk about Gov. Evers' plans to expand Medicaid and replace lead pipes in the state budget, and the latest Marquette Law School Poll. As usual, Bill and Mike take plenty of side trips to highlight MacIver's free market philosophy and how it relates to current events in Wisconsin.

MacIver's Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas review all the content that the institute produced over the past week. These included stories about: Republican Lawmakers Alarmed by Gov. Evers' “mother” Changes - The governor changed “mother” to “inseminated person” in a budget line about IVF. The governor also dropped the words “father” and “husband” from other parts of the budget. He even suggested changing "mother" to "parent who gave birth to the child" in another part of his plan. Evers Calls Budget “realistic,” Worried About Federal Changes - Gov. Evers said his budget, which would spend nearly $9 billion more than this year's budget, is not ‘Dead on Arrival' at the statehouse like Republicans have promised. Congressman Tiffany: Medicaid Changes not Cuts, but “Common Sense” - Tiffany said requiring people who can work to work, and ending benefits for people who are in this country illegally are both very popular. Judge Issues Fine Over Missing MPS Resource Officers, Okays Another Delay - Borowksi said if the police department can have the officers trained, in school, and provide a list of the schools where the officers will be by March 15th, the fine will be lifted. The DNR's Scientific Integrity Policy = Unaccountability - The proposed DNR budget needs to be thoroughly deconstructed, and then the agency's internal scientific regime, especially its corrupt so-called scientific integrity policy, needs to be scrapped. Brad Schimel: Expensive Supreme Court Race an Admission of High Stakes - The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign first reported on Tuesday that the total cost of the race between Schimel and Crawford is now over $18 million. Wisconsin Legislative Audit Chiefs Want Learning Standards, Grant Reviews - Wisconsin's next deep-dives will look into the decision to change the state's learning standards, and look into $44 billion worth of state grants. Sen. John Jagler Breaks Down Evers' "Year of the Kid" - MacIver Content Director Bill Osmulski sat down with Wisconsin State Senator John Jagger (R-Watertown) to point out the hypocrisies and the hidden agenda behind Gov. Evers' "Year of the Kid." Kaul Facing Ethics Complaint and Lawsuit for Corruption - “This case presents the question whether the Wisconsin Department of Justice is for sale.”

MacIver Content Director Bill Osmulski sat down with Wisconsin State Senator John Jagger (R-Watertown) to point out the hypocrisies and the hidden agenda behind Gov. Evers' "Year of the Kid."

MacIver's Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas review Gov. Evers' budget proposal and introduce MacIver's budget coverage for the 2025 Wisconsin state budget debate.

Today is Tuesday, February 18th, and tonight Gov. Evers will tell us how he plans to tackle the state's $860 million structural deficit. What's that? You thought we had a $4 billion budget surplus? Well, that's how much the state expects to have in the general fund this June. However, based on spending requests from Evers' agencies, two years from now Wisconsin will be deep in the red. Now to be fair, agencies don't get everything they ask for, but they did base their requests on Evers' direct guidance. So now Evers is going to have figure out where to cut $860 million from, or where he wants to increase taxes and borrowing to make up the difference. Whatever he comes with, it's sure to be a mess, so don't be surprised when the legislature scraps his entire budget and starts over from scratch, as usual.

MacIver Institute content director Bill Osmulski and economist Michael Lucas tackle some tough mysteries about Wisconsin public policy in this edition of the MacIver Report. The state senate just introduced a bill this week that would give electric transmission companies a monopoly over future projects in the state. Also, Milwaukee Public Schools' audit came back exploring why the district is a constant financial basket case. And last, but definitely not least, a mom complains about the food her kids get at school while Gov. Evers demands every kid get free breakfast and lunch at school.

MacIver's Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas review all the content that the institute produced over the past week. These included stories about: - Wisconsin Supreme Court to Decide Meagan Wolfe non-nomination on Friday - Wisconsin's Own USAID Scandal - Northwoods Congressman Questions Gwen Moore's ICE-evasion Advice - Milwaukee County Leaders Call Republican Immigration Plan “Dangerous” - How Democrats are Using the Supreme Court Race to Rig the Midterms - Wisconsin Lawmakers Begin Push to Raise Learning Standards in State's Public Schools - Sen. Hutton Pitches Legislation to Block Future John Doe Prosecutions

MacIver's Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas review all the content that the institute produced over the past week. These included stories about: No Place for Parents in Gov. Evers' "The Year of the Kid" Republicans Pitch Constitutional Amendment to Limit Evers' Veto Power Legislative Audit Committee Waiting for full UW DEI Audit Gov. Evers asks Trump Administration to Pause Federal Grant Freeze Gov. Evers Warns of Chaos Even After Trump White House Reverses Spending Freeze Northeast Wisconsin Lawmakers Propose new Flag Rules for Wisconsin Government Buildings On the Ballot: City and Village Referendums Waukesha County Sales Tax Proposal “Officially Dead” Wisconsin Reading Scores Fall Again Brittany Kinser: State Superintendent's Race Should be about Reading, not Politics

Gov Evers has declared 2025 to be the year of the kid, and if you're a parent it should make your skin crawl. In Evers vision, everything your kid needs is provided by the state. You're not even in the picture. When your kids are in school, they'll get fed, taught, and nurtured by government employees. When your kids aren't in school, they get fed, taught, and nurtured by daycare workers. If this messes them up, Evers wants $300 million for mental health services. And if they end up trans, Evers vows to protect them from anyone not being accepting and inclusive. You better believe that includes you, their parents.

MacIver's Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas review all the content that the institute produced over the past week. These included stories about: - Democrat reactions to Trump's second inauguration - MacIver's state budget coverage - Evers' State of the State address - Post-Constitutional Wisconsin

When Gov. Evers wants something, he doesn't let anything stand in his way, and the thing usually standing in his way is the state constitution. During covid, he led us through one constitutional crisis after another while trying to seize autocratic control over the state. Fortunately, Evers lost those fights in court, but ever since liberals won a majority on the state supreme court, he's had the legislature on the ropes. First, he stripped away its constitutional authority to draw voting maps. Then, he eroded its power of the purse. Now, he's trying to stop its oversight of regulations and rulemaking. Evers' next big move is cutting lawmakers out of the lawmaking process. He wants the “people” to be able to write laws and pass them through statewide referendums – hoping to mobilize the mob to push through his radical agenda piece by piece. So, you might say Wisconsin is on the verge of entering a post-constitutional era, and it seems like Gov. Evers can't wait to get us there.

Tony Evers did not become governor to drain the swamp in Madison, but he might accidentally do just that. He's suing the legislature because he doesn't think it should have any say in what rules and regulations his bureaucrats write. The supreme court heard the case last week, and Evers might get more than he bargained for. It seems there's nothing in the state constitution that gives bureaucrats the authority to write rules and regulations at all. Justice Rebecca Bradley said the legislature never had the authority to transfer that power to the bureaucracy. Justice Hagedorn described it as a gentlemen's agreement between the governor and the legislature to do it anyway for the past the hundred years. If the supreme court sides with Evers and rules that lawmakers can't provide oversight to the rulemaking process, or if they go further and rule that bureaucrats don't have the authority to write rules in the first place, well as the defendant's attorney explained, the natural consequence is, “the administrative state's got to go.”

MacIver's Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas review all the content that the institute produced over the past week. These included stories about: - Everyone in the Biden Administration covered for Joe's mental decline - Gov. Evers wants to bypass the legislature by allowing "the people" to pass laws through referendum - Major medical records leaks under Biden's watch - Budget priorities - School performance

MacIver's Bill Osmulski and Michael Lucas review all the content that the institute produced over the past week. These included stories about: - Everyone in the Biden Administration covered for Joe's mental decline - Gov. Evers wants to bypass the legislature by allowing "the people" to pass laws through referendum - Major medical records leaks under Biden's watch - Budget priorities - School performance

Charity is on a lot of our minds this time of year, and hospitals throughout Wisconsin thought it was perfect time to brag about their supposed largess. The Hospital Association just released a report about all the charity that non-profit hospitals are doing and claimed things like that don't happen in the free market. Too bad for them, the MacIver Institute, Wisconsin's premiere free market think tank, saw that report, and decided to look into that claim. We quickly found multiple academic studies from places like Harvard and John Hopkins that show for-profit hospitals actually provide more charity care than non-profits both in Wisconsin and across the country. Also, according to the IRS, non-profits are required by law to provide that care. True charity doesn't come from government compulsion. It has to be given freely, and the only place you'll find the conditions to do that is in the free market.

So, you got your property tax bill, and you're wondering why it went up so much for the school district. Across the state, school district property taxes went up $327.2 million this year. That comes out to 5.7% A lot of that was because of referendums, but that's not the whole story. You probably forgot the big budget deal republicans made with gov. Evers last year. They agreed to increase the revenue limits for school districts by $350 per pupil last year and again this year. There are two ways that $350 gets paid, either with more state aid or with higher property taxes. There wasn't that much more state aid. Last year, property taxes went up $150 million to make up the difference. This year, it was $65 million. It's going to get worse. Gov. Evers really doped republicans in that deal. He used his line-item veto to make the annual increase go on for another 400 years. That means, lawmakers can either use money from your income taxes to increase state aid, or they can let you pay it directly through higher property taxes. Either way, the school districts will get theirs, and you'll be paying for it.

Why is it so expensive to own a home or rent in places like Madison, Wisconsin? The MacIver Staff delves into all the ways that centralized planning from local government makes a bad situation worse and why the free market is the only way out.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, between 2021 and 2022: - Personal income in Wisconsin went up less than 3% while inflation went up 6.5%. - Housing expenses in the state went up almost 11%, the 19th highest in the country. - Energy expenses went up a whopping 37.5%, the fourth highest jump in the country.

The MacIver Staff discusses a new MacIver report that reveals major state agencies in Wisconsin have no budget. How is that possible? Also, why didn't the Republican Party of Wisconsin run candidates in half of the state's district attorney races? And what about that upcoming State Supreme Court race? It's all in this episode of the MacIver Report.

Elections have consequences, which is a concept that liberals struggle to grasp. Take the city of Madison for example. It's trying to figure out why housing costs are out of control. The median rent in the city is now over $1,400 a month, far above what the median household can afford. And those rents keep going up. One guy on the local news just said his rent has gone up 35% over the past four years. Of course, the city has its theories; greedy land developers only building luxury homes is a popular one. Here's one theory no one in Madison wants to consider. Its residents just voted to approve three referendums this month: one for the city and two for the school district. Combined, those will increase the average property tax bill in Madison by $1,600 a year – about $130 a month – that's a 25% increase from last year. You'd think at some point, Madison residents would start to see a connection. We'll see if it comes up next month when property tax bills are mailed out, and the rent increase notices inevitably follow.

The MacIver Staff discuss various strategies and factors that impact any potential challenge to Wisconsin's US Senate Race between Eric Hovde and Tammy Baldwin. Also, this week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court heard a case about whether the state's 1849 abortion ban actually banned abortion, and how liberal justices behaved more like a Supreme Legislature than a Supreme Court. All that and more on this week's edition of the MacIver Report.

On election day in Wisconsin, the polls are open from 7 am to 8 pm, and as long as you're in line at 8 pm, you still get to vote. Wisconsin state law is very clear about this. That's why what happened in whitewater on Tuesday night is so alarming. The DNC filed a last-minute lawsuit, because of long lines on campus there. A county judge then ordered that two polling sites stay open until 10:30, and as long as you got in line by 10:30, you could vote. That's 2 and a half hours longer than what is permitted by state law. There is nothing in state statutes that allows a county judge to extend voting hours. In his order, the judge cited a statute explains what to do if a federal judge extends voting hours. He, himself, is not a federal judge. Democrats didn't look that gift horse in the mouth. The call went out to get every potential voter on campus to the polls. It's possible that this won them an extra assembly seat. Their candidate in that district only won by 840 votes. But even more important, if one rogue judge could get away with this now, there's nothing to stop others from doing the same thing in future elections.

MacIver's staff dives into the results from the 2024 election with a special focus on the outcome in Wisconsin. More importantly, they identify special areas of concern going forward that Wisconsin conservatives must address now before it's too late.

Why do government organizations actively promote the occult around Halloween? In this episode, Rebecca the Intern visits the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) and learned how to read palms and tarot cards before watching a seance demonstration. Want to learn more, head over to your local public library where you can check out a multitude of how-to spell books. With budget season right around the corner, this was the perfect opportunity to highlight two of the lesser debated parts of the state budget and how much they rely on taxpayer support.

2024 is not 2020, and the left is finding that out the hard way. Multiple national crises gave liberals an excuse to break every election law they thought they could get away with. Absentee voting was key by maximizing turnout among low information voters willing to go with the flow. It was aided by illegal ballot harvesting operations in cities across the state. Ballot drop boxes figured prominently in their plans. This year, they can't blame a republican incumbent for the nation's problems. Absentee ballot requests are way down in battleground Wisconsin. There were twice as many absentee ballots floating around Wisconsin at this point in 2020. There are fewer drop boxes too. Only a fraction compared to 2020. It must be frustrating, because they're clearly lashing out. Ask Mayor Diny in Wausau about that. He can tell you, don't underestimate what liberals are capable of. When the left thinks it's losing, that's when it's the most dangerous.

Join the MacIver Institute's staff as they discuss how the election is shaping up in Wisconsin, review their previous predictions, and present a voter's guide to "strategic voting."

For the second year in a row, the MacIver Institute hosted Tucker Carlson in Wisconsin. This year with the 2024 presidential election looming, Carlson talked about what is at stake and what conservatives need to do to bring home the win.

You probably haven't given much thought to the next state budget yet, but the budget writing process is already underway, and fortunately the MacIver institute is on top of it. Last week state agencies submitted their individual budget requests to the governor, and they are fascinating. Every agency is required to include a self-assessment on their performance over the past two years. The criteria are measurable and objective, but the agencies themselves get to pick them. They do their best to set themselves up for success. For example, none of the criteria for the Department of Public Instruction have anything to do with academic achievement. But, even with their fingers on the scale Wisconsin's major state agencies are failing to achieve even half of their performance goals. That says a lot about government effectiveness. And it's something we hope lawmakers bring up during agency briefings this coming spring.

Work on the next state budget has just begun, and Governor Evers is already struggling to keep up. Every state agency is required to submit its funding request to Evers by Sep. 16th, according to the deadline he set. However, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) says that Evers still hasn't released all the details agencies need to complete that request. WEC decided to submit a partial request for now and amend it later to meet the deadline. Evers better get his act together fast. The deadlines for work on the budget are going to start piling up fast. His budget proposal is due in February. Five months might sound like a long time, but not when you're talking about preparing a 750-page document that spends around $100 billion - especially when it depends on the input from 68 state agencies that are being kept waiting because of you. Not a great start to what's sure to be yet another contentious budget cycle.

Last episode, Bill and Michaels took a trip through the next 100 days to make a series of bold, yet realistic predictions about the election and world events. (Spoiler alert: they're still all on track). There's more time travel in this episode, as Bill and Micheal transport themselves to Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024: Kamala Harris just won the presidency. How did this happen? What did Republicans get wrong? Can this future be avoided? You don't want to miss this podcast. If you don't want to hear it now from MacIver, get ready to hear it on Nov. 6th from everybody!

Since the last presidential election, the price of food has gone up 21 percent, so has rent. Electricity is up over 30 percent. No wonder inflation and the economy are the most important issues for voters this year. A national poll conducted just last week found the vast majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, over half say the economy is getting worse. But don't think for a moment that everyone understands why the economy is getting worse or how to fix it. Remember, over a third of Americans believe in socialism. What are the chances that they understand that out-of-control federal spending is driving inflation? To them, kamala Harris' plan of price controls and nationalizing whole sectors of the economy likely sounded music to their ears. And that poll from last week does have Harris ahead by two points. Trump and the rest of the republican need to realize that just because the economy is really bad – doesn't mean voters are going to automatically turn to them and the free market to solve it. They must be won over.

The MacIver Institute relaunches its “MacIver Report” podcast with a list of bold, yet calculated predictions for the next three months. Join MacIver's content director Bill Osmulski and lead policy analyst Michael Lucas as they argue exactly why they believe: • The “October Surprise” will be Jimmy Carter passing away • Joe Biden will resign or die in office right after the election • Kamala Harris will be president by the end of this year whether she wins or not • The US will not be dragged into a war before the election • An armistice will be declared in the Ukraine

No one in Wisconsin should be surprised that Kamala Harris has all but secured the Democrat nomination for president without a single vote in the primaries. We got a good look at the Democrat party's ironically undemocratic methods during the 2022 mid-terms. Remember how there were originally 8 candidates running for the Democrat nomination for US Senate? One-by-one they all dropped out before the primary to clear the way for Mandela Barnes. Can't have your voters making important decisions like that! Sarah Godlewski was the last one to bow out – just one month before the primary and with momentum on her side. It all worked out for her in the end though. Doug La Follette won his race for secretary of state and just two months into the term decided to retire. Gov. Evers coincidently appointed Godlewski as his replacement, raising all kinds of suspicion but with absolutely no fear of consequences. After all, it's not like voters had a say in any of these democrat decisions in the first place.

You might have seen Samar Alatout's name in the news last month. He is the faculty advisor for students for justice in Palestine at UW Madison. There are videos of him repeatedly attacking police when they tried to take down an illegal encampment there. He's even seen interfering with an arrest. These are serious crimes, and Alatout was arrested that day. It is Dane County, though, and so hours later he was released without any charges. However, even if he was charged with felonies and convicted, it's unlikely the university would have done anything about it. It would only have risen to “serious criminal misconduct” under the university's administrative code if Alatout had seriously injured someone – which he clearly did not. And so, we have a system, where a UW faculty member was seen on camera committing felonies on university property – and even if he was convicted, there is nothing the university could have done about it. No wonder why protesters think they can get away with anything on campus.

Every time there's a problem somewhere, government's knee jerk response is to throw money at it. Take the hospital situation in western Wisconsin for example. Two hospitals abruptly closed their doors this spring, creating a capacity problem in the emergency rooms there. The state is trying to figure out how to send $15 million in emergency grants to help do something right away. Lawmakers passed a bill in February to provide the money exclusively for emergency room capacity, but the governor used his line-item veto to allow that money be used for any healthcare needs in the region. The joint committee of finance, subsequently, refuses to release the funds. But, how exactly would $15 million help increase emergency room capacity right away? After all, even simple hospital expansions are multi-year projects that cost a lot more than $15 million. Some experts believe that the best way to expand capacity is through policy and regulatory changes, not more government funding. But health care providers are telling lawmakers that they need that money and they need it now. When MacIver asked those lawmakers how that money would be used to increase emergency room capacity, the response was: we don't know. We didn't talk about that. No kidding.

Joe Biden had a great day in Wisconsin last week. He showed up in mount pleasant to announce that Microsoft is building a new data center there, and everyone bent over backwards to give him all the credit, which was really tricky because he had nothing to do with it. But that's why the mainstream media has told you next to nothing about the project. Here's the short version: Six years ago, state and local leaders set that land aside and started prepping it for Foxconn Three years ago, the Wisconsin economic development corporation realized that Foxconn only needed a third of the property and started marketing the rest of it to other companies. State and local groups worked together to get Microsoft's attention. Then the Governor and state lawmakers put a sales tax exemption for data centers in the last state budget. After that, Microsoft was all in. Finally, Joe Biden showed up and took credit for everything blasting the republican leaders who laid the groundwork that made it possible in the first place. Read the entire story at maciverinstitute.com.

Wisconsin lawmakers will soon vote on a plan to bail out the City of Milwaukee. It would allow Milwaukee to create a special 2% sales tax to help with its unfunded pension liability. Lawmakers say the alternative means Milwaukee will go bankrupt, just like Detroit did in 2013, which they say would be devastating for the entire state. Well, we checked to see what happened to Michigan after Detroit's bankruptcy. No loss of industry, no loss of population, and no impact on its credit rating. James Hohman of the Mackinac center says there's no reason to think there would be any impact to Wisconsin's credit rating either if Milwaukee declared bankruptcy. “I just don't see a lot of reasons why letting the city government resolve its own debt would reflect poorly on the State of Wisconsin to pay off its debt,” Hohman explained in a recent episode of the MacIver Newsmakers Podcast. Suddenly, Milwaukee's self-made financial problems might seem a lot less urgent to the rest of the state.

Wisconsin lawmakers are fast tracking a plan to bailout Milwaukee to prevent it from declaring bankruptcy. They claim it would be devastating for everyone in Wisconsin if that happened. "We understand that bankruptcy for the City and County would be detrimental for the entire state," said Sen. Mary Felzkowski, one of the bill's authors. She says AB245 would "hopefully prevent them from spiraling into a post-bankruptcy Detroit." It's funny she brings up Detroit. Like Milwaukee, it's the largest city in a midwestern state with a strong manufacturing background. It also calls into question any claim that Milwaukee declaring bankruptcy would have any impact on outstate Wisconsin. Michigan tried everything to bail Detroit out of its self-made financial problems, including several revenue raising options not available to any other city in the state, direct intervention, and eventually allowing it to declare bankruptcy. MacIver's Bill Osmulski talked to James Hohman, Director of Fiscal Policy at Michigan's Mackinac Center for Public Policy, about the situation surrounding Detroit, and what it might mean for Milwaukee. For example, Did Detroit's bankruptcy affect Michigan's bond rating? Did Michigan lose population because of Detroit's bankruptcy? Did MIchigan lose industry because of Detroit's bankruptcy? Listen to this edition of the MacIver Newsmakers Podcast to find out!

Ranked choice voting - it's hard to imagine a more complicated way to hold an election. Voters have the option of picking more than one candidate in each race. Clerks count one set of the votes, eliminate candidates, then count another set of votes, eliminate more candidates, then count yet another set of votes, and so on until they declare a winner. The candidate with the most initial votes often does not win, casting even more doubt on elections than was already built in. Several states have at least partially adopted ranked choice voting, and it's already cost republicans two seats in congress. It's easy to see why democrats would love to bring ranked choice voting to Wisconsin. What's not so clear, is why some republicans are working with democrats to make that happen. A bi-partisan bill is in the works – and we're looking forward to hearing them explain their logic.