In This Issue: | | 1. Sick Leave Ordinance 2. Bad Budget Update 3. Commerce Vs. Business 4. RTA: Rogue Taxing
| | | Sick Leave Ordinance Euthanized 
Friday, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Thomas Cooper struck down an ordinance requiring City of Milwaukee employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees. Milwaukee voters approved the sick leave ordinance in a November referendum after the liberal advocacy group 9-5 petitioned to have the mandate placed on the ballot. The Milwaukee business community and Mayor Tom Barrett were united in opposition to the ordinance, saying it would put Milwaukee employers at a competitive disadvantage with surrounding communities. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce (MMAC) filed a lawsuit to prevent the ordinance from being enforced. MMAC argued that the ordinance was improperly presented to voters. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: MMAC argued the law was improperly enacted under Wisconsin's direct legislation statute, that it was pre-empted by state and federal wage and workplace laws, and that it was unconstitutional for four different reasons. It claimed the ordinance overextended the city's police powers, impaired existing contracts, reached beyond the city's jurisdiction and was vague.
Cooper agreed on the first point and found the ballot language was not a "concise statement" of the nature of the proposed ordinance. While it asked voters if employers within the city should be required to provide paid sick leave, the ordinance would have also required paid leave to deal with issues of domestic or sexual violence or stalking, and for time spent on legal actions in response to such issues.
Those differ significantly from the traditional definition of sick leave, and so should have been reflected in separate language in the ballot question, Cooper found. Therefore, the ordinance was enacted invalidly, he wrote.
9 to5 says they will appeal the ruling, hoping an appeals court will side with them. In the meantime, this ruling is a victory for businesses in the city, as they will avoid having to move to the Milwaukee suburbs to avoid this onerous mandate.
| Bad Budget Update
 For months, the Club for Growth update has detailed dozens of terrible proposals included in the state budget currently being considered in Madison. Many of the policy initiatives have nothing to do with state finances and are unlikely to be approved as separate legislation. A recent Wisconsin State Journal editorial read, “Like camouflage, the thick state budget can hide both desirable and dubious policy proposals from public scrutiny. Sneaking policy into the budget also protects lawmakers from taking tough votes." Saturday, the Wisconsin Assembly passed the budget at 5:15 AM by a margin of 50-48 votes. The Assembly’s $62.2 billion budget raises taxes and fees by $2.1 billion to fund a more than 6% increase in state spending. The budget will be taken up by the State Senate this week, where Democratic leaders have already indicated a desire to restore tax increases and policy items eliminated by the Assembly. For example, the Senate is looking to include Governor Doyle’s tax on oil companies that goes up as the price of gas increases. At last summer’s prices, the provision could add 8 cents to the price of a gallon of gas. Governor Doyle and the Democratic legislature are poised to raise taxes and fees by about $5 billion over the next biennium, while leaving the state with a $2.3 billion deficit. It’s not too late to make your voice heard. If more than one Democratic State Senator opposes the budget, it cannot pass. Democrats in the Assembly cannot lose the support of more than 3 members. Keep calling and emailing your legislators!
| Department of Commerce Vs. Wisconsin Business 
The Wisconsin Department of Commerce's stated mission is to drive retention and creation of quality jobs and promote safe, healthy communities. Yet instead of advocating public policies that promote a strong economy, the agency has engaged in a war of words with the state's largest business association.
Earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Dick Leinenkugel was critical of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) for editorializing against Governor Doyle’s budget for including: "billions in higher taxes, expanded liability, increased insurance premiums, mandated wage increases and increased litigation regarding workplace complaints." WMC is concerned that these policies will cost the state thousands of good paying manufacturing jobs. Wisconsin has already lost 140,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.
Last week, WMC released a survey of Wisconsin business leaders revealing overwhelming concern that Wisconsin's high taxes and excessive regulations will impede the state's economic recovery. 96% of the respondents said they believe Wisconsin is on the wrong track. Rather than addressing the concerns expressed by private employers, the Department of Commerce once again admonished businesses to keep their mouths shut.
In an interview with Wispolitics.com, Commerce flack, Zach Brandon said the state business lobby should stop bad-mouthing Wisconsin’s business climate because it hurts efforts to attract and grow businesses.
“When you only do half of the coin, when you only talk about the negative, when you never talk about the positive, it does do damage,” Brandon said. “It does undermine our efforts.
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Vice President James Buchen said: "The state needs to lower taxes and change the regulatory climate to compete with other states and countries. It would be naïve for us to think that if we stop pointing out the problems with the business climate that somehow the rest of the country would think the situation is different.”
Someone should tell the Department of Commerce that the first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem.
| RTA: Rogue Taxing Authority
 Among the non fiscal policy items tucked into the state budget is the creation of five unelected regional transit authorities (RTA), each with the power to raise taxes, issue debt and seize private property. But not all RTAs are created equal. As anxious legislators negotiate the politics of raising local sales taxes and empowering unelected boards to spend taxpayer funds, one thing is perfectly clear: Each of the 5 RTAs has been carefully structured to provide political cover to individual Democratic Senators. So rather than providing uniform guidelines and empowering local communities, legislators are making short term political decisions with long range implications. The proposed RTAs would be established in South Eastern Wisconsin, the Fox valley, Milwaukee County, Dane County and the Chippewa Valley, yet only Chippewa County residents would be given an up or down vote on joining the RTA. A survey commissioned for the Wisconsin Club for Growth and the Independent Business Association of Wisconsin (IBAW) found that after voters in Southeastern Wisconsin were informed about details of the plan to build the Kenosha-Racine – Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail system, they oppose the plan by a margin of 59% - 31%. More significantly, voters overwhelmingly oppose the creation of unelected boards with the power to raise taxes, issue debt and seize private property. Officials in Dane County and the Chippewa Valley expressed concern that funds raised by the RTAs might not be used for their stated purpose. "I would assume that starting a sales tax for transit would open up space in local budgets for other things," said Todd Berry of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. Berry also points out that increased sales taxes almost never result in lower property taxes, as transit proponents argue. A last minute change to the Dane County RTA has county officials and transit advocates up in arms. According to the amended proposal, some of the Dane County funds could be used for highways. Clearly, some of the “coalition members” have figured out a way to stick their hands in the RTA cookie jar.
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