While we wait for the slowpokes in Waukesha County to finish their recount of the April 5th Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, I thought it might be a good idea to remind everyone of the right-wing radical agenda being rammed through the Wisconsin Legislature by a desperate Republican majority. With recall elections scheduled for July, they know their days are numbered.
First, the latest recount numbers from the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board:
As of 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 3,461 Reporting Units have reported results, which have been reviewed by G.A.B. staff. That is approximately 96 percent of the of the 3,602 total Reporting Units.
So far, counties have recounted 1,419,795 votes, which is approximately 95 percent of the orginal votes cast in the State Supreme Court race.
Challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg has a net gain of 300 votes among the wards that have been counted and certified, nowhere near the 7,316 net gain she would need in order to overtake the incumbent David Prosser.
The GAB is now doing only one daily update. The Waukesha recount is being livestreamed here. The camera has been positioned so that very little of the process is actually viewable, and with more tabulators this week, the level of chatter makes hearing any of the "on the record" proceedings very difficult.
Now, let me highlight a few dishes that have been cooked up in the Republican kitchen while we watched the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers pretend to run an impartial recount:
Like clean water? Too bad if you live in one of 66 Wisconsin communities that does not disinfect their water supply. The Wisconsin Assembly has voted to roll back new rules that would have required the municipalities to disinfect their water against viruses and bacteria.
Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Senate heard testimony from Mark Borchardt, a microbiologist who conducted a study for the Marshfield Clinic between 2005 and 2007. The study looked at virus levels in tap water and sickness rates in 14 Wisconsin communities. He summarized his findings by saying "In other words, the communities that had the highest virus levels in their tap water were also the sickest."
He estimated that the cost of equipping these communities to disinfect their water would be 1.3 million dollars, but would save 2.3 million in health care costs.
He also said the most likely source of the viruses was leaky sewer lines. So, we should probably upgrade our sewers and sewage treatment plants, right? Not so fast. The Joint Finance Committee just voted to cut subsidies for sewer construction in Wisconsin as part of their changes to the Walker budget currently making its way through the legislature.
That budget would also repeal the Municipal Stormwater Sewer System standard that requires communities to reduce solids by 2013 and would have reduced pollution in our lakes.
But wait! There's more! The new budget reduces direct state aid to public schools in Wisconsin by nearly 900 million dollars. That's not enough, though. Just to make certain they kill off public schools, the Assembly passed a bill Tuesday that would "allow public school students to attend private and religious schools outside of the city of Milwaukee at taxpayers' expense", according to the Associated Press. Oh boy! I can't wait to have my money go to somebody else's church!
Did I mention that Governor Walker wants to privatize the distribution of the meager public assistance funds he's not cutting? According to The Cap Times...
... a provision in Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget would change all that by creating an “income maintenance administrative unit” to centralize and largely privatize the operation of the food assistance, or FoodShare program, and Medicaid programs in Wisconsin.
Specifically, Walker’s proposal would give the state Department of Human Services the authority to enter into contracts with public and private entities to receive applications, determine eligibility, conduct fraud investigations, implement error reduction procedures and recover overpayment of benefits for all FoodShare and Medicaid recipients.
Proponents claim that by the third year of the transition, the state would save 48 million dollars annually. What they don't say is that having private sector workers determine eligibility for food assistance would put the state out of compliance with federal standards, resulting in a loss of federal funds to administer the program. The state received just over 41 million dollars of that aid in 2010.
The Cap Times article details the dismal failures of similar schemes attempted by Texas and Indiana.
There's plenty more, but that's enough for one day.