The federal Marketplace Fairness Act would let states snare sales and use taxes on their residents’ online purchases from other states. Now they get these taxes only from businesses with a physical presence in their state.
Category: Money & Politics Column
State cool to climate-change action
Of the more than 600 bills introduced in Wisconsin’s 2013-14 legislative session, none contains the terms “climate change,” “greenhouse gases” or “global warming,” and only a handful deal with energy policy.
GOP pressed on redistricting
Wisconsin’s last redistricting, after the 2010 Census, was done in secret and cost taxpayers more than $2 million. Ruling Republicans strategically carved districts to maximize their electoral prospects, much as Democrats would had done had they been able.
A GOP-backed anti-gun bill
A bill now being drafted for state Sen. Alberta Darling would mandate a three-year prison term for illegal firearm possession. Darling said she acted after talking with law enforcement officials in Milwaukee, where 23 people were shot, seven fatally, during a single week in early August.
Campaign cash is his niche
Julseth’s job is tracking the vast sums flowing into the state’s political system — date by date, donor by donor, dollar by dollar.
Walker’s picks recast labor board
Republican Gov. Scott Walker has been able to replace all three commissioners installed by his Democratic predecessor, Jim Doyle, in less than two and a half years. One lawyer with years of experience before the commission predicts this change will have “a dramatic effect.”
Unions sapped, other lobbying strong
Special interest groups in Wisconsin spent less trying to sway state law and policy in the first half of 2013 than in comparable past periods. But it’s still a whole lotta moolah: more than $17 million.
Out-of-state donors buoy Walker
Of the $3.5 million received by Walker in the first six months of this year, nearly $2 million came from out of state. This continues a trend that began when Walker first announced sweeping changes to the collective bargaining power of most public employees.
Abortion foes: big clout, little cash
Despite expenditures that qualify as puny among state interest groups, Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin are seeing major gains under Republican Gov. Scott Walker and a GOP-controlled Legislature.
Feingold cause plays big in state
In politics, as in comedy, timing is key, even if it’s accidental. The same week in February 2011 that Russ Feingold announced the formation of the advocacy group Progressives United to “stand up to the exploding corporate influence in our political system,” events in Wisconsin gave him something to advocate about.
The state budget, by the numbers
The biennial state budget is, in theory, fundamentally about numbers. So here are some numbers from and about the 2013-15 budget as crafted by Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Legislature.
Bill would zap stray electricity suits
A bill introduced by state Sen. Paul Farrow and Rep. Mark Honadel would bar lawsuits over stray electricity against providers that are “in compliance with all applicable engineering and safety standards.” Liability remains for “reckless, wanton or willful acts or omissions or intentional misconduct.”