Conceal Carry Bill in Wisconsin to Advance
A bill to permit law-abiding adults to carry concealed weapons may pass a Senate committee early next week. Still uncertain: Will the legislature be able to override the expected veto?

For the value of such laws, check out the National Center for Policy Analysis, which offers some useful (though in some cases, dated) numbers.
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Why Sales Tax May Beat Income Tax
Michigan has done as good as can be expected (which is, unfortunately, not good enough) in cutting spending and balancing the budget without raising taxes.

But it looks like another debate will be coming; its tax revenues are falling short of projections, signaling a still-soft economy. But from a chart of tax collections offered by the Detroit News shows that sales tax revenues have stayed steady, even as income tax receipts are down from a year ago.
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Root, Root, Root Against the Home Team
The other day I mentioned that you may not want the home team to win; a winning season may lead to demands for taxpayer-paid stadiums. (An article about Fenway Park, appearing in The Wall Street Journal today, confirms--again--this point.)

The St. Paul Pioneer-Press provides another reason to cheer for a team in another city: you won't have to put up with riots.

Seriously.

The University of Minnesota football team has been a perennial cupcake, a punching bag in the Big 10 conference. But this year, they are 5-0. OK, only one of those wins was against a quality opponent (Penn State), but still, there's a lot of buzz around town for a non-hockey team.

Tonight the Michigan Wolverines come to play, and they've beat the Gophers of Minnesota 31 out of the last 33 times they've met. The Pioneer-Press publishes a plea from two members of the Minnesota student government to fellow students: If our team wins, please don't riot.
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Tax Rates Matter: Yet Another Chapter
Illinois had one of the highest tax rates on casino winnings in the country. To shore up the state budget, Governor Rod Blagojevich raised rates again. The state take did go up, but not as much as expected.

Where did the money to? To neighboring Indiana, where casino taxes are lower.

Thanks to Greg Blankenship, of the Illinois Policy Institute for pointing this out. If there's ever a definition of "mobile money," money spent on gambling would be it. And it provides a clear example of the effects of taxes on where people spend.
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Michigan May Delay Income Tax Reduction
When is a tax hike not a tax hike? When the governor proposes delaying a scheduled reduction in the income tax rate. And Jennifer Granholm is coming close to doing just that. The income tax rate is supposed to go down 0.1 percent in January.

Granholm suggests that the "low-hanging fruit" has been cut from the state budget. Yet she resists selling off the state-owned fairgrounds in Detroit. The Mackinac Center suggests that the state could save $20 million by selling fairgrounds and getting out of the fair business. Maybe Granholm ought to reconsider that "low-hanging fruit" remark.
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Toll Takers Brought to You by Walgreens
Continuing in the theme of corporate involvement, the Chicago Tribune (registration required) reports that the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is looking into having Walgreens and other retail stores distribute electronic toll collection devices (known in the state as I-PASS).

Currently, 40 percent of motorists use I-PASS; the toll authority would like that to increase to 75 percent. And they're on to something. Not only does it save in personnel costs (fewer toll takers at booths), but more importantly, it reduces bottlenecks at tollboths, traffic jams that, more than the actual cost of tolls, give tollroads a bad name.

The I-PASS device acts more or less like a debit card, linked to a stored bank of money; motorists add value to it by check or credit card, and a small amount is deducted each time the car to which it is attached passes a toll "gate" (sometimes a literal gate, sometimes not). Making the transponder available in retail settings--currently, a motorist must call, write, or go online to get one--should increase usage rates.
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Naming Rights for State Buildings
A few weeks ago, Chip Taylor reminded me of a proposal floated in Illinois to have corporate sponsorship of "state programs, events, initiatives, and facilities."

Now, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) has endorsed the idea, in concept, though he wants to make sure that the state does not end up with "The Capitol Dome Brought to You by Capital One," or something like that. Fair enough--some naming rights would be, simply, inappropriate.

State Senator Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) says the whole idea is one of desperation (and sure enough, it is). He warns about the possibility of corruption, which is not out of the question, especially given Illinois' history of recent years.
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Dead Blogs
The Perseus Development Corporation estimates that there are 4.12 million blogs among the major blog hosting services, including the PolicyGuy's blog host, BlogSpot. But the company also estimates that 2.7 million blogs--or two out of every three--have not been updated in at least two months. Nearly 1.1 million blogs have not been updated since their first day. The study also reports that 90 percent of blogs are written by people under 30. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement of blogs, but there are many fine blogs out there, including those listed in the left-hand column of this page.
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More on 54
One benefit of working as a contractor, rather than an employee, is that I get to bypass some of the social-engineering workshops that employees of large organizations are encouraged (or even required) to attend. "Gay and Lesbian Employee Group celebrates ...", "African-American employees," and even (here in Minnesota) "Scandinavian-American Heritage Days."

All the talk of the wonders of diversity in corporate America, the halls of government, and elsewhere is bogus on several levels. But take just one for now. By emphasizing ethnic or racial groups, aren't we simply putting people into pigeon holes? "Men are ..." "African-Americans like," and so forth. Take any group you'd like, and there's more diversity there than you may think of at first. Putting a person into racial classification boxes ("Check one ...") and "celebrating diversity" has turned out to be a new form of stereotyping.
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Math Skills
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wraps up its series on math education in Wisconsin and the nation.

Meanwhile, it notes that over one third of all freshman and sophomore-level college students in the nation must take remedial classes--to learn things they should have learned in high school.
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Swam and Swum
There's a childhood ditty I remember about swimming the Great Lakes. It starts with a man swimming in Lake Ontario, and then improbably (this is a children's rhyme, after all), swimming "upstream" through Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan before coming to Superior, where, sadly, he dies.

Fortunately, Jim Dryer has been more successful. He has swam across Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron (had to give up on a cross-Superior attempt). And yesterday he finished a 340-mile long trip along the length of Lake Michigan. Among the highlights of this 30-day trip: 20 foot swells, gale force winds, and snow.
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Another Budget Test
The latest numbers for the Michigan state budget don't look good; the legislature and governor may have to work again to erase a deficit--this time, $800 million. Says one economist, "If there's another rabbit hiding in a hat someplace, I'm not aware of it." Still off the table, for now, reduced aid to government schools. And, one hopes, tax rate increases.
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Managed Care Marches On
The latest UAW contract with the "Big 3" automakers leans heavily on managed care, introducing a PPO ("HMO lite," if you will). The Detroit Free Press says that this switch, under which patients have less choice in doctors than under the previous BlueCross plan, but more than in an HMO, "could mean the end of traditional health care coverage, which has been dying across the country." Yet another reason to move towards consumer-directed health care.

Meanwhile, the Detroit News reports that the contract puts the squeeze on retail pharmacies by instituting a drugs-by-mail policy for some medications. One reason for all this cost-cutting: automakers now spend more on health care than they do on steel.
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Porn Peddlers and Stars for Governor
You know that Arnold Schwarzenegger won the most number of votes in the California election, and will be (barring a court challenge) the next governor there. But for those who are terminally curious about politics, here is the entire list of results.

Not surprisingly, the top 5 candidates are the ones that were present at the single debate that included Arnold--after the governor-elect, there's Bustamante (D), McClintock (R), and Camejo (Green). Number 6 is a another semi-big name, Peter Ueberroth (R, but officially, Independent, known mostly as head of the 1984 Olympics in LA.

Number 7 is where things start getting interesting--porn king, Larry Flynt (D). Number 8? Child TV star Gary Coleman (I). Coming in at 9 is George Schwartzman (I), businessman. Finishing up the Top 10 is Mary Cook (a.k.a. Mary Carey) who is a, well, porn star.

Together, Flynt and Cook accounted for 0.5 percent of the vote. Not surprisingly, Bustamante was the top vote getter in the San Francisco Bay and surrounding areas.
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Disappointing
Proposition 54--which would prohibit California government from categorizing people into little racial boxes--failed. Miserably. As in 65 to 35 percent. Amazingly, it failed in almost every county, including normally "conservative" Orange County. Check out this map of county-by-county voting.
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Baseball: Hope for Your Local Team to Tank
As we settle in to the championship series for baseball, consider this for next year: choose to support a team far from your home.

Why?

Success at home could cost you money--and not just in tickets. The president of the Minnesota Twins is hoping that Twinkies, who have been lusting after a taxpayer-paid palace for years, will stand a better chance of getting money from the public trust now that they've had a playoff run.

Football season is underway, as is hockey, with basketball not far behind. There will plenty of opportunities to apply this principle.

You will be spending most of your time viewing baseball (football, etc.) on the TV, not in person, anyway. Let the people of another city pick up the tab for a stadium for "your team."
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Testing Productivity
Governor Pawlenty's plan to introduce merit pay for Minnesota teachers continues to generate negative reaction. The first writer in the Pioneer-Press letters section, for example, dismisses the plan as an attempt to "redefine learning to merely mean test productivity." She also trots out the canard that tests will lead to "a diminished ability of students to compare and contrast, to evaluate information and to develop and explore ideas."

A student needs, though, to know facts and theories--something the schools aren't good at imparting currently--before one starts to "compare and contrast." Call this letter yet another cry for unaccountability on the part of the education establishment.
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Ladybug, Ladybug
So it isn't just my house. Ladybugs have taken over.
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Take Out Your Own Trash
As part of a cost-cutting effort, half of the custodial staff at the Milwaukee County courthouse complex have been laid off. Some receptionists, clerks, and judges have started to pitch in, vacuuming the carpet themselves, for example. Others are not amused, and aren't taking it so well.
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Pi Are Fun
The Journal-Sentinel of Milwaukee runs part 3 of a series on math instruction today. One encouraging trend: more students are taking math in the Badger State. One discouraging / infuriating fact: a high school math teacher who laments that students at his school are starting algebra so early that they don't "finish their math courses here," but instead, take more classes (while still in high school) at a local college.

I can relate to this situation, though not as a math student. One summer when I was in junior high, I took a class in European history at the community college. (A kid taking history classes in the summer? I lived in a sparsely populated area and there wasn't much else to do.) But before signing up for the class, I had to get the permission of my school district. One condition of getting their approval was that I would not use the college credit earned in the class to lessen the requirements for my high school graduation. I think that says something about the process-oriented nature of government schools in America.
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Wheelin, Dealin', and Spendin'
Stateline.org has a brief bio of South Carolina's governor, Mark Sanford. Sanford is known for penny-pinching ways, such as the time he booked a hotel room for both him and his press secretary--to save taxpayers the cost of an extra hotel room.

He admits it isn't much, so he's tried to cut the size of government agencies as well, slicing the Commerce department by 26 percent. Now that's more noteworthy than, say, reusing post it notes, or as Michigan's Jennifer Granholm has done, using up stationery left behind by her predecessor. Oh, there's nothing wrong with such little good deeds. But they should be accompanied by an examination of the core functions of government--and jettisoning everything else. It's scope rather than mere size that matters.

Despite Sanford's--or even Granholm's--thriftiness, changing the political culture is a more difficult task. It appears that Sanford is not accustomed to the wheeling-and-dealing atmosphere of South Carolina state politics. A little for you, a little for me, a little for that guy, beyond the tree. The Palmetto State doesn't have a monopoly on cronyism, of course, and that's one reason why states have had to deal with deficits this year.
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Incentives Matter, or why Teachers Pursue Diploma Mills
I'm cleaning out some papers and such, so I will make only brief mention of an article from the Wall Street Journal (September 22) that I had meant to blog about.

Here's the first paragraph: "At Cambridge College no entrance exam or minimum grade-point average is required to be admitted to the master's program in education. Most students complete half the coursework in a five-week summer program and graduate in about six months. Nearly every grade is an "A." And completing the program guarantees most students a pay increase in their teaching jobs."

The headline of the story with the various subheads only hints at the horrors contained therein. "Quick study: Colleges Ease Way for teachers to Get Advanced Degrees. With Higher Pay Automatic, Many Seek Out Programs; Five Courses in Five Weeks. 'I want to give you an 'A'."

Now tell me again why credentials and not performance is the way we pay teachers?
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AFL-CIO Responds to Super-Teacher Proposal
As noted before, Minnesota's Governor Pawlenty has called for a pilot program using merit pay for teachers. Here is the union's response.

In brief, they don't like it. Oh, they do support "increasing teacher compensation." (What else is a union going to say?). But the official statement hides behind the claim that there is no "track record" of merit pay, adding that any proposal must be "workable."

It also comes out strongly against alternative certification methods: "There may be alternative pathways to licensure that are acceptable, but alternative standards are not." Given that "standards" include the whole hodge-podge of suspect courses in education and psychology, that sounds like a "no" to any meaningful "alternative pathway" to licensing.
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Sprawl is Good for Children and Other Living Things
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal had a story (link for paid subscribers only) about public housing in Chicago.

profiles a single-parent household that has fared better since the city tore down some of the surrounding buildings. That has been a significant benefit to the remaining residents. "As the population has diminished, so have the rivalries and shootouts between drug gangs, residents and housing officials say." As one 11 year (!) resident put it, "when the buildings started coming down, it started getting better."

The paper quotes Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociology profess from Columbia University: "High-rises were not the problem. It was concentrated, segregated high-rises." Not surprising, concentrated populations of low-income housing may also be homes to all sorts of social needs. The Journal's reporter, Jonathan Eig, summarizes academic research: "Agencies can do a decent job fixing sinks and collecting rent, but they tend to become overwhelmed when they also try to provide social services and law enforcement." Since 1999, Chicago has relied on private companies to manage the remaining towers; a backlog of 40,000 work orders has been cut to 2,500.

Some new housing units will be built, but they won't be the super-dense towers of old; some former residents are getting vouchers to relocate to other neighborhoods. In other words, the population is sprawling, and that's bringing some hope.
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Migration as a Market Test of Policy
Greg Blankenship, of the Illinois Policy Institute, co-authors a review of the California recall situation. What's of most interest to me is this fact: during 1995-2000, the two states with the highest level of de-population (people moving out) are New York and California. Not coincidently, they are two of the highest-taxed states, with regulatory environments that are hostile to business. Blankenship and co-author Jeff Trigg warn that Illinois is not that far behind in the "people moving out" category, and fear more to come. Gray Davis has his car tax; Rod Blagojevich may have found an equal in his sewer tax, which means that residents will be, again, flushing money down the drain.
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Do You Know Where Those Drugs Have Been?
The Illinois Policy Institute (to which I am an advisor) has come out strongly against Governor Rod Blagojevich's plan to import prescription drugs from Canada. The greatest safety concern, according to this report is that the identity of those in the supply chain of drugs back into the U.S. is questionable at best. The issue brief cites a Canadian government report, which finds that "More than one third of Internet drug sites claiming to operate in Canada are actually located in and shipping from other countries including Mexico, Thailand and India."

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Keeping These Teams is Too Expensive
In the run-up to Saturday's election in Louisiana, one candidate for the state senate lambasted her opponent for supporting the use of taxpayer dollars to support the New Orleans Saints. According to ESPN, "she said the team needed defensive backs, offensive linemen and a backup running back more than state money." I don't follow the NFL that much, let alone the Saints, but she is right in at least one thing: the Saints--or any team, for that matter--need to focus on having the right personnel rather than looking for a public bailout. Why a bailout is called for, I can't tell; after all, the team has sold out the last 24 home games.

I wonder if the Saints could get more money, if only they had a history of winning. Not that I'm encouraging a sports-industrial complex, but it's happened before: win a championship, and people will rush to throw tax dollars at you.

The team owner, Tom Benson, is on the defensive. He took out a newspaper ad defending the team, and cited a study from the University of New Orleans that claims the Saints contribute to the job base in the area. (There are, on the other hand, enough studies to suggest the contrary is true.)

Under a ten-year deal negotiated between the team and outgoing governor, Mike Foster (a Republican), "the state would help the Saints remain financially competitive by guaranteeing the team an additional $186.5 million over 10 years." But in the newspaper ad, the team owner said that this was "self-generated from ticket sales, sponsorship advertisements, concessions, tax on visiting players and other similar sources."

Hmm. Did you see the word "tax" in there? Sounds like ... taxpayer money. Even if all the money involved came from a jock tax--income taxes on home and visiting players--it's still a questionable use of state power. And as the ESPN report quotes a state official, "The bulk of the revenue that funds the Saints comes from the hotel and motel tax." (So that's why my hotel stay back in April was so expensive!)

Now there's a dispute over whether the Superdome Commission--presumably a state agency--will have to renegotiate the contract with the Dome's management company to get more money. The alternative is using general revenue funds.

Says State Senator John Hainkel (R-New Orleans), "Certainly we don't want to lose an NFL team; symbolically it's tough on a town that's taken a lot of body blows. But more and more people think keeping these teams is too expensive."

Of course, he's right. I just hope more people will come to that conclusion.
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Why Teacher Training and Certification Need Reform
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is running a series on education quality this week. Yesterday's article reviewed the debate over ways of teaching reading and math. Today's installment focuses on the importance of good teachers. As a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction official puts it, "You can give a great program to a lousy teacher, and it won't go anywhere." Unfortunately, the current method of training and certifying teachers in government schools is long on paperwork and busywork, and short on accountability.
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Next Time You are Sold on a Tax Increase, Remember This ...
According to the Detroit News, the City of Auburn Hills obtained voter approval for a special tax hike for police services. The city is now using half of that money ($1 million) for ... a golf course.

Holy Bait and Switch, Batman!

Now, I enjoy golf as much as the next duffer--yesterday I scored my lowest round yet at my home course. (Don't ask, it's still embarrassing.) But golf courses should be at the bottom of any priority list for local government--if it is to be on the list at all. As for the diversion of funds, an Oakland County (Michigan) official notes dryly, "It goes right to the heart of distrust of government. I think we are going to be a generation in dealing with this."

The golf course fiasco is not the only example of shady management, unfortunately. The News article doesn't do much to suggest ways around this. Statutory guidelines are weak, leaving, perhaps voter outrage and retribution.
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Paying Schools Not To Teach
The Freep's Dawson Bell comments on the tragi-comedy of Detroit's refusal to accept $200 million from a man who wanted state permission to establish charter schools.

Maybe a comic, he says, "could have found some material in the debacle over charter school expansion (the one that collapsed in despair and disarray . . . and a whiff of smoke as the $200 million philanthropist Bob Thompson was ready to invest in the future of Detroit kids disappeared into thin air).

We needed some comic relief after all the strawmen, red herrings, posturing and insincerity that passed for dialogue on charters was over.

Surely some of that stuff -- like the demand that the more kids who flee the Detroit Public Schools for charters, the more state money DPS should get to not teach them -- was tongue in cheek."

Unfortunately, it wasn't a comedy. At least not by design. Not only is the DPS "not teaching" students already (as evidenced by abysmal student achievement), but it wants more money for, literally, not teaching students. It's amazing, but when you're dealing with a government-granted monopoly, can we expect much else?
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Spend Money to Save Money to Spend Again
Remember the joke about the man who writes to the Department of Agriculture, asking how he too, can get into the business of "not raising hogs?" To save money on a program that it shouldn't be running in the first place (if it hands out too many crop subsidies, the market will be flooded, making the supports even more expensive), the government makes yet another payment -- it pays people not to raise hogs, corns, or whatever.

I am reminded of that story when I read this Detroit Free Press article. In order to keep disabled people out of group homes--where it would pick up much of their tab--the state pays people to take care of relatives in their own homes. It's not only cost-effective, it results in more humane and probably better care for those in question. The state is cutting back on some of these community-based programs, which leads some people to warn that this cost-saving measure will ultimately cost the state even more money. So maybe these cuts shouldn't go forward?

Maybe. But I wonder if there isn't a better way out. Couldn't we have governments that are focused on their core functions, so limited in scope that we can cut taxes sufficiently to free up money so that people can hire help on their own for family members who need assistance? Or maybe some family members wouldn't have to work, in large part to pay taxes. Or maybe then more people could donate money to a church or voluntary organization that would help those who need help--instead of putting this money through the political process, the sausage-making activity known as constructing the state budget. Or maybe there should be personal tax credits for disability insurance, which could then pick up the cost of home care.

I don't know where all the answers are. But I thought of this topic last week, as I was reviewing a state agency budget. We have program A to meet some need. And then we have program B to keep people out of program B. And then a few years later, program C is established to "save money" by serving people who might otherwise be forced to participate in program B--if they had not already fallen into the more expensive, first program, A. If you continue this regression long enough, soon "everything" (I exaggerate--perhaps) will be run through a government program, all in the name of saving money.

Given the bad side effects or poor operation of so many government programs, there's got to be another way.
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