Brian Dake

U.S. employers added 275,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate ticked higher, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

Job growth was driven by the hiring of health care and government employees, along with food services. On the flip side, the manufacturing sector cut 4,000 positions.

Average hourly earnings, a key measure of inflation, increased 0.1% for the month and climbed 4.3% from the same time one year ago. Strong job growth combined with rising wages is fueling inflation, according to some economists.

On Tuesday, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized a new rule to cap all credit card late fees at $8, which will apply to the country’s largest credit card issuers, covering those with more than 1 million open accounts.

Banking and credit card companies have started reacting to a new Biden administration rule that puts an $8 ceiling on credit card late fees.

“Today’s flawed final rule will not only reduce competition and increase the cost of credit, but will also result in more late payments, higher debt, lower credit scores and reduced credit access for those who need it most,” American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols said.

Ranking Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., announced plans in a media statement Tuesday morning to fight the new rule and its implementation.

“While lowering the cap on late penalties may sound like a good talking point, in practice it will decrease the availability of credit card products for those who need it most, raise rates for many borrowers who carry a balance but pay on time, and increase the likelihood of late payments across the board. Lawful and contractually agreed upon payment incentives promote financial discipline and responsibility,” Scott said in the press release.

“Ultimately, these commonsense practices protect consumers’ access to credit and enable a wider range of services,” the senator expanded. “To continue delivering for those who need it most, I will be using the Congressional Review Act process to fight the implementation of this rule.”

Governor Tony Evers signed a bill into law Monday that will expand the state’s tax credit for child care expenses.

The measure signed by Evers will allow Wisconsinites to claim up to 100 percent of the federal tax credit for child and dependent care on their state taxes starting in the 2024 tax year.

Previously, state filers could only claim 50 percent of the federal income tax credit, which applies to money spent on care for a child under 13 or on care for a disabled person.

The changes will increase the maximum credit a Wisconsin filer could claim from $525 to $3,500 for a single dependent, and from $1,050 to $7,000 for multiple dependents.

The changes will affect more than 110,000 taxpayers, with an average benefit of over $656, according to the Governor’s Office.

In a statement, Evers called the cost of quality child care “too darn high,” and said the credit is one step toward keeping parents in Wisconsin’s work force.

“Signing this bill today will go a long way toward defraying yearly family expenses on child care, giving Wisconsinites some breathing room in their household budgets and making sure our kids have the early support and care they need,” the governor said in written statement, following a Monday morning ceremony at La Casa de Esperanza, a community center and charter school in Waukesha.

The expanded credit, which received bipartisan support from state lawmakers, will cost the state an estimated $73 million in revenue in the 2025 fiscal year, according to Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued to block the largest proposed supermarket merger in U.S. history—Kroger Company’s $24.6 billion acquisition of the Albertsons Companies, Inc.—alleging that the deal is anticompetitive.

The FTC issued an administrative complaint and authorized a lawsuit in federal court to block the proposed acquisition pending the Commission’s administrative proceedings. A bipartisan group of nine attorneys general is joining the FTC’s federal court complaint.

Kroger operates thousands of stores across 36 states, which includes regional banners such as Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Harris Teeter, King Soopers, Kroger, and Quality Food Centers (QFC). Albertsons also operates thousands of stores across 35 states under regional names including Albertsons, Haggen, Jewel-Osco, Pavilions, Safeway, and Vons. If the merger were completed, Kroger and Albertsons would operate more than 5,000 stores and approximately 4,000 retail pharmacies and would employ nearly 700,000 employees across 48 states.

To try to secure antitrust approval of their merger, Kroger and Albertsons have proposed to divest several hundred stores and select other assets to C&S Wholesale Grocers (C&S), which today operates just 23 supermarkets and a single retail pharmacy. The FTC’s administrative complaint alleges that Kroger and Albertsons’s inadequate divestiture proposal is a hodgepodge of unconnected stores, banners, brands, and other assets that Kroger’s antitrust lawyers have cobbled together and falls far short of mitigating the lost competition between Kroger and Albertsons.

The FTC says the proposed divestitures are not a standalone business, and C&S would face significant obstacles stitching together the various parts and pieces from Kroger and Albertsons into a functioning business—let alone a successful competitor against a combined Kroger and Albertsons. The proposal completely ignores many affected regional and local markets where Kroger and Albertsons compete today. In areas where there are divestitures, the proposal fails to include all of the assets, resources, and capabilities that C&S would need to replicate the competitive intensity that exists today between Kroger and Albertsons. Even if C&S were to survive as an operator, Kroger and Albertsons’s proposed divestitures still do not solve the multitude of competitive issues created by the proposed acquisition, according to the complaint.

New home sales ticked up in January, despite a twin burden imposed by elevated mortgage rates and expensive housing prices, according to U.S. Census data released on Monday.

Sales of new single-family homes rose 1.8% in January compared to the previous year, data showed. The survey found an estimated 661,000 homes were sold in January. On a monthly basis, sales climbed 1.5% from December.

The fresh data offers a glimmer of optimism for an otherwise sluggish housing market. By contrast, existing-home sales declined in January compared to the previous year, the National Association of Realtors said last week.

The divergent trends for new and existing home sales trace back to elevated mortgage rates. The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has soared to 6.9%, rebounding after a steady decline at the end of last year, according to a report from Freddie Mac on Thursday.

The median sales price of new houses sold in January was $420,700.

Drivers in eight Midwestern states will be able to fuel up with a higher blend of ethanol throughout the year under a final rule announced Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The rule, which takes effect in April 2025, will apply in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Those states grow the bulk of the U.S. corn crop and are home to much of the nation’s ethanol production.

Most gasoline sold across the country is blended with 10% ethanol, though 15% blends are becoming increasingly common, especially in the Midwest. E15 summer sales still will not be allowed in most of the country during summer.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared sympathetic to a group of states, companies, and trade associations seeking to temporarily block a rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce air pollution from power plants and other industrial facilities in 23 states that do not want to adjust their emissions policies. During approximately 90 minutes of oral arguments, the court’s conservative justices voiced skepticism about the process that the EPA followed in implementing the rule, while the court’s liberal justices questioned the wisdom of putting the rule on hold before any lower court has had a chance to weigh in.

The law at the center of the case is known as the “good neighbor” provision of the Clean Air Act. It requires “upwind” states to reduce emissions that affect the air quality in “downwind” states.

In 2015, the EPA issued new air-quality standards for ozone pollution, which at high levels can cause major health problems. The new EPA standards triggered an obligation for states to submit plans to indicate both how they would comply with those standards and, in particular, how they would reduce emissions that affect the air quality in downwind states.

The dispute at the center of this case arises from the EPA’s decision last year to reject the plans submitted by 21 states, which had not proposed any changes to their emissions plans. One month after throwing out the state plans, the EPA published its own plan for those states, as well as for two other states that had not submitted plans.

Representing the states, Ohio Solicitor General Mathura Sridharan argued that the process by which the EPA had arrived at its federal plan was flawed. Specifically, she contended, 12 states had gone to court to challenge the EPA’s rejection of their plans, and several courts of appeals have put those rejections on hold, precluding the EPA from imposing its federal plan on those states.

But the EPA’s plan, Sridharan explained, relied on the assumption that all 23 states would participate in the federal plan. Once it became clear that not all states would be part of the plan, she told the justices, the EPA need to consider what the effect of less-than-full participation would have.

The EPA’s failure to do so, Sridharan continued, “has become consequential,” because the EPA’s plan “now regulates under half of the states and a quarter of the emissions that the EPA originally set out to regulate.”

Catherine Stetson, representing companies that own and operate natural gas pipeline engines, emphasized that “the purpose of the ‘good neighbor’ provision is to reduce the significant contribution that upwind states make to downwind states” – not simply to protect downwind states. Therefore, she reasoned, the EPA should have examined whether, with only 11 states subject to the federal plan, “there would still be a significant contribution” to downwind air quality.

Stetson added that, if the rule is allowed to remain in effect, it could mean “hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in costs over the next 12 to 18 months.” By contrast, she suggested, there is not a “very, very significant downwind problem” but instead a “minuscule” one.

A decision in this case is expected by summer.

Yesterday, the state Senate today sent a $2.1 billion GOP tax relief package to Governor Tony Evers.

The biggest ticket item in the package was AB 1020, which would expand the amount of income covered by the state’s second-lowest tax bracket of 4.4%. For married joint filers, the second-lowest tax bracket covers income between $19,090 and $38,190 under current law. AB 1020 would expand that to a cap of $150,000, and it would require the Department of Revenue to update withholding tables by July 1. LFB projects the change would reduce individual income tax collections by $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2024-25 and $751.9 million annually after that. The 2024-25 impact includes a one-time cost of $439 million to update withholding tables.

AB 1023 would expand the state credit for child and dependent care expenses to 100% of the credit claimed on a filer’s federal income tax return. Currently, the state credit equals up to 50% of the federal credit. It would reduce individual income tax collections by $72.9 million annually, beginning in 2024-25, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The Senate signed off 29-3 after the Assembly backed it 92-4.

The other pieces of the package include:

*excluding the first $75,000 of retirement income subject to state taxes for those 65 and older. For married joint filers, the bill would exempt the first $150,000. AB 1021 would cover payments from pensions and retirement plans such as a 401(k). It wouldn’t apply to retirement income already exempt from current state law, such as a distribution from a Roth IRA. The proposal would reduce taxes by $658.2 million in 2024-25 and $472.4 million annually thereafter. The average decrease would be $1,582 per filer.

Social Security benefits, federal pension payments for military and government employees, and income from certain public retirement systems are already exempt from calculating a filer’s adjusted gross income. State law also exempts the first $5,000 in income for those 65 and over with an adjusted gross income of less than $15,000 or $30,000 for married joint filers.

*increasing an existing nonrefundable tax credit for married couples to $870 from $480. AB 1022 would reduce taxes by $169 million in 2024-25 and $160.9 million annually after that, with an average decrease of $338.

Wisconsin’s winter has been unseasonably warm and dry — impacting businesses that rely on snow and ice.

Those businesses may be eligible for federal aid through the U.S. Small Businesses Administration’s disaster loan program. The loans are meant to help businesses get through emergency situations that have led to economic losses.

In conversations with the Small Businesses Administration, Gov. Tony Evers and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin clarified that businesses in Wisconsin counties under a drought declaration qualify for the loans.

Under the program, businesses can borrow up to $2 million to cover their losses.

The National Weather Service reports that Wisconsin snowfall has been 20 to 30 inches below normal this winter. In Ashland, Iron and Vilas counties, snowfall has been 40 to 70 inches below normal.

For more information about the loans, businesses can go to https://lending.sba.gov.

Governor Tony Evers has signed new legislative maps into law, potentially loosening the GOP grip on power in Wisconsin state government for the first time in well over a decade.

It also likely ends the months-long redistricting lawsuit before the Wisconsin Supreme Court that teed up these maps. The court’s 4-3 liberal majority struck down the current district lines in December and was laying the groundwork to draw new maps if Evers and the Legislature couldn’t do it first.

The new maps passed by the Legislature and signed by Evers are identical to those the governor submitted to the court as one of six options to replace the Republican-drawn districts. Redistricting experts hired by the court’s liberal majority say the governor’s maps have a slight Republican tilt but are competitive enough that “the party that wins the most votes will win the most seats” in the state Legislature.

In a social media post, Evers said, “When I promised I wanted fair maps — not maps that are better for one party or another — I damn well meant it.”

“The people should get to choose their elected officials, not the other way around,” Evers said. “And under the maps I’m signing today, I am making good on that promise.”