Brian Dake

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said the budget he introduces Feb. 28 will include steps toward raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour and dialing back the manufacturing tax credit to fund a middle-class tax cut.

Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) and the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy (CROWE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison released a new study revealing the true cost of Medicaid expansion to Wisconsin families. Though proponents highlight certain savings to the state, Medicaid expansion is expected to result in increased costs to families with private insurance – as much as $700 per year for a family of four, resulting in a net cost to Wisconsin of $600 million.

The Study: The Impact of Medicaid Expansion: Examining the cost to consumers and the net impact on Wisconsin, by WILL Research Director Will Flanders, and Noah Williams, Director of CROWE and Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reviews data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia comparing private sector health insurance costs and emergency room visits in states that expanded Medicaid eligibility and those that did not. The results include:

1. Expanding Medicaid will increase the cost of healthcare on Wisconsinites with private insurance, on average, by $177 per year – up to $700 for a family of four.
2. Emergency room visits would actually increase in Wisconsin, by over 52,000 visits per year.
3. In total, Medicaid expansion is expected to cost Wisconsin over $1 billion per year – borne in large part by increases in private sector healthcare costs.
4. Even when ‘savings’ to the state are included – Medicaid expansion will cost Wisconsin $600 million per year.

More than $51 million in fraudulent and erroneous refunds and credits were blocked during the 2018 tax season in Wisconsin.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, its use of identity verification tools helped protect identity theft.

“Identify verification is extremely important to us. It helps ensure that the identities of tax filers are secure and protected, and that their tax dollars are not stolen,” said Wisconsin Department of Revenue Secretary Peter Barca. “Cybercrime and identity theft have become more common. As a result, we’ve implemented a number of measures to combat it.”

DOR uses analytics to identify tax returns that indicate possible identity theft. If there is a concern, DOR sends a letter to the tax filer asking them to complete a quiz, enter a Personal Identification Number (PIN), or submit documentation to confirm their identity.

“Our systems are very secure, but when criminals steal someone’s personal information from other sources, they may use it to file a fraudulent tax return,” said Barca.

The Wisconsin Family and Caregiver Support Alliance is releasing the results of its new statewide employer survey to recognize February 15 as National Caregivers Day. 

National Caregivers Day is observed annually on the third Friday in February, recognizing the care providers, both paid and unpaid, who provide personal cares of all types to people with disabilities, older adults and other family members and friends who require support to remain
healthy and living in their homes and communities. It is estimated that in Wisconsin, 549,000 caregivers are providing 588,000 million hours of care to loved ones annually, valued at nearly $6 billion dollars.

Employers recently confirmed the impact of caregiving on the Wisconsin workforce in a survey sponsored by WFACSA and released this month. The survey was taken by a total of 222 employers across various sectors of the state economy. On average, companies report that 44% of their employees have family caregiving responsibilities with nearly a quarter of employers reporting that caregiving increases stress in the workplace.

The most common strategies Wisconsin employers indicated they used to support their employees with caregiving responsibilities were allowing flexible schedules (74%) and making referrals with Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) (50%).

Suggested strategies include:

Flexible Work Hours:

Caregiving employees are seeking increased flexibility over their work environments. Help employees remain engaged and productive using telecommuting and remote positions.

Technology:

Analytics may help businesses analyze root causes, such as the need for manager training, review of compensation strategies for caregiving employees, or a change in the work culture that will address caregiver stress or help with fulfilling work duties.

Health, wellness and adequate employee training:

Another area of importance is multi-faceted wellness programs including a
comprehensive employee assistance programs, training and educational opportunities during worktime like “Lunch and Learn” sessions. The training can focus on anything from local resources available to help care for an aging parent with dementia to navigating paperwork and benefits for an adult child with disabilities.

Gov. Tony Evers must have needed an easy win on Tuesday, when he vowed to fight climate change by committing Wisconsin to the terms of the Paris accord. That agreement calls for a 26-28 percent reduction in greenhouse gases from the 2005 levels by 2025 – something Wisconsin already made enormous strides toward long before Evers got elected.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) keeps detailed records on energy production, consumption, and emissions. According to its data, Wisconsin’s residents, businesses and government have increasingly demonstrated their commitment to the environment.

Between 2005 and 2016, Wisconsin reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 14.4 percent and overall energy consumption dropped by 10 percent. Wisconsin’s use of coal for energy production dropped 32 percent between 2005 and 2016, according to EIA’s data. The result of all these trends – today Wisconsin gets 20 percent of its energy from non-carbon sources (that includes all renewables and nuclear).

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) predicted in 2016 that renewable energy would continue to make up a larger percentage of the state’s energy production.

“Rather than being driven by future requirements of the Wisconsin RPS, this growth trend is driven by other forces, such as market opportunities, customer demand for additional renewable energy, and multiple processes involved in citing new projects. Therefore, actual production could be lower or higher than these aggregated electric provider estimates,” according to the PSC.

Northern Wisconsin leaders lobbied the Wisconsin Department of Revenue on Tuesday to restore a tax reciprocity agreement with Minnesota that ended almost a decade ago. The state’s new Department of Revenue Secretary-designee Peter Barca is hopeful a deal can be reached to save Wisconsin residents money.

The agreement ended Jan. 1, 2010, impacting around 80,000 people in the two states. The deal that had been in place for more than 40 years allowed people living in one state and working in another to file just one income tax form in their home state. Minnesota and Wisconsin would then resolve payments at a later date.

“Minnesota feels like why should we have to end up suffering a financial loss in order to help the people of Wisconsin,” Barca said.

A deal would mean that Wisconsin would pay around $106 million a year to Minnesota because the Badger State has more residents working across the border, Barca said.

Barca said Wisconsin has submitted another proposal to Minnesota, noting he’s spoken with his Minnesota counterpart, Minnesota DOR Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly.

“She said she would take a fresh look at it, and our goal, of course, would be to have obviously (an agreement) for the 2020 tax season,” Barca said. “We would have until early fall to get it done.”

Barca said their proposal would include making quarterly payments to Minnesota to offset around $158 million in revenues the state would give up under an agreement.

A spokesman with the Minnesota DOR said they would consider any future proposals and whether they are in the best interest of Minnesota.

The state Assembly voted Tuesday to advance a Republican-backed income tax cut, despite doubt over whether Democratic Gov. Tony Evers will sign it.

The Republican bill would use money set to roll over from the current budget to fund a middle-class tax cut that would save the average taxpayer $170 a year, according to the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office. It would be effective January 2020.

Evers and Democratic lawmakers have pushed for a similar tax cut, also aimed at middle-income earners. The primary difference between the plans is how they are funded. Rather than using existing state funds, the Democrat-backed plan would be paid for in part by rolling back a tax credit for manufacturers.

That rollback would only pay for about 60 percent of the Democrats’ tax cut. The remaining funding is expected to be unveiled as part of the governor’s budget proposal later this month.

Evers has said he is unlikely to sign the Republican bill, but stopped short Tuesday morning of saying he would veto the measure. Instead, he said he was hopeful there would be room for compromise between the GOP and Democrat-backed plans.

Lawmakers said on Monday night that they had reached an agreement “in principle” to avoid a second partial government shutdown set to begin on Saturday.

Negotiators refused to discuss the particulars of the deal with staff expected to work frantically to release the legislation as early as Tuesday.

A congressional source told The Hill that the bill will include $1.375 billion for physical barriers, the same amount included in the 2018 fiscal year bill. The tentative agreement, according to the source, also specifically prohibits the use of a concrete wall. But, senior Congressional aides separately noted that it will fund approximately 55 new miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley sector.

If negotiators are able to hold an agreement together, it would mark a dramatic U-turn from earlier Monday when both sides were still divided on two key issues: funding for physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border and a snag on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention beds.

Lawmakers refused to discuss how they resolved the ICE fight, after Democrats proposed a cap on the number of ICE detention beds, arguing it would force the Trump administration to focus on “serious criminals,” and that numbers were in line with those from the Obama administration.

Congress has until Saturday to get the seven remaining fiscal year 2019 appropriations bills to Trump’s desk to fund roughly 25 percent of the federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security.

Regulators and consumer advocates are questioning the value of Wisconsin’s first large-scale solar project, while environmental groups are lining up in support of the investor-owned utilities as they embrace renewable energy.

Madison Gas & Electric and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. have jointly proposed to buy 300 megawatts’ worth of solar panels at two projects under development along Lake Michigan and in rural southwestern Wisconsin.

Both utilities say they need to replace aging fossil fuel generators and that the $405 million investment will cost customers $181 million less than other alternatives for meeting demand.

Environmental groups — often at odds with the state’s utilities — agree. “I’m convinced this is the best way forward for MGE and WPS,” said Michael Vickerman, policy director for Renew Wisconsin. “We’re seeing this happen all over the country. If capacity is required, large-scale solar is the most economic option.”

But Public Service Commission staff have questioned the economics, prompting concerns from consumer advocates.

The Citizens Utility Board, which represents residential and small-business customers, says staff raised valid concerns about the benefits and whether future policy decisions could leave customers having to fund additional investments.

“All of the decisions are being made now about what costs customers are going to shoulder,” said CUB executive director Tom Content. “Our risk is all up front, but our payoff could be questionable down the road.”

It will be up to the three-member PSC to determine whether purchasing the solar farms will impair the utilities’ efficiency, exceed their future needs or increase the cost of service without also increasing the value or quality of service. The commission is separately considering private developers’ plans to build the two solar farms, which have generated some opposition from neighbors.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, there were 106 Wisconsin workers who died due to injury in 2017. This number reflects a slight increase from 105 fatalities in 2016, but Wisconsin’s overall fatality rate dropped slightly from a rate of 3.6 in 2016 to 3.5 deaths per 100,000 full-time workers in 2017. 

The final count of occupational fatalities in the U.S. in 2017 was 5,147, according to figures the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released last month. This was a slight decrease from 5,190 total fatal incidents in 2016. The U.S. fatality rate decreased from 3.6 in 2016 to 3.5 cases per 100,000 full time employees in 2017.

Key findings for Wisconsin in 2017:

• Transportation incidents caused the most fatalities, as is typically true, though 2017 data show a continued trend in decreased incidents from the prior year, reduced from 38 incidents in 2016 to 35 in 2017. Management occupations, including farmers, were most prevalent with 27 incidents in 2017; transportation workers were the next most prevalent occupation type at 17 incidents.

• After more than doubling from 2015 to 2016, violent incidents declined from 23 in 2016 to 20 in 2017, the same number of incidents attributed to contact with objects and equipment last year.

• Of the 106 fatal incidents, only 9 were women in 2017, down from 16 of 105 total cases in 2016.

• Employees age 65 and over sustained the highest number of fatalities with 29 incidents, up from 23 last year.

The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, part of the BLS occupational safety and health statistics program, compiles a count of all fatal work injuries occurring in the United States during the calendar year. The program uses diverse state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries.