Brian Dake

Pfizer and BioNTech, a German biotech company, announced Wednesday that the U.S. has reached a $1.95 billion deal with them for an initial order of 100 million doses of their coronavirus vaccine.

According to the announcement Americans will receive the vaccine for free. The United States, which has a population of over 300 million people, could get up to 500 million more doses of the vaccine.

Earlier this month BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said several hundred million doses could be produced even before approval, up to 1.2 billion by the end of 2021.

Their vaccine is set to begin the final stage of the testing process, known as phase three trials, at the end of the month. It is one of more than a dozen companies that has had positive results while working on a vaccine.

Moderna, a company working with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is set to begin the phase three testing stage this month as well. AstraZeneca PLC, a company developing a vaccine with the University of Oxford, will also enter phase three trials in August.

Wisconsin’s housing market performed far better than expected in June, with existing home sales down just 4.5% compared to that same month in 2019, and median prices rose 3.6% to $222,000 over the same 12-month period, according to the most recent analysis of the state housing market by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA).

On a year-to-date basis, home sales for the first half of 2020 were 4.9% lower than the first six months of 2019, and median prices were up 7.6% to $209,900.

“This is better than we expected given the COVID-induced slide in sales we saw last month,” said WRA Chairman Steve Beers. Sales slid sharply in May, dropping 24.3% compared to May 2019, so being down just 4.5% is a big improvement.

Beers qualified the comparison by noting that sales in June last year were actually somewhat weak, dropping 7.7% from June 2018. “It’s important to remember that we’re comparing closed sales with the same month a year earlier, so the weak performance in June 2019 makes this past month’s drop in sales smaller,” he said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree something needs to be done about the state’s unemployment system, but Democrats and Republicans don’t see eye to eye on the best solution.

State Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) is one of the Democrats who introduced legislation Thursday aimed at removing some of the barriers to unemployment benefits.

Democrats, including Rep. Stubbs, introduced the following legislation:

• LRB 6244 – Wisconsin is one of only two states that prevent people with disabilities who are able to work from receiving unemployment benefits. This bill would allow social security disability (SSDI) recipients to receive concurrent unemployment insurance benefits.

• LRB 6246 – Under current law, individuals cannot receive extended UI benefits when participating in extended occupational training. This bill would reinstate the ability of those participating in extended occupational training to receive extended UI benefits.

• LRB 6249 – Currently, claimants are ineligible for UI during weeks where they hit a wage threshold. This bill would temporarily suspend the $500 wage threshold for recipients of unemployment insurance benefits.

• LRB 6254 – The current definition of “suitable work” creates challenges for claimants. This bill reinstates DWD’s authority to determine by administrative rule what constitutes suitable work a claimant must accept if offered, and what labor market conditions to review based on the number of weeks that the claimant has received benefits.

• LRB 6256 – Several laws enacted over the last decade have restricted DWD’s ability to increase access to unemployment insurance when appropriate. This bill expands DWD’s authority to promulgate rules that provide waivers for work search and job registration requirements.

• LRB 6257 – Currently, payments on valid unemployment insurance claims are delayed for one week. This bill would permanently eliminate the requirement that claimants wait one week before receiving benefits.

• LRB 6265 – Currently, claimants are required for perform four work searches per week. This bill lowers the required work searches from four to two per week and repeals the provision allowing DWD to require by rule additional work searches.

• LRB 6362 – The concept of substantial fault has caused confusion for both employers and employees and when employees are entitled to benefits when they are discharged by their employers. This bill would eliminate the concept of substantial fault being a disqualifying factor.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) was quick to dismiss the ideas—blaming the governor for how he’s handled the crisis.

Republicans want to use federal money to cover the costs of unemployment benefits for people waiting to find out if they qualify, which Gov. Tony Evers called a “political stunt.”

The Wisconsin economy’s labor market improved during June as its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 8.5% and the state added 99,300 private sector jobs during the month according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released today by the state Department of Workforce Development.

The state’s unemployment rate improved significantly from May when it was 12.1%, according to revised data, and is well below the national rate of 11.1%

The state’s leisure and hospitality sector added 47,700 jobs in June, the retail trade sector added 16,400 and the educational and health services sector added 12,900.

The state’s labor force participation rate is 65.7%, down from 67% a year ago.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday retail sales rose 7.5% last month. That was on top of the 18.2% jump in May, which was the biggest gain since the government started tracking the series in 1992. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales advancing 5% in June.

Yesterday, Governor Tony Evers  created the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Access.

The task force will advise the governor and Wisconsin State Legislature on broadband actions and policy, including strategies for successfully expanding high speed internet access to every residence, business, and institution in the state; initiatives for digital inclusion; and pathways to unlocking and optimizing the benefits of statewide, affordable access to broadband for all communities in Wisconsin.

Broadband access is an essential catalyst to drive community, public safety, learning, health, and economic goals across the state of Wisconsin and, as outlined in a recent report by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, will be critical to the state’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The task force will be chaired by Brittany Beyer, Executive Director for Grow North Regional Economic Development Corporation, and consists of members who represent a balance of interests, perspectives, and areas of expertise. It will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to research and develop recommendations for actions so that all Wisconsinites can have access to this essential and critical service needed for daily life.

The Treasury Department reported Monday that the deficit hit $864 billion last month, an amount of red ink that surpasses most annual deficits in the nation’s history and is above the previous monthly deficit record of $738 billion in April.

For the first nine months of this budget year, which began Oct. 1, the deficit totals $2.74 trillion, also a record for that period. That puts the country well on the way to hitting the $3.7 trillion deficit for the whole year that has been forecast by the Congressional Budget Office.

The June deficit was driven higher by spending on various government relief programs such as an extra $600 per week in expanded unemployment benefits and a Paycheck Protection Program that provided support to businesses to keep workers on their payrolls.

Another reason for the surge in the June deficit was the government’s decision to delay tax payments this year until July 15. That decision mean that quarterly payments made by individual taxpayers and corporations will not be due until July 15 this year rather than June.

So far this budget year, revenues total $2.26 trillion, down 13.4% from the same period last year, while spending totals $5 trillion, up 49.1% from a year ago.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court Friday acted Friday to rein in Gov. Tony Evers’ expansive veto authority by overturning three budget vetoes the Democrat issued in his first two-year spending plan as governor.

Of the four vetoes targeted in the lawsuit, the single one upheld increased vehicle fees for owners of heavier trucks over those with lighter ones.

Meanwhile, justices determined a veto that broadened what was proposed as a $3 million grant program to replace school buses with energy-efficient models was unconstitutional (5-2 decision). Evers removed the condition that the funding be used only for buses and instructed the Department of Administration to allocate up to $10 million for electric vehicle charging stations.

The other partial vetoes that were overturned altered the definition of “vapor product,” thus creating new taxes and regulations on them (4-3 decision); and lifted restrictions on how $75 million in transportation funding could be spent (5-2 decision).

Previous governors have used their veto authority in a manner similar to Evers.

Wisconsin governors hold the country’s most powerful partial veto authority on spending measures, but aren’t able to use the veto pen to create new words by striking out individual letters, and they can’t craft new sentences by combining parts of two or more lines in legislation. Both limitations were imposed after voters approved previous constitutional amendments to limit governors’ authority in that arena.

Wisconsin Assembly Republicans proposed a new state loan program on Wednesday to support some of the roughly 140,000 people in the state waiting to receive delayed unemployment checks.

Under the GOP plan, the Evers administration would use $40 million in funding from the federal COVID-19 relief package passed in March, of which the state has about $280 million remaining, to offer zero-interest bridge loans to people awaiting benefit checks. The program could be administered by the state Department of Revenue, Republicans said.

According to a memo from the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office, $40 million could provide about 31,000 people a $1,308 loan, which equals four weeks of the average state unemployment benefit. The average weekly benefit was $327 in March 2020, the memo said.

The Republicans called on the governor’s administration to roll out the program immediately, saying legislation is not required to establish it.