News of the Day

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC or Commission) today announced the creation of a new, additional area code to overlay the area in which the 920 area code is now in service. This area includes communities such as Appleton, Beaver Dam, Berlin, Fond du Lac, Fort Atkinson, Green Bay, Manitowoc, Oshkosh, Ripon, Sheboygan, Sturgeon Bay, and Watertown.

The 920 area code is expected to run out of assignable prefixes (the three numbers in a phone number following the area code) by the first quarter of 2024. The new 274 area code will be used to provide telephone numbers to new customers. All current customers will retain their existing telephone numbers and will continue to dial and receive calls without change.

The new 274 area code will be in service beginning May 5, 2023. NANPA will assign 274 area codes once all of the 920 area codes have been assigned, which could happen as soon as the end of the year.

An area code overlay adds a second area code to the geographic region served by the existing area code. Therefore, multiple area codes co-exist within the same geographic region. Customers will continue to dial the three-digit area code for all calls to and from telephone numbers with the 920 and 274 area codes. The price of a call will not change due to the overlay.

Customers can still dial just three digits to reach 911, as well as 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, 811, and 988 – the new Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday unveiled its long-awaited spending plan for a controversial $80 billion cash infusion, pledging to hire thousands of new workers to audit wealthy Americans and big corporations.

The roadmap provides new details about how the tax-collecting agency will use the money over the next decade, including plans to modernize technology, improve customer service, deliver real-time alerts, provide “world-class” customer service and crack down on the so-called tax gap by enhancing enforcement of the wealthy.

The Treasury Department previously said the funding boost would allow the IRS to hire about 87,000 workers over the next 10 years, doubling the agency’s staff. However, the operating plan did not provide an estimate for the agency’s hiring plans beyond the next few years.

The IRS – which had about 78,700 employees as of 2021 – said that it plans to hire nearly 30,000 new employees by the end of fiscal year 2025, including 8,782 hires in enforcement and 13,883 in taxpayer services. The new enforcement employees will be “exclusively” focused on high-earning households, larger partnerships and companies, according to IRS Commission Danny Werfel.

The influx of money for the IRS over the next decade was included in the Democrats’ health care and climate change spending bill – dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act – that President Biden signed into law in August 2022. The funding is aimed at improving tax compliance among big corporations and wealthy Americans and shrinking the estimated $600 billion tax gap.

A bellwether of business conditions at U.S. companies fell to a three-month low of 51.2% in March and signaled slackening growth as strains mount on the economy.

The Institute for Supply Management’s services index fell from 55.1% in February.

Numbers above 50% indicate companies are expanding, but the latest survey suggests growth has taken a turn for the worse.

“The likelihood of a mild slowdown in the second half of 2023 or 2024 is still pretty high,” an executive at a professional company told ISM. “Layoffs will continue.”

The closely followed ISM reports are the first major indicators of each month to offer clues on how well the economy is performing. While the large service sector of the economy is still growing, manufacturers have fallen into a slump of sorts.

A Democratic-backed Milwaukee judge won the high stakes Wisconsin Supreme Court race Tuesday, ensuring liberals will take over majority control of the court for the first time in 15 years.  Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Justice Dan Kelly.

The new court controlled 4-3 by liberals is expected to decide a pending lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 law banning abortion enacted a year after statehood. In addition to abortion, Protasiewicz’s win is likely to impact the future of Republican-drawn legislative maps, voting rights and years of other GOP policies. It will also ensure that liberals will have the majority leading up to the 2024 presidential election and immediately after.

Protasiewicz will serve a 10-year term starting in August replacing retiring conservative Justice Pat Roggensack.

Wisconsinites are heading to the polls to weigh in on an open state Supreme Court seat, three statewide referendums and a host of local candidates. Here’s what voters need to know before they cast their ballots.

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Although the race is officially nonpartisan, Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal, could shift the court’s ideological balance if she beats conservative former state Justice Daniel Kelly for a 10-year term.

Statewide Referendums

Questions 1 and 2 on statewide ballots would amend Wisconsin’s Constitution to expand criteria judges are directed to use when setting cash bail and other conditions that someone has to comply with to be released from jail before trial. A third non-binding question asks Wisconsinites their opinion on whether able-bodied adults should be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded welfare benefits.

A Crucial Election for the State Senate

In southeast Wisconsin, Republican Representative Dan Knodl and Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin are competing for a District 8 state Senate seat that was vacated by a retirement.  The special election in an increasingly competitive district will determine whether Republicans secure a two-thirds majority in one chamber of the state Legislature.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased 0.2% in February. Adjusting for inflation, consumer spending dipped 0.1%.

Consumers increased spending on housing and utilities as well as on healthcare, but cut back on spending at restaurants, bars and hotel accommodation. Overall, services spending rose 0.2% after advancing 1.2% in January.

Outlays on long-lasting manufactured goods dropped 1.4% as a plunge in purchases of motor vehicles offset gains elsewhere. Spending on nondurable goods increased 0.9%, reflecting higher gasoline prices. There were also increases in spending on pharmaceutical products as well as food and beverages.

The Federal Reserve’s key inflation rate showed price pressures were tamer than expected in February, as consumer spending softened.

The overall personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index rose 0.3% on the month and 5% from a year ago, easing from a downwardly revised 5.3% in January.

Personal spending rose 0.2% in February after January’s upwardly revised 2% jump. Adjusted for price increases, goods spending and services spending both dipped 0.1%.

The Fed typically emphasizes the core PCE inflation rate. Yet with goods-price pressures abating, as demand and supply chains normalize,  and housing costs expected to follow later this year, Fed chair Jerome Powell has honed in on core nonhousing services prices as the key to the inflation outlook. That’s because prices of services from haircuts to health care to hospitality are closely linked to wages, generally the biggest cost input.

In February, core PCE services prices ex-housing rose 0.3% on the month, down from 0.5% in January and the smallest increase since July. That left the annual inflation rate for core nonhousing services at 4.6%.

Health care prices rose a tame 0.2% and education 0.1%, while air transportation costs fell 0.7% on the month. Still, wage pressures are putting upward pressure on personal care services (up 0.8%), food services (0.5%) and recreation services (0.9%).

The U.S. and Japan announced an agreement to strengthen and diversify the supply chains for critical minerals like those used in semiconductors and other cutting-edge technologies.

Under the agreement, which took effect immediately after it was signed on Tuesday, the U.S. and Japan agreed to partner in strengthening supply chains of critical minerals including cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese and nickel. The two countries committed to taking domestic actions to address non-market policies of other countries that distort trade in critical minerals and not impose export duties between the U.S. and Japan on critical minerals.

The agreement comes as China plays a central role in global supply chains for critical minerals, boasting the majority of refining capacity for cobalt, lithium and nickel. It is also increasingly exercising control over raw commodities in areas rich in critical minerals. For example, the Nigerian government recently made a deal with a Chinese firm to develop the country’s first lithium processing plant.

The agreement established best practices for reviewing investments made within the two countries’ critical mineral sectors by foreign entities. It also included measures to promote resource-efficient approaches to reduce the demand for, and environmental impact of, virgin material extraction of critical minerals.

The U.S. and Japan will also improve information-sharing and enforcement actions related to labor rights violations in the extraction and processing of critical minerals.

State Representative Travis Tranel (R-Cuba City) and State Senator Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) circulated legislation to create the Ag-Road Improvement Program (ARIP) today, which will invest an additional $150 million in local, rural roads. The biggest logistical challenge, for many farmers, often occurs on the roads just outside their farms.

“Wisconsin farmers help feed the world and need to have strong and reliable roads in place to make sure that the food they produce is able to leave the farm and arrive to market quickly, reliably, and efficiently,” said Rep. Tranel. “The ARIP will set our states second largest industry
up for long term stability and prosperity.”

“Farmers are the backbone of Wisconsin’s $105 billion ag-economy,” said Sen. Marklein. “Targeting money to repair and improve the first-mile of ag-roads will ensure farmers can move goods off the farm and to market.”

The bill creates a state-funded program to upgrade local roads and bridges that are the critical link between farmers, their fields, processing facilities, and the businesses that provide essential feed and supplies. The program will be funded with a $150 million investment in one-time
money to provide local governments with resources to make significant infrastructure upgrades.

This program is modeled after the existing Local Roads Improvement Program (LRIP) and is designed to direct money to local roads and bridges used by farmers every day.

Plans are in the works for Microsoft to buy a 315-acre parcel of land in the Village of Mount Pleasant to create a data center campus.

Microsoft is interested in acquiring and developing all of the land lying south of Braun Road, north of County Highway KR, east of the Canadian Pacific Rail right-of-way and west of 90th Street in TID (Tax Incremental District) 5.

The proposed development will be considered by the Mount Pleasant Village Board on March 30 and the Racine County Board at its April 11 and April 18 meetings.

If approved, construction is anticipated to begin on phase one no later than July 1, 2026. Phase two would start no later than July 1, 2033.

“Microsoft was attracted to this location because it is primed for development,” Village of Mount Pleasant President David DeGroot said in a news release. “Through local investments, we have transformed this area of Mount Pleasant and equipped it with the infrastructure necessary to support a major investment by Microsoft.”

Foxconn will receive the proceeds from the Microsoft land sale (net of costs) as partial reimbursement of the funds Foxconn advanced in 2017 to acquire lands in TID 5. The company will release all rights to the 315 acres that will be sold to Microsoft.