
Bill Barth: The extra money belongs to people
Growing surplus provides an opportunity to rebate dollars in Wisconsin.
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Growing surplus provides an opportunity to rebate dollars in Wisconsin.

At a time when political debates and discussions can feel like they are taking place across impassible divides, Wisconsin Public Radio’s Main Street Agenda revived our belief that there are bridges we can build by listening to and understanding each other.

A proposed development that would bring a new soccer stadium to downtown Milwaukee should include guarantees of good wages and a path to union representation for workers in the stadium district in return for public subsidies, a new report recommends.

Wisconsin’s motto once was a definition. Now it’s an empty promise.

Democrats just barely held off a Republican onslaught on fair elections. But the fight is far from over.

At its core, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s $3.2 billion public health workforce and infrastructure grant program promotes more of the Biden administration’s equity initiatives, infusing divisive, woke politics into public health. And it promises to be more of the same from DHS under Gov. Tony Evers.

We probably shouldn’t be surprised by a recent New York Times story revealing how deeply involved many of the nation’s college athletic programs have become with sports betting companies.

Citizens have had their fill of selfish gun owners, easy access to gun sales, along with deadly and reckless outcomes. Illinois is fighting back.

Some feel the city of Milwaukee’s process needs to be reformed. Are they right?

As legislators, we need to prioritize cooperative input and let the power of a good idea take root in our Legislature.

Conservative groups who focus on candidate recruitment and training in Wisconsin say they have seen a distinct drop-off in the number of people volunteering to run for municipal and county positions this spring.

I’d like to see family and friends once again discuss issues with each other and tamp down the angry rhetoric.

State courts have become the only legal forum for challenging the partisan power grab or partisan congressional maps, since the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that those lawsuits cannot be brought in federal court.

For a month, politics was the last thing on my mind. But now, in-between exercises recommended by my wonderful physical and occupational therapists, I have time to read the news. Sadly, it seems it’s just as concerning as it was before.

Children go to school to learn to read and do math, not to be taught about sex.

The state’s got a projected $6.6 billion surplus and all Assembly Speaker Robin Vos can think about is even deeper tax cuts for the wealthy. My own view is that we should take a bunch of that money and pour it into kids.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he wants “significantly more” than half of the state’s projected $6.8 billion budget surplus to go to tax relief in the next biennial budget.

Progressive issues are much more popular than they’ve been given credit for.

Over the past few years, the Republican-controlled state Legislature has not only been stopping key protection efforts by the Stewardship Fund, but doing so in a secretive, underhanded and unaccountable way.

The senator’s switch to “independent” aligns her more completely with the special interests that she has so diligently represented since coming to the chamber.

Growing surplus provides an opportunity to rebate dollars in Wisconsin.

At a time when political debates and discussions can feel like they are taking place across impassible divides, Wisconsin Public Radio’s Main Street Agenda revived our belief that there are bridges we can build by listening to and understanding each other.

A proposed development that would bring a new soccer stadium to downtown Milwaukee should include guarantees of good wages and a path to union representation for workers in the stadium district in return for public subsidies, a new report recommends.

Wisconsin’s motto once was a definition. Now it’s an empty promise.

Democrats just barely held off a Republican onslaught on fair elections. But the fight is far from over.

At its core, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s $3.2 billion public health workforce and infrastructure grant program promotes more of the Biden administration’s equity initiatives, infusing divisive, woke politics into public health. And it promises to be more of the same from DHS under Gov. Tony Evers.

We probably shouldn’t be surprised by a recent New York Times story revealing how deeply involved many of the nation’s college athletic programs have become with sports betting companies.

Citizens have had their fill of selfish gun owners, easy access to gun sales, along with deadly and reckless outcomes. Illinois is fighting back.

Some feel the city of Milwaukee’s process needs to be reformed. Are they right?

As legislators, we need to prioritize cooperative input and let the power of a good idea take root in our Legislature.

Conservative groups who focus on candidate recruitment and training in Wisconsin say they have seen a distinct drop-off in the number of people volunteering to run for municipal and county positions this spring.

I’d like to see family and friends once again discuss issues with each other and tamp down the angry rhetoric.

State courts have become the only legal forum for challenging the partisan power grab or partisan congressional maps, since the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that those lawsuits cannot be brought in federal court.

For a month, politics was the last thing on my mind. But now, in-between exercises recommended by my wonderful physical and occupational therapists, I have time to read the news. Sadly, it seems it’s just as concerning as it was before.

Children go to school to learn to read and do math, not to be taught about sex.

The state’s got a projected $6.6 billion surplus and all Assembly Speaker Robin Vos can think about is even deeper tax cuts for the wealthy. My own view is that we should take a bunch of that money and pour it into kids.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says he wants “significantly more” than half of the state’s projected $6.8 billion budget surplus to go to tax relief in the next biennial budget.

Progressive issues are much more popular than they’ve been given credit for.

Over the past few years, the Republican-controlled state Legislature has not only been stopping key protection efforts by the Stewardship Fund, but doing so in a secretive, underhanded and unaccountable way.

The senator’s switch to “independent” aligns her more completely with the special interests that she has so diligently represented since coming to the chamber.