The Wisconsin community with the most compelling economic narrative is not Madison or Greater Milwaukee Area, but Fort Atkinson.

Last week, the Joint Finance Committee completed its work on the 2019-21 biennial budget, originally proposed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in February. The following 10 ideas would improve the JFC budget.

Perch count way down in Lake Michigan. Strong leadership needed to protect state waters.

The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll indicates that 55 percent of Republicans support states expanding Medicaid.

Wisconsin has long been a tax hell where it is more expensive to live, work, and play than in most other states. Gov. Scott Walker and the legislative Republicans made some progress over the last eight years in making the state more affordable, but now many of those same legislative Republicans are allowing the state to slide back.

For some reason — stubbornness, rigid ideology, special interest influence — the corps of the Republican Party would rather put the burden on Wisconsin taxpayers, denials notwithstanding.

If the proposed ordinance to impose fines on parents of young bullies passes it will send two messages. First it will say as a society the victims of bullies have a strong ally. Secondly, it makes clear that everyone involved with a bullying experience, even the parents of the perpetrator, has to bear some of the responsibility.

If left up to you, would you discard the U.S. Constitution and start over? That question underpins the hit Broadway play “What the Constitution Means to Me.”

Bernier talks about elections, voter fraud, and why people who need people may be the luckiest people in the world on this edition of MacIver Newsmakers.

Once they promoted this user fee, now they’d rather roads fall apart. Why?

Deploying broadband is an issue that generates strong bipartisan support in our nation’s capital. In May, the entire Wisconsin congressional delegation came together seeking Federal Communications Commission action on better broadband mapping, which will lead to more efficient broadband investments.

Nearly hidden in the transportation budget passed by the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is a provision that would allow the committee to implement a mileage-based fee on drivers by 2023. The decisions to create the fee, how it would implemented, and the amount of the fee would all be in the hands of the 16-member JFC instead of the full legislature and the governor.

The workaround that Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee have come up with to get to some form of transportation tax increase has even me a little concerned. But just a little. If it works, I’ll eat the sausage.

Republicans’ mistake gives Evers some say over how to apportion tax cuts from online sales tax revenue.

There’s no manual on how to be a lieutenant governor and no specific responsibilities, other than being ready to become governor in the event of a resignation or death. But there’s a few unwritten political rules in the relationships between governor and lieutenant governor.

On an 11-4 party-line vote by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, state Republicans have pumped $231.6 million in new funding into direct caregiver wages, responding to that need. It’s a step in the right direction toward addressing both the workforce issue in nursing homes as well as helping to stop the closures we’re being faced with.

For sure, there are many abortion foes who sincerely believe that to abort a fetus is an intolerable sin. But, also for sure, there’s a vast swath of so-called “pro-life” advocates and lawmakers who are nothing but hypocrites.

New specs show its vastly smaller than the original plan. And not the LCD plant promised.