Browsing: Government Transparency

On Jan. 24, 2017, Mike Nichols, WPRI president, and Dan Benson, editor of the Project for 21st Century Federalism, testified in Madison before the Assembly Committee on Federalism and Interstate Relations. Here is a transcript of their presentation.

Institute releases data on the federalization of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

The questions we should be asking, however, are: Why aren’t our problems getting better? What value does the Washington bureaucracy add?

Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy is seeking a forensic audit of all federal monies awarded to the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa after 113 tribal members sent him a petition alleging mismanagement of federal grants.

Hundreds of districts in Wisconsin and thousands more nationwide are saddled with the Single Audit of federal funds that feeds a bloated bureaucracy in Washington while adding little or no value to educational efforts.

Analysis: Wisconsin school districts call federal audits illogical, duplicative and burden to staff and taxpayers.

Congressman Sean Duffy calls for HUD response to tribe’s misuse of funds detailed in WPRI ‘Federal Grant$tanding’ stories.

U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) is asking federal housing officials to explain why grants meant to help needy members of the St. Croix Chippewa tribe may not be getting to those most needing that assistance.

The “Federal Grant$tanding” project is a multi-year investigation of the growth in federal grants used by D.C. politicians to curry favor with voters

Dozens of families have at times languished on waiting lists for housing assistance, and in 2014 and 2015 federal audits show tribal housing officials loaned themselves housing money without proper oversight.

In recent years, more than a dozen Indian tribes from North Carolina to Wisconsin to California have come under fire for using federal housing funds to treat tribal officials to lavish vacations, gifts and cash advances for personal expenses, a WPRI review has found.

As sovereign nations, tribes are not subject to state open records and open meetings laws as are Wisconsin’s municipal governments, school boards and other boards.
By Dave Daley
September 15, 2016

For better or worse, the tax laws are designed not just to collect revenue. They also aim to encourage certain types of behavior, such as being charitable or investing in risky enterprises that, if successful, lead to job creation.

Some folks in Wisconsin believe that we are simply another part of the federal government and should march in lockstep.

There’s ample evidence that Wisconsin’s prevailing wage law is harming taxpayers and contractors, frustrating good government servants and diverting resources away from those in need.

Federal grants-in-aid, in truth, are anything but free. Many serve a valid purpose. But they also can drive up federal and state spending, taxes and debt.

Excerpts of a speech by Woodson Center President and founder Robert L. Woodson Sr. at the Wisconsin Center.

Like many of my fellow Americans, I just finished watching President Obama speak to the nation about Syria.  These presidential addresses are historic for they link us to our parents’ generation and beyond.

Several years ago while sitting at my desk I received a curious phone call from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinelreporter working on a story about convicted felons working as lobbyists in Madison. 

In New Orleans, through the first Recovery School District in the nation, the percentage of students attending failing schools there has been reduced from 78% to 40%.