End Game

Here’s a story that tells you something about politics in Wisconsin: In January, Madison utility executive Gary Wolter was named the head of Gov. Jim Doyle’s stimulus office to work on securing federal funding. Within 24 hours, he was dubbed Wisconsin’s “pork czar” in repeated blog postings.

As Charlie Sykes pointed out, what could be weirder than fierce partisan antagonists like Democrat and liberal Ed Garvey and conservative blogger Deb Jordahl both sniffing their noses at Wolter’s appointment? Then again, even the whiff of “pork” gets proper Wisconsinites red-faced and indignant.

Take Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. His initial response to federal stimulus funding made it sound as if the dollars were secretly dosed with smallpox, like those horse blankets the Army supposedly gave Indians in the 19th century. He’d have none of it! (Not, at least, until the County Board said otherwise.)

There’s something deep in the Wisconsin character, a Badger thriftiness and sense of political rectitude, that seems to recoil at the notion that politicians should bring home the bacon. No one understood that better than the puritan Bill Proxmire, whose long senatorial run was marked by his temperance crusade against government waste. Ever since then, Democrats and Republicans alike (take a bow, Jim Sensenbrenner, Paul Ryan, Russ Feingold, John Norquist, et al.) have anointed themselves with magical oils to protect the state from the corrupting influence of federal dollars.

They’ve been wildly successful. And that’s a problem. Wisconsin, as you no doubt know from first-hand experience, is mired in an economic slump. In per capita income and new jobs created, we badly trail some of our neighboring states. Ditto for economic growth. Meanwhile, we pay way more in federal taxes than is returned to us via federal jobs, research grants, aid to state and local government, and other programs.

The gap in fiscal 2007 was a staggering $5.6 billion, according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. That’s right: We sent $5.6 billion more to Washington than we got back in federal spending.

Among the 50 states, Wisconsin languished fourth from the bottom in federal spending at $6,815 per person in fiscal 2007. (Those supposedly rugged individualists in Alaska rake in $13,721 per person.) We receive only 83 percent of the national average for federal dollars sent to the states.

And in key categories, the trend line is downward, says retired insurance executive Tom Hefty, a close observer of state economic metrics. For example, with federal grants to state and local
governments, Wisconsin

“If Wisconsin could achieve the national average,” Hefty notes, “the state would gain over $1.5 billion in a two-year budget just in aid to state and local government.”

And for all the hubbub over the stimulus money, the state has performed badly, as usual. A Wall Street Journalsurvey of the first $200 billion allocated to the states found Wisconsin wallowing in 45th place. Our $561 per resident in stimulus spending is just a third of what those hardy anti-government Alaskans received.

There’s little evidence Doyle is trying to improve the state’s performance. Tellingly, for 14 months, Doyle left unfilled the key position for securing federal funding, the director of federal relations. Then he named Tanya Bjork, one of the miscreants in the Capitol scandals, to fill the $102,000-a-year post.

No doubt, Wisconsin already has a strike or two against it in the chase for federal money. Experts say the state does badly because it doesn’t have much of a defense industry, lacks a major military base, and Milwaukee loses out to Chicago for hosting federal regional offices.

But none of that explains the tin-pot sanctimony and do-nothing ethic of most of our pols. One exception is U.S. Rep. Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), who’s made it his business to get Wisconsin’s fair share of highway spending. And his colleague Dave Obey (D-Wausau) has used his powerful position as House Appropriations Committee chairman to bring dollars to Wisconsin.

The fact is, federal spending can make a huge difference in a state economy. Researchers have tied the economic rise of the Sun Belt to its lock on defense spending. The billion-dollar armored vehicle contract just won by Oshkosh Corp. is a huge boost for the Fox River Valley.

To be sure, Wisconsin wouldn’t tolerate a pork hound like former longtime Alaskan Republican Sen. Ted Stevens or U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). But there is a middle ground.

Consider the career of Henry Reuss, who represented Milwaukee in Congress for 28 years. Reuss was cerebral and focused on arcane financial policy, his long-ago aide Mordecai Lee recalls, “yet he was always interested in helping his district, being sure every formula and eligibility criteria helped or included Milwaukee.”

That’s hard work. Yet we’re not requiring it of our politicians. Instead, we let them pose for holy pictures, leaving Wisconsin taxpayers to get played for chumps by nearly every other state in the nation.