Main Street

Wisconsin Roundup VIII: Don’t stop the music

What’s the world coming to? In Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, it’s harder to sell craft beer, you don’t get your state Earned Income Tax credit, and you can’t sing a song in the Capitol without getting punched in the face.

Going after beer and music in a state that loves both – stay classy, Scott! This is your Wisconsin roundup:

• Bad budget or worst budget? Walker’s budget proposal passed both houses of the legislature on party lines. It includes: cuts on corporate income taxes, weaker tax reporting standards, cuts to the state Earned Income Tax Credit, a $76 million cut to local governments, force new public safety workers to increase contributions to their health care and pensions, and mess with Wisconsin’s prized craft beer industry (more on that later).

If you’re a Middle Class individual and not a corporation, there’s a lot in this budget that makes it harder to work and live in Wisconsin. Nowhere in this budget is a provision that will directly spur job growth or directly put Wisconsinites back to work.

• Peaceful singer punched in the face. During a regularly scheduled Solidarity song session at the Capitol in Madison, a group of men accompanying former-Senator Dave Zien (R-Eau Claire) became violent, and were trying to drape flags over the heads of singers, presumably in order to silence them. One of the singers, Michael J. Dickman of Madison, grabbed a flag, at which point, according to observers, Henry C. Rahr of Green Bay punched him in the face.

Rahr was charged with battery, and both Dickman and another man were charged with disorderly conduct (although I’m not sure how being on the receiving end of a punch is deserving of punishment). While he was not charged, former-Sen. Zien was filmed yelling at protestors and trying to run over their toes with his wheelchair, and songleader Chris Reeder told the Wisconsin State Journal that Mr. Zien was “definitely being very, very aggressive.”

Whatever the specific details of the incident, it is disheartening to see this kind of violence introduced into the already-tense situation in Wisconsin. Hundreds of thousands of people have been involved in protests in Madison, and there have been very few violent outbursts of this manner. Here’s to hoping this isn’t the beginning of a trend.

• Breweries of the world, unite! Governor Walker’s budget proposal was already controversial for its provisions hurting working families, but then the story broke about a provision that would favor huge beer retailers over Wisconsin’s local breweries. Alex Seitz-Wald writes at ThinkProgress:

The new provision treats craft brewers — the 60 of whom make up just 5 percent of the beer market in Wisconsin — like corporate mega-brewers, forcing them to use a wholesale distributor to market their product. Under the provision, it would be illegal, for instance, for a small brewer located near a restaurant to walk next door to deliver a case of beer. They’ll have to hire a middle man to do it instead.

It hits the local brewers hard, but one company will surely benefit: the large international beer behemoth MillerCoors. As Alex points out, MillerCoors gave $22,675 to Walker’s campaign in 2010. Just saying.

While that story is unusual enough on its own, what came next was even more surprising. A bipartisan collection of state legislators is lobbying Gov. Walker to veto the provision. That’s right: they’ve been bitterly divided on partisan lines all year, but that goes out the window when Wisconsin craft beer is threatened.

Got a tip about what to include in our next Wisconsin roundup? Leave a comment below, or shoot a tweet over to @WorkingAmerica. Till next time – On Wisconsin!