Month: August 2024

Inflation held steady in July as American households spent more money and saw their incomes rise slightly, according to data release Friday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index — the Federal Reserve’s preferred way to measure inflation — rose 0.2 percent last month and 2.5 percent over the past year.

Household incomes also rose 0.3 percent and consumer spending rose 0.5 percent without adjust for inflation. Inflation-adjusted consumer spending still rose 0.4 percent.

The new inflation figures come less than a month before the Fed is expected to cut interest rates at a highly anticipated September policy meeting.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that “the time has come” for the central bank to begin reducing borrowing costs after keeping them at two-decade highs for more than a year.

Over 14,000 supporters, including over 11,500 Wisconsinites, joined a petition organized by the Wisconsin Jobs and Energy Coalition calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue the permits necessary to reroute a portion of the Line 5 pipeline in Bayfield, Ashland and Iron Counties. The petition was in response to a public comment period following the release of the Army Corps’ Line 5 relocation project Draft Environmental Assessment in May.

In addition to the thousands of petition signers, over three dozen of Wisconsin’s leading organizations representing labor, business, agriculture, and local governments, sent letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in support of the Line 5 relocation project. The diverse coalition included organizations such as Wisconsin Independent Businesses, the Wisconsin Building Trades Council, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Wisconsin Counties Association, and the Wisconsin Ag Coalition.

Line 5 moves roughly 540,000 barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids each day. Line 5 is unique because it not only moves crude oil that is refined into transportation fuels, but it also transports natural gas liquids that are made into propane.

The project to relocate 41 miles of Line 5 off the Bad River Band’s Reservation is estimated to create over 700 Wisconsin union construction jobs, pump $135 million into the local economy, and bring with it millions in additional tax revenue. Line 5’s owner, Enbridge, has signed a letter of intent with Wisconsin-based Michels Pipeline, Inc. as the mainline contractor for the project.

The petition and letters submitted during the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public comment period that ends on Friday come two years after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources held a similar public comment period on the Line 5 relocation. During the DNR public comment period, more than 11,500 Wisconsinites submitted comments urging the DNR to approve the project during a four-month DEIS public comment period in early 2002. An analysis of those comments, which were made public by the DNR, showed that by a 2-to-1 margin Wisconsinites supported the Line 5 relocation project.

Orders at U.S. factories for long-lasting goods, such as new cars or machinery, jumped 9.9% in July, the Commerce Department said Monday.

Orders have risen in five of the last six months. They dropped 6.9% in June on weak aircraft orders. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders were up 0.2% in July after a 0.1% gain in the prior month.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled Friday that interest rate cuts are coming soon.

“The time has come for policy to adjust,” Powell said in his speech during the Kansas City Fed’s symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”

“Inflation is now much closer to our objective, with prices having risen 2.5% over the past 12 months,” he said. “After a pause earlier this year, progress toward our 2% objective has resumed. My confidence has grown that inflation is on a sustainable path back to 2%.”

Powell did not go into specifics about the timing of when any rate cuts might occur.

The Fed is scheduled to meet three more times this year, in September, November and December.

Canada’s two major freight railroads have shut their operations, according to management of the two companies, locking out 9,000 members of the Teamsters union who operate the trains and dealing a potential blow to both the Canadian and US economies.

Nearly a third of the freight handled by the two railroads — Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern (CPKC) — crosses the US-Canadian border, and the shutdown could disrupt operations in a number of US industries, including agriculture, autos, home building and energy, depending upon how long the shutdown lasts.

“CPKC is acting to protect Canada’s supply chains, and all stakeholders, from further uncertainty and the more widespread disruption that would be created should this dispute drag out further resulting in a potential work stoppage occurring during the fall peak shipping period,” the company said in a Thursday statement shortly after the start of the lockout at 12:01 am ET. “Delaying resolution to this labor dispute will only make things worse.”

The chambers of commerce in both the United States and Canada issued a joint statement Tuesday calling on the Canadian government to take action to keep the railroads working.

“A stoppage of rail service will be devastating to Canadian businesses and families and impose significant impacts on the US economy,” they said. “Significant two-way trade and deeply integrated supply chains between Canada and the United States mean that any significant rail disruption will jeopardize the livelihoods of workers across multiple industries on both sides of the border.”

A coalition of activist groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday against multiple state and federal highway agencies over their plans to expand a portion of Interstate 94 in Milwaukee from six to eight lanes.

The coalition consists of Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope, or MICAH, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin chapter and 1000 Friends of Wisconsin.

They claim the highway agencies failed to consider all reasonable alternatives to expansion. They also charge the agencies with inadequately analyzing — and not mitigating — the expansion’s environmental, social and health effects on local communities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration and Wisconsin DOT plan to expand I-94 from six to eight lanes between 16th and 70th Streets in Milwaukee, and to rebuild the Stadium Interchange in a “diverging diamond” format. They also aim to make a number of safety improvements along the stretch of highway, including the elimination of left-hand exits. The project is estimated to cost about $1.75 billion.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2025.

Plans to expand the stretch of highway have been in the works for over 10 years. A 2017 expansion plan by former Governor Scott Walker’s administration faced a similar lawsuit by MICAH, the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin chapter and the NAACP’s Milwaukee branch, which was dismissed after a funding pitfall scuppered Walker’s expansion. The Evers administration revived the project in 2020.

A federal judge in Texas has blocked a new rule from the Federal Trade Commission that would have made it easier for employees to quit a job and work for a competitor.

In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ada Brown granted a motion for summary judgement filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other plaintiffs, and rejected the FTC’s own petition for a judgement in its favor. In reaching his decision, Brown concluded that that the FTC “exceeded its statutory authority” in making the rule, which the judge called “arbitrary and capricious.” The judge also concluded that the rule would cause irreparable harm.

As a result of the court’s decision, the FTC won’t be able to enforce its rule, which was set to go into effect on September 4, according to the judge’s ruling.

Still, the decision does not prevent the agency from addressing noncompete agreements through “case-by-case” enforcement actions, said Victoria Graham, an FTC spokesperson.

The FTC is also considering appealing the court’s decision, Graham said.

Apart from the Texas case, companies sued the FTC in Florida and Pennsylvania to block the rule.

In the Florida lawsuit, which was brought by a retirement community, the court granted a preliminary injunction, prohibiting enforcement of the rule just for the plaintiff, but not any other company.

In the Pennsylvania lawsuit, the court concluded that the plaintiff, a tree company, failed to show it would be irreparably harmed by the ban and that the company wasn’t likely to win the case.

The divergent rulings mean the issue could end up working its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation will have a new leader starting next month.

On Friday, Governor Tony Evers said he is appointing Kristina Boardman to serve as DOT secretary. She currently serves as the department’s deputy secretary.

She replaces DOT Secretary Craig Thompson, who is stepping down effective September 11 for a role as vice chancellor of university relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His departure was also announced Friday.

Before serving as deputy secretary of the transportation department, Boardman worked as the administrator of Wisconsin’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

Evers’ appointment of Boardman is still pending confirmation by Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Senate. Boardman will be known as a secretary-designee until she is confirmed. But she’ll be allowed to serve in the role overseeing day to day operations while awaiting confirmation.

Yesterday, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) released its annual Equalized Values Report. The report shows Wisconsin’s total statewide equalized property value as of January 1, 2024, was $907 billion, an 8% increase over the prior year. Growth occurred in all property classes and was led by residential and commercial property. Equalized values are based on data from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023.

Report highlights:

• Change in equalized value = $75 billion, an 8% increase from 2023
o $59.3 billion due to market value increases (7%)
o $14 billion due to new construction (2%)
• Oconto County saw the largest increase at 16% followed by Lafayette and Pepin both at 14%.

Equalized values are calculated annually and used to ensure statewide fairness and equity in property tax distribution. The equalized value represents an estimate of a taxation district’s total taxable value and provides for the fair apportionment of school district and county levies to each municipality. Changes in equalized value do not necessarily translate into a change in property taxes.

Wisconsin voters have rejected two amendments to the state constitution, which would have restricted the governor’s ability to spend federal funds. According to unofficial results posted by the Associated Press as of 9:11 p.m., both referendums failed by a margin of about 58 to 42 percent.

It’s unusual for Wisconsin voters to reject proposed constitutional amendments. Over the state’s entire history, nearly three-quarters of such amendments have passed. Since 2020, Wisconsin voters have considered seven constitutional amendments, and all but the latest two proposals have passed.

Republicans who run the Legislature brought the proposals to the ballot. To do so, lawmakers had to approve resolutions in two separate, consecutive legislative sessions.

The proposals would have worked in tandem. One would have required legislative approval before Wisconsin’s governor could expend federal money earmarked for the state. The other would have barred future Legislatures from giving that power away.