Brian Dake

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion yesterday seeking a preliminary injunction against the federal government’s Affordable Care Act. Attorneys General Schimel and Paxton are leading a 20-state coalition in this effort to undo the harmful effects of Obamacare.

“Obamacare’s irrational design wreaks havoc on health insurance markets,” said Attorney General Schimel. “Obamacare causes premiums to rise and coverage to fall, forcing Wisconsin and other states to take extreme, costly measures to protect their citizens’ health and pocketbooks. I bring this challenge to Obamacare because, as Wisconsin’s attorney general, I swore to uphold the rule of law and protect our state from overreaching and harmful actions from the federal government.”

In February, the same 20-state coalition filed a lawsuit that argues the ACA, as recently amended, forces an unconstitutional and irrational regime onto the states and their citizens. In NFIB v. Sebelius, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly upheld the core provision of the ACA—the individual mandate—as a “tax.” However, Congress has recently repealed this tax, while leaving the mandate in place. Since the Supreme Court has already held that Congress has no authority to impose such a mandate on Americans, absent invoking its taxing authority, the ACA is now unconstitutional.

In the motion for a preliminary injunction that was filed today, Attorney General Schimel told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that an injunction against Obamacare is necessary to spare the people of Wisconsin and the other states from the enormous financial burden caused by the individual mandate. Before Obamacare, “the states allowed individuals to determine whether to buy health insurance, established high-risk insurance pools to help individuals in ill-health, enabled cost-sharing, and instituted many other policies that Obamacare now preempts or functionally preempts,” the coalition wrote.

Wisconsin and Texas filed the coalition’s complaint in a federal district court in Texas. Other states participating are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.

A Foxconn executive says that groundbreaking for the company’s new factory in Racine County is taking place soon, and that nearly all the construction companies chosen to build the first phase of the complex are based in Wisconsin.

Foxconn special assistant Louis Woo took part in a business panel in Milwaukee on Wednesday,  prior to a visit by Vice President Mike Pence. Woo said that he has peeked at which construction firms have won work for the facility, and that 90 percent are from Wisconsin.

“Do not tell the folks at Racine County because only 10 percent of the companies are from that county. That means the rest of the 90 percent of the companies are all over the state of Wisconsin,” Woo said.

Woo also said that about 10 percent of the companies are run by women, minorities or veterans. He said the winners will be notified in the next couple of days.

Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. was already expecting an increase in raw material costs this year, but new tariffs on steel and aluminum announced by President Donald Trump could add another $15 million to $20 million in additional costs, John Olin, Harley chief financial officer said Tuesday.

That’s going to provide quite a headwind for the company,” Olin said.

He cautioned the figure is an estimate based on what prices have done since the tariffs – 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum – were announced in February. Olin added that Harley saw a $4.2 million increase in raw material costs in the first quarter that was not the result of tariffs.

When the tariffs were first announced, Harley warned there could be “significant impact” from retaliatory tariffs and said in a statement the measures would drive up costs. Heavyweight motorcycles like Harley’s were among the products the European Union said could be hit with tariffs if Trump goes through with his plans.

A training exercise meant to simulate a mass power outage will take place next month at sites across Wisconsin.

The exercise, known as Dark Sky, is scheduled to happen May 15-17 in Brown, Calumet, Dane, Fond du Lac, Milwaukee, Outagamie and Winnebago counties. The public should not be concerned by a greater presence of emergency responders, military personnel or drones during the exercise.

The exercise is intended to test the abilities of emergency responders and private utilities to respond to a long-term power outage across the state. The exercise will involve an Alliant Energy facility in Fond du Lac County that will serve as a National Guard training site.

“Our emergency management community must be prepared to deal with the myriad of scenarios and challenges posed by a long-term mass power outage,” said Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, Wisconsin’s adjutant general. “By training together, we continue building meaningful relationships that leave us better positioned to respond to a real-world situation.”

More than 1,000 people from federal, state, county and municipal agencies will participate in the training exercise.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) has received a number of recent contacts from Wisconsin consumers about a robocall imposter scam that claims to come from AT&T.

The calls have been spoofed to show AT&T’s actual customer service phone number on recipients’ caller ID displays. The automated message in the calls warns recipients of an issue with their internet service related to a security breach. Call recipients are asked to press a button in order to speak to a representative about the situation.

Regardless of what your caller ID says, these calls are not from AT&T and are not legitimate. If you receive a similar call, hang up immediately and do not press any buttons. If you do press a button to speak with a “representative,” your number will likely be added to a future call list and you may be pressed for money or personal information from a scammer.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your AT&T service, contact the company directly by using the contact information listed on your monthly billing statement.

To read more about imposter scams, review DATCP’s imposter scams fact sheet.

For additional information on consumer protection issues, visit the Consumer Protection Bureau athttp://datcp.wi.gov, send an e-mail to datcphotline@wisconsin.gov or call the Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-422-7128.

Wisconsin’s cap on damages for pain and suffering is being challenged as unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a medical malpractice case involving a woman who lost both her arms and legs.

In 2014, Ascaris Mayo was awarded a total of $25.3 million, $16.5 million of which was for non-economic damages, which Wisconsin caps at $750,000. Her attorney Daniel Rottier says the cap violates the state constitution’s equal protection clause because it hurts patients with the worst injuries the most — they are limited in what they can recover, no matter what a jury decides.

Kevin St. John, an attorney for the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund, disagreed. “Now a plaintiffs’ primary argument at the end of the day boils down to fairness. But ‘it’s not fair’ is not a constitutional argument,'” St. John told the state’s high court Thursday.

Proponents of the medical malpractice cap say it helps attract doctors to the state, curbs defensive medicine and protects a fund worth $1.4 billion used to compensate patients.

“The Legislature will always have a rationale for everything it does, that does not means its rational,” Rottier said. “And those reasons have to be examined in a meaningful way.”

Those arguing in favor of the cap told the court it’s “critical” to not only uphold the cap, but to make sure the cap has no exceptions based on an individual case.

“Now judicial second-guessing of the cap-specific level, as (a previous case, Ferdon v. Wisconsin Patients Compensation Fund) authorizes, places courts in the impossible position of making legislative, not judicial, judgments,” argued state Solicitor General Misha Tseytlin.

Yesterday, Governor Walker signed Wisconsin’s $100-per-child tax rebate and August sales tax holiday into law.

The bill creates a $100-per-child tax rebate for every dependent child living at home under the age of 18 as of December 31, 2017, and an August back-to-school sales tax holiday on school-related items. Governor Walker issued a partial veto to the legislation which expands the duration of the sales tax holiday from two days in August to five days in August, August 1 – 5, 2018.

Anyone who is a resident of the State of Wisconsin is eligible to receive $100 for every dependent child living at home under the age of 18 as of December 31, 2017. Beginning May 15, 2018, through July 2, 2018, eligible citizens can claim their $100-per-child tax rebate on a Department of Revenue website that will be announced prior to May 15.

Please note claims cannot be submitted prior to May 15. Those who claim the rebate will receive the money before school starts this fall and have the option to receive it through a check in the mail or direct deposit.

“Tax Freedom Day,” the day on which taxpayers have earned enough money to pay their total tax bill for the year, arrives on Thursday (April 19) for Badger State taxpayers, according to the Tax Foundation. Tax Freedom Day takes all federal, state, and local taxes and divides them by the nation’s income.

Last year, Wisconsin taxpayers didn’t break their government obligation chains until April 27, according to the Tax Foundation’s calculations. New York’s tax burden is the heaviest; the Empire State’s Tax Freedom Day arrives on May 14. Residents of Alaska and Louisiana tied for the earliest Tax Freedom Day, April 4.

National Tax Freedom Day also is Thursday, three days earlier than last year. The tax burden easing is thanks in large part to last year’s tax reform package pushed by President Trump and passed by the Republican-controlled congress.

Wisconsin taxpayers have seen an easing of their tax burden over the past seven-plus years. Gov. Scott Walker, backed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, has delivered north of $8 billion in tax cuts. The state’s property tax burden has declined by nearly 20 percent, according to economist Stephen Moore. And Walker has led several rounds of income tax cuts, although the state’s progressive tax system continues to diminish some of its tax relief gains.

Still, Wisconsin is faring better than some of its Midwest neighbors. Illinois and its massive public pension debt won’t celebrate Tax Freedom Day until April 29. Minnesota taxpayers are free, so to speak, on April 27, while the day arrives on April 24 in Michigan. Tax Freedom Day is April 18 in Iowa and April 10 in Indiana.

Ministers from Japan, Australia and Malaysia welcomed President Donald Trump directing officials to explore returning to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact he withdrew from shortly after coming to office. But they also cautioned against making any significant changes.

“We welcome the U.S. coming back to the table but I don’t see any wholesale appetite for any material re-negotiation of the TPP-11,” Australia Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said Friday.

In a Twitter post on Thursday night, Trump said the U.S. “would only join TPP if the deal were substantially better than the deal offered to Pres. Obama. We already have BILATERAL deals with six of the eleven nations in TPP, and are working to make a deal with the biggest of those nations, Japan, who has hit us hard on trade for years!”

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the accord during his first week in office. The pact, which was conceived as a counterweight to China’s rising economic power in the region, had been negotiated under the Obama administration but never approved by Congress.

Senator Ben Sasse, Nebraska Republican who participated in a meeting with Trump on Thursday where he spoke about rejoining the deal, said: “He multiple times reaffirmed the point that TPP might be easier to join now.”

The 11 remaining nations represent 13 percent of global output and include Japan and Canada. They finalized a revised version of the trade pact last month, renaming it the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership or CPTPP.

One of the White House officials said that while the president prefers negotiating bilateral trade deals, a multilateral deal with the TPP countries would counter Chinese competition and would be faster than negotiating one-on-one with each of the 11 other nations.