Brian Dake

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.

State lawmakers passed a sweeping, bipartisan agreement to send more money to local governments last year, but many Wisconsin municipalities are still facing budget challenges.

The shared revenue deal allowed Milwaukee County to raise its sales tax, which was expected to generate millions in revenue. But receipts have been lower than projected. Joe Lamers, director of the county’s office of strategy, budget and performance, said the county has collected close to $10 million less than anticipated this year.

Eau Claire County Executive Kathryn Schauf says her county currently has a budget shortfall of about $5.2 million.

Counties are mostly funded through state aid and property taxes, neither of which have kept pace with inflation. Most counties also have a sales tax, which Schauf said has value as a source of revenue. “It’s also very volatile… and so it’s also a revenue source that we don’t really have a lot of control over,” she said.

Jason Stein, president of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, said the property tax rate for municipalities has been tied to the rate of net new construction since 2011.

“The statewide average for net new construction for municipalities in Wisconsin has never risen above 1.7 percent since the Great Recession,” Stein said, including recent years when inflation has been as high as 8 percent.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects that U.S. residential electricity prices will increase by about 1% in 2024, the slowest rate of year-over-year growth since 2020. Natural gas prices have been falling since late 2023, and those lower prices are now being factored into retail electricity rates. Natural gas provides the largest share of U.S. electricity generation.

Conversely, EIA forecasts that the Brent crude oil price could increase to about $87 per barrel by the end of the year, according to the agency’s August Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). The Brent crude oil price is currently below $80 per barrel. EIA expects that continued oil production cuts from OPEC+ will reduce global oil inventories through the first quarter of 2025, which is likely to push oil prices up.

“The good news from a consumer perspective is that even though we expect oil prices to increase, we expect gasoline prices through this year and next year to remain lower than they were in 2023,” said EIA Administrator Joe DeCarolis. “U.S. motorists are using less gasoline than they did before the pandemic, and we expect that to help keep gasoline prices from climbing with oil prices.”

The full August 2024 STEO is available on the EIA website.

Last Friday, Governor Evers joined U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) Chairperson Summer Strand in Milwaukee to announce the launch of the Home Efficiency Rebate (HOMES) Program. Wisconsin is the first state in the nation to launch the HOMES Program to deliver rebates to households undertaking whole-home, energy-saving improvements under the new program.

Under the HOMES Program , $74.8 million will be available to support whole-home energy efficiency improvements, including insulation, air sealing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning upgrades. All Wisconsin households are eligible for HOMES, including multifamily buildings. Beginning August 1, 2024, interested households can verify eligibility status and locate a registered contractor. By early September, households will be able to submit rebate requests through the online portal on the Focus on Energy website. More information about HOMES rebates and eligibility is available here.

According to DOE, residents will first complete a home energy assessment provided by a licensed energy auditor to determine the home’s upgrade needs and establish the estimated energy savings each upgrade would provide. Low-income households are eligible for a rebate to help cover the cost of the home energy assessment. Rebate amounts are based on household income and the amount of estimated energy savings.

For single-family homes, rebates will range between:

• Up to $10,000 for those making less than 80 percent of their area median income (AMI).
• Up to $4,000 for those making between 80 percent to 150 percent AMI.
• Up to $3,000 for those making at or above 150 percent AMI.

DOE states that multifamily properties are also eligible. Rental units with low-income tenants are eligible for up to $10,000 in rebates, depending on estimated energy reductions.

The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added 114,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate inched higher to 4.3%. It marked the highest level for the jobless rate since October 2021.’

Health care continued to lead the way in job creation, onboarding 55,000 new workers in July. Other sectors showing notable growth included construction (25,000), the government (17,000) and transportation and warehousing (14,000).  However, there were some notable job losses last month. Information employment declined by 20,000 while financial activities shed 4,000 employees.

The report also showed modest revisions. Job gains for June were revised down by a total of 27,000 jobs to 179,000, the government said, while May’s gain also came in slightly lower at 216,000 jobs.

“The latest snapshot of the labor market is consistent with a slowdown, not necessarily a recession,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial. “However, early warning signs suggest further weakness.”

The weaker-than-expected data also raises questions about whether the Federal Reserve has waited too long to cut interest rates. Policymakers voted at the conclusion of their two-day meeting on Wednesday to hold rates steady at a 23-year high, but signaled that they could start loosening policy as soon as September.

Investors are now increasingly betting on the odds of a 50-basis point cut in September amid signs that job growth is deteriorating.

Wisconsin companies on average will pay 10.5% less in worker’s compensation insurance rates starting October 1, 2024, saving businesses around the state roughly $206 million on policies over the coming year, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) announced today with the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI).

The lower rates reflect Wisconsin employers’ attention to workplace safety for the benefit of workers and employers alike. The 2024 rate decrease, approved by OCI, marks the ninth year in a row worker’s compensation insurance premiums have declined in Wisconsin. The actual rates that inform premium amounts vary by employers based on factors such as injury risk exposure.

“The continued decreases in worker’s compensation rates reflect the workplace safety practices that support a strong workforce in our state,” said Insurance Commissioner Nathan Houdek. “Employers doing business in Wisconsin can count on our competitive insurance marketplace for affordable, high-quality coverage for their business and employees.”

Worker’s compensation insurance rates are adjusted annually by a committee of actuaries from members of the Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau. This independent body examines and selects the methodology and trends that produce the proposed rate adjustment, which is then reviewed and approved by the Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance. While the overall rate level will decrease by 10.5%, the impact to policyholders will vary based on specific circumstances.