Brian Dake

Gov. Tony Evers released a multi-faceted proposal to tackle the surging pandemic Tuesday.

The bill put forward by Evers would prohibit evictions and foreclosures through 2021; continue the suspension of a one-week waiting period before people can collect unemployment; allow workers, including in healthcare, to claim worker’s compensation benefits related to COVID-19 if they contract the illness at work; and waive student tests and school report card requirements for the current year.

Other parts of the bill Evers made public Tuesday require insurers to cover telehealth services that would be covered if in person and ensure that health plans provide coverage for COVID-19 testing, diagnosis, treatment, prescriptions and vaccines.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he thought Republicans could find agreement with Evers on some ideas, but repeatedly declined to “negotiate in public.” He raised concerns about relying on state funding rather than federal money, and said Republicans want to prioritize areas such as increasing contact tracers, providing more resources for health care providers and additional assistance for businesses.

Despite shutdowns, virtual classes, and decreasing public school enrollment, voters throughout Wisconsin approved nearly $1 billion in new school spending on November 3.

Local voters from 41 school districts considered 51 school referenda on Election Day and approved 43 of them, an 84.3% success rate. The 43 successful referenda will spend $945.9 million.

The majority of the new spending approved by voters will go to construction projects, with $705 million in new debt for local property owners. Twenty-one of these referenda were proposed and 18 passed, an 85.7% success rate.

Voters considered 20 proposals for non-recurring, or one-time, school spending increases. A non-recurring referendum allows districts to exceed their current spending for a set number of years before returning to original levels after the measure expires. Sixteen of these non-recurring referenda were passed, a success rate of 80%, for a total of $12.47 million.

School districts operate under state-imposed revenue limits that are meant to protect taxpayers from continually-increasing property taxes. However, school districts may ask voters, through referenda proposals, to raise taxes either by issuing debt, or approving continual or one-time spending increases outside of regular limits. New debts and one-time spending increase property taxes for a specific period of time. Recurring spending increases raise the school revenue limits indefinitely and, therefore, also raise local property taxes indefinitely.

Voters considered ten referenda this November for $44.3 million in recurring spending increases. Voters approved nine of these increases, a success rate of 90%, worth a recurring $41.3 million that will roll over year after year.

A second COVID-19 vaccine now also appears highly effective in preventing illness following exposure to the virus that causes the disease.

The biotech company Moderna, Inc., said Monday that its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing disease, according to an analysis of its clinical trial.

There were 95 instances of COVID-19 illness among the study participants — only five of those cases were in the vaccinated group. Ninety were in the group receiving the placebo. Of these, there were 11 cases of severe disease. The results indicate the vaccine was inducing the kind of immune response that protects people if they were exposed to the coronavirus.

“This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease,” said Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, in a statement.

Moderna said it intends to file “in the coming weeks” with the FDA for authorization of the company’s vaccine for emergency use.

The federal Operation Warp Speed project to hasten development of COVID-19 vaccines awarded Moderna a $1.5 billion contract in August to ramp up manufacturing and deliver 100 million vaccine doses, enough for 50 million people. The government has an option to buy up to 400 million more doses.

Moderna said Monday that it expects to be able to ship about 20 million vaccine doses in the U.S. by the end of 2020. Next year, the company said it expects to be able to make 500 million to 1 billion doses worldwide.

U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly declined in early November as an increase in COVID-19 infections and the election prompted Americans to reassess their outlooks for the economy and finances.

The University of Michigan’s preliminary sentiment index for November decreased to a three-month low of 77 from a final October reading of 81.8, data released Nov. 13 showed. The median estimate in Bloomberg’s survey of economists called for a reading of 82.

The measure of expectations dropped by nearly 8 points to 71.3, while a gauge of current conditions was little changed at 85.8. Interviews conducted following the election recorded a substantial negative shift in Republicans’ expectations and no gain among Democrats. The survey began Oct. 28 and concluded late Nov. 10.

While broadband is nearly universal in Wisconsin cities and villages, there are major disparities in the rural parts of the state, according to a new Forward Analytics report, Broadband in Rural Wisconsin: Identifying Gaps, Highlighting Successes.

The most recent data from the Federal Communications Commission show that 25% of rural residents lack access to 25 Mbps broadband, the speed which is now considered the standard. Wisconsin’s level of inaccessibility is worse than the national average and 35 other states.

In Wisconsin, rural access to 25 Mbps broadband varies widely by county. The highest levels of access generally are in the relatively small rural parts of urban counties, such as Kenosha, Racine, and Waukesha counties. However, in nine more sparsely-populated counties—Ashland, Clark, Douglas, Iron, Marinette, Price, Richland, Rusk, and Taylor—less than half of the rural population had broadband at that speed available in 2019.

According to Knapp, Wisconsin’s broadband infrastructure does have key successes, though. Access levels at speeds of 10 Mbps or higher are better than the U.S. average—93.6% of rural Wisconsin residents had access to those speeds vs. 91.3% nationally. In areas with high levels of 10 Mbps access, the strategy for achieving universal 25 Mbps access will focus more on upgrading current service rather than bringing new broadband to areas where it does not exist.

Last night, Governor Tony Evers delivered a primetime address, calling for unity and working together in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor’s address comes as Wisconsin had yet another record-breaking day in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.

As COVID-19 continues to surge across the state, Governor Evers announced Executive Order #94, which includes new measures to combat the spread of COVID-19. Executive Order #94 advises Wisconsinites to stay home, urges precautions Wisconsinites should take to stay safe if they have to leave their home, and encourages businesses to take additional steps to protect workers, customers, and the surrounding community

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on November 16 regarding whether the state legislature can yield its power to the executive branch in the challenge to Governor Tony Evers’ Covid-19 emergency powers.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) has been granted time for oral arguments in the case of Fabick v. Evers, an original action before the state Supreme Court questioning whether Evers can issue multiple emergency orders for the same crisis, the continuing fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. According to WILL, the power to extend the emergency orders only belongs to the legislature.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Evers has issued three emergency orders that have been challenged in court.

The first order was the shut down of bars, restaurants and other “non-essential” businesses earlier this year. The Evers Administration’s attempt to extended that emergency order was shot down 5-4 in a state Supreme Court decision in a lawsuit brought by WILL.

The emergency order that authorized the statewide mask mandate is before the Wisconsin Supreme Court now in Fabick v. Evers. WILL had filed their own separate lawsuit, but their case was put on hold and they were invited to file an amicus brief in the Fabick case.

A third emergency order limiting occupancy for bars and restaurants to 25% was defeated at the Appeals Court level on Friday. The order, which also expired on Friday, was placed on hold by the Appeals Court in October pending the final outcome of the case.

The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) was recently notified by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) that Wisconsin has met the criteria for turning off the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Extended Benefits (EB) program. The last payable week of EB is November 7, 2020.

According to the USDOL, “Wisconsin’s 13-week insured unemployment rate (IUR) for the week ending October 10, 2020, was 4.87 percent, falling below the 5.00 percent threshold necessary to remain “on” EB. Therefore, the EB period for Wisconsin ended on November 7, 2020 and the State will remain in an “off” period for a minimum of 13 weeks.”

DWD expects to complete system programming for the EB program in December. Once complete, eligible claimants will be paid for the weeks in which they qualify for the benefit retroactively.

For more information, visit https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/uiben/eb/.

Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin voted not to consider whether to reinstate the governor’s order that limited indoor capacity and imposed gathering restrictions.

The order, which Gov. Tony Evers issued in October, is not currently in effect. Gov. Evers noted Wednesday that the back-and-forth is only hurting the state’s ability to get the virus under control.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul had asked the state’s highest court to consider reinstating the order, which caps indoor public gatherings at 25% occupancy or 10 people if an occupancy restriction is not in place.

The order was blocked by the 3rd District Court of Appeals in October after Pro-Life Wisconsin and a bar in Amery appealed a circuit court judge’s decision to uphold the capacity limit.

The decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed against the state by the Tavern League of Wisconsin. The governor’s chief legal counsel, Ryan Nilsestuen, said he plans to appeal Wednesday’s outcome.