Despite Record Spike in Property Values, Tax Levies Lag

The total value of all property in Wisconsin shot up by 13.8% percent this year, the biggest increase in the nearly 40 years since the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum and its predecessors began tracking the trends.

Using tax levies and rates approved for December 2021 tax bills in every Wisconsin county, city, village and town, along with the updated property values that will be used to calculate those bills, Wisconsin Policy Forum researchers found that gross property tax levies imposed by local governments statewide rose by only 1.6%, an increase far below the current 8.3% inflation rate and lower than the growth seen every year since 2014.

As a result, the state’s property tax rates “continued their long-running decline,” the authors found, with the steepest drop since 2005. In 2021, property owners statewide owed $19.60 for every $1,000 of equalized property value. For 2022, they’ll owe $18.64, or 4.9% less.

Tax levies change as a result of changes made by any of the taxing jurisdictions in a given area, including the county, municipality, school district, technical college district, tax increment finance district, special district, and state, all of which set levies within state-established limits.

 

 

Pandemic Unemployment Benefits Fraud may Top $45 billion, Federal Watchdog Says

Some $45.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits may have been fraudulently paid to criminals between March 2020 and April 2022, the US Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General said in a memorandum on Thursday.

Fraud within the nation’s unemployment system skyrocketed after Congress enacted a historic expansion of the program to help Americans deal with the economic upheaval sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. State unemployment agencies were overwhelmed with record numbers of claims and relaxed some requirements in an effort to get the money out the door quickly to those who had lost their jobs. Within five months, more than 57 million people filed claims for unemployment benefits, the inspector general’s office said.

“Hundreds of billions in pandemic funds attracted fraudsters seeking to exploit the UI program — resulting in historic levels of fraud and other improper payments,” Inspector General Larry Turner said in a statement.

Nearly a million Social Security numbers were used by people who filed for benefits in two or more states, resulting in benefits paid from more than one state, the inspector general’s office said. They received nearly $29 billion in potentially fraudulent payments. And 1.7 million Social Security numbers associated with suspicious email addresses were used to file for $16.2 billion in benefits.

The inspector general’s office said that it has had difficulty getting unemployment insurance data from state workforce agencies until subpoenas were issued. In some cases, the data sent was incomplete or unusable.

The inspector general’s office also took issue with the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, which oversees the unemployment insurance program, saying the agency has not implemented the office’s previous recommendations including to collaborate with state agencies to establish effective controls to mitigate fraud and to work with Congress to require state agencies to cross-match high-risk areas.

“ETA’s lack of sufficient action significantly increases the risk of even more UI payments to ineligible claimants,” the inspector general’s office wrote in the memorandum.

The inspector general’s office also announced Thursday that more than 1,000 people have been charged with crimes involving unemployment benefits fraud since March 2020, and there have been more than 400 convictions to date. It has opened more than 190,000 investigations into unemployment benefits fraud, an increase of more than 1,000 times in the volume of the office’s unemployment insurance work.

Public Service Commission: New 353 Area Code Coming to Southwest, Southcentral Wisconsin in 2023

Yesterday, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) announced the creation of a new, additional area code to overlay the area in which the 608 area code is now in service.

The 608 area code is expected to run out of assignable prefixes (the three numbers in a phone number following the area code) in the first quarter of 2024. The new 353 area code will be used to provide telephone numbers to new customers. All current customers will retain their existing telephone numbers and will continue to dial and receive calls without change.

The Commission approved the petition by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA), the neutral third-party area code relief planner, to overlay a new area code. This decision will provide additional numbering resources to meet the demand for telephone numbers. The new 353 area code will be in service by late 2023.

An area code overlay adds a second area code to the geographic region served by the existing area code. Therefore, multiple area codes co-exist within the same geographic region. Once the 608 area code runs out of assignable prefixes, new customers in southcentral and southwestern Wisconsin may be assigned telephone numbers in the new 353 area code. Customers will continue to dial the three-digit area code for all calls to and from telephone numbers with the 608 and 353 area codes. The price of a call will not change due to the overlay. Customers can still dial just three digits to reach 911, as well as 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, 811, and 988, the new Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

The plan filed by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator can be found here: PSC REF#: 440694

More Americans Racking Up Credit Card Debt

Americans owed a stunning $887 billion in credit card debt as of June 2022, according to recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That was an increase of about 5.5% from the first quarter of the year, and a 13% increase from the year-ago period.

“Americans are borrowing more, but a big part of the increased borrowing is attributable to higher prices,” researchers for the New York Fed said in a news release.

Still, despite the heavier use of credit cards and debt, the New York Fed noted that delinquency rates remain relatively low.

The numbers come against the backdrop of stubbornly high inflation that has shown little sign of cooling off: New data released last week by the Labor Department showed the consumer price index unexpectedly climbed 0.1% in August, dashing hopes for an inflation slowdown. On an annual basis, inflation soared 8.3%, hovering near the fastest pace since 1981.

 

Executive Orders Issued by President Biden Estimated to Cost Nearly $1.5 Trillion

President Biden has issued nearly 100 executive orders, which will cost taxpayers up to $1.5 trillion, as the national debt nears $31 trillion, according to an expert.

“President Biden’s executive actions have cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion so far,” according to the Heritage Foundation’s Matthew Dickerson.

“But earlier this year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office produced an analysis showing that less than ten of President Biden’s earlier executive actions cost taxpayers already more than $500 billion,” Dickerson said.

“So it could be up to $1.5 trillion in cost to taxpayers just on executive actions, not legislation going through Congress and being signed into law and being debated,” Dickerson added. “It’s just pure executive actions taken by President Biden costing taxpayers up to $1.5 trillion.”

OSHA Expands Criteria for Employer Placement in Severe Violator Enforcement Program

To strengthen enforcement and improve compliance with workplace safety standards and reduce worker injuries and illnesses, the U.S. Department of Labor is expanding the criteria for placement in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

The new criteria include violations of all hazards and OSHA standards and will continue to focus on repeat offenders in all industries. Previously, an employer could be in the program for failing to meet a limited number of standards. The changes will broaden the program’s scope with the possibility that additional industries will fall within its parameters.

Since 2010, the Severe Violator Enforcement Program has focused on enforcement and inspection resources on employers who either willfully or repeatedly violate federal health and safety laws or demonstrate a refusal to correct previous violations. In addition to being included on a public list of the nation’s severe violators, employers are subject to follow-up inspections.

Specifically, the updated criteria include the following:

  • Program placement for employers with citations for at least two willful or repeated violations or who receive failure-to-abate notices based on the presence of high-gravity serious violations.
  • Follow-up or referral inspections made one year – but not longer than two years – after the final order.
  • Potential removal from the Severe Violator Enforcement Program three years after the date of receiving verification that the employer has abated all program-related hazards. In the past, removal could occur three years after the final order date.
  • Employers’ ability to reduce time spent in the program to two years, if they consent to an enhanced settlement agreement that includes use of a safety and health management system with seven basic elements in OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs.

The updated program instruction replaces the 2010 instruction, and remains in effect until canceled or superseded.

Retail Sales Edge Higher in August

Retail sales, a measure of how much consumers spent on a number of everyday goods, including cars, food and gasoline, rose 0.3% in August, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

That is an improvement from the downwardly revised data in July, which showed that retail sales actually tumbled 0.4%.

The August advance is not adjusted for inflation – which rose 0.1% last month – meaning that consumers may be spending the same but getting less bang for their buck.

“Consumer spending has flatlined in real terms in the face of steep inflation and interest rate increases from the Fed,” said Ben Ayers, a senior economist at Nationwide. “While retail sales continue to move higher, much of this is due to higher prices which push up the dollar volume of sales. This is another indication of the general slowdown in activity across the economy this year.”

 

U.S. Wholesale Inflation Fell in July

Prices at the wholesale level fell from June to July, the first month-to-month drop in more than two years and a sign that some of the U.S. economy’s inflationary pressures cooled last month.

Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the producer price index — which measures inflation before it reaches consumers — declined 0.5% in July. It was the first monthly drop since April 2020 and was down from a sharp 1% increase from May to June.

Yet economists caution that it’s still too early to say that inflation is headed steadily lower. “The July deceleration … is a move in the right direction,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. “But producer costs continue to rise at a rapid pace, well above target.”

Wholesale food prices rose 1% from June to July, a sign that grocery prices will likely keep rising in the coming months. The wholesale costs of eggs, beef and vegetables all jumped.

Thursday’s report showed that wholesale gas prices tumbled 16.7% from June to July, a sign that retail prices at the pump will continue to decline this month and likely into September. Consumers are already seeing steady reductions: Gas prices fell below $4 a gallon, on average, on Thursday for the first time in five months.

 

Potential Freight Rail Strike Threatens U.S. Economy

A potential nationwide freight rail strike is looming, threatening to cripple the U.S. economy ahead of the holiday shopping season. Roughly 115,000 rail workers could walk off the job as soon as September 16 if they cannot agree to a new contract with railroads.

Five of the 13 unions representing rail workers have reached tentative agreements with railroads to enact the Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) recommendations, which call for 24 percent pay raises, back pay and cash bonuses.

But the bulk of railroad workers belong to unions that haven’t yet agreed to a deal. It’s also unclear whether workers would vote to ratify PEB recommendations that don’t address their concerns about punishing hours and rigid schedules that make it difficult to take time off for any reason.

“I would suspect that most railroad workers would love to strike, would love to get back at their employers after years of abuse while they watched the industry make record profits,” said Ron Kaminkow, an organizer at Railroad Workers United, which represents rank-and-file railroaders.

Federal law gives Congress the power to block or delay a railroad strike. If workers were to walk out, lawmakers could vote to enact the PEB deal or appoint arbitrators to fast-track a new contract, among a range of other options.

The Association of American Railroads, which estimates that a national rail shutdown would cost the U.S. at least $2 billion a day, said that lawmakers should vote to implement the PEB recommendations in the event of a strike to “instantly reward employees and reduce economic uncertainty.”

Experts say that an extended walkout would devastate industries that rely on freight to transport grain, coal, diesel, steel and motor vehicle parts. Shipping containers would pile up at ports, severely congesting supply chains and sending prices soaring ahead of the holidays.

 

IRS Mistakenly Published Some Taxpayers’ Confidential Data

The Internal Revenue Service mistakenly published confidential data for 120,000 taxpayers on its website before realizing the error and taking down the data, the Treasury Department said.

The IRS accidentally posted data from a tax form used by both individuals and tax-exempt organizations, the Treasury said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday. While information about nonprofit groups is routinely made public, that for individuals is supposed to be kept private. The Treasury said the IRS would contact all individuals affected in the coming weeks.

The disclosure didn’t include Social Security numbers, income figures or information that could harm an individual’s credit, the department said. Some published information included names and contact information.

The 990-T form involved in the incident is used by both tax-exempt groups and individuals with some retirement accounts invested in certain assets, including master limited partnerships and real-estate investment trusts.

The Treasury said the error was discovered on Aug. 26, but didn’t specify how long the confidential information had been available for the public to download.

“The IRS is continuing to review this situation,” Anna Canfield Roth, the Treasury’s acting assistant secretary for management, said in the letter. “The Treasury Department has instructed the IRS to conduct a prompt review of its practices to ensure necessary protections are in place to prevent unauthorized data disclosures.”