Category: Politics

Wisconsin Agri-Business: South American Competition

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Larry Rohter takes us to Brazil where he explores the world’s new breadbasket.

Sometime over the next decade or so, Brazil, which Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described as “an agricultural superpower” during a visit in October, hopes to pass the United States as the world’s largest agricultural producer. But the trend is far broader and can be felt also in parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, with a deep impact on the region’s economy and environment. And it has spurred a debate that has mainly focused on expansion into areas where the Amazon rainforest is thought to be jeopardized.
“There has been a silent revolution in the countryside” since the 1990’s, Brazil’s minister of agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, said in an interview in the capital, Bras?lia. The past four or five years in particular, he said, have been “characterized by spectacular growth and a huge increase in demand” abroad for foodstuffs, which has given Brazil “the capacity to compete with anyone.”

Related Links: Alltheweb Clusty Google Teoma Yahoo

Madison WiFi RFP

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The State of Wisconsin Department of Administration Friday issued this RFP:
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) For CITYWIDE WIFI ACCESS And DESIGN, INSTALL, OPERATE, MANAGE, MAINTAIN AND MARKET A COMMON WIRELESS ACCESS SYSTEM (CWAS) for DANE COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORT [654K PDF]
I’ll post some comments after I’ve had a chance to review the document. Let’s hope this flies in a citizen friendly way (rather than the recent anti-citizen legislation that was passed in Pennsylvania).
It’s due January 10th, 2005. I wonder what the odds are on a SBC win (SBC is the incumbent, all powerful local telco. Local player TDS perhaps has a shot, along with others).
Esme Vos has already posted comments on the RFP. Via Glenn Fleishman

Politics & Money

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Governor Doyle’s recently announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on biotech initiatives evidently faces a small problem – the money must be found. Paul Gores digs in.
I think the state should focus on basically two things:

  • True broadband (2 way at 100mbps plus speeds – 100X today’s dsl/cable modems)
  • Simplify the taxes/paperwork for small businesses.

Property Tax Bills: Reading the Tea Leaves?

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Perhaps my mind fails me, but in years past, I recall receiving a pleasant marketing letter from the Mayor extolling the hard work that went into limiting the annual increases in our property tax bills. This year, I found only the bill. I’ve emailed the Mayor’s office asking for comments on this.
Perhaps, given the size of this year’s increases, they did not want to be that closely identified with the tax bills? (OTOH, eliminating the letter does save a few dollars).

Schools, Quality of Life, Jobs, Economic Growth and Globalization

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Yesterday’s property tax bill (including not small increases in local and school taxes) along with recent articles on the China Price and Milwaukee’s loss of unskilled labor jobs serve to remind Wisconsin residents of the real issues facing our state:

  • Encouraging the formation of more new businesses. I don’t believe the formation of yet another quasi-government organization is the answer. Rather, let’s simplify (and reduce) the paperwork that any organization must support to operate in Wisconsin.
  • Broadband: Wisconsin is stuck with SBC, a telco that has done nothing to offer true, 2 way broadband (100X the speed of today’s rather slow DSL/cable services) to Wisconsin residents. I have not seen any indication that our state’s political leadership has boarded the cluetrain on this one.
  • Biotech certainly has great promise for Wisconsin, however, historically the benefits have generally gone to out of state firms. Perhaps this will change somewhat over time.

Without a strong, growing tax base, we’ll continue to see substantial increases in local property taxes. I don’t believe this is a sustainable strategy.

Hubris

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Josh Marshall on the congressional republican’s hubris:

This weekend Congress was working on a massive $388 billion omnibus spending bill that will cover all manner of federal spending. But at the request of Rep. Ernest Istook of Oklahoma, chairman of the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, a special provision was inserted into the bill which allows the Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees or their “agents” to review any American’s tax return with no restrictions whatsoever.