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Thank you so much for joining us on this Friday.
You're listening to Civic Media Mornings on the Civic Media Radio Network.
If you are listening in Eau Claire on 93.5 the tap or in Wausau and WXCO or right here in Madison on WMDX.
We are certainly glad that you are spending your Friday with us.
I'm Jamie Martenson.
And good morning.
I'm Brian Noon and I love that riff from Ricky Don't Lose That Number.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
Nice job.
We only have one boy in the aquarium today.
Me too.
And Parker loves it when he's alone in there because he can move around.
He does his Pilates.
He does a little Tai Chi.
A lot of Tai Chi.
It's good.
He just, he waits.
Sean Cable
today.
was.
Cable, very excited.
Frank and I are under a severe lake effect storm,
chances in some areas to get 10 to 12 inches of snow.
Yeah,
college kids Running up and down state street in there, you know scantily clad in the middle of winter That's
supposed to do when you're in college.
be goofy Because you know, that's what youth is for have some fun.
Enjoy yourself
Unfortunately, for some youths that break the law, they get sent to centers or
jails
or prisons or whatever you want to call them, youth camps.
And that's been a big thing.
If you've been paying attention over the last few years, Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake have been the focus of a lot of debate in the state.
Well, Governor Evers in his final
term is making some changes and he stepped forward yesterday and celebrated because there was a court decision regarding those two facilities and a federal judge has ended court oversight.
After Wisconsin met all the required reforms, which is good news, but that is not the end of the story.
This ruling actually follows multiple positive compliance reports confirming the Department of Corrections has satisfied all 50 conditions of this long-standing consent decree.
And obviously the scandal over Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake has been in the news off and on over the last few years.
And Governor Evers actually says that this
This decision marks a major milestone after all of those years of work to reform the state's juvenile justice system.
The reforms included limits on the use of force, improved staffing levels, expanded training, and greater access to education, health care, and some of the basic services for youth in those facilities.
The ACLU, which filed the original lawsuit, did not oppose ending the oversight.
That's good.
Yes, it is.
And state officials say that ending these federal sues,
federal supervision is a key step towards closing Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake as youth facilities and transitioning young people into smaller regional centers closer to their home communities.
Now a new juvenile facility in Milwaukee is expected to open later this year and another is planned for Dane County as well.
Leaders are emphasizing right now that while the consent decree has ended the state's responsibility to maintain safe humane and rehabilitative conditions for youth will continue.
you, especially under Governor Ebers, at least for the next few months, why he comes to the end of another term.
Well, I'm glad that Wisconsin has met its obligation of the dissent decree, because the allegations that led to this consent decree were abominable.
I do believe that there should be accountability and sometimes punishment for crimes.
I'm not naive enough to believe that, oh, it's the system.
There's a lot of reasons that youths and adults commit crimes.
That is a bigger conversation.
It's going to take a lot more work than a lot of people are willing to put in and a lot of money to run these programs.
That being said, if you do break the law, you are responsible.
Now, I also don't believe that if you're...
I don't believe adults should be tortured when they're in jail I definitely don't think children should be tortured when they're in jail and yes if you're if you're under 18 or if you're in a juvenile facility you are still a child legally and legally mentally emotionally all of that and So I think moving to smaller regional places closer to where
Maybe if you have family members, if you have friends, somebody who can visit you and make and keep you connected to the outside world, unless those people are a bad influence and then, you know, but they don't have you don't have to see them.
But we got to look at we have to look at everything different.
Yeah.
The this old stockpiling of of kids for the juvenile justice system.
It's not working.
And the recidivism rate is high.
So, okay, we have to punish them.
How can we punish them and incarcerate them effectively?
Because if you go into this facility at 14 and you're getting out when you're 18, you got a whole life ahead of you, literally.
What are we doing to prepare them for that life?
And if you remember this case, this goes all the way back to a 2017 lawsuit that was brought after a 2015 raid exposed widespread abuse, unsafe conditions.
We know that several adults that were incarcerated in either Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake eventually came forward with eyewitness testimony and their experiences to what happened.
to which then investigators found that excessive force had been used, pepper spray was used, there was prolonged isolation, there was restraint misuse and there was failures to address sexual abuse.
So youth suffered these serious injuries and the state had to pay over $25 million in settlements and legal costs.
And then in 2019, Wisconsin was actually only compliant with only one of 50 court ordered reforms.
That is not a good ratio.
And that's that's the kind of thing when you see these dissent decrees all over the country, whether it's with jails, prisons, police departments.
And that's where we hear a lot of most of mostly about these consent decrees is police departments.
You got it.
You got to tell the line once you're once you're locked into that, it's on you.
So one in 50 was horrible.
But now in the last seven years, Wisconsin has turned it around.
So we got to give credit where credit's due.
everything be along party lines?
up.
I did not say
were
I believe facts.
fine.
does causation lead to results?
Is that what we're going for?
perhaps.
It does all kind of line up that way.
It
does.
And good.
So now we'll see it.
We'll see what the governor can get through with his juvenile justice reforms in his last term.
He's got a little time left.
We'll see what he can do.
And he's actually been very busy over the last few days because not only did we get this news, it actually comes on the heels of the governor proposing $1.3 billion in property tax relief as a lot of homeowners.
all across the state are dealing with really high or steadily rising property taxes.
And this proposal comes as residents are obviously getting ready to make their January tax payments.
And there's going to be a lot of people who are going to be feeling that pain.
Evers says that the plan would not reduce current bills, but would actually aim to freeze property taxes at their current levels starting next year.
Now, he says that the goal of this is to give homeowners more predictable
and prevent further increases.
The plan would be funded through the state's budget surplus, with money
sent
to municipalities, counties, and school districts, really to help offset the costs that are typically passed on to property homeowners.
School funding, obviously, in this state has been a major driver of higher property taxes.
Many districts, I believe it's right around
241 different school referendums appeared on the ballot.
Yes, that is correct.
241 school referendums appeared on the ballot in 2024 because you need these voter approved referendums to raise revenue.
169 of those, of those 241 by the way were approved.
Evers argued those referenda are contributing significantly to the rising property taxes.
Republicans however disagree.
They say that it's all because of the governor's partial veto expanding school funding authority far into the future that is to blame.
And we've talked about that partial veto here.
400 years.
400.
yes, for a comma rather.
It's very, very tricky.
Jamie, if I could just point out yesterday we used a term that seems at odds with this story.
We actually said fiscally responsible Democrats
based on some other.
some other Wisconsin budget items.
I think a lot of it had to do with this, too.
And using the surplus, how we were going to use the surplus.
Now, if you joined this program yesterday, the Republicans would like to give families who have infants $1,000 aligning with the President Trump's plan for helping families.
And all of that money would come from the budget surplus.
Evers is proposing to use it differently to actually help homeowners.
And I made this point yesterday and it fits in even more graphically here.
There are a lot more homeowners in Wisconsin than there are infants who were born in a very narrow window that would be eligible for that extra money.
Yes, there will be debate.
Yes,
there will be
argument.
Yes, we got to look at the surplus as not a never-ending infinite pot, but a pot that we need to figure out where we can spend it responsibly and not get caught up in a infinite program that is going to deplete that surplus and then...
Trouble.
If you have a surplus, I feel like estates at this current time, especially watching what's happening on the federal level, you have to be very responsible with your money, right?
It's like getting your, as a kid, you get grandma's Christmas money, and oh, you could go spend it on some of the most frivolous, silliest things ever, but as, you know, as you're growing and you're learning, you're like, maybe I should really save that for the thing I want.
I feel like that's the mentality that needs to happen here, too.
Yes, because you don't know as a state,
when funding could, if you're a state that is at odds with the administration, you don't know if your funding is gonna get stopped.
Now, you know, as we talked to Josh Call yesterday, the attorney general and a court, federal court stopped.
the administration from doing that for electric vehicle charging and things.
But you don't know, do you
to spend every day in court trying
No, nobody wants to do that.
Now, Evers actually says he's optimistic about reaching a deal in an election year on property taxes.
Assembly Speaker Robin Voss also says Republicans are open to compromise and actually agreed with Governor Evers saying that $1.3 billion is a pretty reasonable figure to get this done.
So maybe there is some room for negotiation there.
If approved, the plan would be one of the largest property tax relief efforts in Wisconsin history.
Obviously there will be some challenges as it gets into the legislature, but if there's already a little agreement between Voss and Evers, I feel like maybe there's some negotiating room here at this point in time.
It's bipartisan Friday here on Civic Media Mornings.
We've got the federal, we've got state, everybody's working together.
Kumbaya, they're happy that the weather is warming up.
It's just what a way to go into the week.
buoyed by all this.
on my parade.
I'm trying to grasp at joy.
Don't knock it out of my hand.
And I'm Brian Noonan.
And like kindergarteners, just work together.
You've learned it before.
That's right.
It's the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Civic Media Radio Network.
You are listening to Civic Media Mornings.
And if you want to get in on the conversation or just want to share your weekend plans even or how you're going to enjoy a nice balmy 20 degree day on Saturday.
Yard work, bloody yard work tomorrow.
People planting bulbs.
Is that what's going
And I'm Brian Nune.
Good morning.
I know in this current climate a lot of people worried about their job, worried about layoffs, and we hear conflicting numbers.
Sometimes we don't hear the job numbers because they don't meet somebody's approval.
They don't want to hear the bad news, but there are...
It's it's slowing down.
The job market is slowing
down
And that's just if you've been looking for a job and I have friends who have been in their careers for years who are looking for jobs and it is To say the least tough out there if you've been looking Let us know eight five five seven five civic eight five five seven five two four eight four two if you are in the job market now Give us a real world
take what it's like out there for people who are looking for a job because
We are in kind of a standstill
to economists, Jamie, and that's not good.
Well, I know the president likes to tell us that the economy is better than it's ever been, and he likes to tell us that things have been solved, and it's over, but that's not exactly what's happening, and that's not what workers are feeling.
There is a lot of hiring slows, and there are layoffs that are mounting, and we're going to look at this on kind of a national level, and then also look at what's happening here.
in Wisconsin, which
relatively is doing relatively well in comparison to the national workforce.
So the economy outages 50,000 jobs last month.
And a lot of the companies are pausing new openings because of inflation, tariffs, and also shifting consumer spending.
A lot of major employers are also announcing significant cuts.
For instance, Amazon trimming 16,000 corporate roles.
UPS plans up to 30,000 reductions across the country.
Dow is cutting
4,500 jobs.
Tyson Foods is closing a whole Nebraska plant, which is going to result to about 3,000 layoffs.
Tech and pharma companies like HP, Microsoft, Intel, and Novo Nordisk are also getting rid of thousands of jobs as they move to more automation and AI operated procedures.
Federal government layoffs under this current administration are also adding to uncertainty, leaving workers increasingly anxious about the job security and changing economy.
I have a 22 year old who graduated from college last May, still working three or four part-time jobs just to piece it all together because literally there is nothing in the full-time market for him right now.
It has been absolutely crazy since he graduated.
Yeah, one of my good friends is an engineer and a project manager and he has been looking and looking position was phased out at his last company and It's like well, you know, you hear you hear those Like somebody with that background.
Oh, you should be able to find a job pretty easy.
No,
And it doesn't matter what field you're in I think I think if you're a nurse or a teacher, you're probably safe,
we need both of those and they're
scarce.
agree here in Wisconsin.
We need teachers and we need nurses, especially in rural areas.
that's
Not every sector though, Brian, is hiring, right?
Companies across the state are also announcing layoffs and closures.
Air Wisconsin Airlines is scaling back regional routes.
That's going to affect right around 740 workers between Appleton and Milwaukee.
There is a cheese factory in Brown County.
Their plant is closing.
That's going to impact about 240 jobs through this next couple of months.
Kroger's Pleasant Prairie Facility.
closed by February, cutting 211 positions.
You've also got UW Oshkosh contracts, which are going to affect about 155 employees.
You've got Northland College in Ashland that reduced it 133 jobs due to the financial restraints.
And then you also have some other recent impacts, including the Superior YMCA.
They did this merger in that particular area.
So you've got cutbacks there.
to stay there.
Right.
You've got Orbis Corporation in Menasha.
You've got Sheridan Random Lake in Sheboygan County, Milwaukee Job Corps.
The list is actually quite lengthy as to who's going to be doing some of these layoffs over the next few months.
Let's go to the phones because we only have a couple
Yes.
Dick's in Madison and he wants to jump in on the economy.
Dick, how are you?
Welcome to the show.
Good.
Real quick, Harrison Biden and Harris.
last year actually things were cruising along quite well economically with the exception of inflation being a little bit stubborn now he could have walked in here not messed around with tariffs put it on cruise control not done a lot except ride it and then took credit for it i wouldn't have liked that either but i would have liked it a lot better than this
yeah yeah makes sense dick thank you for the call have a great weekend um it is
It is tough times, so good luck if you're out there looking for a job.
I know, I think this is where AI can help a little bit.
But be careful if you use AI to write your resume and cover letter because, oh man, AI can go crazy.
And suddenly you look like the king of
industry.
read it yourself
send it out.
You don't just go, well, the computer wrote it for me.
And there's a little thing I like to call editing.
I don't know what the kids call it.
Parker redacting is what the government calls it.
But I like to call it editing.
Editing.
And you can change things.
You can say, oh, I really didn't build a skyscraper.
I worked in a skyscraper.
Oh, funny.
No tax on tips.
We'll talk about that after the news.
I'm Brian Noonan and this is the Civic Media Radio
Good morning.
I'm Brian Noon and glad you're here.
If you work in the service industry, you know that over the last few years there's been a lot of talk about income tax on tips and people in the service industry rely on those tips for their living well.
Wisconsin Assembly and the Senate have moved forward with a bill eliminating state income taxes on tips and certain overtime pay that that's in effect until 2028.
Joining us now is Christine Hilmer.
She's the president and CEO of Wisconsin Restaurant Association and Wisconsin Restaurant Association Education Foundation Board of Directors members.
Christine, thanks for being here.
We appreciate it.
Thank you for having me.
So this on on a service level, this sounds like a great deal for people in the service industry.
Is it all it's cracked up to be or all we perceive it to be?
Well, I can't talk about every industry, but for the restaurant industry, it is a really big deal for those that take tips.
We estimate we've got about 90,000 people who are servers and bartenders who would really be able to keep some take home pay in their pocket.
So this particular legislation, Christine, is going to allow workers to deduct up to $25,000 in tips from their state income taxes.
How do you think that that's going to actually change the financial reality for a lot of service workers across Wisconsin, particularly those who are relying heavily on these tips?
any time that you don't have to pay taxes on anything puts money in your pocket.
And depending upon how much you work and how much tips you take, it becomes, of course, a bigger, bigger piece of that pie.
Now, one thing we do know that these are voluntary tips.
So if you have auto gratuity on your check, it does not count.
And one of the misnomers is also that it's only cash tips.
That includes any kind of tip.
So whether you have currency that's laid on the table or you have tips that are added to your credit card bill, both count towards this.
The other piece of this that you need to remember is this is a deduction on your taxes.
You still have to pay taxes on it.
Then like we are now, we're getting ready to do our 2025 taxes right now this spring of 2026.
That's when you take the deduction.
So it's not going to be immediate in your pocket, but it is going to make a big difference when people are doing their taxes.
Now we are waiting for the governor to sign the bill.
We have had conversations with Governor Ebers as well as his office.
He hasn't signaled which way he's going to go, which is very, very common.
But we really hope that this is going to make a big difference for a lot of people.
What's been the stumbling block that's holding it up, Christine?
Well, I think there's a concern that it doesn't hit everybody, that there's not both front of the house and back of the house.
And it's just a concern we share.
But if we can still give 90,000 people a tax break, we are going to fight for that.
And then we'll continue to make sure that everybody gets the great compensation.
How do you think that this particular law, if signed by Governor Evers, would actually interact with some of the other pressures that the industry is feeling?
I mean, there's inflation, there's rising food prices, there's minimum wage changes, and I know that's always a big discussion, especially in this state, so how does this help with that or interact with it?
Well, a lot of the pressures that you're talking about are pressures on the owners that set the menu prices and so on.
It's the economics of running a restaurant.
This provision is towards individuals.
So I think that it's going to help because it's going to give them more take home pay.
Maybe not immediately, but that's going to happen.
So roughly in the past five years,
costs on restaurants have gone up roughly 40% across the board.
Whether it's your coffee or your beef, or whether it's your utilities or rent, it is exceedingly expensive.
And profit margins at restaurants are very, very slim.
On average, pre-COVID was three to 4%, and those are getting squeezed.
The other piece of this is you need to remember that eating out is discretionary income.
for the most part.
I mean, many people do use restaurants as part of their meal package, but eating out is not necessarily, it's usually optional.
And so as people's pocket fits could squeeze, then people go out less.
And so it becomes a real hard, difficult way to run a restaurant.
It was always difficult.
It's even more so now.
But what this does is this helps on the compensation for individuals, which then decreases some of that pressure on the operators.
to give more money to their servers and their bartenders that are taking advantage of tip credit.
But it's still a very, very difficult business.
And as you've seen, there's restaurants closing and so on.
And my plea to everybody is please go visit your local restaurants, especially those independents that really, really need your help, especially in January.
It tends to be one of the lower months for eating out.
And it's also one of those things I'm wondering, Christine, because Christine Hilmer is our guest.
She's the president and CEO of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association and Wisconsin Restaurant Association Education Foundation Board of Directors, members.
Since the pandemic, it's been harder and harder for restaurants to keep their staff.
We've seen, you know, you can't go to a place usually, oh, I'm sorry, we're a little short staffed, or they've closed for the day because staff can't come, there's no staff.
Will something like this, is it enough of an incentive now to bring more people back to the restaurant service industry?
I think it is.
About two or three years ago it was extremely hard to find staff.
It's still hard and it's really hard to find qualified skilled staff, but it is easing a little bit.
It just means that owners and operators are still having to really find those great people who have that great hospitality heart and it really, a training becomes much more important to them because they may not have been in the industry.
It's also a great way for people who want a part-time job, whether it's supplementing income or whether you're a student or whether you're a mom, that this is
is a second income for your family.
This is a great way to have a part-time income, but we also have many, many full-time folks within our industry.
I don't think we're going to see anything immediately.
Time will tell, of course.
And what this bill is, it mimics what's happening at the federal level.
So it's not doing anything different.
It's got a sunset.
It's going to be from January 1, 2025.
So it would apply to this year's taxes through the end of 2028.
That's the other thing I wanted to point out to folks is that we still have to get the governor signed it.
Then it goes to the Department of Revenue has to propagate the rules and those rules have to get into the tax software.
So we're going to have a time like here.
I wouldn't necessarily delay doing your taxes.
You might want to wait a little bit to see how quickly they can get that through the system.
But those that are going to be taking advantage of this tax treatment may have to do an amendment.
We just simply don't know when the governor is going to sign.
We simply don't know when we're going to get everything through the system.
So that may have to happen.
You were talking about how the costs have gone up for restaurant owners which makes sense because they've gone up for you and I when we cook at home and the margins are very slim so when we get to the the servers in the front of the house the hospitality workers It just seems like there's people are still operating under an old method of tipping and With everything going up and the menu prices going up which they have to for places to stay in business
Do consumers need to reevaluate the percentage or how how they tip whether it's cash or whether they just do the automatic tips tips that are sometimes on the on the bill that you said are not included in this bill.
What do we do to help out the servers who that's part that's a majority of their pay is the tip.
And I know as a consumer now going out to dinner
is discretionary, but when you do go, it costs a lot more.
So where do we find that balance, Christine?
Well, it hasn't changed outside of consumer sentiment, meaning we have used this system of tipping for many, many years.
And it's a misnomer that these staff are underpaid because the average tipped wage
is between $24 and upwards of $42 an hour because tips are part of their compensation.
They should be declared.
Now we know that not all cash tips necessarily get counted and that's actually not legal.
But this is part of their compensation.
And so when people go out, the average tipping right now is 20 to 22%.
Certainly it is an incentive to give great service, to do all the things that give that great hospitality that Wisconsin is famous for.
And customers really appreciate that.
But if we were to take away the tipping system,
We are actually going to decrease the compensation for many of these valued employees.
90% of TIP workers want to keep it.
They want to keep the TIP system.
We have seen survey after survey.
We've seen movements in other areas of the country to eliminate the TIP credit.
And by and far, the TIP workers, the people who live in this system, want it to stay.
Go to a flat hourly rate.
is probably going to decrease their compensation.
And it is probably going to make them either move to a different area, work in a different area that keep the tip system, or they're going to leave the hospitality world.
So it's a very powerful way to do compensation.
So it's not something that we advocate for.
We want to keep the tip system as it stands.
And if there is anything funny going on, are you hear about tipped theft and so on?
It's very rare.
Okay.
If it happens, those owners should be called to the carpet and they should be prosecuted.
It's waste that's going to be very clear.
But those that do it right, it's a very.
positive way.
It's well received by those workers.
It's a little bit complicated to understand it at first, but it has been a very good way to support a lot of people.
We're hearing widespread support for this bill.
Again, it matches the federal bill.
And this was something that came out of the blue, to be honest.
It was a campaign promise, which came from both the Republican and the Democratic presidential camps.
And so when that happened, there became this groundswell to have it happen.
Now, the other thing that we need to remember is when you are a tipped employee, not everybody can be.
there's only certain positions that can be and I could speak of course to the bartenders and the services so in the industry but there's also beauticians and others that do live in the system as well.
But you also can't say I'm a roofer, I'm going to put on a roof and well it's a zero for the roof and now my tip is 25,000.
That's not possible.
There are guardrails in here so if you are not currently a recognized tipped
employee or a position that can take tips, you can't be added.
Perfect.
I'm glad that the front of the house people are getting this
little
break, hopefully, that the governor signs it.
It makes sense and make sure, like you said, Christine, go out, especially in January, if you can go out to a local restaurant.
chains are fine, but go to your local mom and pop restaurant, somebody in the community because it is tough.
And I know, like you said, January, everybody's looking at those credit card bills from Christmas going, maybe we
don't go out.
And you've got dry January, and you've got everybody's on a diet and so on.
But that doesn't mean that you can't go out and eat and support those restaurants.
It's really vital for all of our communities.
Support the restaurants, tip your server.
And there you go.
Christine Helmer, thanks so much for being with us.
Thank you.
If you're looking for information on the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, it's wirestaurant.org.
So check them out there.
Christine, have a great weekend.
Thanks a lot.
And I'm Brian Unan and this is the Civic Media Radio Network.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,
Hey, good morning.
I'm Brian Noonan.
That was music that Parker played.
I don't know what kind of music it was, but I say that obvious statement because Sunday, the Grammy Awards will be presented.
Oh, the Grammys,
Unbelievable.
And I've watched three.
So, of course, with that being said, you see, if you're watching on the stream, our illustrious senior producer, Frank, has joined us with his requisite backwards hat, and he is ready to go.
We have a game, Frank.
think you're in my
I wasn't included in that process.
Not
were.
But
This is award season.
I don't know if you guys are familiar with that term.
Friday, Frank, and I'm punchy.
All right, let's get into the game.
After the show, we'll leave up off that sentence and we'll...
to smoke.
was gonna buzz in but I then I remembered I have to wait so I was being patient and then I was too slow He
obscure I have obscure references and pulls I don't have music knowledge, but let's see what we
Jamie
a big troller
A Victrola, an old-timey record player.
whole point, guys.
I learned
while
I like to call it edutainment.
Edutainment.
I think I need the point too.
That was Clay.
It's shaped like they shape the same.
It is a
All right.
Okay.
Brian.
Brian.
Maria Cabela.
That's
year,
Oh my gosh.
I'm gonna I'm gonna let you finish but This
Is it Brian red It's not red
This
Um,
Brian?
Who is Alice in Dairyland?
That's
good answer.
Good answer.
Thank you, Parker.
Selena Gomez, Brian.
Have a great weekend.
Thank you for listening.
We'll talk to you again.
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