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This how we gonna do this right here Pretty warm up It's something you should know

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17 the truth live from the American family insurance studios It is your boy Ray nitty holding it down DJ brother Z got us on the production and sound shots out to the pretty women and this is a good song we got Abra

What's your name, bro?

I know we supposed to have four people

with us today, so only two here.

Antonio.

Antonio.

Antonio.

I ain't

want to call the wrong person Antonio.

They said, Avery, they call you honey child.

They do.

They call her honey child.

Absolutely.

Shots out to the Wisconsin Eco Justice Base Builders Web.

It's a grassroots and community ownership led... 63,000

people got their energy shut off by WeEnergies last year.

63,000.

Okay.

I like this.

One in four and five, three, two, zero, six.

Let's talk about it then.

We wouldn't know about it if we wasn't in the case and asked for the data in the discovery process.

So Walnut Way, go to walnutway.org.

Everybody, if you want to speak up on WeEnergies, they're in the middle of a rape case right now.

The public comment period end on September 18th.

Go to walnutway.org right now so you can go ahead and submit your comment.

about the challenges that you have in with your energy bill, disconnections, arrears payments.

If you feel like they're not doing enough on solar energy, if you feel like anything they doing, because the thing you really got to remember is everything they doing, we paying for it.

So when they use their attorneys to increase the bills, that's us, that's y'all.

We are paying for that.

When you see them on a billboard, you see them on a bus, that's us, we paying for that.

So we got a right to do something and say something about it.

That's what's up.

Are we getting right?

That's

that's a hot opening of lesion.

We like

it.

That's how they jumped me in.

That's how we like to get out over here.

So today we're talking about the energy rate case, recap of the current status and energy affordability, utility, accountability, and why public participation matters.

Brother Butts, the executive director of Walnut Way, correct?

Yes, sir.

Man, how long you been in the position,

brother?

11th year, before I was executive director, I was treasurer of the board.

Yeah, this my 11th year, before I was executive director, I was treasurer of the board.

I'm a lifelong Milwaukeean too, this home.

That's where I grew up at.

This is what it is.

And Abra.

You are from your strategic engagement plan and consultant for Walnut Way, 25-year Lindsey Heights resident and advocate.

Yeah, so I was at Walnut Way when the origin, I remember I was there for Walnut Way's origin story.

So I was one of the residents that knew what their initial mission was and watched them over the course of these 25 years come into discovery.

I mean real discovery about how

marginalized communities become this way.

So we moved, I watched Walnut Way grow from a small resident led organization that focused on green environment, walkable community, planting gardens they had, they planted.

vegetable orchards got very involved was at the seat of a lot of these farmers markets that you see that took the blueprint from them and

are

now developed.

But as they continue to work their mission, they begin to really live their mission.

And so this discovery of energy conservation and remember their name is their conservation

core.

So we

to always talk to community, always engage with community.

And one of the things that has always stood out with community when they talk about struggle and what it feels like to be impacted is this energy thing.

Many people in the community that we live in, which is in the heart of 5-3-2-0-6, struggle with the ability to pay their, we energy's bills.

And so Walna Wade delved into investigating the why.

And all those wives riddled down to these root cause issues and the main issue sits in policies and systems.

and not considering the end user.

Everybody makes money off of people who are in the lived experience of poverty, but those folks.

And so as a result of the brain trust that existed at Walnut Way from board experience into

leadership

experience, what you see is birthed right now with these rape cases.

And we're reminding community that you have the power, you have the influence, you don't have...

to allow these things to be done to you, especially when they're regulated by your tax dollars, by the people that you send to represent you in your community to properly advocate for you.

And unfortunately, these marginalized communities have been so inundated with

Everybody who everybody knows knows that you know the lived experience of poverty is daunting and you don't always get to focus on root causes because you're spending all your time trying to catch up and live and survive And that's why I'm grateful for organizations like Walnut Way who stay authentic to their mission and do this work and empower emboldened people to self-advocate and this is that Opportunity

right right before before we get out of here today.

Make sure we ask everybody to talk about

Cognitive oh come on now come on now first of all

first of all you just

That's what we talk about here.

I prioritize environmental injustice on this platform and what our communities are dealing with.

We allow large corporations like Master Locks, Briggs and Stratton's, Bostick, to come in our communities, build these huge facilities and

exclude us from employment in them.

But wave these jobs in our communities, right?

And then when these facilities leave, we have these empty toxic parcels that are poisoning.

Poisoning our communities if you could go on DNR's website and see all the toxic field

brown fields

That has from TCE the petroleum to all of these toxic things and we got all these studies to say what the the lasting impact of exposure to these things Due to us cognitive dissonance the ability to make good choices hyperactivity

the lack of the ability to want to go to school and read and so forth.

So you can get me started, but I want to stay on, you know, on top.

So y'all had an event.

Y'all had an event on Tuesday, September 1st.

Give us a recap of how that went,

please.

Yeah, so that was the opportunity for the actual public hearing to take place in Milwaukee, where people could come in person.

and give their comments directly to the judge that's involved in the case.

All other comments... Who's

the judge, if you don't mind me asking?

His name is Newmark, and he's a... His particular law is in this commission and regulatory space.

Voted and not appointed, Amar.

Correct

or appointed?

All of the Public Service Commission people who serve are appointed.

Okay.

Yep, so Newmark has been in the case but on September 1st was that opportunity for the public to show up and give comments themselves But what we did before the actual hearings took place we had a rally right in front of we energies headquarters and we had a whole

crew or cohort of people from, you know, from the faith base to grassroots to other environmental organizations show up and speak and rally with us on our behalf in this work.

And so we have some excellent media coverage and, you know, we live to see another day and stay in the game and stay in the fight around this issue.

Antonio, add to that.

We recognize and all too often I'm going to keep on talking about the lived experience of poverty and how people continue to be marginalized.

On top of that, knowing that holding those rallies that day and that hearing was on the first day of school, so it impacted the number of people who could come and lift their voice, we knew transportation was an issue.

We

provided buses for people to attend so that parking wasn't a hindrance or access to the rally or the PSC hearing wasn't a hindrance.

And we were proud of the number of people that were able to show up and remind them who to remember the next time they made an attempt to do a public hearing.

When you talk about.

people who are impacted and giving them access to even come testify on their own.

And

that's every two years.

So every two years, we're energies comes back with a new rate increase proposal.

Every two years, the Public Service Commission, which is the appointed body, it's only three people that get to decide and determine.

Who's these

three people?

We like to name people on this platform.

We're going to have to dig them up.

OK.

Public Service Commission, Wisconsin Public Service Commission, it'll pop up pretty quickly.

But three people are appointed.

That's why this gubernatorial election is so important.

Absolutely.

Because whoever becomes the governor is also going to point, you know, who are the next commissioners.

And the commissioners are going to decide what happens with data centers.

the commissioners are gonna decide what happens with the next rate increase, also with water and Wi-Fi.

Public service commission and that trio of people are probably three most powerful people in the state of Wisconsin that no one knows about.

And then adding to that, remember I told you, we always go to root cause.

One of the brilliant things that Walnut Way did is in June hosted an actual gubernatorial forum, I'm sorry, my tongue

is

tied.

Forum at the historic North Division High School, which was unheard of the last time you heard of anybody presidential or I'm sorry, not presidential gubernatorial or higher coming for a forum like that was President Obama.

So that should show you the impact.

that we were trying to make by inviting everybody, everybody who said that they wanted to become the governor of the state of Wisconsin was invited to North division to speak to the issues in the platforms and what was important to our community.

We were very specific in asking what their position was on these issues.

So everyone is on record.

as stating their position because what we learned, what we know about empowering and emboldening community and the self-advocacy is that we want to make sure that the people we send to represent us represent us when issues like this come up.

Absolutely.

When we come back, y'all, I'm going to get into the three people that's on this board.

I pulled the names up.

So we're going to share those names for them.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

This is the award-winning one-on-one, Seventh of Truth.

What up y'all welcome back welcome back welcome back welcome back to the award-winning one-on-one seven the truth man We have Wisconsin eco justice based builders in the building and they are

I like when we get like this.

So the event that you all are having, 833-212-1017, that's the number to join the conversation as well.

If you got some points that you would like to share on this topic as well, we're talking about energy, the rising costs, the raises.

I was literally just talking about we energies is getting ready to raise the rates yet again.

And that was,

It feels like it's been three raises in less than two years or something.

Am I wrong?

Six in a row.

Six years in a row.

Six years in a row.

Six years in a row.

Six years in a row.

Come every two years and they send proposals that cover two years.

So we've had six increases in a row.

You go back 10 years, your bill is basically increased by...

over 50% over that period of time.

And that don't include the cost of living.

So just in terms of what people are making on their own income

is

not keeping up with the bills that people have to pay.

And so, you know, with, with energies, it's a monopoly as everybody knows, and it's state law that they have to make sure that the energy is reliable, but they also gotta make sure the energy is affordable.

This is state law.

And so it was clear, right?

63,000 disconnections, one in four disconnections in 5306.

Energy is not affordable for everybody.

It's a state law that says that they have to make sure it's affordable, and that's not being achieved.

The little data that we're spitting out now about disconnections, they didn't make that data publicly available.

We had to secure that data inside the case through a discovery process.

What information that you can just go look up on their website and know what the disconnections are by zip code and so that kind of information is important because how do you make a decision about what the race should be if you're not even looking into the data around what

people could afford Absolutely, we got more of the team joining us.

Everybody is in the building now.

We have Yousef

Say your last name for me, please, so I don't say it.

It's all good.

Okay, Yusef Adama.

Adama.

Yusef Adama, who is representing Wisconsin Eco Justice-Based Builders, web grassroots community, ownership-led vice president, Beloit City Council.

Right?

Is that right?

Okay, cool.

I'll just make it so.

And then also, we have Kiva.

That's it.

Kiva.

Kiva Guyden.

Yes.

Kiva Guyden joining us.

as well, environmental conservation specialists and organizer of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

Appreciate y'all joining us today.

You

know,

we I like to talk about the environmental issues and things like this that are that's plaguing our community.

Yum.

Brother Antonio brought up.

He wanted to make sure we talked about cognitive dissonance and things of that nature.

And I was expressing to him how that's like one of the main things we talk about on this program because of the environmental injustice that I feel is going untreated, untalked about in our communities.

We get these.

multi-billion dollar corporations that come in and put these plants up and then leave these empty contaminated shells that is pumping what poison is water into our sewer systems and things in our nature.

But we're talking about energy right now.

Okay, so I want to stay on the...

Say that one more time?

It is.

It is.

That's why Antonio wanted to talk about cognitive dissonance because we know from research that I've done over the course of the last 20 years that no matter what subject you drop these issues into, whether it's environmental issues, whether it's education, whether it's transportation, those barriers are consistent.

Policies and systems, isms, cognitive dissonance, and trauma, no matter what topic.

Mm-hmm.

So the three current commissioners, right?

If I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong.

The chairperson is Summer Strand.

Does that sound familiar?

Okay.

She was appointed to the commission by Governor Evers in March 2023 for a six-year term.

We have Chrissy Nieto, who was appointed as commissioner in 2024, and Marcus Hawkins.

Does that sound about right?

Those are three people.

that is responsible for approving or adhering to the needs of the people.

And if, you get closer to that now, I'm keeping

it like she put it up on the net.

I said since when?

That's what they supposed to do, but that's not what they do at

all.

Talk to her.

Well, I was just at the Public Service Commission here last week, Tuesday.

Tell us how that was.

Now for

what?

Let me

just set the table real quick before you go and tell them to if approved a typical resident Customer would pay about $22 more each month by 2028.

Is this correct?

Roughly $260 more every year on top of increases already absorbed in recent years We are in the last three years six years our rates have raised over 50% that right, okay?

I said it up, knock them

down.

Okay, so I'm gonna knock them down.

Well, what I do want to say, since you were talking numbers and about how much money folks will be paying, minimum wage is still $7.

25% in the state of Wisconsin.

With that being said, folks are on fixed income.

With that being said, we are in a state of where everything is inflating, housing.

And everything is unaffordable.

So this here is something that is most definitely a human right.

You know, we cannot live without hot running water, lights and heat and gas.

You know what I'm saying?

And so I want to say, going back to the hearing that was over.

Uh, what was it?

Marquette.

Yes, ma'am.

You have to

pay to park.

Yes.

So I was that raised as

well.

That it did

raise the price and extended the hours that you got to pay for.

Correct.

But, um, parking sucked.

Also, location sucked.

Um, the, uh, the lawyer who was there, the judge, I should say.

He even reached out to me to help him to find a location because he knew that they're coming.

Excuse me.

But the judge didn't even know what he was.

We appealed during that hearing to.

I told you, we asked them, remember the people who need to come to tell you.

Yeah, like if I can't even find it.

What about the

problem

to come up with the judge?

Yeah, but also to besides like location.

They always, they never tell us, it's like a surprise thing.

It's

like they spring in upon

us.

So like about a week or two, it might come on the news, but there is absolutely no way.

No

organizers.

So there's no outreach for folks to be able to know.

So this is why you have beautiful black people like us.

Policies and systems.

You hear me?

Policies and systems.

Is there anything else you'd like to ask?

Just keep

talking.

That's what I want.

I want you to keep

talking, because

I was reading through the docket today, and I'm like, OK, we're talking about some energy now.

With that, we're talking energy, but I'm going to tell you about energy burden.

So this is the thing.

And the reason that we're talking about it becoming a burden is because

uh, it's unaffordable.

You know, so, um, once things start becoming unaffordable, what does that do?

You know, that changes the dynamic of how families thrive.

That also, um, changes.

when folks get shut off.

So when folks get shut offs,

you

know, that brings about problems and issues with kids.

So then you, you can't cook, you can't bathe correctly, all different kinds of things.

You can't learn.

You cannot because there's a lot of bullying as

well.

You

know,

we interviewed as part of, goes

back to the trauma.

Yes.

Yes, ma'am, as part of building up to this effort, we did on the spot interviews with people right in the community that we served and

what

appalled me the.

and breaks my heart every time I think about it.

There was a brother that stood there and said, there are people in our community with $6,000 WeEnergies bills.

And people don't understand how this happened.

People become more appalled thinking that people would let their WeEnergy bill get to $6,000, but that's not how it works.

The resource that WeEnergy sets aside for energy assistance is very limited.

And so while a family may be able to go get energy assistance, it's never enough to clear their bill and keep it sustainably clear.

So what?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Also, too, I just want to, um, iterate, um, as you said about sources limited, we are, there only, there's only one source, which is community advocates.

It was to when SDC was up and running, but there's, there's a lot of people who's not even accessing those funds

as well.

And there's a lot of people who, this is the killing part, who don't qualify to access those funds.

So if we're talking about the county and the city's median income not having changed in the last 15 years, then there are more people at that cliff than ever before.

There are more people who don't even qualify for help.

So we're not just talking about the...

people who are in the lived experience of poverty.

We're talking about working class people who are now finding themselves needing help.

The working poor.

Yeah, the working poor.

Who can go without a paycheck or two?

I'll just let you, I'll defer because we could go on and on.

We

just gotta go to break real

quick,

because I want you to go on and on, because I got a lot more questions that I want to ask on them.

I want to ask about WeEnergies.

I know they have this

rule or thing where they don't cut you off in the wintertime or something.

Yeah, we can talk about the moratorium.

Yeah, so we'll talk about that.

But I also want to talk about those folks that may have that $7,000 bill or a higher bill, right?

If they're already off, and is We Energy's responsible to cutting them back on

in the upcoming winter?

No, once you're off, you're off.

So that's what I wanted

to talk about.

But let's go to

break.

Let's go to break it in when we come back.

We'll get into that right here on 101.7 and True.

What up, y'all?

Welcome back.

Welcome back, welcome back to the award-winning one-on-one, Seven of Truth.

Man, no one company should have all that power.

Literally.

We are talking, we are live on the amazing one-on-one, Seven of Truth with W-E-B-B.

Man, this is, I like this, this is electrifying in here today.

No pun intended.

I asked y'all a question and maybe we could get into it a little bit more.

833-212-1017 is the number to dial.

We're talking about we-energies, the rate hikes and the financial burden it is causing on our community.

And we brought up the moratorium, right?

Where we-energies, they cannot shut you off during the wintertime, right?

But...

The question I asked and it sounded like you gave me an answer.

There is no stipulations that says, OK, after that moratorium expires four said winter years on

April

12th, right?

And then summer comes and now we're back in fall.

Winter is getting ready to come around again.

They're not required to turn you back on in the upcoming winter months.

They're supposed to.

They're supposed to.

But that's.

That's what builds that backlog.

That's how a family that

gets $7,000 bill.

Yes.

Okay.

And it's also relevant that we recognize that heat related emergencies are rising as well.

Absolutely.

You

know, this complicates every organ system.

If you have any medical issues, if you're pregnant, dealing with extreme heat is an issue.

And we know that because they can't shut you off during heat emergencies either.

But we're at a point where you're seeing, we're talking about systems and all that.

Why is it that there are programs that are used to financially help people that you're not automatically signed up for if you get a shut off?

If you get a shut off, there should be a system in place that automatically puts you on

a transfer.

Transfer you over

that.

Right, because you know if somebody's shutting off, obviously they're having an issue.

And that could be implemented.

And we know that it could.

We've seen other states do similar things.

We energies know they make a lot more money than us to do the studies on this.

So they know about this, but they do a cost-benefit analysis.

And they determine that it's not, they don't have to invest in things

like that.

There's a time in the hood.

I live in the hood in the center of Milwaukee.

There's a time in the hood that, and one day I'm going to write a book about good hood living because I observed some things that most people aren't privy to.

There's a time when you see fleets of wheat energy trucks showing up in the alley, you know, that's when they're turning off.

On

stuff.

Actual day, the moratorium.

You actually see the fleets.

That day, they pull it up.

They

go, like you said, fleets, but they be one behind the other.

I actually got some footage of my phone from earlier this year.

They could just shut you off from downtown now, don't they?

You don't even gotta

send out a fleet

no more.

But you know, this old housing infrastructure, everything hasn't been updated.

Some units are still

in.

Which is a whole other compounding issue to why people have to have their heat at 88 in the middle of the

winter.

And that is due to a historical...

racism and redlining

and also

too with Hoke.

And that's because also too, you know, there's not a lot of homeowners

and

that is due to that.

Policies and systems?

Most definitely, sister.

And with that being said, we were strategically putting this space in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee is where predominantly all of the black people in the state of Wisconsin is located.

But that was due to red lighting.

And also too, we're living in the oldest stock housing here in the state of Wisconsin, which means that these homes are not weatherized.

And if the homes aren't weatherized, like you just said, you gotta jack the heater all the way up,

you

know, to try to stay warm.

And, you know, you got all of these air ducts and leaks and cracks and things

between

windows and doors.

So that also, you know, the heat's going right out the window, right out the door.

We're giving y'all comments, so to do the comment for us.

So we got until September 18th to get comments in.

Go to walnutway.org.

It's the quickest way.

It's the first button that pops up.

Hit the button.

It takes you straight to the WPSC's website.

you put your comment in.

We have until September 18th, but if you listen to this and you know it's on your heart, you need to be heard because you got a story that should be told.

This is the time to tell it.

We need to have it on the record.

We've been in this now six years.

We done spent almost

We're getting close to three quarters of a million dollars in attorney's fees just to stay in the cases and push forth.

This is how to ask for money.

This is a ask for you to be able to show up civically.

For people.

Yes, for

people.

Kiva is hosting a workshop that is showing people how to do public comments on.

What is, what month?

September.

September

17th.

We are going to be located at 1609.

West North Avenue at the Wellness Commons.

Okay.

Building located right on the corner.

Make sure you come down if you need any help or any assistance.

You would have to come to the rear parking lot and we'll have security to let you in.

From 5 p.m.

to 9 p.m.

5

to 9 we will be there.

Show up and show out because we are sick of we energies.

They the new Space Age Pimps.

So I'm gonna

give y'all a you know we got some very opinionated

listeners, right?

And they also believe in holding our own community accountable.

So I'm going to read some comments from our YouTube channel and I'll give you all an opportunity to respond to it.

Al says, do we man got lights?

Pay your bill says black people are not victims.

They spend 1.7 trillion in America every year.

You can have barbecues.

You could pay your bill.

What's your response to that?

That's a false narrative that we continue to go to that's a super false narrative that we continue to buy into when you take a culture of people and you Subjugate them.

I talked about policies and systems This brother is talking about healthy

You know people who can sustain themselves if you take education off the table You take access off the table you take quality of life social determinant of health off the table The weed man is surviving just like anybody else is he's just selling weed.

It's in a dark economy

I'm talking about the people that we deal with are families.

There are families that are not making a living wage who can't afford this.

Yeah, we're gonna have a margins inside the margins, but we're not dealing with that.

We're dealing with the people who legitimately cannot miss work.

They have to make a decision between these things.

Yeah,

they got everybody's not on welfare There are people who have to make a decision between Groceries putting gas in their car or keeping shelter above their head and and their energy bill should not be an added burden We got to start somewhere and can I say

something to

that

energy burden number just to throw like

a generally agreed upon number amongst environmental advocates is that we should be at 2% for your energy burden.

That is a nice, healthy number that you

should be paying.

People in Milwaukee are paying 6%.

Some people are paying more.

I know friends specifically with like $400 bills and

if

you're $400 a month bill,

If you were making those two percent income, that's $20,000 a month and no one is making that much.

So

when

people try to say, oh, firstly, the same people doing one aren't always the same people doing other.

And like Abridges said, this is about kids that are, you know, deciding to do homework by candlelight because their parents can't keep the lights on.

This is about people on fixed income.

We have people begging right now on the streets because they have a house, they have, they get money every month, but they can't afford food.

Because it's going towards rising energy bills and it's a compounding issue where we're also investing in a methane gas infrastructure that then poisons us.

It hurts our systems.

We're going to the doctors more.

We're getting more asthma attacks, more heart attacks.

Every complication there is gets exacerbated by the pollution from the system that we refuse to shy away from too.

And that also is a burden.

So when they talk about we're not going to cost shift.

for the infrastructure, what is the cost shifting for the cost of life, the cost of health, the cost of people not being around or unable to participate in these things because we do them on a Tuesday on the first day of school.

And then you want to jump off in the barbecue, remember.

People don't probably see

some of the comments to have the YouTube

remember people don't have gas Why do you think most people in impoverished communities barbecue every day

outside?

Keep in mind also to our pharmacies are closing so you know Here in Milwaukee, we're just struggling all the way around the border and that is affecting everybody.

What about the the lady who?

Husband just died.

You know, they're Satan's senior citizens.

She used to go walk to the grocery store.

Now she can't walk to the grocery store.

Family members are busy because they're busy working or helping out with each other's kids.

You know, it's all kind of factors that you got a factor in.

And

we

gotta be able to help Black folks, helping Black folks helps everybody.

So we can't just be like, let's abandon Black people because they can X, Y, and Z. That's abandoning everyone at the end of the day.

So going back to the policy piece.

So in Illinois, a subsidiary gas company,

People's Gas.

Hold that thought.

Let's go to this break real quick and then we'll get into policy because I got some real questions about policy as well.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

We'll be right back after these messages on the award winning one-on-one, seventh and true.

What up y'all welcome back welcome back welcome back to the award winning one-on-one seven the truth Live from the American family and sharing studios.

It's your boy Ray nitty holding it down brother Z got us with the production and sound we are talking about We energies and and utilities and everything so forth in the rate hikes and more than 50% Our energy rates and our bills have increased over the past how many years?

over since 2022.

Since 2022, more than 50%.

That's a lot.

There's three things we after.

One, we were just talking about policy.

We're talking about how much people can afford.

What we're after is like a percentage of income payment program, right?

So in Ohio, a percentage of payment income payment program has been existing for 20 years.

In Illinois, people's gas, which is owned by WeEnergies, has a percentage of income payment program.

So say you're on a fixed income and you make $1,000 a month.

So we're already doing this down the street.

Right on the corner.

And that's what we were talking about earlier when he shared that.

So if you on fixed income in Illinois and say you got a $1,000 check that comes to you and the current rate is 6%, your bill won't be higher than $60 a month.

So people really can't afford it.

Just like Keeva said, the income is not keeping up with the cost of living.

So why is it so hard to take what we energies is already doing in Illinois and say, okay, we're gonna do that here in Wisconsin?

profit over people.

Is

it leadership in Illinois required different?

I'm sure

that laws change from state to state.

Illinois has a lot more that force utilities to

invest in the grid.

They do a lot more than Wisconsin does.

We were the first place of the Public Service Commission, but the last two decades we have just completely let our utilities just...

Sorry.

We've completely let our utilities just run amok.

I come from a little bit of ways out, but we have, you know, coal plants in Wisconsin still.

We have coal plants in Wisconsin that haven't had proper air permits since like 2011.

Like there's just so many blank spots.

And like when we talk about policies and systems, people being able to participate.

The biggest factor that we've seen so far looking at these rate cases that we've been a part of for a while now is that the most likely person to be involved in the rate case is someone with proximity to an organizer.

So what does that mean if the utility who would they'll send you the thing saying we're thinking about raising your rates?

But if we're not getting proper and they'll use that too, they'll be like well the public we only had a thousand people come out and we were serving 60,000 where's the other 59,000 people it's like well a lot of them

don't even know that you did this Transportation know it exists, but

that's

what they do.

Yeah, that's what they do that literally that's what they do if you bring up a concern

then they throw this special agenda item that nobody got no time.

And then they ask where you are.

Like if you would have damn told me how to show it up.

And gave me time.

Also too, timing is always off.

They host these things at one o'clock in the afternoon and then six o'clock in the afternoon.

Sometimes two when six.

First day of school.

Well, yeah, first day of school.

Well, yeah, September 1st.

I feel even so, even though

that should be some policy.

But that was a distraction there.

You should be

able to give the people most impacted by these changes adequate time, not during hours to...

when they can't come to it, like who's gonna leave?

That's people lunch break, not even lunch break, after they lunch break.

So you done had your lunch and you still can't make it.

We only got a few moments, but I do wanna

get

into the cognitive dissonance conversation.

And how does that come into play here?

Because we've had it on the environmental toxic exposure that our community is facing, but let's talk about it on the level from the energy standpoint.

Well, you just heard some of that in that comment, too, where people are saying, well, why aren't folks doing this with their money?

But that is a complete

missing... That dissonant swings both ways.

Yeah, we got folks

that

are making record profits still asking for more money.

So where's their financial responsibility?

But then the same way, we're looking at energy burden affecting people that...

are

in the lived experience of poverty.

The

less responsible people

for the way the

system is are the people that are most impacted by the injustices that the system perpetuates.

CEO made $12 million last year.

$12.9 million.

$13

million.

Like $12.87 million.

He probably got some more stock incentives

as well, so it's probably more than

that.

$12.9

million.

Yeah, with bonuses, I'm sure.

Absolutely.

But when we want to own our own and have our own equity, for example, so say our teams get together with your teams and we go find some land and we say, hey, we're going to put solar panels on 10 acres.

It's

illegal.

Yeah, so how did we get to that point?

Because I felt like we were in the midst of experiencing some sort of solar.

Boost in our city

then all of a sudden

I just start stop seeing

a federal regime

pretty crazy right so that was at a federal the federal level every level

if we look at We recently were involved with the case and I'm pretty sure Kenosha.

Sorry if I'm wrong about it But we'd we'd showed out clean comic coalition David got lots of people to comment

We gave the modeling that showed how much cheaper it would be to do the same energy development with solar, right?

They rejected that modeling and said that because they already had so much invested in the methane gas, they had the steel here, they had the resources here, that it didn't matter that it would be cheaper, they were just going to ignore that and do it this way too.

part of the the paradox of it is that the way that we're doing this isn't even really as profitable for we energies as it would be if they would just switch to a cleaner energy method it's bizarre

it is the cognitive yeah like it when you look at when you

look at people like even you think about how much money it costs to shut off people's service or when you think about how much it cost a community for someone to die like it is

infinitely cheaper if we would just take care of folks on the front end and be a little proactive, then just keep like harming people over and over again.

Let me ask you all this question.

I know we only got about three more minutes, right?

Knowing that the institutions have these surprise meetings where nobody could come to or not enough people could get to it, right?

What is like the events where we do it independently, right?

And then we get 5,000 people to come out.

Not just people that look like us, because we all know this ain't just a Milwaukee problem.

You spoke about Beloit.

You know, I hear about

it in

Madison.

We hear about it all over.

the state of Wisconsin.

So what would it take for us to have our own?

It sounds like you all have already developed it, but what would it take to expand on what you all are doing to get those numbers so we do have those

eyes?

Can you see it happening already?

So

you saw what happened at Midtown when the data center was proposed.

I got my...

What thoughts about that?

I

feel like that was a lot of people outside

of our community.

My chambers snuck that in.

It was wrong for that.

And my chambers, you know who I am.

That's fair.

But the point about, just take the broader point you make.

How

do you bring

attention and awareness and bring energy to a movement like that?

And so the data center issue is that issue currently for all of us.

And so it's going to continue to be an issue at the state level, but not only at the city level.

So people are gonna have to weigh into the points that you were making off the air who's gonna benefit You know and how things are really gonna get paid for in the end So right now that issue at core is the data center issue and we can't let it slide by so all of us together back in April We were part of the tariff case a tariff believe it or not our commission also issues tariffs We can get in that another conversation real quick the tariff was about the data center in Oak Creek and who pays for it

And so the decision that was made by the commissioners is that the data center has to pay us all its own bills.

We're holding that line now.

So a president has been set.

We need to pay more than that to me.

Right.

We need

pots.

And that's exactly it.

When

we talk about how

do we get more people, that is, we have to bridge that gap.

We got to meet people where they are, make it as easy as they can to participate.

We got a

caller.

We got a caller, Meach.

Alderman Mark Chambers is on a shoot.

Can we

take it?

Let's take

it.

Let's get Mark Chambers

online.

We just had this kind of thing.

We only got

two minutes,

Mark.

You're dead.

Oh, no worries, because someone want to drop my name and don't know what they're talking about.

Well, no one snuck in.

No one snuck in anything, you know, far as a data center at Middletown.

You know, there was a project that was being proposed, not by me.

It was about the developer, which tried to bring it to the community.

So nothing was snuck in, nothing was last minute.

So I just really wanted to spell that notion because the intent for that project, which is moving forward, is for a community benefit.

So when we start talking about things, let's get the facts right and actually have productive dialogue.

Um, you know, that what transpired wasn't necessarily productive.

I can understand how it looked.

Um, but the intent was there.

Hence why I try to have three meetings to get community input and in addition to that, I got you.

I got you Ray.

And in addition to that, um, it was not productive because there was people not from our community.

that was trying to weigh in and do things.

But at the end of the day, it is what it is.

You don't say I'm proud of the project that's coming forward in Midtown, and we got more work to do.

We got

a break, Mark, but we gonna talk about this.

We probably should talk about this tomorrow.

Don't go anywhere, y'all.

We'll continue this conversation tomorrow right here on the award-winning 1017, The Truth.

What up, y'all?

What it do?

What it do?

What it do?

It's your boy Ray Nitty holding it down.

This ain't great, Vi.

I still feel like extended lunch break, man.

Well, holding it down, man.

It's your boy.

We holding it down on the award-winning 1017, The Truth Live from the American Family Insurance Studios.

Man.

Today, we're talking about something.

We're talking about pension.

We're pension-picking today.

Pickin' these pension grapes.

We gon' talk about a lot of the different things that's been going on with the pension.

A-3-3, 212-1017 is the number to dial.

A-3-3, 212-1017 is the number to dial, man.

You could also text that number as well.

Follow me on all platforms, at Ray Nitty, R-A-Y, N-I-T-T-I.

That's Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

I'm even back on...

I'm back on X now, man, but I got a hole.

I don't even know my name on X. I'm just on there for stock news and fantasy football updates.

Yeah, man, share this stream.

Please share the live stream.

If you're watching on YouTube, bring somebody to the... What we want to call this?

The vineyard, the vineyard.

Bring somebody to the vineyard with you today, man.

Let's have a good time, educational time.

Later today.

We got some special guests coming in.

The guest lineup for today is Yusef Adema, who is representing Wisconsin Eco Justice Base Builders, Webb, grassroots and community ownership lead vice president, Beloit City Council.

Also, we have Antonio Butts, executive director of Walnut Way, and Abra Fortson.

Think I said it right Abra Fortson or is it Abra?

We'll we'll get it right when I get here strategic engagement planning consultant for Walnut Way 25 year Lindsey Heights residents and advocate and then also we have joining them is Kavya guiding environmental conservation specialists and organizer of citizen action of Wisconsin.

This gonna be good

I know this is gonna be good.

This sound like some environmental justice type folk that are coming in here today.

You know, I like to go on DNR website and see all the sick and toxic feels that we have.

But it sound like this one might be energy related.

So we gonna see what they talking about today, man.

I'm sure they gonna be talking about a lot of...

Stuff maybe on what clean data center looks like and all of these other things I want to know how many more times we energy's gonna raise the rates.

That's what I do want to know That's what I want to know man, but we'll save that for they coming in at three o'clock, too So make sure y'all if you got to go step back in to work cuz I know you just had your extended lunch break with the lunch break crew If you got to go back in the work, I understand but just you know pull us up on your YouTube.

Throw me in your ears.

You know I'm talking about

So we can still keep this going.

So.

Today, y'all, today, today, today, today.

I want to talk about.

We're going to call this Project 415.

Project 415, the $415 million problem.

So $415 million problem that we are facing.

in Milwaukee.

Not just Milwaukee, I'll say the county as well, right?

So, go call this, not call it, but this is revolving or involving the Milwaukee County Pension scandal that began under County Executive Tom Amit, all right?

And, like I said, I want to

I want to handle this delicately.

And have a lot of information with it, too.

All right.

We might run this this show back because I felt like this was lunch break type material, but we'll get it off right here, too.

The Milwaukee pension, the Milwaukee County Pension scandal that began under County Executive Tom Amit.

And still draining the county and city budget 26 years later.

26 years later Okay So just giving y'all a little history This was this goes back to the year 2000 All right the year 2000 this was before David Crowley before

All of those county executives before Scott Walker.

But it did.

Birth, Scott Walker.

OK.

The county executive before Scott Walker was Tom Amit.

He was the Milwaukee County Executive who preceded Scott Walker.

Amit served as county executive from 1992.

Until his resignation.

In 2002, that was a year I graduated from the Great Riverside University High School.

All right?

I want to get into the origin of the pension crisis, all right?

The anatomy of it.

The main reason.

A332121017 is a number to doubt.

If you are familiar with the pension crisis that came about in 2000.

That is still impacting us today.

This is why we got to raise taxes to fill these gaps to pay these pension costs and we can't use the money to get potholes fix fund schools keep programs going extend bus hours extend library out all of these things, right?

This is why we got a cut from our fire department.

This is why.

police department needs more money because it's not adequate enough funds to go off because.

And if anybody got more knowledge on it, please call in.

I am not above being corrected or or guided to the right conversation.

I am not above that.

So if you got way more information on this and know something about it, please call in and let me know.

But we're gonna get into the origin of this pension crisis, right the anatomy of it the main reason was post 90s stock market euphoria the 1990s Stock market euphoria What does pensions have to do with stocks?

I would say ladies love cool, right?

the main reason after the stock market gains of

The 1990s inflated the county pension fund.

OK.

Officials in the Amont administration pushed a plan to give employees more money.

You know, one would say that sounds good.

People should get paid, right?

In simple terms, county officials looked at inflated pension fund values and thought they had money to burn.

They didn't account for market downturns.

So I'm assuming that the pensions was attached to some sort of stock market or or or something of that nature, right?

And in the 90s.

There was a stock market boom, which elevated.

The stock market, the stock market went up so people thought they had more money.

Thought they had more money available.

But what they didn't account for is, you know, stock market is a place where it goes up and it comes down.

But they didn't.

Think about the downfall of the stock market.

OK.

So what exactly happened?

2000 and 2001.

Legislation passed by the Milwaukee County Board in 2000 and 2001 awarded lucrative pension sweeteners.

For non-union and later union employees including a 25% bonus that allowed veteran employees to collect as much as a hundred percent of their final average salary in a pension and added and an added backdrop that was that was a terminology backdrop Which gave eligible employees a generous

lump sum payment.

OK.

Y'all following me.

It gets better.

So in plain terms, employees got a 25 percent pension boost.

Whatever they was getting before, it was now raised 25 percent and.

And a massive lump sum backdrop payout on top of their monthly pensions.

This is 2000.

I was in 11th grade at Riverside.

Yeah, 11th grade.

Who's that fault?

Because it's hard to say it's employees fault because, you know, they had a sweet deal.

It's not they fault.

It's not they fault.

But multiple parties share responsibility The parties Well before we go into that right just Back it up a little bit So in 2001 if you just joining us we talking about the pension crisis the reason why so many of our budgets have gaps