Wisconsin's challenges for the year ahead
2:24 PM 12/27/03

The Wisconsin State Journal's editorial board considers the following agenda items to be among the most important issues facing Wisconsin in 2004. We'll follow these issues carefully in the coming year and offer our ideas and comment. We welcome your views and insight as well. <

Throughout the year, we'll measure progress on these issues, and at year's end, evaluate how much headway Wisconsin has made in these important areas. Build the economy The private sector creates jobs and wealth. State and local government must encourage investment, retrain displaced workers, arrest the brain drain of young graduates, attract higher-wage jobs and re-examine taxation policies with an eye toward encouraging growth. <

Lawmakers must find a consensus on a plan to increase start-up capital and attract more out-of-state investment. Business and government must work together to keep and attract more educated workers in the state. Reasonable overall limits on tax increases, modeled on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights promoted by business leaders, will be a key. <

Dane County, and particularly Madison, should mobilize to attract more business as public employers are no longer a source of new jobs. Business leaders must take the initiative in promoting community economic interests - and help Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz recognize the merits of pro-growth policies. Raising children right Helping children from birth to age 4 must remain a top priority for Madison and Wisconsin. Spending money to get kids off on the right foot now will them children become more successful and happy children and adults. And it means not spending as much later on special education - or even later for high-cost prisons and social programs for problem-plagued adults. With state budget limits, much of the cash and initiative will have to come from local public-private partnerships and private foundations. Expanding early education initiatives, along with boosting child-care teacher qualifications and pay, should be top priorities. <

Interest in early childhood is driven by scientific evidence in the last decade that the infant brain is capable of a startling amount of learning in the first three years of life. Ignoring this period of early brain activity can put children at a loss even before they start kindergarten, researchers say. <

Researchers also know that parental involvement is a key to why some disadvantaged children succeed in school and others don't. Wisconsin must do more to help parents and people who work with children develop programs and create environments to help these children succeed. Cleaner lakes Madison's lakes are an extraordinary asset, and across the state, our waters play a major role in tourism, recreation and more. Lakes and rivers define Wisconsin and help make it a special place to live and visit. <

Cleaner water would provide more enjoyment to all citizens - more fishing, swimming, boating - and add beauty to our communities. Clean water is good for the Wisconsin economy, too. But currently, all 15,000 state lakes are covered by an advisory warning about the level of mercury in fish. <

We must toughen standards to limit mercury pollution. And restricting phosphorus applied in lawn fertilizers will help cut back on the weeds choking parts of Madison lakes. Changing communities Madison and other communities must more effectively address the social, economic and educational issues involving the rapid influx of Latinos and other immigrants in Madison and Wisconsin. Public schooling will figure prominently in helping assimilate these families, but adult language and job training will be key, too. <

Also important: land use and regulation. Smart Growth policies will help sustain and manage community expansion on a regional scale, but ill-conceived mandates, such as Madison's mandatory inclusionary zoning plan, would skew broader-minded policy. Civic engagement Statistics show a disturbing trend in which young adults are only half as likely to vote, run for office or take an active role in government or politics today as their American counterparts were in the early 1970s. <

Civic participation - or apathy - is learned through example. During this important election year, schools, communities and media must work to reverse the decline of young adult involvement in democracy. We'll promote efforts that help community residents make informed political, economic and family decisions. And we'll support local and national voter turnout efforts such as The New Voters Project, which seeks to boost the turnout of young voters in the 2004 elections. <

But every citizen plays a role: Learning about democracy and citizen responsibilities begins at home, and parents must set the example. Health-care costs A complex convergence of factors is driving health-care costs to unaffordable levels. To hold down increases, the health industry should focus on developing centers of excellence instead of duplicating expensive specialty services. Other measures are needed to reduce administrative waste, help consumers choose medicine and treatment based on evidence of quality, and provide better details on costs and coverage. <

Only sweeping change will ensure affordability and quality as well as accountability and competition. But we can reduce demand for treatment by simply taking better care of ourselves. Education financing Wisconsin does a good job of providing a quality education, but high overall costs and unequal tax burdens suggest the current public education system needs a financial overhaul. Lawmakers and the governor must rewrite this system to save money, restore local control and responsibility and relieve inequities. <

A new system should end reliance on frequent local funding referendums, which hinder spending efficiencies and create financial instability that hurts quality. But any new system replacing current school district revenue caps must include some reasonable mechanism to control costs. Local government reform Wisconsin has too much local government. State government should reward communities that consolidate administration or operations in the cause of greater efficiency and lower taxes. State aid should focus on covering basic services in needy communities and helping local officials combine forces on public services. <

Dane County should lead local efforts to adopt a more regional approach to providing public services, including suburban police, fire protection and more - and look for possible mergers with Madison government in administrative areas such as human resources. Purifying state politics Comprehensive campaign finance reform remains a distant dream these many months after legislative leaders were toppled by their scandalous money politics. Wisconsin still needs a plan that encourages candidates to accept realistic campaign spending limits. We also must expand the enforcement powers of state watchdog agencies regulating ethics and elections. <

With notable exceptions, partisanship still sidetracks sound policymaking on most statewide issues. Leaders should set aside political "litmus test" legislation on guns, abortion, gay marriage and the death penalty in favor of practical measures to build the economy and improve education.