Kenosha News. July 9, 2023.
Editorial: Are fireworks fading away?
Fourth of July 2023 is in the history books and the fireworks that lit up the skies in southeastern Wisconsin are fading away along with the overhead blasts and the “oohs and aaahhs” of enthralled spectators.
It’s a grand celebration of the country’s birth and pays homage to the words of Francis Scott Key who penned the Star Spangled banner – the national anthem – celebrating the defense of Fort McHenry against the British in the War of 1812;
“O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Those are stirring words that still fuel the fires of nationalistic fervor.
But while there were a multitude of fireworks celebrations across the country this year, there were also communities who, for several reasons, dropped away from the bomb-bursting sky shows and the attendant aerial booms.
They opted, instead, for drone shows to celebrate the Fourth of July.
“There’s less risk of fire, less risk of damage, less risk of injury,” said Rick Boss, president of Sky Elements Drone Shows, a Texas-based company, that has performed more than 500 drone shows using fleets of drones with brilliant LED lights to create animated scenes with shapes and patterns in the night sky – often patriotic ones featuring things like the Liberty Bell.
“Drones leave no smoke or debris behind them when performing,” Boss said. “We leave nothing behind but great memories.”
Much of the rise in popularity of the drone show-alternative comes in the western U.S., where the risk of forest fires is running high this year.
Salt Lake City was one municipality that went drone, with Mayor Erin Mendenhall saying the change was made to minimize high fire danger and air quality concerns. “As temperatures rise and fire danger increases we must be conscientious of both our air quality and the potential for wildfires,” he said. Utah us one of the most wildfire-prone states in the country, with about 1,000 wildfires a year.
Boulder, Colo., and Flagstaff, Ariz., shifted to laser light shows this year and in California several coastal cities also went to drone shows because of stricter laws on polluting the ocean with debris.
Closer to home, Highland Park, IL., honored seven people who were killed in last year’s July 4 parade with a ceremony and a walk – not a parade, At night the city planned a drone show instead of fireworks to avoid noises that sound like gunfire.
That “noise” factor from fireworks is echoed on social media neighborhood sites in Racine and Kenosha, where people have been highly critical of neighbors and do-it-yourself fireworks enthusiasts for shooting off their wares at all times during the day and night over the past week – scaring their pets and turning them into shivering, frightened animals. The commenters’ ire also focuses on military veterans who suffer from PTSD and struggle with fireworks noise.
Clearly, there is some fertile ground for those who wish to switch away from traditional pyrotechnics and go to a safer, less fiery and quieter Fourth of July celebration. It remains to be seen if that will take hold, but sometimes societal changes come in increments. It wasn’t too long ago that children bounced down the road in the back of pickup trucks secured only by the parental admonition to “hold on tight.” And within recent memory, actors and TV stars were lighting up cigarettes as the ventured into our living rooms.
No more.
Sometimes change is afoot before we even see it.
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Wisconsin State Journal. July 9, 2023.
Editorial: 400-year veto helps schools but violates principle
We can’t fault Gov. Tony Evers for wanting to have a lasting impact on Wisconsin, especially when it comes to supporting public schools.
But 400 years? That’s more than twice as long as Wisconsin has been a state.
The Democratic governor signed a two-year, $99 billion state budget last week after issuing 51 partial vetoes — one of which was clever and aggressive if not fantastical. He crossed out a hyphen, several words and “20” in the text of the budget to change the expiration of a $325-per-student annual spending increase from 2025 to 2425.
That’s more than symbolic or aspiration. It means future state budgets, starting two years from now, will default to a $325-per-student increase for schools if the governor and Legislature can’t agree on a different amount.
Assuming Evers’ veto survives a court challenge, he’ll now have more leverage in future budgets to insist on higher spending for schools. Our public schools definitely need more money, given tight limits on spending in the past, rising prices, a teacher shortage and record numbers of local referendums seeking voter permission to cover operating expenses.
Yet on principle, governors — no matter which party they represent — shouldn’t be able to unilaterally increase spending using the veto pen. Vetoes are supposed to stop or limit action by the Legislature.
Another governor could quickly get rid of the $325-per-student mandate once Evers leaves office. That’s likely to occur the next time a Republican governor is elected.
Still, Evers’ dramatic change to school funding suggests Wisconsin’s powerful veto pen needs further limits. Voters in 1990 wisely got rid of the “Vanna White” veto, named after the celebrity on “Wheel of Fortune” who flips letters. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican, partially vetoed individual letters from the budget to spell new words.
Voters in 2008 eliminated the “Frankenstein” vote, in which former Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, stitched together individual words from across pages of the state budget to unilaterally bring new law to life. He did so by vetoing around the words he wanted to keep.
In fairness to Evers, his predecessor, Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, used his veto pen in 2017 to push back the deadline for a state program 1,000 years — from 2018 to 3018. Walker’s Republican colleagues didn’t try to limit the state’s veto powers after that, though we suspect some will revisit the governor’s authority now that a Democrat is in charge.
The solution to further veto abuse would be a constitutional amendment creating a true line-item veto, in which a single sentence could be struck in its entirety or not at all. Previously, lawmakers from both political parties have resisted going that far, usually because their guy sat in the governor’s office.
Even if you support more money for public schools — which we definitely do — it’s important to consider how a governor with different priorities could play similar veto games. What if a future governor with her veto pen extended an annual increase in private school choice enrollment indefinitely for centuries? Democrats wouldn’t like that. Nor would we.
The budget signed into law last week includes a $1 billion increase in spending authority for public schools. That’s about a 4% increase the first year of the budget, and a 7% increase the second year. The $325-per-student annual increase also is the highest in modern state history.
Yet private and religious schools in Wisconsin’s choice program are getting even higher per-pupil increases than public schools (though public schools still get more per student overall).
Evers called that a compromise, which we appreciate. Evers was right to negotiate what he could with Republicans, rather than vetoing the entire budget, which would have triggered months of delays in state programming and left local governments struggling to pass their own budgets.
The two partisan sides at the state Capitol agreed to send more money to local governments for basic services such as police and fire protection. That was encouraging. The city and county of Milwaukee also got permission for a higher local sales tax to help balance their budgets.
A big win for Wisconsin’s justice system were raises to keep assistant district attorneys and public defenders staffing our courts. In addition, prison guards and other state employees are getting raises to hopefully stem attrition and shortages.
The governor and Legislature agreed to $125 million for fighting the forever chemicals known as PFAS. We like that.
The worst decision in the state budget was the Republican-driven cut to the University of Wisconsin System. Evers is right that cutting higher education when the state is sitting on a $7 billion surplus makes no sense. The GOP’s nixing of an engineering building at UW-Madison is particularly galling, given that private funds were contributing to the project and it was the System’s top priority.
Because the pandemic is over, the federal government is ending emergency dollars for child care facilities. The Republican-run Legislature failed to step up in this budget with significant state dollars to help ensure more child care centers don’t close. Quality child care is key to keeping parents in the workforce and making sure young children get off to strong starts in life.
Evers vetoed most of the GOP’s planned tax cut. That’s how a veto is supposed to work by limiting things. Yet even if the rich don’t need a tax cut, Evers should have allowed more relief for the middle class, given the state surplus.
Four-hundred years from now, this state budget will be long forgotten, as will Evers’ veto.
What’s important today is that public schools, local governments, public health and our courts are being strengthened. Unfortunately, our universities and the child care industry are not.
