At Least We’re Not Facing Relegation

We argue around here about the extent to which Wisconsin is a “tax hell” or has a bad business climate. Each side marshals the facts that support its position.  Our tax burden is extremely high, but our spending levels are closer to average.  Part of that is that we tend not to employ users fees.  On the other hand, the spending numbers have to be read in light of our low levels of federal aid and below-average state income and so on.

William Ruger and Jason Sorens at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University have developed indices of personal and economic freedom and compared all 50 states. The economic index is, of course, value driven. They are looking for low taxes and spending, less regulation, and a greater degree of local control over resources. They prefer user fees to taxes.

On this measure, Wisconsin does poorly. It is 42nd in fiscal policy, 35th in overall economic freedom, and 37th in the overall freedom ranking.

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Congratulations to the Marquette National Appellate Advocacy Competition Team

Congratulations to the Marquette National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC) team!  On Saturday, our students distinguished themselves at the Boston regional NAAC competition.  Stephen Boyett, Carrie Devitt, and Jessie Franklin won each of their five rounds of competition, and they will be advancing to the National Finals in April.  Elizabeth Champeau and Thomas Worsfold advanced to the semifinal round.  The students also distinguished themselves in obtaining high scores on their briefs. 

Approximately 190 teams entered the competition and are participating in six regional competitions.  Only the top four teams from each regional round advance to the National Finals in Chicago.

Both teams have worked hard to prepare for competition.  The students put many hours into preparing their briefs and oral arguments.  We appreciate the assistance that many local practitioners and law faculty gave us in preparing for the oral arguments.  We are especially grateful to Attorney Michael Cerjak, a 2008 law alum and former NAAC competitor, who organized and attended numerous practice rounds.  Michael surprised the team by flying out for the final rounds on Saturday. 

Congratulations, Team!  I’m proud of you!!

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Justice Involves Communities

This past week, the 2009 Marquette Law School Public Service Conference focused on the efforts of communities across the nation to rethink criminal justice policy with a greater emphasis on community involvement in both planning and implementation.  Over the past two decades, Wisconsin has more than quintupled its public expenditures for corrections. At the same time, local communities have struggled with increasing jail populations and declining resources for treatment and reentry services.  At the core of this challenge is the desire to keep communities safe while providing more effective alternatives to long term incarceration.

These challenges are not unique to Wisconsin.  As keynote speaker Jeremy Travis pointed out,

As our nation has reacted to rising crime rates over the years, the response of many elected officials has been to turn to the funnel [arrest, prosecution and incarceration,] as a crime control strategy. . . . We have invested enormous sums of money in these crime control strategies, with profound consequences. . . . Most strikingly, the national rate of incarceration has more than quadrupled over the past generation so that America now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world.

This approach has been accompanied by a drop in the crime rate.  It also has had other sociological consequences which are not as easily quantifiable. 

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