Recovering From Nov 2nd - Voters Choose Based on Emotion Rather Than Logic

The elction is over and the predictions were right/close.  Nationally - we will be thrown back to where we were two years ago or will the republican house and speaker create more gridlock than the last two years?  I don't know how this would be possible since the party of "NO" is just bigger - not better.

Locally, My biggest surprise was the choice of Brett Hulsey as representative of the 77th District (WI).  Hulsey's actions have proven him untrustworthy and were even identified by the very man he replaced, Spencer Black.  Manski Ran a clean, honest campaign without making up quotes or elected supporters such as Black, Baldwin, Feingold. I hope we make a better decision in the next election.

The other disappointment came from the approval of the MATC referendum (scam) that is going to cost property owners $50 - $75 every year for the next 10 years - and - that is only part ONE of the project.  It now will cost the average property owner in Madison 10% more in property taxes over last year when all the taxing authorities are accounted for (City of Madison, Dane County, MMSD, MATC, State). 

Some confidential sources who work at or with MATC have told me the following:

Barhorst has, from day one, been trying to transform MATC from a vocational/tech

institution to, IMO, a liberal arts college, a petit Oberlin or Huntington.  She doesn't

even like the words 'vocational/technical', hence the rename and new logo that tries

to purge the icky 'technical'.  I say 'tries' because I note that there seem to be college

staff who maybe make a subtle point by saying/writing 'Madison College' or 'MATC'.

As in where do they stand, maybe? 

A colleague noted that Barhorst just loooves going on about

rather fluffy UWish liberal arts things, and ignores anything to do with, in two cases,

construction trades and fire safety...

An Employee of the college had this to say:

Please vote against this referendum.  I have personal knowledge of the
wasteful spending practices of MATC.  Currently they are asking for money to
expand their programs in protective services.  I recently discontinued teaching 

for many reasons. 

The area stakeholders including law enforcement agencies, fire and
EMS are all dissatisfied with the operations of MATC and have actually left
the system going to other institutions like Blackhawk Techinical College
even though it is a travel. This means that they are doing their trainings
elsewhere and are not looking to hire from MATC. The dean of protective
services was recently let go for many reasons and the entire department is
in turmoil.  It is almost fraudulent for MATC to ask for more funding when
their basic functioning is in such disarray.  I have personally communicated
with the VP, Terry Webb, at the college and my impression is that this is a
bureaucratic mess with no one really prepared to make tough decisions.  The
president of the college has also been notified of these issues via direct
letters from community stakeholders and yet the problems continue to be
ignored. Please tell others to vote NO.