Tax incremental financing (TIF) districts are funny things. They have a have a simple purpose and a complicated premise. The Village Board voted 4 to 1 to move forward with a feasibility report that could create a tax incremental finance (TIF) district to expand the Franksville Industrial Park by 390 acres on Tuesday. Basically the tax revenue generated from a development pays for the infrastructure projects. One caveat is that the tax increment (the difference between the base tax and the created tax after the project is completed) is diverted away from paying for schools, the village and …

So I talked to my mom because I wondered how they were feeling about the stock market and this led to a development of a theory. My parents, Hal and Kathleen Lockwood, are both retired. They get some money from a pension, a 401k, some stocks, social security, and an embroidery business they have. They worked hard for what they have and they are watching the stock market closely. When my mom saw what was happening with the market they decided to sell some of their stocks, and paid off their credit cards, their truck and a loan they had on their embroidery machines. “That way, if we needed to …

UPDATE, from Jerry Griswold: Denise, attached is a copy (in the photo gallery) of my election brochure, which I personally circulated to most all of the residents who voted in the previous election.  I completed no other mailings. My campaign mainly consisted of yard signs, circulating this brochure and door to door selling of my goals. If I did not represent the silet majority in the election, why did I get 60% of the vote? I won every polling place, even those in the country.  Wendy clearly represented the horse people and green machine special interest groups and received only 40% of the …

No one likes having debt, except of course, the bankers. And even then, they’d rather have us pay our bills, then not. Now, I don’t claim to be an economics guru. And there are vast differences between my personal finances and say, the national debt. But I can say that over the last four years I've learned some much needed lessons on handling my personal finances, which federal Legislators might be useful as they grapple with our debt crisis. Looking back, here’s what I have learned: Pray Get honest about what you have and don’t have, and accept your financial reality. Don’t worry about what …

So, I'm getting ready to write a story and I check my email when I come across this word that makes me chuckle - futilitarian. I read the definition: “believing that human hopes are vain, and human strivings unjustified.” I’m intrigued by this word so I scroll back through and find another one that catches my fancy: “aporia: difficulty determining the truth of an idea due to equally valid arguments for and against…” Someone must have woken up a negative Nancy when they posted futilitarian, but then they must have thought better of it and posted “aporia,” I think. I wonder if that’s what’s our…

We are focused intently on the relationship between our financial health and our happiness these days. You can see this dynamic when you look at how we talk about our schools, our government, our banks, and our businesses. Happiness is a big deal to us, but it’s apparent these days that many of us are far from being happy. Still, our Constitution insures its pursuit. But what kind of happiness are we pursuing? At Harvard University, there’s a class, books, a news magazine called “Yes!” and entire research papers devoted to happiness and the economy. There’s even an academic journal called The…

Had a great conversation with Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) on Friday about what it was like to go through the budget making process at the state level. “It was like going from the frying pan into the fire,” he said. The caveat was that it wasn’t his first time making the budget. After all he had been a county supervisor and was on the Finance Committee, but the state budget involved billions and not millions of dollars. “There were so many priorities. One thing you are cognizant of during the process is what the governor wants to accomplish. But you also have to be aware of what you are …

Growing up on a farm, my father always kept a loaded shotgun by the door. He had an ongoing battle with the possum, gopher, and pigeons in our barn. I also firmly believe he kept the thing by the door because he was the father of three girls and adhered to the tough love version of allowing his daughter’s to date. I'm happy to report that I grew with a healthy respect for guns. I’ve shot off a few rounds of a 9mm Beretta to annihilate several soda cans, accidentally shot a frog with a .22, and had attempted to shoot at a pigeon with my dad’s 20-gauge. So, I’m by far not opposed to owning guns…

Caledonia photographer, Michael Steinbach, took his family to the Rochester Cemetery Monday to observe Memorial Day.

Over the past five months Caledonia Patch has offered readers over a 1,000 stories, videos and photo galleries since we emerged on December 21. Thousands of you keep coming back to read and comment. So how awesome is that? And I think that's something to celebrate. We've talked politics, community development, education and crime. One of the things that is different about writing for the web versus a traditional news source (something I had done for 11 years prior to coming to Patch) is that you get to have conversations about the news. And it's an active process. And I just have to say how …

Memorial Day is kind of a weird holiday. If you aren’t from a military family or have been raised to honor the military, it seems like just another day off. Sure you might picnic or attend a parade and fly the American flag, but for many of us the holiday has become meaningless. And that isn’t right. So, I wondered who do you remember, why do you remember them and how do you remember them? For me, I remember my dad, even though he’s still very much alive, and my grandfather. Hal Lockwood, my loving father, served in the U.S. Navy from July 1961 through September 1964 as an aircraft …

I thought it would be interesting to start a public discussion around a phrase you hear a lot of in government these days – economic development. We often talk about increasing our tax base and call it growing our local economy. We give tax breaks and use tax incremental finance districts to finance infrastructure projects to lure businesses to our area. The idea is, if we create jobs, then we’ll all be employed and be able to put food on the table. When I think of economic development, I think of a story I wrote for the Kenosha News about Abbott Labs in 2009. I quoted a village administrator…

Politicians and some community members like to say that our public education system is failing; our administrators are failing, our teachers are failing and our students are failing. But what are these children really failing at? Sure that seems like a silly question because the standardized tests measure reading, language and math. But are those tests also measuring something else? With more than half of all students in Racine Unified qualifying for free and reduced lunches, this translates into more than half of all students coming from families who make at or below poverty level, according…

Several months ago my daughter went with me on the interview when I did a story on a play called “The Great Escape” and I met the director, Nancy Gibson, at Case High School. And now she's in it. Scrap Metal Soul is no Oklahoma! or Tom Sawyer, Miss Saigon or the Sound of Music. No, this was a play about the actors and actresses themselves, and the script came from their own personal experiences through a class called Conflict Resolution Crew. There was music, dance, and song, and these kids put it all out there. But they also show how bad situations sometimes happen to teens and how they can …

Are you passionate about something in Caledonia? Contact us! Whether it's food, family, schools, government, business, social issues, exercise, fashion or business— if it's your thing, we'd like you to consider blogging for Patch. Anyone may apply. I am specifically interested in talking with: Musicians, Live Music Fans, Audiophiles and Artists Parents, High School Students, Teachers and Professors Bartenders, Baristas and Foodies History buffs Fashion Experts, Stylists and Crafters Volunteers, Nonprofit Workers, Conservationists Health and Fitness Experts Local Sports Fans Don't be shy! …

Taxes are funny things. We hate paying them with a passion. We get angry with people for making us pay more on top of what we already pay. We applaud politicians for their ability to save us from paying them. And we dread the day we have to pay them. Taxes cause us angst. Taxes cause us financial instability. And they cause a whole lot of heartburn if you have no means to pay them. They are also the only requirement on the “must” list along with dying. But I argue that we need to stop looking at taxes as a burden. Well, maybe they are more of a burden for some more so than others, but they …

I have an idea… let’s talk about how we talk about the economy. Many Republicans say the country has a spending and debt problem, and this problem has resulted in an unsustainable model for funding social programs. And many Democrats frame the problem in terms of class warfare, and say we have a problem with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, meanwhile the middle class carries the burden.I’m not arguing if we do or we don’t have a spending problem or if we have a class warfare problem, but I find how we speak about our problems is interesting from a rhetorical standpoint. I …

Voting is such a simple act, but it is also a powerful act. And for journalists, elections are a little like Christmas. You spend months getting to know candidates, their quirks, their secrets, their successes, their failures and their ideology. You watch how they connect with people, see how their words fit together and test them on the things most of us take for granted – budgets, policies, programs and projects. You see how people challenge them and look for opportunities to share knowledge. On Election Day you get the end of an old storyline and the beginning of a new storyline. Locally, …

Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill has put a wedge between union and non-union employees, Republicans versus Democrats, private versus public employees, and the rich versus the middle versus the poor. The chasm has been there for years, but this bill has brought out our emotions in full force -- our desperation, our fears, and our exhaustion. Still, the Budget Repair Bill is just a beginning quiver to this house of cards that is about to fall called our state budget. I’ve seen this before. When the budget comes out, local municipal leaders and school board members will pour over the …

Next Thursday, I'm not even taking my laptop out of my bag, and don't call me if there's breaking news because I'm keeping my iPhone off (OK, maybe I'll leave it on vibrate). I'm taking the day off. Well, sort of. As part of Patch's Give 5 Program, Patch employees nationwide are asked to spend at least five days a year volunteering in their community. The first suggested day to help out in 2011 is Thursday, Feb. 17. So, Caledonia, I'm all yours. Maybe the High School newspaper needs some help brainstorming stories or an English teacher needs some help explaining why the verb is the motor of a…