Milwaukee Biz Blog

Over the past year, business leaders in our community have been vocal about steps Milwaukee needs to take to improve its overall business climate and grow our local economy, starting with enhancing our education system and promoting a greater understanding of business and capitalism.

It is important to look at this dialogue as a call to action, and it is equally important to highlight the efforts that are underway in our region to impact our young people and reach this goal.

On Tuesday, April 22, Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame honors will be bestowed upon three new laureates whose business innovations, effective management and civic involvement made a difference in companies and communities throughout the state. These laureates are exemplary of what it takes to move a region forward and invoke positive change.

In particular, the laureates are recognized for the high standards they have set as role models for Wisconsin's young people - our future leaders. I applaud the efforts to honor these important leaders in our business community and encourage participation in programs aimed to grow business leaders from a young age.

Each year, the Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame induction ceremony is held to benefit Junior Achievement of Wisconsin, whose purpose is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.
It is the largest and fastest growing nonprofit economics and financial literacy education organization in the world, reaching approximately 8 million students worldwide, and is a critical component to overcoming business and economic challenges in any region, including ours. With a focus on business, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, ethics and related life skills, Junior Achievement of Wisconsin is helping to pave the way for the successful leaders of tomorrow.

The inductees announced at this year's ceremony are innovative business leaders who have positively shaped Wisconsin's business climate.

The 2008 class of laureates includes innovative leaders such as Don Davis, who has provided leadership for significant growth of Rockwell Automation in our local community, region and outside the United States. Similar honors will be shared with other statewide business leaders Robert Cervenka of Phillips Plastic Corp. and Leonard Gentine of Sargento Foods.

I encourage anyone looking for examples of business leaders' efforts to improve our education system and promote an entrepreneurial spirit to attend the Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame event and hear the accomplishments and commitments these leaders have made to the community.

In addition, I challenge each of us to answer the personal call to action to become involved with an organization such as Junior Achievement to ensure a continued crop of bright business leadership is grown right here in Wisconsin.

For more information on the Wisconsin Business Hall of Fame event visit http://wisconsin.ja.org.

Mark Furlong, president and chief executive officer of Marshall & Illsley Corp., also is the current board chair of Junior Achievement of Wisconsin.

Over the past weekend, 65 teams began their quest for the NCAA Basketball Championship, while countless among us breathlessly chart the progress of our "brackets." As an avid sports fan, I am following right along with everyone else, but I do so with cheers from an equally important contest still ringing in my ears, providing a reminder that athletics viewed in its proper context is merely part of the overall education and formative process for young people. 

As the new CEO of Discovery World, I was asked to take part as a first-time judge at the FIRST Robotics Wisconsin Regional Competition last weekend. I witnessed a thrilling competition that inspires young people to pursue careers as scientists and engineers and promotes a spirit of "gracious professionalism" that is too often lost in society's focus on sports. FIRST Robotics (www.usfirst.org), launched 15 years ago by inventors and engineers, challenges high school students to build a robot for competition from a standard "kit" of parts over a six-week period.

Most teams work year round, preparing for the rigors of the intense spring competition, often receiving high school credit. Adult mentors, parents, teachers and corporations contribute skills, time and financial resources to these students, who represent all racial, social and ethnic backgrounds.

I had a front row seat as 60 teams - most from the Midwest, but one hailing from as far away as Hawaii - competed at the US Cellular Arena. Ingenuity, elegant design and competitive performance were rewarded throughout the weekend, but other awards, including the highest honor, were bestowed on teams exhibiting spirit, inspiration and "gracious professionalism" - an ideal central to FIRST which encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.

Each team cherishes success, but they know that success can mean much more than mere triumph on a scoreboard.

The competition began with 80 round-robin matches, after which the top eight teams formed three team alliances and battled for the champion's trophy. The finals provided a level of excitement that rivaled any sporting event at the high school or collegiate levels, with thousands of screaming fans looking on. The eventual winning alliance included a seasoned group of Waukesha area students, a group of students from several Platteville high schools and a rookie team composed of students from an inner city Minneapolis public school.

But winning was not restricted to those who prevailed in the final match. Consider just a few of scenes I witnessed: a young man confined to a wheel chair who served as the "driver" for his team, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by maneuvering his robot to heave a ball over a six-foot tall obstacle in the waning seconds of a match. The celebration by this young man - and his teammates who mobbed him - was something to behold.

During another match, I saw another team use their robot's "arms" to reach down and rescue an opposing robot which had been knocked over and disabled, expressing more interest in fair play than in scoring points in that single game. Events like these were common, providing this viewer with ample evidence that these young people are getting life lessons that will make them winners for years to come.

When the points from weekend matches were totaled, MORE Robotics did not place in the top 40.  However, this team of Milwaukee area high school students received the Regional Chairman's Award, the weekend's most prestigious honor, and a chance to compete at the National Finals in Atlanta because they exemplify "gracious professionalism" at every turn. These young people and their mentors devote time and talent to other teams, sponsor youth Lego teams, and expand math and science education and career possibilities to hundreds of other students and families throughout the year.

As we gather round televisions to watch young athletes compete in the NCAA tournament and lavish attention on society's "heroes," we should also remember that groups like FIRST Robotics and competitions like those held recently in Milwaukee are critically important for shaping careers, providing future leaders and solidifying our local and national economy for years to come.

In the 21st Century, smarts and innovation can be as "cool" as a reverse dunk.

Joel Brennan is the chief executive officer of Discovery World in Milwaukee.

Healthy Wisconsin is on everybody's lips, primarily because health care is into everybody's wallet. It's getting worse, but doesn't have to be that way.

Healthy Wisconsin changes the way medicine is paid for; not the way it is provided. Its only problem now is political.

Healthy Wisconsin's strengths:

• Its biggest change is in the structure. Rather than employers paying a middleman insurance company, they instead pay a flat 10.5 percentage of wages (which replaces the 15 percent many are now paying for employee health insurance). That's a 4.5 percent savings.
• Employees would pay 4 percent of wages, which would be offset by a 16-percent increase in benefits, such as adding limited vision, dental for children, mental parity, pharmaceuticals, and the extension to family coverage for all. Complete portability is provided when changing or losing jobs, and pre-existing diseases are a thing of the past.
• Employers are no longer involved in heath care, and Wisconsinites are no longer obligated to take an employer plan or even a family plan. Every family member can make their own choice between either a health care network (HCN) or the traditional fee-for-service (FFS).
• Doctors and hospitals remain private and send their bills to a central payment administrator rather than to the 450 statewide insurance companies (or 1,500, if we allow cross-border insurers). This drastically reduces their billing overhead and these savings are included in the total $1.8 billion projected.
• The systemic changes eliminate the costs that add nothing to health care, like insurance broker commissions, actuarial costs, costs for cherry-picking and gatekeeping, high executive salaries and the ever-rising shareholder profits. Even the insurer's high costs for lobbying and campaign contributions to politicians that were passed on to the patient are eliminated under Healthy Wisconsin. These are all gone, though it also explains the massive opposition from the insurance industry and their politician supporters.

Healthy Wisconsin provides major savings to most businesses and therefore fewer will outsource jobs to countries that have no employer contribution for health care. More businesses will open, remain open and relocate to Wisconsin as a result. The Wal-Marts and McDonald's of the world will now start paying their fair share, but few taxpayers will object to that.

While some small business owners objected to the earlier version of HW, the new version provides a three-year phase-in period, which should be quite palatable. As well, a cap of $102,000 in wages taxed has been placed on two-earner families.

In spite of the frivolous scare tactics used by the proponents of a status quo approach to health care, Wisconsin would not become a magnet for the unemployed or immigrants. Most already have free Medicaid coverage in their own state, thus relocating families is a foolish option.

No matter how important the Healthy Wisconsin proposal is to the people and businesses in Wisconsin, there remains an insurance industry that wants to continue drawing profits from the medical field, and politicians who receive their contributions. Hopefully they will all realize that as Healthy Wisconsin improves the state's economy, other insurance markets will emerge and the state will grow accordingly.

Prior to retiring four years ago, I owned a company with 70 employees in four states (40 in Wisconsin). Had Healthy Wisconsin been in effect at that time, I would have indeed closed my offices in three states and moved the jobs to Wisconsin.

Importantly, after selling my company, the buyer did move offices. They closed Wisconsin and moved the jobs to the East Coast. Had HW been in effect at that time, I seriously doubt that would have happened.

How many more jobs are we losing because of our high health care costs? My guess is, a lot.

Jack Lohman is a retired business owner from Colgate and publishes http://MoneyedPoliticians.net. He is the author of "Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America."

Even with the best of intentions, no business can survive without a successful bottom line. Successful workers, managers, divisions and entire companies must be empowered, evaluated and held accountable for the results they achieve.

And in the ideal world, their rewards are commensurate with their success.

That business-like approach increasingly is becoming part of the lexicon in the nonprofit world, as well.

I know this first-hand. Back in 2002, I was fortunate enough to be asked to serve on an executive planning committee devoted to the creation of a nonprofit program to help potentially at-risk teenagers stay on the academic path and enter college.

That committee formed by the Wisconsin Foundation for Independent Colleges (WFIC) included some of the region's most forward-looking and wise people, such as former Alverno College president Sister Joel Read and Tom Rave, who is now vice president at Tri City Bank. When the committee was formed, it was assigned the task of creating a program that would, among other things:
(1) Identify some high school freshmen in Milwaukee who are struggling to get by in school.
(2) Give them academic resources and tutoring to thrive in college preparatory classes.
(3) Take them on weekend trips to Wisconsin's private colleges and shadow real college students.
(4) Help them apply for college admissions.
(5) Award them scholarships to attend college.

Sounds great, right? But would it work in the real world?

Six years later, I am thrilled to report that yes, it is working in the real world. The program is the WFIC College Readiness 21 Program, which is "Building a Pipeline of Talent for Wisconsin."

In the past two years, 102 Milwaukee students in the CR21 program graduated from high school. To date, 90 of those students remain in college, including 27 in Wisconsin private schools, 28 in the University of Wisconsin system, 20 in Wisconsin technical colleges and 15 in colleges out of state.

Fifty-one students will graduate from high school and the CR21 program in Milwaukee this year, and 95 percent of them will be college-bound.

CR21 has grown to serve 227 students in Milwaukee. All of those Milwaukee students are young people of color, and 94 percent will be the first in their families to go to college. Seventy-seven percent of the Milwaukee students are from low-income backgrounds.

The CR21 program is so successful, that the WFIC has added chapters in Racine/Kenosha and northeastern Wisconsin. CR21 now serves 445 students in the state.

The beauty if this program is beheld in the eyes of the students. So many of them did not grow up with an internal image of themselves attending college. In their minds, college was for others.

However, when those students are actually taken out of the city to a college, where they walk among college students, eat in college cafeterias and sleep in college dorms, they are transformed. For the first time, they can project that dream of college upon themselves.

In short, they drink the Kool-Aid of their own potential.

Just as people are the greatest assets of any thriving business, the CR21 program is driven by a highly executive effective team, led by WFIC president Mark Torinus, vice president David Wolfson and their devoted staff.

One of the smartest things they did was to hire JonRae Stowers to direct the statewide program and manage the Milwaukee program. Stowers simply has a way with the students she oversees. They respond to her. Heck, they even get up at 8 o'clock on Saturday mornings to attend CR21 activities.

To be sure, CR21 faces challenges. Teen pregnancies, violence, relocations, family turmoil and a lack of transportation options quickly come to mind.

However, with a strong record of documented success, the WFIC is launching a new campaign to raise $80,000 for the College Readiness 21 Scholarship Fund by May 2. If you are looking for an emerging, worthy cause with real-world impact, I can proudly endorse this charity. For additional information, visit www.wficweb.org/43.html.

And if you want to shop for other noble causes, I encourage you to peruse the new Small Business Times Nonprofit Directory at www.biztimes.com/nonprofit.

I refuse to be an ostrich about funding public education. After sitting through six hours of harmonized mantra, "it's for the kids" at a Senate hearing in our state Capitol, one could believe it's actually true.

Unfortunately some well-intentioned supporters of Trojan horse, Senate Resolution 27, refused to understand that Senate Joint Resolution 27 does not propose to fix the state funding formula, it proposes to eliminate it by July 31, 2009. More importantly, this resolution does not specify where the additional tax revenue would come from, but recommends that the state through various means fund education on what "someone" determines it would cost to educate a student.

The suggested funding is to come from a combination of state funds - sales taxes, income taxes, corporate taxes - with less state-mandated dependence on property taxes.

However, one of the points identified as a problem in this resolution was the need for school boards to go to referendum for additional tax revenue. To circumvent a taxpayers right to vote, a goal of this bill is to provide "additional resources and flexibility" for districts to meet their needs.

I, for one, don't take stripping of my civil right to vote on a tax increase lightly. All our elected officials need to remember they are employed by us, the taxpayers.

As the only person in the state of Wisconsin to testify against Senate Resolution 27, the Democratically controlled Senate Committee on Education heard a perspective nobody else spoke of, and it got their attention. My opposition to JSR 27 was stated, "We don't have a revenue problem; we have an expenditure problem."

I explained to the committee that my interest in public education funding began when my local Waukesha School Board in 2004 voted 9-0 to construct the largest high school competition swimming pool in the state for $4.4 million dollars while cutting educational staff and programs, constructed and furnished a new million dollar planetarium, started an internet school for $1.7 million dollars, and how we're still able to fund capital improvement projects in our annual budgets with $750,000. But those expenditures paled in comparison to employee pay and benefits comprising the majority of total annual expenditures of the Waukesha School District.

All credit to the Waukesha Taxpayers League, love them or not, for ringing the alarm bells that something was seriously wrong with teacher contract negotiations. While the Waukesha School Board was frivolous with their past negotiations, I posed the question to the Senate committee, "How many school districts here today have ever negotiated below the QEO to save programs?"

I explained that the first problem is how raises are paid. A compressed pay scale negotiated for public teachers' union members in Waukesha, (dido for other school districts in Wisconsin) changed by allowing teachers to obtain raises by going back to school and getting more credits without changes in job responsibilities and less emphasis on experience at teaching.

Currently, approximately 35 percentof Waukesha's teaching staff has a master's degree plus 30 credits (why they are needed to teach K-12 is beyond me). With more teachers racing to get to the pinnacle of the salary scale, there is less revenue available. Less revenue to pay the more expensive teachers means the teachers with less seniority or education are eliminated. And, contract clauses protect those at the top from job elimination.

Even a negotiated change in current contract talks can't undo the financial damage caused by this financial commitment. Members of the committee were absolutely stunned, both Democrat and Republican, when I presented literature explaining that one teacher was able to increase their salary by 78 percent in one year. This teacher at Waukesha North went from $34,795 to $61.986. Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) asked, "What school district is this?"
While some teachers claim that the majority of their 3.8 percent raise (not the QEO) went to preserve benefits, it's pretty obvious that is a misleading half-truth.

The second problem is benefits. I really don't think the public has a clue as to how generous Waukesha taxpayers are to public educators compared with those who pay them:

• A $21,000 annually family plan health insurance policy.
• Dental insurance.
• Income protection insurance.
• Life insurance.
• Double digit pension contributions.
• Sick days.
• Contracted to work approximately 36 work weeks per year (180 contract days).
• More pay for additional activities such as coaching sports.
• Retirement eligibility at age 55.
• Retirement benefits including health and life insurance, accumulated vacation days, and terminal bonuses.

Many of these benefits contribute to the Waukesha School Districts' outstanding debt for Post Employment Retirement Benefits. I informed the committee that a recent actuarial study projected the unfunded liability for the School District of Waukesha alone is $195 million dollars over the next 20 years. This dollar amount does not reflect the actual cost of pensions.

In current contract negotiations with the teachers union, the Waukesha School Board has filed for arbitration. This will prove to be a test case of the arbitration process. As the Waukesha School Board has claimed to cut between $13 million and $14 million worth of staff and programs, and projects more to come, will the arbitration process serve the needs of the children or the demands of the union?

Oddly, if the teachers' union wins, there's less revenue to retain less seniority teachers and the union gets smaller. In past contract negotiations, our school board has not used the state funding formula to preserve educational programs and services. I've often wondered why our school board has preferred to cut children's educational programs and services rather than implementing the QEO or going to arbitration as recommended by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. 

That brings me full circle as to why I took off of work to attend the public hearing on Senate Resolution 27. As a union hourly employee, I do not get paid vacations, paid holidays or paid sick days. I took food off our family table to bring the message to Madison that until we address the expenditure side of funding public education, proposing to end the current funding formula solves nothing but to financially and politically embolden the demands of the teachers union. The problem isn't in the funding formula which seeks to equalize funding per student as the state constitution requires, but rather the revenue caps and the QEO that are not in line with each other.

But as usual, the "it's for the kids" people just want to throw more money at education and directly into the wallets of teachers and administrators without taxpayers' permission.

Finally, we need to get politics out of the classroom. Parents of children in the Waukesha School District are more than a little concerned that union educators have taken their cause to the kids as the result of budget cuts.
Contract negotiations above the QEO and raises for administrators in light of such cuts to "attract and retain top talent" are not the fault of the kids. If nearly $11,000 per child is not enough tax revenue to educate a child in Waukesha, the state legislature needs to pass legislation to expand the voucher program for all families statewide and let all parents decide what educational system is best for their children.

Funding public education is not a revenue problem, it's a local expenditure problem.

Steve Edlund is a resident of Waukesha.

Providing Wisconsin's children with the education they need, deserve and are entitled to under the state constitution is essential for healthy communities and economic competitiveness.

Historically, Wisconsin has been a state with excellent public schools. Unfortunately, in recent years, the funding for K-12 education has fallen behind the actual cost of operating effective schools. The structural flaws and gaps under the current system force more school districts every year to eliminate educational programs and services as if they were "going out of business," instead of investing in our children's' shared future.

This has to stop.

As a local school advocate in Waukesha and president of Project ABC for the last 10 years, I am deeply concerned with how the current funding formula diminishes the capacity of our public schools to deliver excellent educational outcomes. Now, as president of the statewide advocacy organization, Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES), I am joining with other motivated citizens to advocate for a school funding plan that begins with the question: "What do we want our children to know and be able to do and what do our schools need to get them there?"

The Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools is a coalition of 150 groups from across the state representing parents, educators, school administrators, school board members, religious congregations and advocates for children with special needs. WAES is committed to rebuilding our school finance system so that all children have the opportunity to succeed. On Nov. 15, hundreds of our members attended a legislative hearing in Madison to support a resolution that mandates reform of school funding by 2009.

WAES champions an adequacy approach to reform because we put education and kids first. The resolution (authored by Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts of Middleton and Sen. Roger Breske of Eland) that was the topic of the recent Senate Education Committee hearing asks all members of the Legislature to do the same thing.

As dozens of people from around the state told the Senate Education Committee, inadequate funding for schools has led our districts to:

• Postpone textbook purchases and technology upgrades.
• Delay building maintenance.
• Eliminate extracurricular activities.
• Cut programs for the gifted and talented.
• Cut guidance counselors and psychologists.
• Reduce special education services, elective offerings and arts education.

Is this the future we want?

The Pope-Roberts/Breske resolution offers a road map to better education for our children. Rep. Pope-Roberts, Sen. Breske, their 60 co-sponsors and innumerable supporters ask only that our elected officials commit to making a positive change. That means providing the resources schools need based on the actual costs of effective education while holding the line on local property taxes. Numerous experts from across the United States have defined the resources necessary for schools to meet state and federal performance standards as well as addressing the diverse needs of districts and students.

Funding adequacy is a critical first step toward restoring educational excellence in Wisconsin, moving us all to a more prosperous future.

Ruth Page Jones of Waukesha is president by the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools.

Editor's note: The following is the text of a letter recently sent to Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.).

Dear Congressman Shuler,

On behalf of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation's leading small-business advocacy group, I am writing to express our strong support for H.R. 4088, the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement Act of 2007 (SAVE Act).

This legislation takes into account the concerns small-business owners have with illegal immigration, and in particular, the employer verification sections strike a fair balance between increased enforcement and limiting the regulatory burdens placed on small business.

Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and small-business owners believe that Congress needs to fulfill its obligation to enforce our borders and provide a nation-wide employee verification system.

Many states are working to enact their own enforcement measures, and if Congress does not act, the resulting impact will be chaotic as small-business owners would face a complex and confusing set of enforcement policies.  We commend you for recognizing that a failure to act by Congress may well result in 50 state and local governments enacting their own immigration enforcement measures.

Like most Americans, small-business owners are troubled by the problem of illegal immigration. According to recent NFIB Research Foundation polls.

• Over 90 percent of NFIB members believe that illegal immigration is a serious problem;
• 86 percent say that finding a solution should be a "very high" or "high" priority for Congress and the administration.
• 73 percent of NFIB members agreed that employers should be required to use a government-run verification system.
• 83 percent stated that employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants should be subject to fines or other penalties.

Furthermore, they believe that an automated system to identify eligible workers would help ease I-9 burdens.
NFIB believes that in order for an immigration reform effort to be successful, the requirements and enforcement provisions must be workable, efficient and fair for small businesses. As such, NFIB supports an employment eligibility verification system (EEVS) that includes a reasonable limit on small-business penalties and reduces such penalties on first-time offenders, prohibits penalties for good-faith violations, protects employers if incorrect information on a worker is given by the EEVS and contains an appropriate phase-in time of the new EEVS system. Title II of the SAVE Act addresses these small-business concerns and is consistent with the beliefs of our members.

NFIB is pleased that the SAVE Act retains current internal revenue code that takes into account the size of an employer in its fee structure. We also appreciate that the bill retains the safe haven provision for voluntary and early compliance. Small-business owners are always concerned about how government regulations will burden them, and we applaud the inclusion of a 1-800 number for verification purposes.

As Congress begins consideration of H.R. 4088, we are eager to work with you to ensure that America's small businesses are not unduly burdened or unfairly scrutinized. NFIB is hopeful that during committee consideration of the bill, further legal certainty can be clarified for small employers that hire subcontractors. Also, H.R. 4088 would require an employer to allow an employee only 10 business days to correct any mismatching number with the Social Security Administration or face termination. NFIB supports a 90-day notification time period.  In addition, while our members support an enforceable guest worker program and expanding H-2B visas for economic need, we understand the need to first secure our borders and verify employment status.

Small-business owners feel strongly about enforcing our borders and creating a workable employee verification system, and we endorse your legislation.

Thank you for your strong support of small businesses, and we appreciate your leadership on this issue.

Sincerely,
                    
Dan Danner, executive vice president, public policy and political, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

Years ago, in preparation for teaching a course in stress reduction, I read Jon Kabat-Zinn's book about mindfulness, "Full Catastrophe Living." The title came from a line in the movie "Zorba the Greek." Zorba's young companion turns to him at a certain point and inquires, "Zorba, have you ever been married?" Zorba replies, "Am I not a man? Of course, I've been married. Wife, house, kids, everything … the full catastrophe!"

I couldn't help but think of Zorba two weeks ago as I walked into a scene in my son's home. Six-year-old Sam and 3-year-old Mason were running from room to room, shouting in high decimals while trying out their Halloween costumes which had just arrived in the mail. While emptying the dish washer and trying to calm the kids Chris was on his Blackberry dealing with a work issue. Amazingly, through the bedlam, 4-day-old baby Eden slept peacefully in her mother's arms. In the midst of the chaos, Chris turned to me and said. "Hello Mom, welcome to our nightmare." Chris has a wife, three children, a thriving business, two hundred employees, a five-acre home with two ponds that attract countless numbers of unwelcome geese and two swans that were purchased to keep the geese away but have failed miserably.

At age 30, Chris has "the full catastrophe."  His life, not unlike many others, although happy and full, is filled with the challenges and stresses of home, work and providing for his family.

There is not one person among us who does not have some version of the full catastrophe. Kabat-Zinn points out that "catastrophe does not mean disaster, but the poignant enormity of our life experience, and our ability to come to grips with the challenges and difficulties in life."  It is this full life experience, if not embraced, that leads to stress, chronic disease and depression.

Kabat-Zinn's work with mindfulness is again getting attention in the workplace. It is one of three skills taught by psychologist John Weaver in a new workplace initiative to transform anxiety, depression and stress into healthy thinking. Weaver, founder of the Healthy Thinking Initiative, created the program which teaches employees how to prevent anxiety and depression by using the three skills of mindfulness, optimism and resilience.

Depression leads health care costs for business. Medical costs for employees with depression are 70 percent higher than those who are not depressed, yet most wellness programs do not directly address depression or its prevention. 

Stress and workplace demands:

• One-fourth of employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives.
• Problems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than are any other life stressor.
• Workplace stress causes approximately 1 million U.S. employees to miss work each day.
• Sixty-two percent of American workers said that their workload has increased over the past six months and that they had not used all of their allotted vacation time in the past year.
• Seventy percent of employees say you have to work late and work overtime to get ahead, and 62 percent of employers agree.
• More than 80 percent of employees feel that companies are expecting too much work from too few people.
• The average work week has increased since the 1970s while leisure time has decreased by 37 percent. 
• More than 1 in 10 employees will be diagnosed with depression, and 1 in 5 will be treated for anxiety.

Depression and anxiety are expensive. There is evidence, Weaver says, that you can reduce stress, prevent chronic diseases including depression and improve happiness through ongoing mental fitness training. Through the Healthy Thinking Initiative, a team of mental health professionals helps organizations identify and address the root causes of depression and anxiety and teach employees skills in three key areas.

Mindfulness: Simply put, mindfulness is paying attention on purpose in the present moment. When you understand and utilize the skills of mindfulness, you are able to be more focused in the midst of changing circumstances. You are able to experience both the joys and sorrows of life with confidence that you can learn and grow from everything that comes your way. Research has shown that 40 percent of those who are willing to study and apply the practice of mindfulness to manage the symptoms of depression have been able to successfully eliminate their antidepressant medication without relapsing for more than three years.

Optimism: What you say to yourself about your life, even during stressful circumstances, has an influence on your happiness, your health and your performance.  Optimistic people believe that success comes from their efforts rather than just luck.  Optimism is associated with high performance, increased happiness and lower rates of depression, and resistance to stress. 

Resilience:  We can manage and even forecast some of life's occurrences, but much of the human experience including illness, stress and loss is uncontrollable and unpredictable. The ability to handle the tough times in life, the ability to spring back or recover readily from adversity, is a skill that is learned and developed throughout life.

More information about the Healthy Thinking Initiative is available at www.preventingdepression.com.  Additional resources for addressing stress and depression in the workplace are available through Mental Health America of Wisconsin, www.mhamilw.org and Wellness Council of Wisconsin, www.wellnesscouncilwi.org.

Connie Roethel, RN, MSH, is president of Complementary Health & Healing Partners (CHHP), a corporate wellness and health promotion services company with offices in Mequon. She can be reached by calling (262) 241-9947.

Fraud comes in all sizes, ranging from billion dollar cases of corporate fraud and thousand dollar cases of employee embezzlement to employees overcharging their expense reports.

Therefore, an effective fraud prevention strategy must be multi-dimensional, considering senior management, employees and even outside parties such as customers and vendors. An effective fraud prevention strategy must also be adaptable to the ever-changing fraud schemes as internal controls and technology change the operating environments of most companies.

So how does a company develop a fraud prevention strategy without spending millions of dollars and scrutinizing all of its transactions? One technique is to break the problem into smaller pieces. Let’s consider (1) the work environment; (2) control systems; and (3) fraud-specific procedures.

Work environment
An effective fraud prevention strategy begins with creating a work environment that defines and reinforces anti-fraud behavior. This includes how the company treats its customers, employees and suppliers. No matter how many internal control systems or anti-fraud procedures are used, there needs to be the proper "tone at the top" that demands to "always do the right thing no matter what the cost to the company."

Without a strong anti-fraud culture, opportunity and rationalization will appear to those individuals with enough pressure to commit the fraudulent act. A key element to an anti-fraud work environment is a clearly written fraud policy. This policy should describe the corporate commitment to the fair treatment of all employees, customers, and suppliers.

Any variances from company policy need to be handled according to the written fraud policy. Any variances, no matter the size, will limit the effectiveness of the company policy allowing the rationalization of future fraud activity.

It is important to have a history of prosecuting fraudulent activity.

The whistle blower system is also an effective tool for the work environment. According to the "2006 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse" of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), 34.2 percent of the initial reports of occupational abuse resulted from tips. These tips came from employees, customers and vendors. An effective whistle blower system allows key individuals to report fraud without the threat of retribution. It is also important to have a history of prosecuting fraudulent activity. Too often, employees caught committing fraud against the company are terminated without the negative, embarrassing consequences of being prosecuted for their crime. Faced with only termination, the employee often commits the act again at their next employer.

Control systems
Control systems include the internal control systems of the company. These control systems are front lines in the fight against fraud. An adequate system of internal controls reduces the number of opportunities available to those individuals with pressure and rationalization. The importance of internal control systems is evident by Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley. This law requires not only the establishment of a system of internal controls but also is concerned with how management assesses these controls. Currently, public companies are spending significant resources, both people and money, in compliance with this law. ACFE’s “2006 Report to the Nation” illustrates the importance of control systems with 20.2% of initial reports resulting from internal audits and 19.2% resulting from internal controls.

Fraud-specific procedures
The core of the fraud prevention strategy is the use of fraud-specific procedures. These procedures are specifically designed to detect fraud, in contrast to the control activities of the internal control systems which are generally applied to achieve the control objectives.

Whereas control objectives are designed to reduce the opportunities for fraud, the fraud-specific procedures are designed to test for the presence of fraudulent activity.

These procedures are analogous to a medical exam. Even though an individual may live a healthy lifestyle, with proper eating and exercise habits, regular medical exams are still recommended. During these medical exams, the doctor is looking for the presence of disease or other medical conditions, that if detected early, can be effectively treated. Similarly, the use of fraud-specific procedures looks for the presence of fraud-related activities. These procedures should be performed randomly throughout the year by testing a variety of areas of potential fraud, including areas such as ghost employees, fictitious vendors, kiting and inventory shrinkage.

The application of these procedures offers two benefits. The first benefit is the possible discovery of a fraud in progress. This is a direct benefit resulting in a reduction of the possible financial damage from the fraudulent activity. The other is the indirect benefit of reducing the opportunity to commit fraud. With the presence of these random, fraud-specific procedures, anyone contemplating a fraud needs to consider the potential their fraudulent activity will be identified. This unknown may be enough to convince an individual that opportunity does not exist, therefore the fraudulent activity cannot be successful.

A fraud prevention strategy starts with a work environment intolerable to fraudulent behavior.
Fraud is committed by individuals motivated by pressure, opportunity, and rationalization, working in an ever-changing environment. In order to be effective, a fraud prevention strategy needs to be multi-dimensional. The strategy starts with a work environment intolerable to fraudulent behavior. This work environment is supported by robust control systems which are monitored and revised to address current environmental conditions. In addition, these control systems are supplemented by fraud-specific procedures, designed to identify existing fraudulent activity.

Craig Siiro is a partner at Virchow Krause & Company LLC, where he leads the accounting firm's Fraud and Forensic Accounting Team. He specializes in fraud examinations and forensic accounting services. He can be reached at csiiro@virchowkrause.com.

The Wisconsin Tea Party (www.wisconsinteparty.org) is an organization whose members believe in the private sector's inherent ability to both improve quality and lower costs in health care. As such, we are constantly looking for opportunities for government to assist the markets in performing that function. 

Our group and its members have been in the audience and at the podium for too many programs on this issue to count. Invariably, the discussion seems to highlight the differences among parties on both sides of the issue. But maybe there doesn't have to be sides….

We've been listening - really listening - to what is being said at these meetings and what's being written on blogs such as this one. Undeniably, there are philosophical differences between our group and others about the nature and magnitude of the solution(s) to the health care issues facing our state, but there is also common ground.

We're not Pollyannaish about politics. Health care is a huge issue this session.

So, where will the issue be when the dust settles? 

Last week, we sent a letter to the state legislature encouraging them to introduce legislation to require greater transparency in health care pricing. Along with our letter, we sent to them a copy of legislation that was adopted in Minnesota last year and recently implemented.

As we've listened to the health care debate, we've heard from almost everyone that transparency is a good thing and that it is an important part of any effort to control rising health care costs. It's a pretty simple concept, really - tell us what it costs before we purchase health care services, not after.

Information is a powerful tool in the marketplace, regardless of whose dollars are ultimately being spent.

We know that transparency is just one of several areas where progress can and should be made this legislative session.  The Wisconsin Tea Party will, in the weeks and months ahead, continue to forward suggestions to the legislature. The time for the legislature to act is now.

Jeffrey Beiriger is the executive director of the Wisconsin Tea Party. For more information, visit www.wisconsinteaparty.org.