In This Issue | 1. Maximum Price
2. Big Bucks for
UW Boss
3. Resurecting the
Death Tax
4. Risky Business 5. The Bio-Fuels
Battle
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Minimum Mark-up Means Maximum Price
 A bipartisan effort is afoot in Madison to eliminate Wisconsin's "Minimum Markup" law which mandates that products like gasoline and prescription drugs be sold at a certain percentage over the wholesale price. The law which requires retailers to sell gasoline, alcohol and tobacco at 9 percent above wholesale, was intended to "level" the playing field for small retailers as they can compete with discounts offered by bigger retailers. All the law has really done is cost consumers more money at the gas pump and the pharmacy.
At the same time, the state is being sued by a group seeking to overturn Wisconsin's minimum markup law. The Utah-based Flying J group is citing an October 2007 ruling by Federal Magistrate Judge William Callahan, who ruled that because the state does not actively supervise its minimum markup law, the law violates federal antitrust laws and the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution. In a time when gas prices still hover at over three dollars a gallon, it makes no sense for the state to artificially keep fuel prices high. In fact, gas prices are cited as a factor in the slowing economy - lowering prices and giving consumers more buying power only makes sense.
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Big Bucks for University Boss
 The University Of Wisconsin Board Of Regents has voted to increase the pay of the UW-Madison Chancellor by as much as 66%, up to a possible $452,000 per year. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Chancellor's current compensation is $341,495, including free housing, a state-provided car, retirement pay and club dues.
The decision came after the Legislative Fiscal Bureau predicted a revenue shortfall of $400 million in the current state budget due to the slowing economy. Today the Legislative Fiscal Bureau said that number will be closer to $700 million. So while Wisconsin families are feeling the pinch of a slowing economy, University leaders want to increase the pay of the University's top dog by over $100,000, which won't aid in the education of a single student. Governor Doyle constantly preaches about the need to increase the number of UW graduates to help spur economic development here, yet when the Board of Regents he appointed takes money out of the pockets of working families to jack up the compensation of already very highly paid bureaucrats, Governor Doyle remains uncharacteristically quiet.
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Resurecting the Death Tax
 One Wisconsin Now (OWN), the lefty organization that wants to gag free speech in the upcoming Supreme Court election, is peddling their solution to the state's latest fiscal crisis. OWN has begun a petition drive to urge the state legislature to reinstate Wisconsin's estate tax which was phased out just a short time ago.
The estate tax takes a cut of assets willed to family members even though the assets been taxed throughout the entirety of their existence. The state only recently concluded that it might be excessive to re-tax assets upon the owner's death. OWN wants voters to believe the state's latest cash crunch is the fault of greedy rich people who don't want to pay their fair share of taxes. But the real problem isn't that the state doesn't tax enough - it’s that the state doesn't adequately plan for economic downturns. A recent report by the Wisconsin Taxpayers' Alliance showed that the average U.S. state holds 6.7% of their expenditures in reserve to aid in economic downturns. Yet Wisconsin only sets aside 0.9%, which leads to deep cuts and tax increases when a recession hits. Raising taxes during an economic downturn will only lead to more painful cuts as the state takes additional money out of the private economy to fuel excessive spending.
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Risky Business
Not content to ruin the state's health care market with their massive $15.2 billion government-run health plan, Wisconsin Senate Democrats have passed a plan to poison other insurance markets. Senate Bill 259 would dictate what factors insurance companies use when determining rates for auto and property insurance. In recent years, insurance companies have discovered a correlation between consumer credit scores and automobile and property risk. As such, they have employed credit scores as one of many factors in determining auto and property insurance rates, much in the same way insurance companies issue lower rates to high school students with good grades.
Senate Democrats don't think behavior should factor into rate setting, so they want to ban the practice. State Representative Terese Berceau of Madison even went so far as to say the use of credit reports is a way to target the poor and minorities.
To the contrary, the bill shifts responsibility for risky behavior to those who behave responsibly. Instead of being able to set rates as they best know how, companies will be forced to raise rates on responsible consumers to subsidize the risky habits of others. Imagine forbidding insurance companies from raising the insurance rates of habitual drunken drivers or speed demons, --- what happens to the insurance rates of the teetotalling old ladies who only drive to church on Sundays? The free-market should provide incentives for responsible behavior.
The Senate passed SB 259 on January 31st. The bill now moves to the Assembly, where it stands little chance of passing.
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The Bio-Fuel Battle
In recent years, state legislators have been tireless cheerleaders for expanding the use of bio-fuels through government mandates. Most recently the State Senate proposed an ethanol mandate on Wisconsin motor fuel. One of the primary arguments ethanol proponents make is that it is better for the environment, but a new study published in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Journal begs to differ. According to the study, "rapeseed and maize bio-diesels were calculated to produce up to 70 percent and 50 percent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels. The concerns were raised over the levels of nitrous oxide, which is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Scientists found that the use of bio-fuels released twice as much as nitrous oxide as previously realized. The research team also found that 3 to 5 percent of the nitrogen in fertilizers was converted and emitted." This poses a particular problem for legislators like State Senator Mark Miller, who at the same time are pushing for increased ethanol use and lower greenhouse gases. Miller has authored a bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Wisconsin to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Naturally, such a bill would seriously curtail manufacturing in the state. Yet if any kind of ethanol mandate also went through, the job exodus would be exacerbated, as tighter regulations would be needed to make up for the ethanol pollution.
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