In This Issue:
|
|
1. Doyle Declines Invitation
2. Bad Economy, More
Overtime
3. Oil Franchise Fee Hits
Pothole
4. Blasts from the Past
|
|
Doyle Declines Invitation to Tea
Last week in an unprecedented display of taxpayer frustration, thousands of individuals from across the state gathered to protest government intrusion into their lives. Over 5,000 angry taxpayers showed up on the Capitol steps in Madison with a message for state lawmakers: stop wasting our money. Despite their breathtaking inability to manage our money, Governor Doyle and legislative Democrats are mulling over plans to raise taxes by an additional $3 billion.
Governor Doyle, who claimed to be sitting in his office during the Tea Party rally, dismissed the protestors entirely:
Doyle said that those at the Madison rally were "protesting against the biggest middle-class tax breaks that we have seen in decades in this country.And at the state level, despite the horrendous economy and the situation we're in, (under) the budget I proposed, if you make less than $300,000 a year, you're not going to face any kind of tax increase."
The Governor should have omitted the phrase “any kind of.” His budget raises property taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes, hospital taxes, insurance rates, nursing home bed assessments, cigarette taxes and much more. Apparently the Governor’s approval rating isn’t the only thing that’s slipping.
. 
|
Bad Economy, More Overtime!
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) recently announced that the state has lost 115,000 jobs in the past year. Yet government workers continue to thrive despite the recession. According to a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 25 state employees earned over $50,000 in overtime last year. All total, the state spent $66.5 million in overtime wages in 2008.
According to the report from the Legislative Audit Bureau:
From 2005 through 2008, state agencies paid a total of $253.8 million in overtime, of which $209.8 million was premium overtime. Premium overtime payments increased 15.8 percent over that four-year period, and 0.9 percent from 2007 to 2008. Payments at regular hourly rates to employees who worked more than 40 hours per week increased 11.6 percent, from 2007 to 2008.
In addition to perpetuating their overtime scam, state employees picked up critical mass in 2008 as the state added 900 new taxpayer funded jobs.
Government work is great if you can get it.
|
Oil Franchise Fee Hits Pothole
Remember Jim Doyle’s phony “Oil Franchise Fee” that he swore wouldn’t raise gas prices in the state? Never mind
Doyle said Monday he’s open to a 3-cent gasoline tax increase as an alternative to his proposed tax on oil company sales.
Doyle said he preferred his plan to pay for roads by raising taxes on oil companies by $272 million over two years and barring the firms from passing the tax on to consumers.
But some business groups have instead been pushing an increase to the state’s gas tax — currently the second highest in the nation — saying it wouldn’t face the oil tax’s potential legal challenges.
"I give them credit. They’ve really worked to come up with a proposal, and I think it’s one that’s worthy of consideration," Doyle said.
So Doyle is open to trading something he claimed wasn’t a gas tax increase for something that is clearly a gas tax increase.
Even the Wisconsin State Journal recognized Doyle’s Oil Franchise scam:
Gov. Jim Doyle's plan to impose a special tax on oil companies has the word "backfire" written all over it.
Lawmakers should remove it from the state budget.
Though the tax may appear to be an easy way to bail the state out of a budget bind, the costly consequences -- for consumers, businesses and the state's future -- make it the wrong choice.
The tax raises questions for all businesses: If, in the world according to Doyle, the state can punish an industry for being too profitable, even when profits are falling, what industry is next in line? What will happen to the state's ability to attract business development?
Raising gas taxes in a down economy is never a good idea – but at least now, the tax can be debated honestly. As for the genius of business groups pushing the 3 cent tax, let’s save our applause for those who don't concede the high ground to the tax and spend politicians. Remember, it was Doyle and the legislature who stole over a billion dollars from the transportation fund.
Blasts from the Past
In the good ‘old days, politicians were able to say whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, without being called to account. In the internet age, promises made by elected officials are here to stay.
This old speech from Governor Doyle’s 2003 budget address is worth keeping in your pocket.
Other states are cutting aid to schools. We're expanding it.
Other states are taking health care benefits away. We're protecting ours. (Doyle’slast 3 budgets have proposed raising the tax on nursing home beds.)
Other states are releasing prisoners early. We won't. (In 2009, Doyle proposes letting up to 3,500 prisoners go early.)
Other states – 24 so far – are proposing to raise taxes. We absolutely, positivelywill not raise ours. (In 2009 Doyle proposes raising corporate, personal, gas, capital gains, and property taxes. You name it, he’s raising it.)
Here are Doyle’s “5 priorities,” in the 2003 budget, which now seem laughable:
Not to raise taxes -- because Wisconsin taxpayers already pay their fair share.
To distribute budget cuts fairly -- because we're all in this together.
To protect education, health care, key local services and the environment -- because no matter how deep this crisis is, we have to protect what's most important.
To reduce spending and make government more efficient -- because if we're going to ask the people of Wisconsin to accept less, we have to do more with less.
To do it once and do it right -- because we need to get on with Wisconsin's future, not return again and again to the problems of the past.
“This budget meets all of these goals. But it hasn't been easy.”
No Governor, it hasn’t been easy, especially for taxpayers.
|
| |
|
| |
|
