In This Issue:
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1. Club Takes to
Airwaves
2. Unhealthy Wisconsin
3. Voter Fraud Apathy
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Club Takes to the Airwaves
 Last week, Wisconsin Club for Growth launched a new radio ad in Milwaukee, discussing the Milwaukee County Board proposal to raise the local sales tax by one percent.
The ad features County Executive Scott Walker, who opposed the plan to raise the county sales tax in August, saying “the $130 million 1% sales tax increase will give Milwaukee County the highest sales tax in the region and in the state.”
Proponents of the 1% sales tax increase, say the money will be used to improve county services, fund transit, protect the environment and provide property tax relief. Even if that were all true, the County would be in even worse shape financially, as they’d be ignoring the $1.5 billion hole they’re carrying for future retiree health benefits.
In the ad Walker reminds taxpayers that the 1991 County Board passed a resolution calling for a .5% sales tax to provide property tax relief that never materialized. “The last time they raised the sales tax, property taxes actually went up 55%.”
The 1992 Milwaukee County tax levy was $141,030,555 and $218,734,713 in 2002, an increase of 55%. Milwaukee was the only county in the state to lose population during that same period of time.
Healthy Wisconsin Making Supporters Sick
 Last week, the Club for Growth newsletter documented instances where Assembly candidates who previously expressed support for the $15.2 billion tax increase known as “Healthy Wisconsin,” were backing off their support. Candidates are distancing themselves from the program in large part because issue advocacy groups are reminding people that the program would provide taxpayer-funded health benefits to illegal immigrants and other non-residents.
Democrat Party bosses are upset over the issue have attempted to provide cover for their candidates.
Representative Mark Pocan says Assembly candidates never really expressed support for the plan which passed the Democratic controlled State Senate last year on a straight party line vote:
“Do we support a plan that we had absolutely no influence putting together and that we don’t know the full details of? Of course not,” Pocan told Wispolitics.com. “It’s not just stretching the truth. It’s an outright lie to say our candidates support it.”
Perhaps if Pocan and his colleagues had forcefully rejected the plan last year, rather than stating support for the plan and leaving the door open for its future passage, they could have taken the issue off the table for good.
In a letter to Madison television stations, Democratic Party Chair Joe Wineke said, “Trish O'Neil has never endorsed the legislation she is being attacked on. The charges in these ads are completely untrue and we are calling on these stations to pull down these false ads immediately.”
Apparently O’Neil forgot to mention her interview with Wisconsin Eye on May 8, 2008 or the radio interview she gave three months later. These interviews don’t simply imply that Trish O’Neil supports Healthy Wisconsin – they make outright liars out of Pocan and Wineke.
Lee: Where does Trish O’Neil stand on Healthy Wisconsin?
Trish O’Neil: "Well, I'll tell ya Lee. Healthy Wisconsin sounds like an ideal solution to the problem of the under and uninsured here in the state of Wisconsin. Unfortunately it didn't go anywhere. It had to be taken out of the budget. Will it be brought back? I couldn’t really say. However, this would be my hope is that it would be brought back as a least a starting point from which the state legislature could then work on the solution to the under and uninsured here in Wisconsin.”
Lee: Would state Assemblywomen O’Neil support Healthy Wisconsin as it was first presented by author Senator Erpenbach?
Trish: "I think it’s a great idea."
Lee: As a RN, you think this is a great idea.
Trish: “Definitely.”
Voter Fraud Apathy
 With the election less than a week away, Wisconsin is still unequipped to run an election that restores voter confidence in the integrity of the system.
Last week, a Madison judge dismissed Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s lawsuit against the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB). Van Hollen filed the lawsuit in an attempt to force the GAB to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA). HAVA mandated states to have multiple identification checks in place by 2004 – yet here in 2008 yet despite spending $22 million in taxpayer funds, Wisconsin is still not compliant.
Yet editorial boards in Wisconsin continue to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that groups aren’t out in the field trying to steal votes by registering fake voters. Recently in Ohio, several non-state residents voted, and had to be tracked down by a group of college kids doing actual journalism.
Maybe this is why liberals are so against the War in Iraq – because even a country like Iraq has figured out how important it is to control voter fraud. Wisconsin should go to the purple finger method of voting – it’s better than the banana republic we have now.
At least we can look forward to the local media publishing riveting post election stories documenting hundreds, maybe thousands of instances of voter fraud to help further erode our faith in elections. We can also count on the editorial boards continuing to fight efforts to require photo identification for voting in Wisconsin.
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