In This Issue:
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1. Change to Believe In
2. Performance Art
3. For Whom the Tax
Tolls
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Choice and Change Wisconsin Can Believe In
Early next year, Governor Doyle will introduce his budget plan to the legislature, a plan which will ostensibly fix the $5.4 billion budget deficit he created. As part of the biennial budget charade, you are also likely to hear Doyle and the Democrat controlled legislature, propose spending cuts to their least favorite programs. But what if there were a magical state program that, if expanded, would actually save taxpayers money and provide proven results? Well, there actually is –the Milwaukee Parental School Choice Program, but don’t hold your breath waiting for Doyle and the Democrats to expand it.
For almost two decades, Wisconsin has allowed low income families in Milwaukee to send their children to private schools with a publicly funded tuition voucher. It is considerably less expensive to send children to the private school choice schools than it is to keep them hostage in the failing bureaucratic nightmare of MPS. When all public funds are included, the total cost to taxpayers for a school choice student is $6,607 per pupil, less than half the $13,486 per pupil in MPS.
A recent analysis by Robert M. Costrell, Ph.D., a professor of education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas, concluded that the Milwaukee Parental School Choice Program (MPSC) has saved taxpayers $180 million. Dr. Costrell’s findings are backed up by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau which shows that the MPSC program saves state and local taxpayer’s. That’s because as less state school aid is sent to Milwaukee’s failing public schools, more money is available for schools throughout in the rest of the state.
With those kinds of savings and the high approval ratings the program receives from choice parents, one can see a chance to save taxpayer money by expanding the program. It would seem to be a win-win: taxpayers save money, and kids get better, more specialized education.
Yet the teachers’ union is intent on killing the program, because if the state can demonstrate that kids can be educated outside the bloated public school framework, it could mean fewer jobs or lower salaries for public school teachers. That’s where the savings come in. But for the teachers’ union, it’s not about educating students in the best possible environment. The union’s only goal is to protect their pension and benefit-laden salaries. And since Democrats in Wisconsin are wholly owned subsidiaries of the teachers’ union, any effort to expand school choice die a quick death in the Legislature.
The Democrats promised us choice and change. Let’s demand that they honor it when it comes to education.
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Budget Performance Art
Earlier this week, Governor Jim Doyle said he would be “unenthusiastic” about signing tax increases into law, but that he would likely be forced to do so if the Legislature passes them. Ironically, Doyle has been creative enough with his veto pen in the past to turn a stoplight project into a $400 million transfer out of the transportation fund. Apparently Doyle's veto pen has gone missing.
In Act I, the Governor went to great lengths to lay the foundation for huge tax increases by over-estimating the size of the budget deficit. Now in Act II, Governor Doyle is carefully setting the stage for the Democratic legislature to take the credit for hiking taxes, while he gleefully uses the new revenue to reward his friends and punish his enemies.
One of the primary measures being pushed by Democrats is “combined reporting,” requiring businesses to pay taxes on income they earn in other states. While Democrats claim this closes a “loophole,” it is nothing more than a naked cash grab and the result will be Wisconsin residents paying more for goods and services, as the tax is passed on to consumers.
According to a new poll by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, 73% of Wisconsin residents oppose raising taxes on business, even in a bad economy. The opposition to higher business taxes showed up across the board – among Republicans, Democrats, men, and women. Apparently lawmakers weren’t polled.
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For Whom the Tax Tolls
While Doyle and the legislature come up with terrible taxing schemes to plug the budget hole, some very special interest groups are cooking up a few bad ideas of their own.
According to the Daily Reporter newspaper, transportation builders are pushing hard to create Illinois-style toll roads in Wisconsin. Naturally, the money raised through these tolls would be funneled directly to the Road Builders themselves.
According to union boss Terrence McGowan, Wisconsin should institute tolls so he can make more money. From the Daily Reporter article:
“There’s one example that I successfully used to sell our members on toll roads at the border,” he said. “Since the indexing repeal, the residents of Wisconsin are left to try and make up some of the transportation trust shortfalls, while the Illinois resident sees no further increase as they drive their (sport-utility vehicle) to their cabin in Minocqua with a couple of (all-terrain vehicles) in tow.”
To cope with its budget shortfall, McGowan said, Wisconsin needs significant new revenue sources for road maintenance, and the Governor and WisDOT might need to rethink their stance on tolling.
“Residents are going to have to get used to the idea,” he said. “(Several other states) have toll roads, and they don’t have near the crisis Wisconsin does.”
Unfortunately, McGowan’s facts don’t hold up. There is a significant shortfall in the transportation fund, but it’s not because gas tax indexing (the automatic gas tax increase) was repealed. It is primarily because Jim Doyle has continually raided the transportation fund to plug holes in the general fund – then issued debt to fund transportation spending. As a result, not only is the transportation fund short of cash, it has to pay back the debt it owes with interest. The shortfall wasn’t caused by lower taxes, it was caused by Jim Doyle's irresponsible budgeting. If you’d like to e-mail Mr. McGowan and tell him what you think of instituting toll roads in Wisconsin, feel free to reach him at tmcgowan@iuoe139.org.
You might warn Mr. McGowan not to be too shocked when Governor Doyle raids the transportation fund again next year to increase school spending.
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