We can call this, "The Scott Walker Effect."
Without naming names, Blackhawk Technical College officials said losses of state aid and changes in state law in recent years have brought the college to the point of asking local taxpayers to pass a referendum that would in effect, let the college raise taxes each and every year into perpetuity.
JG Excerpt:
TOWN OF ROCK—A survey sent last week to 8,000 registered voters will help Blackhawk Technical College officials decide whether to hold a $4 million referendum.
If officials like what they hear, they'll ask voters for permission to exceed the school's levy limit by up to $4 million every year. That would raise taxes as much as $37 on a $100,000 house each year.
Let's put it this way; taxpayers from all Wisconsin communities are paying more than enough as it is to support the state's public school system and advanced education institutions. Of course that doesn't mean schools are getting enough.
Have you ever wondered how Scott Walker is pulling surpluses and increasing state spending to record levels while the majority of Wisconsin communities struggle to balance flat-lining budgets while making major cuts in services? Trust me, it's not the local's fault or a lack of effort.
The problem is, is that we have a governor and a single-party ruled state legislature whose ideologically calculated budgets have tremendously shortchanged schools and communities statewide while injuring local control with zero-sum restrictions and budget caps as they build up political capital with so-called "surpluses" on borrowed money and laughable $13 tax cuts.
As far as I'm concerned, approving a local tax hike referendum to over-ride Walker's centralized taxing authority is asking not only to double-tax ourselves in the short-term, but to inadvertently create a budget boomerang that will accelerate even deeper cuts in state aid in the near future.
Simply put, we do not need tax-increases-into-perpetuity local referendums. What we need is a new governor and reforms that would bring an end to the GOP's overreaching centralized state control.
No comments:
Post a Comment