Republicans Assemble New Frankenstein Budget

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The Sunday edition of the Janesville Gazette ran an article on page three of the local section titled “GOP pushing for fewer taxes.” Unfortunately as with most politicians playing the tax cut card, the Republicans appear on the verge of sending the Governor another disjointed and mismatched budget replete with shortfalls and broken promises. A budget monster so hideous, one legislator termed it as “mindless.”

JG Excerpt:
The Republican tax cut proposal offered in the budget committee "borders on mindless," said Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar.

Why the Republicans continue to send the Governor a “flatlining” corpse they call a balanced budget is strictly political.

JG Excerpt:
Republicans on the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee gave a preview of what could come, floating motions to cut the income tax and reject Gov. Jim Doyle's proposals to raise a variety of taxes, including those on cigarettes.

Of more concern to me is the idea that Republicans want to cut the state income tax which in effect would bring them another step closer to their ultimate goal. One of my theories about our state of affairs regarding the tax structure in Wisconsin and many other states involves the Republican agenda pushed through by their bumper sticker slogans of Compassioniate Conservatism and the Contract With America. The end result I believe is directly related to raising point-of-use taxes, property taxes and sales taxes – all local taxes irrespective of a taxpayers income or ability to pay.

At the federal level, the tax cuts can never be big enough according to republicans while at the local level the republicans are willing to cut services and programs completely in the blind OR let the democrats be the ones to RAISE the taxes. Republicans think this is a win-win for them and to be honest they are winning at this game. Most of Doyle’s increases are non-income based and a reasonable reaction to the Republican platform. He wants to balance the budget and keep Wisconsin healthy.

The end result of the republican plan will bring about lower federal income taxes and possibly lower state income taxes at the expense of much higher non-income based taxes. This is a big win for the super-rich and those who can afford, everybody else including the middle-class will lose. Schools will suffer, potholes will proliferate, poverty will rise, health will worsen and the gap between rich and poor will widen. This won't happen overnight. It will be a slow death but by the time we realize what happened it will be too late.

Another interesting highlight of the state budget is this little bit about the property tax cap.

JG Budget Highlights:
- The cap on local property tax increases doubles from 2 percent to 4 percent, or the percentage of growth in new construction in a community, whichever is greater.

One of the things pushed by the Republicans has been the property tax freeze which is nothing more than a political ploy to stay on the tax cut track when all else fails. But what is doubly interesting here is that someone gave “growth” the proper perspective it finally deserved. Growth has been kicked around by developers as an “expanding tax base” tool designed to lower the tax burden on a community, when in reality the opposite is true. If new construction growth is at 8% in any given community, the cap will rise by 8% which on paper anyways, should allow locals to “pay-as-they-grow” instead of trying to service a larger community with an inadequate “pre-growth” budget.