A lot of folks on the Left, Liberals and Progressives aren't going to agree with this assessment, but when 56 out of 66 Wisconsin communities approved local funding referendums for their schools last Tuesday, Scott Walker won and he won big time.
Wisconsin Budget Project Excerpt:
Voters approved 56 out of 66 school referendums on the ballot, raising their property taxes to replace school buildings, improve academic offerings, and provide needed services to students. Wisconsin residents voted to approve $439 million in borrowing for new construction and building updates, $123 million to expand school district operating budgets for a set amount of time, and $4 million to expand school district budgets on a permanent basis.
For the sake of my argument, only school referendums to increase operating budgets are all that is necessary. When local taxpayers voted to increase their annual property taxes by $123 million annually, they handed Walker another answer to his prayers to divert increased state funding away from public schools - and gave him more state tax revenue to spend on his priority - the increased utilization of public tax dollars for private use. Namely, more collective dollars are now available to hand out to his campaign donor class and Foxconn.
Wisconsin Budget Project Excerpt:
Recent poll results have found that Wisconsin voters place a great deal of importance on funding public education. Voters named K-12 education as the highest priority for additional state spending in response to a Marquette University poll in June 2017, and 61% said they would be willing to pay more in taxes to support their highest spending priority.
It's true. Wisconsin places a great deal of importance on public education. But the keywords here are "additional state spending." For schools across Wisconsin to offer kids the same quality curriculum and facilities regardless of each community's economic condition, that means increases or the restoration of state income taxes - NOT regressive local tax hikes that many cannot afford.
WPR Excerpt:
And as Wisconsin Public Radio pointed out today, the usually-tense issues surrounding school referenda had a little extra boost this time, because new potential budget flexibilities approved earlier this year had a catch attached to them.
The new law let's low-spending districts raise property taxes without voter approval, but districts wouldn't get the money if they had a referendum fail in the last three years.
Therein lies the gimp.
Despite some anti-referendum movement earlier from a few republicans who didn't understand Walker's method of madness to force local taxpayers into eating themselves, Walker showed his hand enough where even the most naive of political watchers should understand it when he threw out a poisoned t-bone steak by offering low-spending school districts permission to modestly increase their budget without getting approval from broke taxpayers — but not if they had a failed referendum to increase their budget within the last three years.
By offering an incentive for school districts to spend more, seemingly contrary to his "conservative" reforms, means that Scott Walker WANTS local school referendums to pass. No "reform dividend" for you, unless you vote to increase taxes on yourself.
When school budget referendums pass, it means the shift from state funding to a larger local burden is in flux AND his reforms are working. Sure, Walker was sent two steps back when his candidate for the Supreme Court lost and voters opted to save the treasurers office, but his right-wing engineered budget agenda remains fully operational and a success toward his goals. On a political level, he lost little ground.
I hate to sound so confident, but anyone who doesn't understand what Walker is doing is in denial or they support his agenda.
I've been beating this drum for some time with a slogan, "To fight it is to feed it - and to feed it is surrender." It's all right there. Understanding cannibalism also helps.
2 comments:
I totally agree that it is a cynical tax shift maneuver that's the opposite of what we should be doing. But the problem for Walker is that he and WISGOP also want a talking point of "Your property taxes are lower," and most Wisconsinites will answer "THE HELL THEY ARE."
All of the local wheel taxes added in the last 5 years are another example of this Walker "strategy." How's that working out for us?
Walker would respond by saying, "I eliminated the state portion of your property tax bill and tied growth to property taxes. Unfortunately, people aren't going to blame Walker for wheel taxes or all the other hikes in local taxes and fees and when folks see potholes and decay, they look to local officials for action and blame. It's a vicious circle for sure, but I think local communities help feed the tax shift and ask for it when they proudly "invest" in their communities.
I know it all sounds counter-productive, but there's a larger ideological scheme at work here by Walker that would require raw visuals and short-term local sacrifices most people would find unacceptable - to defeat.
I recall a couple years ago in Madison, while referencing a new local tax to pay for improvements that Walker pulled state funding from, Soglin lamented with, "unfortunately, this is going help Walker look good." He's right.
Post a Comment