Walker Taking Wisconsin Back To Thompson's Tax Hell Daze

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During Terrible Tommy's reign over Wisconsin through the 90's, the burden of state taxes on the average Wisconsin income earner was solidly in the 12 percent range with a few years popping 13 percent. Believe it or not, it was Gov. Jim Doyle who courageously fought the tax burden battle and incrementally brought the tax burden down into the 11 percent range, settling for a bittersweet 11.2 percent in the 2008-09 budget. Ironically, it was Doyle's Wisconsin that the state's GOP support-base business group, Wisconsin Commerce and Manufacturers, branded as a "tax hell."

So it only figures that the WMC-endorsed Scott Walker has reversed the direction established by Doyle and now has the state trending toward those glorious republican days of Terrible Tommy ...

Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance Excerpt:
State-local governments here collected $25.9 billion in taxes and fees in fiscal year 2011, 5.4% more than the prior year. This year's tax burden was 11.9%, up from 11.7% in 2010. Individual income tax collections were $6.7 billion in 2011, up 10% from $6.1 billion in 2010. This year's increase was the largest one-year jump since 2000.

Note: The above paragraph appears on the WTA's Home Page as a summary for the article.

That's right. The last time Wisconsin workers saw the state carve out as large a one-year increase from our earnings - Tommy Thompson was in charge! Who woulda' thunk it? Few states hammer the middle class as hard as Wisconsin - especially households earning less than $88,000 a year, wrote the Journal Sentinel back in 2010, and that was when the tax burden was better - under Jim Doyle! But today? Under Walker's massive transfer of wealth away from Wisconsin families, modest communities and public sector workers to the GOP business elite and coupled with increased state spending can only mean an even larger tax bite is on the way. Wisconsin is clawing its way back into hell.

From Tax Hell To "All Screwed Up!"
If you hear 'Wisconsin' and a job transfer, part of your mind is going to say, 'Isn't that the place that's all screwed up?'
-- Todd Berry, WTA ...saying what others are thinking.

JS Online Editorial - Wisconsin missing out on U.S. jobs gains, under Walker. (Over 1,800 comments)

Berserko Thompson Looking To Put a Hurt On Recall Supporters

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During an event touted as 'Celebrate Walker' at Wauwatosa's Hart Park in Walkersha County over the weekend, four-term deficit developer and quitter Tommy Thompson rambled on early and showed the tea party crowd that he's still as unstable and nuts as ever with an angry speech that began at a shouting level as he bitterly stalked around the stage.

Referring to recall supporters as blue versus republican red, the rage-baiting terrible Tommy foamed over, "when we get done they're gonna be black and blue!" The thuggish crowd, hungry for confrontation and violence, went delirious over the thought of physically pummeling the opposition answered back with a roar of approval.

Blogging Blue Video - 2012-01 Walker Rally - Tommy Thompson Red Meat



Democurmudgeon - Walker Rally Losers Gather to Pound Chest, Look Stupid!!! With additional video and commentary

DailyKos - 'Moderate' Fmr. Gov. Tommy Thompson Threatens To Make Recall Supporters "Black And Blue!

If Tommy Runs, Will Sarah Campaign For Him?

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Capital Times Excerpt:
Speaking at a previously organized fundraising event at Madison's High Noon Saloon, Feingold delighted in contrasting his record as a critic of special-interest lobbying and campaign spending with Thompson's recent work as a high-profile lobbyist in Washington.

Feingold said of Thompson: "Instead of taking on the special interests, he's been taking them on as clients."

No doubt, Thompson's advisers will misconstrue even this blog posting as additional evidence that Democrats feel threatened by him.

Green and Bush - Tax Cut and Run

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Mark Green’s campaign for governor has many eerie similarities to that of the textbook election promises that has sprung George W. Bush into the presidency. Like Bush, Green promises to cut taxes and fix the morals and values of others.

Green has proposed a pension tax break for seniors that would exempt the first $20,000 in a retiree’s income from state taxes. Sounds good when you’re kissing babies and willing to say anything to get a vote, but a similar plan that failed in the Republican-led legislature would have exempted only half of what Green proposes and would have cost the state nearly $200 million annually. Green claims his tax cut would cost only $20 million in its first year, but after that, details are fuzzy because he knows the promise is hollow. How he would make up for nearly $200 million in lost revenue is anybodies guess, chances are he would raise taxes elsewhere or cut jobs and desperately needed services.

My guess is Doyle will be seriously looking into property tax discounts for seniors if he is re-elected, a cost effective way to reward seniors according to the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

Like Bush, Mark Green plans to fix everything with a tax cut or a tax credit. Even with immigration, Green proposes to offer a $300 tax credit in his ad, while stating in order to qualify for assistance, you must prove citizenship. Huh? Nevermind, the fact is Green is out of touch with Wisconsinites. The one thing Green seems to forget is that the job he is running for is unlike anything he has done in Congress. State budgets have to be balanced, the debt cannot be sold off to the highest bidder or left to accumulate for future generations.

In a strange twist, rumor has it that former Governor Tommy (I run, I win) Thompson may throw his hat in the 2008 presidential race. After getting a whiff of D.C. graft, Thompson is taking the opposite road from Green’s. One has to remember that Tommy Thompson had almost single-handed wrecked Wisconsin and nearly turned the state into the Texas of the north. That Bush nearly destroyed the state he governed before running for president had to give Thompson some consolation that he too can make it to the White House. Wisconsin’s reputation of high taxes, low wages, ruined natural resources and stagnant growth bloomed in the 90's and were actually his "signature" achievements. The fact is, Doyle is still repairing the long-term damage done by Tommy.

So who could blame Thompson for cutting and running from Wisconsin? He knows you can’t please everyone balancing state budgets, plus it requires a brain and work. After pretending to work under George W. Bush for four long miserable years, ol’ slowpoke Thompson figures he could possibly do no worse and – he’s probably right. Cabinet meetings with Bush have been described as a blind man leading a room full of deaf people, and in no disrespect to people with disabilities, Thompson was clearly one of the “deaf.”