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)

Buffett Offers To Match GOP Dollar For Dollar In Debt-Reducing Contributions

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Seattle Times Excerpt:
Billionaire Warren Buffett said Wednesday he's willing to match any contributions that Republican members of Congress make to help reduce the national debt.

Buffett told Time magazine about his offer in a conversation about why he's optimistic about the nation's future.

For years Buffett has said he doesn't believe it is right that he is taxed at a lower rate than his secretary. And he says most of the mega-rich people he knows wouldn't mind paying more in taxes.

Republicans figure; why pay yesterday's bills? Just let the children pay.

Anti-American Norquist Unrepentant For Nation's Massive Debt

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Grover Norquist is the guy who collected signatures from many Republicans pledging that they will not vote to raise revenue under any circumstances. He brags that Republicans haven't voted for a income tax increase since 1990.

Believe me. We've noticed.

Politico Excerpt:
“The tax issue is the most powerful issue in American politics” Norquist said to Kroft.

Here I always thought our annual national deficits and snowballing debt was the most powerful issue in American politics.

Politico Excerpt:
“I intend to win. I intend to be part of the whole effort to crush the other team,” Norquist said.

There's something wonderfully compassionate, all inclusive and apple pie about a person wanting to crush the other team, idd'in it?

But don't worry Grover, you are not only a part of the whole effort to crush the U.S. Government and put our economic future in grave danger, you are easily ranked in the top of our nation's worst domestic enemies.

Although Dems tend to blame you for complicating the supercommittee's process, you would be little more than a unknown random person had not those foolishly misguided elected officials signed your idiotic pledge to abandon their fiscal responsibility as outlined in the U.S. Constitution. I blame them first. Without them making that leap, you would be nowhere and America for the past 20 years would have been raising the revenue and paying its bills without saddling our children and grandchildren with this huge mountain of debt. But you did it Grover and we will hold you and those traitors accountable.

You won't have to worry about that.

Repeal Act 10 To Restore Shared Revenues

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Contrary to all the media hype and Walker's empty rhetoric about "tools," Wisconsin communities will be paying more in and getting less in return.

Beyond the destruction of collective bargaining rights, we knew this was their endgame. That the Walker class war budget taking $810 million away in state aid from education would force locals to do two things, either raise taxes on themselves or start making drastic cuts, or both.

JG Excerpt:
Janesville School Board members got some new budget numbers Tuesday, and they weren’t good ones.

The numbers suggested the board could raise property taxes this fall by up to 10 percent, although it doesn’t seem likely they will do so.

New estimates show that the district will get even less state aid than previously estimated but could raise taxes to make up the difference.

Wisconsin communities that have lost major employers, towns like Janesville, have been hit doubly hard because remaining taxpayers lucky enough to be employed will be footing an even larger tax bill to balance school and municipal budgets. After cutting education revenue to communities, Walker and Republicans increased government spending by $1.1 billion while promising to deliver less in local shared revenues. They have pulled off what is probably the greatest tax shift hoax in state history.

Illinois Republican Can't Explain How Bush Tax Cuts Creates Jobs

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Here's the zinger...

Question: When the Bush tax cuts took effect in 2003, the unemployment rate was 6.2%, now in the ninth year of those cuts, unemployment is 9.1%, so where's the evidence that these tax cuts created jobs?

Watch it:



Here's yet another Republican getting dismantled by his constituents at a townhall.

Buffett: Stop Coddling The Super-Rich

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Reuters Excerpt:
Billionaire Warren Buffett urged U.S. lawmakers to raise taxes on the country's super-rich to help cut the budget deficit, saying such a move will not hurt investments.

"My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice," The 80-year-old "Oracle of Omaha" wrote in an opinion article in The New York Times.

"I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone - not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 - shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain," -- Warren Buffett

Forbes tries to downplay Buffett's editorial by claiming he left out the effect of Berkshire Hathaway corporate taxes. Buffett was clear that he was addressing his individual income and payroll tax.

Profits Soar, No Hiring

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Big businesses have recovered almost 90 percent of what they lost. So with all this money and profit, they’ll start hiring again, right? Wrong – for three reasons.

AlterNet Excerpt:

First, lots of their profits are coming from their overseas operations. So that’s where they’re investing and expanding production.

Second, big U.S. businesses are investing their cash in labor-saving technologies. This boosts their productivity, but not their payrolls.

Finally, corporations are using their pile of money to pay dividends to their shareholders and buy back their own stock – thereby pushing up share prices.” – Robert Reich

Yes, and whatever little excess cash working-class American consumers have, they're spending it at Wal-Mart.

This should not even be an argument, but instead we have republicans like our own Congressman Paul Ryan claiming that the free markets are reluctant to create jobs because of tax uncertainty. His approach is to instill more fear in defense of the Bush tax cuts for his largest campaign shareholders.

The Bush tax cuts were signed into law in May, 2003 and had the cuts really worked as some contended, we would be on the cusp of the greatest period of job expansion right now, not the worst economic contraction. Instead, the tax cuts seeded the fastest growing national deficits ever while the disappearance of jobs in America have very little to do with tax policy.

Tax Speculative Transactions On Wall Street? Sounds Great!

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Capital Times Excerpt: (John Nichols)
Last week, Kagen joined Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, in proposing legislation to assess a financial transactions tax... The legislation, known as the “Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act,” would tax each stock transaction at 0.25 percent and futures, swaps and credit default swaps at 0.02 percent. The tax, which would not apply to the first $100,000 of a trader’s annual transactions, is designed to target the speculators. Pension funds and retirement investors are protected, via a guaranteed refund of the tax.

Center For American Progress Excerpt: (Michael Ettinger)
This idea has not been well received by the industry. Opponents on Wall Street make two basic arguments: First, they argue, financial transactions of the sort that would be subject to the tax could easily be moved anywhere in the world so if you tax them, they will go. Second, they argue that some transactions that are helpful to the economy wouldn’t be profitable even at these extremely low rates. This argument posits that traders who buy and sell constantly while making tiny profits on their many transactions would be driven from the market because the tax would eat mightily into those tiny profits.

You know Wall Street is going to fight this tooth and nail. We can expect a Wall Street Journal editorial soon from their congressional liaison Paul Ryan explaining how 401k's, borrowing rates and seniors will suffer because the tax will be passed down...or, it's unconstitutional...somehow.

Why is it the financial managers swinging the deals and working the swaps collect millions in bonuses but there's never enough left over for a quarter-point tax?

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A Quote To Chew On

Dick Cheney On The Economy Excerpt:
When Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill raised objections to a new round of tax cuts while warning Vice President Dick Cheney about growing budget deficits in November 2002, Cheney cut him off. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said. A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.

Expect Wider Class Divide

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A report by the Pew Center placed Wisconsin among a list of states at risk of a deepening economic distress similar to that of California.

JG Excerpt:
Wisconsin On List Of Ailing States (Nov. 11, 2009)
A report released Wednesday by the Pew Center on the States says Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin also are at risk of fiscal calamity.

Google News Excerpt:
Wisconsin officials issued a statement late Wednesday saying the Pew report was inaccurate. Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Michael Morgan said the state has balanced its budget by cutting spending and raising revenue. It projects a $270 million budget surplus for the period ending July 1, 2011, Morgan said in his statement.

JG Excerpt: (April 9, 2008)
Rich Getting Rich Faster
Rich people in Wisconsin are getting richer faster than middle-income earners and the poor. A couple of reports released today shows the gap between the rich and poor isn't as wide in Wisconsin as in the rest of the country - but the gap is growing.

While the state struggles to balance the books, organized paymasters have the time and the means to extort tax cuts, credits and exemptions from government under the guise of "partnership" and job creation. Their continued success will mean home-owning wage-earners and the working poor should expect to pay a much larger share of the local tax burden.

Hurry! Pass this legislation before the fools catch on.

It's a Great Time To Celebrate Unions

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The labor union held their nose and reversed an earlier decision to reject concession demands proposed by Mercury Marine.

WTOP Excerpt:
Mercury Marine President Mark Schwabero said in a statement after the vote that the company will begin consolidating work in Fond du Lac this year, including moving work from a nonunion plant in Stillwater, Okla., within two years.

The states weren't so lucky.

WTOP Excerpt:
The only winner was the company, he said. "They extorted Stillwater," he said. "They extorted Fond du Lac. They extorted us."

The folks in Stillwater had no problem playing the extortion game with Mercury Marine all the way until they lost.

Mercury Marine: Never Waste A Crisis

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No question this has been going on for years. But I've rarely seen such a blatantly direct approach to extort funds from the government.

Examiner Excerpt:
July 27,2009 -- "The State of Wisconsin cannot afford stand by while a major corporation commits an act of economic extortion in its own backyard," said IAM Business Representative Russell Krings. "Mercury Marine has benefited for decades from state and local tax incentives and public support. They cannot be allowed to use the current economic crisis to pit one small community against another for the privilege of their presence."

Took the words right out of my mouth. But...

FDLReporter Excerpt:
Aug.30,2009 -- If Mercury Marine accepts local government's incentive package to keep its headquarters in Fond du Lac, a county sales tax would likely be imposed for the first time to help pay the costs.

Ahhhh...free enterprise at its best.

Business Will Challenge Tax That Can't Be passed Down?

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Saturday's Janesville Gazette contained the newspaper's expected WMC and WEDA collaborated editorial rant supporting the misguided "anti-business" publicity campaign against the state of Wisconsin. This partisan driven editorial was apparently also the paper's attempt to muster public support in favor of government sponsored capital hand-outs and bidding procedures to 'woo' business development.

JG Editorial Excerpt:
Two local Democrats, Sen. Judy Robson of Beloit and Rep. Mike Sheridan of Janesville, earn credit for the DOZ proposal. But they are part of the Democratic majority in Madison that is backing billions in new taxes. Many of these target businesses and won't help Wisconsin's economy thrive.

A tax targeting business? That's constitutionally impossible according to Stan Milam's column on the very same page titled "Will Democrats take stand against oil company tax?" In it, Milam repeatedly parrots the notion that a provision in Wisconsin's oil tax proposal prohibiting companies from passing along the cost (of the tax) onto the consumer is unconstitutional.

JG Excerpt: (Milam)
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, says he's not sure the tax and the prohibition on passing along the costs is constitutional. Mind you, this is after Pocan's committee approved the provision.

Milam's column creates a revolving contradiction with the editorial perception that businesses pay taxes and are now targeted to pay more. But he does re-enforce the notion that most taxes meant for business are rarely challenged by business in the courts because companies are free (constitutional?) to bury the cost burden in punitive price hikes on consumers or wage and benefit cuts on workers. So, are businesses truly taxed if they pass the cost down to the next in line?

So the argument that businesses are targeted or pay too much state tax doesn't hold water. But Doyle and the Democrats may have actually stumbled upon some tax language that may work as it is intended. Otherwise, why bother to challenge it?

I'm not trying to pretend I know the legal structure on which the proposed oil tax is founded. But judging from Milam's subjective reactions to it, it appears the oil tax - unlike all other taxes - will work as intended. If not, let the courts decide. It's definitely worth the effort and a challenge may open up the right doors to make it work. How will we know if we don't try.

Republicans and their supporters can't have it both ways. They can't say Wisconsin businesses are overburdened with taxes, yet are willing to go to court the moment it occurs they are expected to actually pay one of them.

NOTE: Milam's column is not available on the open Web.

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It is my belief that the federal government, acting as the premier equalizer, should prohibit states, counties and local jurisdictions from using cash, legislated tax credits, rebates or any other creatively inspired capital derivative as a bargaining weapon against each other in the quest for private venture economic development. We should stand together as a united country with each state and region participating in a cooperative economic meritocracy based on the people's ability to improvise and innovate, available resources along with transportation, housing and education, to land private business start-ups and expansions - not to be decided by the wealth of participants in a capital-based bidding process.

Of course, the current practice involving capital bartering for economic development under governmental ordinance and oversight is nothing new. It has been going on for decades. It is the status quo. And those encouraging and advocating for these short-term solutions to our deep and long-term problems are only fueling the status quo continuum. Once it takes root it is like a train rolling downhill with no brakes. Those jumping onboard are not slowing it, their weight is only increasing the power of the virtual impact that awaits. It is a defacto morality that works in tandem with campaign finances, government corruption and corporate cronyism.

We must not allow cities or regions, big or small, to suffer economically merely because they were unable to muster a capital hand-out to the wealthiest entities among us. It should be a crime. The cash hand-outs and tax credit derivatives legalized in our state houses under the guise of an economic incentive package should anger each and every one of us.

I realize many will think these statements are from an impossibly hopeless idealist, but I call it the only way forward to a sustainable and prosperous future. Nothing is impossible.

Janesville Company Expands Into Europe

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Packaging News Excerpt:
Construction has started on custom medical thermoform packaging manufacturer Prent Thermoforming's first European base in Holbaek, Denmark.

Prent Excerpt:
“The development of Prent-Denmark—like our other global expansion initiatives—has been through organic growth, not acquisition growth,” he points out. “This growth has been generated entirely within our own organization. Consequently we have a very defined effort when we open new facilities.

JG Excerpt:
In the 10 years or so that Prent has operated global facilities, employment in Janesville has increased, he said. More than half of the company's worldwide payroll of 1,000-plus work in Janesville at either Prent or GOEX, a Prent subsidiary that makes and extrudes plastic sheet products.

This is good news! With any luck, it’ll keep the workers in Janesville busy and who knows – maybe they’ll expand here again from the larger global customer base.

But I have to ask. What incentive does Malaysia, China or Denmark offer to attract businesses like Prent? A forgivable loan? A tax credit or rebate? A TIF District perhaps? None of the articles reported on any of those details. Or do businesses like Prent build and expand because their business and customer base demand it - as the articles say - if we can believe it. Who knows? If it's true, this could be a radical new business model by Prent. Imagine, prosperous and capable businesses pulling themselves up by their own boot-straps, re-investing their own profits to expand their wealth instead of raising our taxes by running to government for an economic development hand-out. What a pioneering if not unique idea! Of course, I could be speaking too soon here.

Actually, I shouldn’t be the one asking. Janesville city administrative officials and state legislators should be asking these questions of themselves.

Can City’s Hockey Deal Pass The Swap Test?

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With all the commotion in Janesville over a venture capitalist group gaining the inside track to a taxpayer built and operated facility for a junior hockey team, would the owners of a privately owned and operated indoor ice arena offer the same contract to the city?

For starters, nobody is stopping the hockey investment group from coming to Janesville and setting up shop for business. The WHP are at will to do as they please. We have several local banks who would probably be glad to give them a commercial loan for whatever amount they need. They can build their own hockey facility and pay all the utility bills, maintenance and property taxes on it like everyone else – the hockey group shouldn’t let anyone stop them from doing this.

With any luck, the City Of Janesville can then rent the new facility from the hockey investment group for school youth hockey and skate nights at a cost of $450 per event. Of course the City can keep all the admissions, concessions and dollars paid for billboards and advertising as per contract. The arena owners could prepare the contract at their own expense and act as the city's agent in the deal. The owners could also put the city’s logo under the ice and keep the parking lot clear of snow in the winter. The city wouldn't need to rent the office space so we could save on the monthly rent. With that, the city could save over $35,000 a year in subsidies paid to the current Ice Arena. We could let someone else worry about the ice and all the other bills. Why not? This is almost the same deal the city administration has been spending taxpayer funded hours on preparing to agree to with now. It's just as fair - we can call it a public/private partnership.

What to do with the current ice arena? That's easy. Since we would no longer need the ice, the city could decommission the ice-making system and leave the concrete intact. Then upgrade the arena with a new roof and some video and audio electronics for a lot less than the $1.5 million they claim it will need anyways in a few years, and turn the place into a multi-purpose community and business-use convention center. This is something the city does not have but will desperately need in the coming years in order to sell itself for economic development.

Of course, don't bet on any of this to happen. There is no way the local elites would allow city taxpayers to own and operate such a unique and profitable facility.

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Saturday's Gazette contained an article about the 52nd annual Mid-West Blind Bowlers Tournament held at the RiversEdge Bowl on South River Street in Janesville.

JG Excerpt:
The Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau estimated that the three-day event will result in $110,250 being spent at Janesville restaurants, hotels and retailers.

This little piece of information buried in what otherwise was a good article about the event wouldn’t be some sly but still cheesy attempt to sway public opinion in favor of socializing the losses involved in supporting a private investment group’s hockey venture into Janesville – now would it?

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Surprise - Surprise!!

Janesville Veto Not Meant For Janesville

Obama Asks Super-Rich For Used Toyota

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As to be expected, the Republicans have viciously railed against President Obama’s stimulus plan and proposed tax schedule. Who could blame them when just seven years ago they rubber stamped the Bush tax cut for their wealthy base, giving a brand new Lexus to every millionaire. In exchange for years of rolling up deficits and a growing disparity in wealth, Obama's plan translates into asking the millionaires for a used Toyota in return.

Chicago Tribune Excerpt:
Clint Stretch, senior principal for tax policy at Deloitte Tax, said an individual with no children and with $500,000 in income would pay an additional $19,200 in taxes. Taxes for a married couple with the same income and two children under 17 would go up by $11,300.

In addition, the capital gains tax on small businesses would be eliminated.

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Before any stimulus funds are sent to Wisconsin communities, Rep. Paul Ryan and his legion of supporters need to stand up in the 1st CD and be counted. They need to show themselves as the true conservatives they claim to be and publicly refuse to accept any stimulus money on behalf of themselves, their communities, their businesses or “economic development” organizations.

Corporate Taxes Still Too High At Zero

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Majority Corporations Pay No Taxes

Sort of echos' what I've been saying here all along, except I've said American corporations generally pay the same federal tax rate. Little did I know that meant most pay no federal taxes AT ALL - NOT AT ALL. YES - they all pay the same - ZERO! Those that do pay tax.....are able to recoup the tax from a embedded mark-up in the price for their product.

Once upon a time, America had the finest income tax system in the world, until Congress gerrymandered it with loopholes, tax credits and exemptions. Based on sliding-scale brackets of annual income, it used to be those who acquire the greatest percentage of annual wealth also paid the greatest percentage in taxes. Not any more. Consumers and property owners pay the majority of ALL the taxes - regardless of their income.

Excerpt:
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined samples of corporate tax returns filed between 1998 and 2005. In that time period, an annual average of 1.3 million U.S. companies and 39,000 foreign companies doing business in the United States paid no income taxes - despite having a combined $2.5 trillion in revenue.

According to the GOP, the complexity of our tax code needlessly burdens American businesses into paying NO taxes!!.....looks like another corporate tax cut is in order....or another loophole....a tax credit....or a TIF District....or some other taxpayer funded hand-out. SOMETHING!! I mean - how will we compete??

Oh, this is charming.
McCain says "cut corporate taxes." How do you cut something from nothing? But wait. Republicans propose that if we lower the tax rate on corporations from a percentage they don't pay anyways, suddenly corporations will start paying. This suggestion must come from the same talking-points memo passed around by GOP Club For Growthers to prove, counter-intuitively I might add, that tax cuts generate more government spending revenue.

Hasn't the redistribution of wealth ushered in by the Bush tax cuts widened the rich/poor gap enough? Nooooooo. They want more.

Tomorrow, there will probably be a report stating the opposite - that American corporations pay the most taxes - it never fails.

Ideas For Janesville's Future

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How Things Got This Way

JG Editorial Excerpt:
City Manager Steve Sheiffer say’s the city’s vision is to make the Dawson/Jackson Street area a major park.

Just what Janesville needs - another greenbelt park.

What Janesville does need is thee park. You know what I mean, a large park built from big dreams with big money and all the civic attractions and markers expressing what Janesville is all about.

We have the location in Riverside for this but unfortunately, they have splintered the activities over the years, and administration elites drove much of the funding into Palmer. It’s too bad because City Planners now have two parks dividing the city and now want to segregate it further by creating another medium scale park in what could arguably be the city’s most prime real estate for economic development.

But what I find just as troubling if not an obstruction to progress is the city’s rigidity on an ancient and unfunded vision the City Manager has referred to as the Riverfront Plan.

Janesville Neighborhood Shut Out Of Progress:
After almost 90 years, Janesville finally is starting to look the way John Nolen envisioned it could. The famed landscape architect, who was integral in planning a state park system for Wisconsin, was called in to take a look at Janesville's first city plans and had an idea.
"This was back around 1920," said Brad Cantrell, the city's planning director. "He recommended the city turn the area along the Rock River into parks and open space. He saw it as a major asset to business, and up to that point, it had kind of been an industrial corridor. A lot of businesses here had turned their backs on the Rock River."

And do you know what? The Delavan/Jackson Street area in Janesville has been frozen in time ever since. Who wants to invest in a business or buy property in an area when the city wants to turn it into a park from plans drawn up nearly 90 years ago?

At the last council meeting the City Manager made another interesting comment. He said when the city council approves a development or commits to a resolution, the action is void if no funding is earmarked by the time the council’s term expires. Yet the city planners continue to rehash Nolen’s plan not from 20 years or even 40 years ago, but from 90 years ago! Those supporting this old idea today are said to be visionaries. Nolen was the visionary, and after almost a century of unfunded mandates, I’d say his term has expired.

The Jackson/Delavan Street Area

This is MY idea for the Jackson/Delavan St. area.

Turn it into a mixture of privately developed mid-rise condo’s and small stores with large sweeping terraces to the river. The properties would be oriented with their facade, balconies, decorative features and large windows facing the river. The views would be spectacular relative to what Janesville has to offer. Sure, the street side faces GM, but there are architectural and landscaping tricks that could be employed to diminish this adverse view. And who knows how long those smokestacks and industrial tanks will remain in play anyhow, with the expected closing of the plant. It would give Janesville a taste of what they’ve seen in other towns and would offer a fine example encouraging other property owners along the downtown river corridor to join the club - without forcing them.

This would be a high-end development with the river as the main attraction, not some earthen berm meant to block the view of a Big Box store. This would serve as Janesville’s experimental concept and entrance into 21th century living, eventually melding the nearby and affordable single-family residences from the Fourth Ward into a well balanced and self-sustaining community. Micro CSA’s could fill in any remaining vacant parcels.

Turning this area into another green-belt park would be a crime whose time has past. It would return zero tax dollars and would continue to push economic development away from the city’s core to the outer edges in the form of sprawl. It’s time to get past the 1920’s. If anything, the cost of energy demands it.

The GM Plant

Of course, I hope Janesville does not lose the GM factory, but if we do, I’ve mentioned another one of MY ideas in a comment to an earlier posting from June 28th.

It involves turning the 200+ acre facility grounds into a wind and solar power generating facility - NOT a factory as recently explained by another creative individual in the Janesville Gazette. Don't take that comment as a attack against the factory idea, I mentioned it merely to show the fundamental difference between our ideas.

The other key element to MY idea is to sell the electricity produced back to Alliant in the form of credits on residential OR business electricity bills. The facility would be owned and operated by the taxpaying residents of Janesville, the "Janesville Perpetual Energy Company" if I may - not a private entity.

I believe this development would be an irresistible incentive to attract businesses, entrepreneurs and others into Janesville. The window to acquire multi-million dollar Federal grants for such a green-powered facility is just around the corner - the possibilities are endless. General Motors may also be willing to ante up millions to extricate itself from environmental liabilities expected to be uncovered at the property.

Another idea of MINE is to turn the GM location into a giant state-of-the-art Expo Center complete with county fair grounds, outdoor band shell AND a duo-purpose ballpark for the Snappers and Gladiators. The location is ideal for volume traffic as the surrounding streets have already been modified to handle the additional loads. When one considers that the cramped confines of Wrigley Field in Chicago has only an eight acre footprint, it is easy to put into perspective the size of the GM plant. Janesville's Rotary gardens is about 15 acres. The Reuther Way access road running into the heart of this location help make this idea for multiple recreational facilities even more appealing. This would be more than just a Rock County facility, it could be South-Central Wisconsin's Regional Recreational and Expo Park.

Even though I’ve posted these ideas on the Internet and invite people to consider them, I’ve highlighted these ideas as mine simply because they are. This Web-presentation is time and date-stamped, and I welcome others to convince the city to change course on the Riverfront Plan before it's too late. In addition, I also realize this proposal might sound presumptuous and beyond the bounds of an ordinary citizen. But we all search for reasons why things shouldn't be.

If key elements of this prospectus are implemented, I would expect credit to be given where credit is due.

At the same time, I don't pretend that this is the economic rapture Janesville has been waiting for, or think any of it can or will happen anytime soon without funding. Nolen’s concept has been on the books without funding and without completion for over 90 years, they are no longer visionary. Lesson learned.

The only other suggestion I can make is directed toward individuals who feel as strongly about their ideas as I do. Before you pass them out casually during conversations or to individuals and organizations requesting you send the ideas to them, have your idea documented, notarized or digitally date-stamped at the minimum. I don't mean to sound preachy on this, but much of the world's wealth is built either on somebody else's labor, other people's money or stolen ideas.

Radical Tax Policies Threaten To Divide Nation Further

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The Sunday edition (April 27th) of the Janesville Messenger contained their bi-annual tax ritual editorial titled,"Tax policy threatens to divide nation."

JM Editorial Excerpt:
According to a study conducted by Stephen Moore, a senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal, the top 10 percent of wage earners in the country now pay 68 percent of federal income taxes. The bottom 50 pay just 3 percent.

Oh, boo-hoo-hoo.

When the top 300,000 Americans collectively rake in income equivalent to the bottom 150 million Americans, something is wrong and it has nothing to do with taxes.

But to be fair, the Messenger editorial is about tax policy, and in simple terms we are taxed not as an individual but by the income we earn determined by sliding-scale brackets for the best and fairest of reasons. For instance, if the country produced $5 trillion in annual cash flows and you alone collected 2.5 trillion of it - you are in a bracket that collected 50% of all revenue, you would be required to pay 50% of the goverment's operating costs. It may be 20% percent of 2.5 trillion dollars or it might be 80% percent, whatever the government requires. Granted, I'm looking at supply side only, but this isn't rocket science.

A flat tax is an income-blind tax that would raise the cost of living tremendously to anyone earning less than $200,000.

The Fair Tax or flat tax recently promoted by some GOP presidential candidates including Mike Huckabee actually involves a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level. Is that what poor Americans really want? ....another entitlement? Contrary to what rich people think, the masses don't want a hand-out. They WANT to pay their fair share in taxes providing they're paid their fair share in wages. If you think there is a great divide between the rich and the poor now, you ain’t seen nothing till you see what a flat tax, a two-tier two-America's tax rate or sales only tax would do. Any of them would be devastating.

Drop the phony moniker and implications of the "Fair Tax" plan and endorse the implied simplicity of a Fair Wage doctrine designed to not only pay everyone a living wage, but a taxable one as well.

Stimulus Payment No Longer A Rebate?

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This past Saturday, the Janesville Gazette ran a short question and answer article about the economic stimulus payments everybody is waiting for from Uncle Sam.

JG Excerpt:
Q: Will my payment reduce my 2008 tax refund or increase the amount I owe in 2008?
A: No. The stimulus payment is not taxable.

That answer did not answer the question thoroughly enough. The question did not ask whether the refund was taxable, but whether the payment would have an effect on next year's taxes as an "advance payment."

ALL of the earlier MSM reports on the economic stimulus plan referred to either “payments” for individuals who have some income but no tax liabilities, and “rebates” for everyone else who pay Federal income tax.

Apparently and without notice, that has all now changed........maybe. After surfing the web looking for the right answer, it does seem the IRS is now calling the “rebate” a "stimulus payment" and has dropped all "rebate" language.

On the surface it appears all stimulus will be defined as “payments,” so it can only be assumed here that the "payment" will not increase or decrease any tax refund or additional tax to which you would otherwise be committed to next year. It is an additional credit (hand-out) for 2008, which we will be receiving in advance....supposedly. After having said all this, there still seems to be no one able to answer the question "Will my payment reduce my 2008 tax refund or increase the amount I owe in 2008?" with any definitive authority.

About.com Excerpt:

Notices
Most taxpayers will receive two notices from the IRS. The first general notice from the IRS will explain the stimulus payment program. The second notice will confirm the recipients’ eligibility, the payment amount and the approximate time table for the payment. Taxpayers will need to save this notice to assist them when they prepare their 2008 tax return next year.

Why would anyone need to save information to "assist" them with next year's taxes?

Lowdown On Tax Rebates:
The rebates serve as a one-time tax cut initially based on their 2007 incomes - an advance on a credit taxpayers will receive on their 2008 return.

Probably the best explanation yet. It's an advance on a tax cut slated for next years (2008) 1040. So IT IS a rebate!!Additional opinion on next years taxes.

McCain Adopting Two Americas Tax System

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Excerpt:
In terms of taxes, McCain made several proposals. He said he would offer an alternative tax system that would consist of just two tax rates and a larger standard deduction than under the current code. Tax filers would be allowed to choose whether they wished to file under the current system or the new one.

An analysis of a plan with a similar structure, the Tax Policy Center found that tax revenue reduction would have the potential to increase deficits by $7 trillion over 10 years if all taxpayers took advantage of it. Under that plan, proposed by former Republican candidate Fred Thompson and a similar one by Rep.Paul Ryan, filers making between $100,000 and $500,000 would see the biggest break.

One of the most insidious lines of reasoning underlying Republican fiscal policy has been the idea they are offering taxpayers a choice between the current system and their system. Whether it is McCain’s Two America’s tax policy or Ryan’s Tax Choice plan, they’re nearly identical and both play off on the idea of offering the taxpayer the irresistible choice of paying less at the federal level.

Much like Ryan’s now defunct Social Security privatization plan which also carried with it the participant's ability to stay in the current system or join their alternative, all of the “choice” plans are driven to defund a heavily indebted Federal government by encouraging less participation in our shared sacrifice paying the nation's bills.

In this most basic yet indirect way, Republicans stay on the tax cut track to remain in office, that's all they have even if they have to destroy America.

"We have an unemployment insurance program straight out of the 1950s. It was designed to assist workers through a few tough months during an economic downturn until their old jobs came back. That program has no relevance to the world we live in today," McCain said.

McCain is right for a change on this one……... today, their jobs aren’t coming back.