OPINION & EDITORIAL
Doyle misleads Wisconsin taxpayers with budget
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Also by Mark Baumgardner:
- A revolutionary papacy (April 4, 2005)
- Rhetorical lessons collected in Madison (May 5, 2005)
- Schiavo case overflowing with tragedies (March 29, 2005)
- Walker's responsibility ideal foil to Doyle (February 3, 2005)
Related Stories:
- Reviving the monster (October 30, 2007)
- Politics as usual (July 3, 2003)
- Doyle wrongly hikes taxes (May 3, 2007)
- Debate over Regents' decision highlights Governor Doyle's hypocrisy (September 29, 2003)
- Doyle passes the buck (February 20, 2003)
by Mark Baumgardner
Thursday, July 31, 2003
“I will be signing today the first honestly balanced budget in two decades - without fancy accounting gimmicks, without taking away people’s health care or abandoning our public schools, and - as promised - without a tax increase.” — Governor Jim Doyle (Budget Signing Address, July 24, 2003)
What a joke.
For the past several months, Wisconsinites have eagerly anticipated a taxpayer’s budget- one that featured fiscal restraint and allowed hard-working citizens to keep more of their earnings. Instead, Doyle thrust upon the state a budget primarily beneficial to the local taxing authorities.
Several weeks ago, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan organization, released a study with two unsurprising conclusions. It noted the extremely high rates of taxation in Wisconsin. On average, state and local governments gobble up a whopping 12.9 percent of personal income. This figure does not include federal income or payroll taxes.
The study also concluded these high taxes resulted from extremely high spending on aid to local governments and K-12 education. For example, spending on teacher and administrator salaries and benefits exceeds the national average by more than 11 percent.
Recognizing this problem, the Legislature reduced spending on aid to local governments and schools. In order to force schools and local governments to economize and improve efficiency, the Legislature also approved a property tax freeze.
The Republican legislators who proposed this idea included a provision which took economic development into account. Additionally, if schools and municipalities chose to exceed their limit, they could do so by referendum. Local control of taxation was, for once, returned to the taxpayers.
Enter Gov. Doyle.
On July 24, the Gov. vetoed this budget item, along with many others. “I will not let Madison politicians make decisions about local property taxes that are best made by local communities,” he said. The Republican proposal was the ultimate local control plan- elected local officials could cut property taxes in their community, or, with voter approval, they could raise them. Apparently, Doyle supports local control, as long as voters are denied participation in the process.
In his address, Doyle called on local officials to hold the line on property taxes. If Doyle thinks he can wave a magic wand and make this happen, he is ignoring years of history. For years, state aid to local governments has increased. This year, many communities are facing deep cuts in shared revenue. Some localities in southeastern Wisconsin are losing more than 20 percent of their state aid.
As a result of these cuts and Doyle’s property tax freeze veto, local governments will, on average, likely increase property taxes by 9 percent next year alone, the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates. Additionally, many local officials, recognizing that some form of a property tax freeze will eventually become reality, will try to implement swift increases before a cap constrains them. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s number does not even account for this increase.
Doyle trusts local officials to never let this happen. However, the state taxpayers do not. The freeze has overwhelming support throughout the state, and was the primary issue in a recent 21st Assembly District special election in which Republican Mark Honadel trounced Democrat Al Foeckler by a 61 to 39 percent margin. This marked the first time that a Republican won this seat since 1928.
In the race, Foeckler told voters to trust their local governments, citing his record of keeping taxes down as an Oak Creek alderman. However, voters were not fooled. They realized through bogus property assessments and hidden fees, taxes continued to increase. Most importantly, voters realized the freeze, which Honadel strongly supported, was the only way to hold property taxes down.
Many student activists have criticized the budget for its impact on the UW System, but they fail to realize that this tax issue is of equal or greater importance. For students who go to college seeking a degree and a career, a few dollars in tuition savings is meaningless if they have little or no hope of finding a job upon graduation.
For years, businesses have been leaving this state in droves and taking thousands of jobs along with them. After all, it makes economic sense to choose a location where the corporation and its employees can afford to live.
Doyle’s veto of the property tax freeze does nothing to reverse this trend; it does quite the opposite. If this veto is sustained, the blame for these disastrous consequences needs to be placed squarely where it belongs: on Governor Doyle and on his Democratic accomplices in the state legislature.
Mark Baumgardner (mbaumgardner@students.wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.
