The State Assembly passed a three-year property-tax freeze Wednesday, with Republican leaders praising the decision as a “huge victory” for taxpayers while Gov. Doyle’s office said it would spell out failure for Wisconsin’s educational system.
The freeze intends to ensure local units of government, and school districts will not increase their property tax tariffs above 2004 levels unless voters give them permission through a referendum.
Assembly Speaker John Gard has said that since Doyle supported freezing property taxes in his state budget address last week, signing the proposal would allow him to fulfill a promise to the taxpayers.
Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, said recent polls have shown the state favored a tax freeze.
“The proposal is widely popular with the majority of Wisconsin citizens so I am not sure why anyone would oppose it,” Schultz said.
But the governor has said the Republicans’ plan would deprive state public schools of more than $700 million. He instead introduced a “responsible property tax freeze.”
Doyle has said his plan — unlike the Republican proposal — will keep funding to schools and local services in addition to freezing taxes.
“The only responsible way to freeze property taxes is as part of the state’s overall budget, so that we know we are meeting our commitments to schools and local services,” Doyle said in a statement. “Republicans are putting the cart before the horse, limiting how much a community can spend without guaranteeing that the state will provide the resources needed to maintain quality schools.”
Doyle’s plan will run during the full two-year period of the legislative cycle. Schultz says this is a problem because all the one-time funding sources would be gone by the time the budget is recycled.
“The governor’s plan will leave all the hard work to the next biennium, so the next governor will be stuck with some hard choices,” Schultz said. “His freeze gets us through the election but does not continue to the next biennium. In 2007, we could be saying ‘Oh my gosh, we’re out of money. What do we do?'”
He said their three-year plan would bridge the gap between the two election seasons. The Republicans would thus guarantee the next election cycle’s budget would operate under the fix from the previous period.
But according to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis released Tuesday, Doyle’s proposed freeze slashed property taxes more than the Republican proposal.
Doyle’s press secretary Melanie Fonder called the GOP plan a “gimmick that would be a complete disaster to our schools” because it did not include a guarantee for shared revenue and state funding.
The Republican plan would fund education to the state but in the context of the budget, according to Schultz. And since some programs would have to be removed, finance committees would hold hearings to ask citizens which programs they would like to cut.
But Schultz said not seizing the opportunity to decrease people’s property taxes because of doubts about school funding would be a mistake.
“Why hold that part hostage, and not get it done?” he said. “It’s like saying we want all or nothing.”
The proposal should be passed by the state Senate Tuesday.
