Wisconsin Taxpayers: Fight or Flight?

by Kerry Thomas

October 16, 2007

When the economy slows down and people have less money to spend, what’s the fastest way to get the economy moving again? (HINT: It’s NOT by raising taxes and taking more of the People’s hard earned money away from them, only to see it wasted by government bureaucrats.)

Governor Jim Doyle has repeatedly promised during his administration that he would not raise taxes. Yet, despite these political promises, his budgets have routinely included massive tax increases on the taxpayers of Wisconsin. Call them user fees, call the excise taxes, say it’s closing a loophole, the net result is raising taxes.

Absent the proposal for government-run health care in Wisconsin (Healthy Wisconsin would have raised taxes on Wisconsin by more than $15 billion annually), the Democrats are still pushing for more than $2 billion in new taxes on Wisconsin taxpayers, including higher taxes on hospital beds, real estate, cigarettes, beer, and higher gasoline taxes.

The Democrats in Madison continue to put forth budget proposals that dramatically raise taxes. They refuse to compromise, insisting it’s their way or nothing. Yet all we hear reported out of the budget negotiations in Madison is how Republicans are refusing to compromise on the budget.

The truth is that the Republicans have passed two bills in the Assembly, AB506 & AB507, that not only provide for full funding of public education and local government aids, but do so at the spending levels proposed by the Democrats. These bills would have minimized the effect of local property tax increases next year.

The Democrats in the Senate, including our own Senator Roger Breske, refused to even consider these bills, insisting they wanted a comprehensive budget or nothing. Now, the Governor is proposing passage of piecemeal budget bills, excluding the transportation budget, in a vain attempt to get credit for Republican ideas.

He’s still holding out for massive tax increases on oil companies, claiming they won’t pass on their higher taxes to the consumers. Governor Doyle’s own Attorney General has already said such a targeted tax proposal is unconstitutional. And the real truth is that corporations don’t pay taxes. They get charged taxes, but those expenses get folded into their cost of doing business, and are reflected in the price of their products, be it gasoline or eggs, a new car or ethanol.

In recent years, Wisconsin has slipped from third among highest taxed states to tenth, not because of any fiscal discipline in Madison, but because other states have imposed ever-increasing taxes on their citizens. The Democrats in Madison are desperately trying to regain that lost ground, and vault Wisconsin back to the top of highest taxes states.

As economic worries threaten to slow our economy, it would be a smart move to actually freeze or even reduce state spending, lower the tax burden in Wisconsin, and reinvigorating our business climate. The best way a government can help it’s citizens is by getting out of the way and letting the entrepreneurial spirit soar.

With Wisconsin’s economy and the question of higher taxes on the line, it’s fight or flight time in Madison.

Either the taxpayers win the fight, or they’ll take flight to states with lower tax burdens.