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Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend, the town of Vernon and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
Governor Doyle's budget message should have been about taxpayer protection
By Mary Lazich
Tuesday, Feb 17 2009, 09:11 PM
It would have been nice to hear the theme of Governor Doyle’s state budget address tonight to be about his 2009-11 budget protecting Wisconsin taxpayers. The governor failed to emphasize that mission clearly, strongly, and repeatedly.
The last route the state should take is the direction the governor laid out in his 2007-09 budget address that proposed new tax and fee increases totaling $1.75 billion. The approved 2007-09 state budget that I voted against, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau increased taxes and fees by $763,272,000. Wisconsin’s beleaguered taxpayers in this economic downturn simply cannot afford more hits to their pocketbooks.
Every metropolitan area in Wisconsin suffered job losses during 2008. Many employers are cutting back on their payrolls. At the national level, the U.S. Labor Department reported during January that claims for unemployment insurance are at a record high. At a time job security is not a guarantee, layoffs are increasing, and workers are accepting pay cuts to salvage their jobs, state government needs to refrain from taking away more of taxpayers’ hard-earned money. The government does not need the money as much as Wisconsinites need their income. Instead, it should remain in the hands of taxpayers.
Wisconsin remains one of the highest taxed states in the nation. Governor Doyle needed to acknowledge this well-documented fact and tell a statewide audience that his budget will put taxpayers first, not state coffers. For the sake of taxpayers, it would have been nice for GovernorDoyle to propose a budget that puts the brakes on runaway state spending and refrains from any new tax and fee increases. No new taxes. No new fees. No tax increases. No fee increases.
My suspicions were correct that the message the governor delivered would not be taxpayer-friendly given his overtures about a hospital tax, a tax on oil companies, an income tax increase, and yet another cigarette tax increase. The governor proposed new tax and fee increases as he did two years ago with a budget calling for increases to the tune of $1.75 billion. How will taxpayers around the state pay for budget increases with jobs and payrolls being slashed? These dire straits are the worst possible time to place a heavier burden on workers and families by increasing taxes and fees.
It would have been nice to hear the governor reach out directly to Wisconsin homeowners paying some of the highest property taxes in the nation, and propose a statewide property tax freeze. Such an idea would have had Wisconsinites watching his speech on television leap from their seats in cheers of approval. While a property tax freeze would be welcomed in every corner of the state, we reminisce that the governor vetoed a property tax freeze in the past.
School aids are increasing under the governor’s budget. Todd Berry of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance believes this could result in a five to seven percent statewide average property tax increase.
One week after the state Senate approved a job-killing measure to increase the minimum wage with annual automatic increases based on the rate of inflation, the governor needed to strongly urge the Legislature to stop considering bills that will hurt Wisconsinites, businesses, employees, consumers. This stern warning needed to be issued before the Legislature does even more damage.
Wisconsin’s business climate is one of the worst in the nation. It would have been nice to hear the governor say that higher taxes, fees, and government spending will only make it more difficult rather than more accommodating for businesses to create or retain jobs.
Wisconsin’s per capita income levels are some of the lowest in the country. I hoped the governor would cite this statistic and tell the state that more cannot be taken from workers earning less. Sadly, he did not.
Our state’s budget gap is the fourth highest in the country. To illustrate the seriousness our fiscal situation ranks, we are being mentioned in the same sentence as states like California and New York that are experiencing budget meltdowns. In the past, we have spent, borrowed, and pushed our troubles ahead into the next budget. It would have been nice to hear the governor proclaim that the days of charge card budgeting ended.
The 2009-11 state budget must not be about new taxes and increased spending. The next biennial state budget must be about protecting you, the taxpayers. That is the clear, concise message that would have been nice to hear from Governor Doyle over and over again tonight. For the sake of taxpayers in need of protection, it was a disappointment.
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