In the Mt Horeb Mail this week they're reporting that the school budget has increased for this coming school year.  I don't have an opinion on whether this increase was completely necessary or not - I don't have that much information on what was included at this time.  However, we do know that this, combined with the state budget, will mean an increase of $12.00 per $100,000 per year in property taxes.  In other words, due to cuts in the stat budget our local taxes will be rising again. 

Remember a short while back when our state representatives were patting themselves on the back for making all those "hard decisions" on the state budget?  One of those hard decisions was to cut state aid to our schools and instead fund a bunch of pork to reward the members who voted for that travesty.  This doesn't qualify as a hard decision in my book.  A truly hard decision would be to place our children and our schools as a top priority and instead cut the pork.  In other words, make a real stand on the priorities for our state instead of politics as usual.  On the other hand, it looks like the towns, schools, and ultimately us as the taxpayers are going to have to continue to mark true hard choices as a consequence.

In contrast to the state budget which increased spending, increased taxes, increased fees, and ‘enhanced’ collection of those fees and taxes, the Village of Mt Horeb is facing true hard decisions in their budget.  As a consequence of all the spending, or more accurately where the spending went, in the state budget, townships and villages have to deal now with a 15 percent reduction in state aid.  Unfortunately, they truly will need to make tough choices. 

Representative Sondy Pope-Roberts appeared before the Mt. Horeb Village Board to try and explain this.  At one point she plainly admitted “It is not a budget any of us can come forward and brag about”.  Funny, I seem to remember many quotes from the Democrat majority bragging about how they made all the difficult decisions and did right by the people of Wisconsin in this budget.   Remember, they spent all those late nights, working hard through the night for us? 

The bottom line is that this nightmare of a budget was created in wee hours of the night, behind closed doors, largely in secrecy.  Our representatives, at least those in the Democrat majority, didn’t make the hard decisions we elected them to do and at the end of the day spent more money than they have – again.  This is clear as the budget passed on partisan, party lines.  When our representative sides with her party over the people she represents then you have to ask who is she representing?

At least the state budget, for better or worse, is done, right?  Too bad we can’t just wake up and find out it was all a terrible dream. 

There is an interesting article by Brett Healy in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sharing his thoughts and analysis on the recently passed budget.  Bottom line?  Our “representatives” in the Democrat-led state government spends $3.63 billion more than the last budget.  I shudder to think what it would be if they hadn’t made all those “hard decisions”.    

Remember the property tax limiting QEO that was eliminated in the state budget?  In reading the Mt. Horeb Mail, it looks like we’re going to be feeling the effects of that one in the years to come.  Maybe not this year but we’re setting ourselves up for pain in the coming years.  At the end of the day, this is going to have a negative impact on our teachers, the school districts, and ultimately our children.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a dream and we have to live with the consequences.  We also need to remember who was supposed to be representing us when this bill was passed.  Our district’s representative, Assembly Member Sondy Pope-Roberts, supported this horrendous state budget (party before the people I guess) and should be held accountable when she next comes up for election.    

In case you missed one of the leading stories in the Wisconsin State Journal today, in the midst of a budget crisis where we needed to make 'tough' decisions, we just spent a half million dollars on a new climate change lab in Madison.  Whether you believe in climate change or not (what happened to global warming?) to spend this much money on a project that is clearly less than critical is outrageous.

Ironically, this is just the type of the proverbial iceberg for pork projects slipped in.  For a complete listing of earmarks, affectionately called "Location-Specific Provisions", you can check here for the Senate version and here for the Assembly version.  Hopefully these links will remain active...   

I was listening to Bill Richardson on Vicki McKenna's show the other day when the audacity of the proposed Dane County RTA hit me once again.  Consider that the proposed diesel train will run from Middleton to the Town of Burke - not even all the way to Sun Prairie, the Town of Burke - but we need a Regional Tax Authority to build a train essentially to serve a small minority of Madison.

If Madison wants a train, why doesn't Madison pay for the train?  I don't see taxes levied in Verona to pay for projects in Mt. Horeb or taxes levied in Oregon to pay for projects in Middleton.  Why do the Madison elite who want this train get to create a new tax for all of Dane County to pay for their shiny new toy then?  Will a new train in Madison really benefit the residents of Mt. Horeb, Verona, Oregon, Monona, and everyone else? 

The danger is that if enough folks from outside of Madison don't get out and vote then a couple thousand votes from inside Madison could determine this.  There was the same rural vs. urban split in the race for County Executive.  Not that our leaders have even committed to giving us a binding referendum at this point but at least there would the vote on the record.  There is a ray of hope that the vote will be binding as the Senate version of the budget is leaning towards that.  However this would need to be reconciled with the Assembly version that doesn't believe the citizens of Dane County deserve a say in this (that we're even to this point is insane but that's the hand we've been dealt).

Finally, beware the carrot that is being thrown to voters.  They've made a big deal about how the Dane County RTA could use some money for roads.  All this will do is give the RTA the authority to put some money on roads but there is nothing to ensure that actually happens.  Remember "some" is anything greater than zero and isn't required (which in this case means some can equal none).  This money will be gone in a heartbeat when the train runs over budget and needs annual subsidies to continue operating if it was ever there at all.

I’ve heard of this new math but confess I’ve never had the opportunity to use it firsthand. Keep in mind my background is in engineering and I’ve had more math than I care to remember in my career.  In one class were we actually had to prove that “1 + 1 = 2”.  It’s harder than it sounds when you can’t use the “it just is” argument.

I bring this up since I heard various representatives this morning from the Democratic Party State Convention.  They are so proud that they “cut” the budget.  That’s where the math gets fuzzy since I’ve read about all the increases (more than three billion dollars) they passed as a part of this budget.  Since when does increasing taxes, increasing fees, and enhancing fee collection equal cutting the budget?  In the math I know, if you truly cut the budget then there shouldn’t be any need to increase taxes.  What happens more often than not in this new math is that cutting the budget means “we spent more but not as much as we really wanted to”. 

I read another great article by Mark Steyn this last weekend regarding the healthcare plans in front of the United States Congress right now.  This relates to our budget situation.  Like there, the devil is in the details and apathy is what they count on.  It’s great to have a sound bite that says you cut spending but when you’re truly informed the numbers just don’t add up.  Also, just like with healthcare, the real budget and spending is buried so deep that it’s difficult to truly be informed. 

Perhaps the Democrat-led leadership in our State Assembly could use some remedial math?  Perhaps not senior level university courses but maybe just something the local elementary school?

Tough Choices

Our Democrat-led State Assembly made some “tough choices” this weekend and approved a budget.  Unfortunately “tough choices” in Democrat-speak means they raised taxes, raised fees, and will utilize, my favorite, “Enhanced Collection Measures”.  To top it all off, to encourage enough members to make these tough choices they included a $37 million list of enticements (aka ‘pork’) in the budget.  Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts, our "representative", was not one of the two dissenting Democrats and all Republicans to vote against this travesty. 

As expected, the “Oil Company Profits Tax” was included in the budget along with removal of the provision that companies cannot pass that tax onto consumers.  This new tax is for “the privilege of doing business” in Wisconsin.  I suppose that means we get the pay for this for the privilege of driving in Wisconsin. 

Also included was a new “Police and Fire Protection Fee”.  This is $.75 per month per each phone line.  This may not sound like a lot on the surface but it adds up when you start counting all the phone lines the average family has.  It also hits on a pet peeve of mine – creating new taxes for service I thought my old taxes were supposed to pay for already.  Police and fire protection sound like a good thing to have and I’d pay for that.  I just thought this was included in all the other taxes we pay.  Sort of reminds of a kid coming back to his parents for lunch money cause he spent what he was already given on a comic book.

 If you’re interested, a complete list of taxes and fees can be found here.  Also a complete listing of all the amendments to the budget by the Assembly Democrats can be found here.*

*6/17/9 - This link worked at the original posting but has been subsequently removed.  So much for transparency in government...

So as I’m watching and reading all the news about the current budget proposal I saw this article in the Wisconsin State Journal, ‘Democrats may allow oil company tax to be passed to consumers’ (http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/latest/453478).   The gist is that the proposed “Big Oil” gas tax increase with the provision that the tax can’t be passed onto consumers may be unconstitutional – or rather at least the part about it being passed onto consumers may be unconstitutional.  They don’t care.  The Democrat Majority Leaders are ready to roll the dice, pass the tax, and if they come up “Big Oil” great.  On the other hand, if they come up unconstitutional, then too bad for consumers.  As long as they’re able to raise taxes it doesn’t really matter who pays.  Of course in the end, the consumers are going to pay for this tax one way or another.

One bright spot in the article is that it sounds as if some of the Democrats are having second thoughts about all these taxes.  Of course, that’s all they are right now is second thoughts and unless they actually vote that way all the good intentions in the world don’t matter.  This is good time to write your representative and let them know where you stand on these new taxes.

Liability Change

Another part of the proposed budget is a change to the state’s current liability law.  Currently, but possibly not for long, you would need to be judged 51% liable in a case in order to held liable for damages.  Basically a jury would have to find that you’re mostly to blame for the accident.  Governor Doyle’s proposal was to lower the bar to 1% so if you’re the deep pocket in an accident then you could liable for the entire settlement.  Anyone want to take a chance that you wouldn’t be found 1% liable if you were just within 10 feet of an accident?  The Joint Finance Committee has raised this to 20% which is still ridiculous.  As far as I can tell there is no reason to make this change other than to reward “Big Trial”.   

Correction

In a previous post I mentioned that the budget bill has a provision for driver’s licenses for illegal aliens.  That’s not correct; our elected officials would never do that.  What they want to give illegal aliens are driver cards.  Everybody knows that driver cards are completely different from driver’s licenses.