Welcome, if you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or subscribe to our email newsletter. Thanks for visiting!

In 2000-2001, the tax debate in this country was all about cutting taxes: Bush had a plan, moderate Senate Republicans had a plan, moderate Senate Dems had a plan, liberal Dems had a plan, even Al Gore ran on a platform of cutting taxes. The question was how much to cut.

Here in Wisconsin, in 2002-today, the tax debate has taken a different very tact, reflective of a changed economic environment. I’ve seen three key changes in the public discourse, two of which involve Republicans letting down the taxpayers:

1. Democrats are talking about “holding down property taxes.”
   In a TV ad released earlier this week, liberal Democrat candidate for state Superintendent of Public Instruction Libby Burmaster committed to “holding down property taxes.” Even Governor Jim Doyle in his 2005 State of the State address proposed a two-year “tax freeze” (albeit one paid for by massive structural deficit and borrowing) This, of course, is a win for the taxpayers if even liberals like Doyle are recognizing that Wisconsin business and homeowners need relief.
2. Republicans are talking about a “tax freeze.”
   Freeze. Freeze. Freeze. Mark Green and Scott Walker, candidates for Governor, both stress the freeze in their campaign platforms. Gregg Underheim, Burmaster’s conservative opponent, lists the property tax freeze as his first platform point on his website. John Gard, Dale Schultz, every Republican in Wisconsin talks freeze. They’ve even gotten in a shouting match with the Governor over whose freeze freezes taxes more. And even TABOR, which is for “Real Republicans” who want a permanent freeze on taxes is still about a freeze. It is just a more enduring one. Neither a freeze nor TABOR is a bad idea- I support both and applaud the Republicans who are leading on this issue. Still, this is a loss for taxpayers in that rather than talking about tax cuts, the platform issue that won Tommy 14 years in the East Wing, we’re only talking freeze. And we won’t get out of the top 10 taxed states in the nation just by freezing the current tax rates that put us there!
3. Spending Cuts are Wimpy and Rare
   Here’s where the discourse really gets disappointing. Republicans and Democrats alike recognize that some spending cuts at the state and local level are necessary to achieve this freeze we’ve placed on this high pedestal. Yet the spending cuts are all characterized as “spreading the pain.” Even conservative stalwart State Rep. Mark Gundrum’s across-the-board spending cut proposal was characterized as “simplistic … spreading the pain.” Or, worse of course, is the Doyle option of mortgaging our future (with perpetual tribal gaming pacts) or borrowing our way out (by raiding segregated funds like Patients Compensation and Transportation).

   OF COURSE, the problem is that no one is talking about fundamentally cutting government programming! Everything is about just trimming current programs back a bit to weather the storm until the economy gets good and revenues increase and spending goes back up. Gone are the Barry Goldwater days when Republicans were serious about cutting whole departments at the federal level. Even as recently as the 1994 Republican Revolution, House Republicans contended we could eliminate 4 depts- Education, HUD, Commerce, and Energy. Now we have a Republican President who supports upgrading EPA to a Department of Environmental Protection (I know! Shocking!). With the state (and this is true of local gov’t too) government’s revenue down, Republicans had the opportunity to force big cuts and to hack away whole departments and programs. Instead, the Assembly Republican JFC Co-Chair has said that we may instead have to cooperate in Doyle’s mortgage the future fund raiding! Disgusting.

   Now is the time for bold strokes and innovative thinking about how government can best deliver services, and more importantly what services government really ought to be delivering at all. Unfortunately, it looks to be an opportunity wasted by political opportunism that focuses on ticking off the fewest interest groups.

I know I’m not the first conservative to criticize some Republicans in Congress/Legislature for not taking a machete to the bureaucracy and social welfare programs and mandatory spending programs, but I think the state Superintendent of Public Instruction debate puts the issues here in Wisconsin in a particularly poignant light.

• Steve Kagen's "Sleaze" Peddler - July 21st, 2008
• J. T. Dugan for ED-WI - July 16th, 2008
• Unfortunateness in the 8th - July 10th, 2008
• Good signs from new GB Bishop - July 9th, 2008
• DC Tourism Tips 1 and 2 - July 6th, 2008