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Fresh off lying about state regulated fees for automobile registration and the size of the state government’s fiscal deficit, Jim Doyle wants to push through Wisconsin another massive tax increase on local property taxes, only this time he doesn’t have to feign it under a “tax freeze” since he isn’t running for election this next November:

Gov. Jim Doyle will ask the Legislature to let local governments raise their fall property tax levies by 4% - double the limit of the past two years, but a rate the governor said would still control local taxes.

If the plan is passed by the Legislature, Doyle estimates it would cause a $75 increase - or 2.7% - in the December property tax bill on the median-valued Wisconsin home. Last year, the tax bill on that home was $2,730.

As even Jim Doyle’s friends at the Journal Sentinel acknolwedge, last year’s property tax levies rose far and away above the 2% “tax freeze” he signed into law:

Public school spending is controlled by separate formulas. Partly because of the passage of so many local referendums, the average statewide levy for public schools rose 5.4% last year, according to the non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

Here’s the money paragraph:

“We’re doing what we did last time: Making sure we’re funding schools, giving local governments a little more (taxing) room and holding the levies well below inflation,” Doyle said.

Well below inflaton?? Has anyone in Madison been paying attention to reality for the past 20-some years? America hasn’t experienced four percent inflation since 1990, or 18 years ago this year.

Thus, just as last year Jim Doyle’s property tax increase of 5.4% blew past the inflation rate of 2.5%, so will it this year, unless the U.S. Treasury decides to start handing out bags of cash to consumers.

Of course, we can’t expect the Journal Sentinel to point out these facts to a mostly oblivious readership.

Update: One last thing. I will take an entire year of off criticism of the Journal Sentinel if for just once it can use brackets correctly instead of parentheses. Are these MPS graduates or what?

This is a great idea, Governor Doyle. Let’s try to drive down the high cost of health care in this state by putting a tax on hospitals.

Does he honestly think Aurora and friends are going to just pay the tax out of its profits? No - the Auroras will go to the health insurance companies and say they need increased rates to pay the tax. The insurance companies will have to give Aurora the increase, but then they will increase premiums. Higher premiums will, in turn, lead to fewer people having insurance coverage. It’s the way the market works, Governor.

Set of headlines today all reporting on the same thing:

The leaning no Doyle from WISC 3000:
“Doyle Says He’s ‘Reluctant’ to Hike Cigarette Tax”

The non-committal Doyle from the Rhinelander Daily News:
“Doyle says he’s open to $1-per-pack cigarette tax hike”

The interested Doyle from the Capital Times:
“Gov eyes $1-a-pack cigarette tax hike”

The leaning yes Doyle from the Green Bay Press Gazette:
“Doyle sees ‘positives’ to raising cigarette tax”

The firm yes Doyle from WTMJ-4:
“Governor for $1 Increase”

The aggressive yes Doyle from All Headline News:
“Wisconsin’s Governor Pushes For Additional $1-Per-Pack Cigarette Tax”

Daniel Suhr does a great job of analyzing Doyle’s victory in today’s edition of The Warrior:Marquette University’s Independent News Source (www.thewarrior.org).

Alternative Theory
The overall prediction is that Doyle will continue to govern from the mushy middle. On values questions he will wield his veto pen to stop Republicans from passing concealed carry, abortion restrictions etc. On social questions, he will continue his current track of spending more on education and using targeted tax credits and deductions to help working-class families.

Wisconsinites will see taxes continue to inch up incrementally under a quasi-freeze, but Doyle won’t be able to stray too far because his starting point will always be the Republican Legislature’s budget.

Yet Doyle suggested on WISC-TV this campaign is “quite possibly my last.” (Republicans have capitalized on these rumors to motivate their base, suggesting that Doyle has only been moderate during his first term because he wanted so badly to be re-elected. Once the need to appeal to independents and moderates is removed because he’s not running again, Doyle will govern from his hard-left heart, as the theory goes. Only time will tell if that theory is proven true; regardless, Doyle will still be limited to governing from the common ground he can find with Legislative Republicans.

Conclusion
No one will accuse Doyle of being the heir to John F. Kennedy. He’s bald and bland on the stump. But maybe that’s why the undecided voters went with him – he’s safe. He makes the trains run on time. He’s not flashy, but he not threatening either. And he’s a technocrat, not a politician. So even though only 32 percent of voters think Wisconsin is headed in the right direction, the incumbent governor wins. In a quintessentially purple state, Doyle navigated the last four years just right. He used his veto pen to keep his liberal base happy, and he used his bully pulpit to push small ideas that appeal to moderates. Toss in $12 million of television advertising, and in a heavily Democrat cycle you clinch four more years. What he’ll make of them will be as much up to the Republican legislative majority as Doyle himself.

Not to be left out, I would like to quickly throw my hat into the ring as far as election predicitons go before the polls close. I am only commenting on the races I have had time to fully follow.

Governor: Mark Green by 2%

As I stated in my Your call or Democrats’ Decision post, I believe that there is an interesting dynamic in this election due to the fact that fiscal conservatives can still vote Green and defend their socially liberal side by voting on the referendums.

Attorney General: JB Van Hollen by 5%

The false commercials run by Falk and the defemation suit that followed put this one over the edge, I had a number of conversations with my friends who are apolitical and stated they had voted for JB due to his superior credentials and Falk’s dirty moves.

Death Penalty Referendum: Pass by 2%

This will be close but, considering the polling trends across the country and the rampant murder rates over the summer in Milwaukee where turnout is expected to be up due to weather, I am thinking this one will squeak by.

Marriage Ammendment: Pass by 4%

Despite the rule breaking efforts of the Students for a Fair Wisconsin at Marquette University and the dishonest attempts to confuse voters by Fair Wisconsin, I think the majority of Wisconsinites believe in traditional marriage and will vote that way. Mark Green’s “volunteer army” will definitely help turn out this cross-section of voters.

Are you a student? A professional? A teacher? Someone struggling to make it? Unemployed? A homosexual? Political campaigns love to categorize citizens into these categories and then communicate to each one. Tomorrow’s election here in Wisconsin presents a unique opportunity.

No matter who you are, you can vote your values and still “Make Wisconsin Great Again”. If you are a social liberal, fine, vote what you believe on the Death Penalty and Gay Marriage referendums but, don’t leave the rest of Wisconsin out in the cold by leaving corrupt, ineffective, Jim Doyle in office to stifle our jobs and families with more taxes.

Voting for candidates that support lower taxes and a smaller government (Mark Green, John Gard, Jim Sensenbrenner, look for the (R)) allows you to support anything you want. When they cut taxes, and they will, you get to keep more of your own money allowing you to support any cause you wish, wether it be your child’s education, savings for your future, food for the homeless or homosexual adoption services. With Republicans in office, it’s your call.

When you vote for big tax, big government Democrats like Doyle, Kagen and the rest, you are essentially telling everyone “My pet issues are more important than yours, so I am going to take your money through higher taxes and do with it what I please.” With Democrats in charge, big government makes the call.

Tomorrow, I am voting Yes to equal retribution for heinious murders through the death penalty, Yes to preserve traditional marriage and yes to a brighter future for Wisconsin with Mark Green and my local Republican candidates. I am voting this way not only because it’s what I believe but, because a small Republican government respects all citizens by giving them their money and their state back.

Today as I’m walking from my apartment to the Raynor Library, this college-aged guy at 16th and Wisconsin outside Walgreens hands me this quarter sheet flyer, asking if I want to make 75 bucks:

WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE SOME MONEY AND HELP DEMOCRATS WIN? $75 AND LUNCH FOR A DAYS [sic] WORK

Staging Locations: UWM and Marquette

How typical. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Green campaign manager Mark Graul said they already have filled 8,000 volunteer shifts, totaling 30,000 volunteer hours for the final days. He called the Green volunteers the “largest, most energized, enthusiastic volunteer army this state has ever seen in a gubernatorial campaign.”

Doyle campaign spokesmen Anson Kaye said “thousands” of volunteers would be reaching out to voters but declined to offer details, saying it would mean revealing “strategy.”

I’ve been signed up to work on Election Day for RPW for weeks! No wonder Kaye couldn’t reveal details - the Dems are out recruiting turnout workers the day before the election and have to offer to pay them… Then again, we’ve seen before that Dems need paid staff to their work.

P.S. GREEN WITHIN THE MARGIN OF ERROR: A new Strategic Vision poll out today, 800 likely voters, conducted Novg. 2-4, MoE +/-3.

Do you approve or disapprove of Governor Jim Doyle’s job performance?
Approve 40%
Disapprove 50%

If the election for Governor was held today, and the choice was between Jim Doyle the Democrat and Mark Green the Republican, whom would you vote for?
Jim Doyle 48%
Mark Green 45%
Undecided 7%
[If Green picks up 5% of Undecideds to Doyle's 2%, with a little bit of turnout advantage he's a winner]

Do you think Wisconsin headed in the right direction or wrong direction?
Right 34%
Wrong 58%

P.P.S. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball has flipped the 8th from a Kagen win to a Gard win since Thursday, giving Gard the momentum and saying, “WI-08 - Toss-up - John Gard (R) will defeat Steve Kagen (D). The Crystal Ball receives all sorts of conflicting evidence about this district, but in the final analysis, we have a hunch this district will return to its Republican roots. Kagen has spent freely of his own coffers to go on the attack, but count on GOP gubernatorial hopeful Mark Green to carry his current district handily and help Gard emerge from tomorrow with a narrow win.”

After a brief discussion with a friend about which ‘06 race’s Democrat candidate would harm the State of Wisconsin more, I’ve added a new poll: which of the two major 2006 Wisconsin statewide race Democrat candidates would do more to damage Wisconsin families, drive away business, condemn children to inadequate and indoctrinated education, and let sex offenders and violent criminals roam free — Diamond Jim Doyle or Kathleen Falk?

Mark Green has significantly closed the gap on Doyle over the past few months, and most recent polling from Zogby (as reported on WSJ.com) has him within 2 percent (smaller than the margin of error on the poll). Just to make sure these gains were for real, I decided to track the results of a few different polls on this race… all confirming Green’s gains as of late:

Polling conducted by “Research 2000″ and organized by WISC-TV out of Madison has reported a lead of 10 percentage points for Doyle in August has fallen to 6 points as of October 4.

Another poll conducted by Zogby gave Doyle a 7 percentage point lead in mid-August, and now reports just a 2-point margin.

Finally, a third set of polling data shows similar results: Rasmussen reported Doyle to have an 8 percentage point lead in early August, falling to just 3 points in mid-September.

I should probably make it clear that none of these polls have really been conducted since the “Foleygate” scandal has really heated up, and so we don’t really have any way to tell how much, if at all, that whole ordeal will change this particular race. Still, these numbers provide evidence that Green has been chopping away at Doyle’s lead coming into November, and that’s something worth following.

Today’s Journal Sentinel happily brings us the news that political thug / Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle personally lobbied, via his hack lawyer, the State Elections Board to sanction the Green campaign for half a million dollars of campaign donations legally transfered from his Congressional campaign to his Gubernatorial campaign:

A lawyer for Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s campaign repeatedly lobbied three Democratic members of the State Elections Board before they voted with the majority to order Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green to divest $467,844 in donations from out-of-state political action committees, records show.

Attorney Michael S. Maistelman bluntly told Democratic Party members of the board he contacted why they should publicly sanction or punish the Green campaign, according to documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel under the state’s open records law.

“Even if this ends up in Court it is a PR victory for us since it makes Green spend money and have to defend the use of his Washington DC dirty money,” Maistelman said in a 9:31 a.m. e-mail one day before the vote. He sent the message to Carl Holborn and Kerry Dwyer, board members appointed by Democratic leaders of the Legislature. (emphasis added)

Absolutely vomit-inducing disgusting. How anyone can support such a sick human being is truly beyond me. Then again, this is the modern-day Democrat Party of Howard Dean, Cyndi Sheehan, and Lincoln Chaffee (I know, I know).

As State Senator Mike Ellis said this morning, this makes it “patently clear that the Elections Board is just loaded with political hacks - and it always has been.” Apparently, the Doyle camp fully realizes that they cannot win this election outright and have to resort to banana republic-style thuggery to game the election.

The very path of lobbying demonstrates how totally moronic these Democrats must be: as Daniel Suhr pointed out in a conversation this morning, how could they not realize that emails to the SEB would have to be made public under media information requests? Of all people, I have to give kudos for the Journal Sentinel for picking this up.

The Democrat Party better realize something pretty damn quick: Wisconsin is not Washington State: Conservatives are not going to sit by while “computer errors” and Democrat-controlled SEB’s chose election results.