One Wisconsin Now

Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty is making his second trip of the summer to Wisconsin. He will be going to John McCain fundraisers in both Madison and Milwaukee that will cost $1,000 per couple. Rather than run around Wisconsin trying to raise money for campaigns, it might be advisable for Pawlenty to go back home and fix the mess that he has made in Minnesota.

Under Governor Tim Pawlenty Minnesota’s property taxes are up even though he made a campaign promise not to raise taxes. The Gopher State has actually endured a 70 percent rise in property taxes since 2002. [Sticker Shock, Minnesota 2020, 2/10/2008; Star Tribune, 3/30/03] Not only has Pawlenty’s tenure resulted in higher taxes but also in overcrowded schools and bad roads that are the worst that they have been in decades. In addition, Pawlenty’s signature job creation plan was totally panned by an independent auditor as useless and a waste of money. Even though Minnesota’s housing foreclosures are up to some of the worst levels in the nation, Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have helped hundreds of families facing the loss of their homes. [Star Tribune, 5/29/08]

Given Pawlenty’s terrible record in Minnesota on issues from A to Z, it is a bit surprising that he has been chosen to be a lead cheerleader for John McCain. On the other hand, McCain is the same U.S. Senator that has eventually adopted almost all of the failed policies of the Bush Administration. Those are policies which have led us to economic, health care, energy and foreign policy disasters. It makes you wonder if John McCain has made failure a prerequisite to being one of his key advisors.

Update: Daniel Bice has the audio of a Tom Reynolds phone call to state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee, 20), “a veteran Milwaukee Democrat, (who) has a direct and personal interest in what Reynolds was doing, so she signed up - using a fake name - with Clean Sweep Wisconsin.”

This is the link is to the audio of the Reynolds phone call, and the URL is: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=770314

Transcription of the Reynolds call, in part, follows:

“… In Milwaukee here, we are working on a full slate of 12 candidates; eight on the north side, and four on the south side. And we are at eight or nine candidates right now. ... We have a candidate against Sinicki and a candidate against Staskunas. And we're still working on Zepnick and Colón….”

An anti-Catholic-Reynolds ally in Colón’s district? That likely will not play especially well there; though it’s a fair bet that Reynolds’ brand of politics and hate will not play well anywhere in the Milwaukee area. See the Milwaukee-area Democratic State Reps chart at the end of this post.
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What does a rightwing candidate recruited by a notorious anti-Catholic, Tom Reynolds, say if his/her name is on the ballot challenging Milwaukee-area Assembly Democrats in the September primary?

As little as possible.

And he/she hides from the public, staying in the shadows, an odd posture for candidates for public office, though consistent with the past odd behavior of former state senator Reynolds who reportedly had asked of prospective staff whether they were virgins.

Wispolitics is reporting that a deal has been reached on a budget repair bill. They report that the deal would use $209 million from tobacco securitization payments and would delay $125 million in school aid payments into the next biennium. The compromise would also close a corporate tax loophole being used most notably by the largest corporation in the world, Wal-Mart. Wispolitics is reporting that addressing this loophole will add $15 million in revenue to the state budget.

Holding large corporations accountable by closing this loophole is a good start, but there is a much larger corporate loophole that still looms. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue estimates that the “Las Vegas Loophole” costs the state $260 million a year. In using this tax loophole corporations set up dummy corporations in places like Nevada to avoid paying their fair share in Wisconsin. Closing this one corporate loophole could have solved our current budget gap all by itself.

Corporations take full advantage of our state’s infrastructure and other assets. They should also take full responsibility at tax time. The time of shortchanging the State of Wisconsin and passing the buck to individual taxpayers should end. Closing the “Las Vegas Loophole” would have not only solved our short term budget issue but also the long term inequality that is currently built into our tax system.

State Senator Mark Miller today announced a public hearing by the Senate Committee on Finance, which he chairs. The public hearing will take place in Milwaukee at 10 am on Wednesday, March 19 on the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee campus. The goal is to get input from the public on the governor’s budget adjustment bill as amended by the State Assembly.

The state faces serious budgetary issues and any proposed solutions should include the input of the public. Earlier this year, One Wisconsin Now delivered a petition of 2,500 signatures to legislators asking that they reinstate the Estate Tax to help bridge the budgetary gap. The Estate Tax in Wisconsin ended at the beginning of the year, allowing the children of Wisconsin’s wealthiest families to use a massive tax loophole while the state struggles with a difficult budget. We should not be looking for ways to cut important services to the most vulnerable while handing tax giveaways to the children of great privilege

The Institute for One Wisconsin has completed a comprehensive online library of information about Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's largest and arguably most influential corporate lobbying organization.

At WMCWatch.org, visitors will find information about the priorities, people, corporations and contributions of WMC. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has an enormous amount of influence on state policy. WMCWatch.org will provide the information and it is up to the people of Wisconsin to decide whether WMC wields far too much sway in our State Capitol.

At WMCWatch.org, visitors have access to extensive information about Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, including:

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) is opposing the Senate Democrats’ economic development plan, Wisconsin Invests Now. The plan seeks to invest in Wisconsin’s infrastructure for future growth and quickly provide more well paying jobs. The good news is that the plan would be paid for by closing the corporate tax loophole known as the “Las Vegas Loophole.”

What WMC calls “combined reporting,” this shady loophole allows multi-state corporations to escape their fair share of Wisconsin taxes by diverting profits to paper subsidies in states like Nevada, where corporate income taxes aren’t collected. Essentially, all a corporation needs is a shiny mail box in Vegas, and it’s goodbye Wisconsin, hello jackpot.  The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates the cost to Wisconsin taxpayers due to this loophole to be $81,000,000 annualy.

James A. Buchen, WMC vice president, today asserted, “We need to be looking for ways to spread growth, hope and opportunity for our families instead of passing proposals that will lead to increased unemployment and despair.” Unfortunately, the real despair lies in WMC’s continued success in shifting the tax burden onto Wisconsin families, while corporations sing “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

George Lightbourn and his minions at the right wing WPRI have been lecturing Governor Doyle and the legislature on sound budgeting. Lightbourn hardly seems to be the person to give advice on difficult budgets since he has helped cause his fair share of them. George Lightbourn was the Secretary of Administration under two Republican governors. One was Governor Scott McCallum who presided over what was probably one of the worst budget crises in state history. Actually, at the time, Lightbourn admitted to reporters that the state budget “was in the worst shape that it had been in some twenty years.”

In an attempt to partially fix their budgetary mess, Lightbourn and his boss thought it wise to do a one time quick fix, by raiding the tobacco settlement fund. Essentially they sold off the entire tobacco settlement for only pennies on the dollar. Their bright thinking took Wisconsin’s more than $5.9 billion in anticipated settlement payments and sold it to investors for a lump sum of only $1.6 billion.

To those who think we should slash $300 million from programs affecting the people of Wisconsin instead of rescinding the estate tax on the heir and heiresses to the state's largest fortunes, consider this:

"In 2005, the 300,000 men, women and children who comprised the top tenth of 1 percent had nearly as much income as all 150 million Americans who make up the economic lower half of our population. Add the income the rich are not required to report and those 300,000 made more than the 150 million." [Free Lunch, David Cay Johnston]

"Of each dollar people earned in 2005, the top 10 percent got 48.5 cents. This was the top tenth's greatest share of the income pie since 1929, just before the Roaring Twenties collapsed into the Great Depression." [Free Lunch, David Cay Johnston]

Senator Mary Lazich is miffed at One Wisconsin Now. 

Recently, she offered up some mangled criticisms of Wisconsin Now’s effort to reinstate the estate tax for Wisconsin’s wealthiest, which expired earlier the year.

As soon as we heard Sen. Lazich was criticizing our efforts to end the $300 million estate tax loophole for the state’s wealthiest heirs and heiresses, we knew we were doing the right thing.  

Sen. Lazich serves as a professional naysayer to government investment in the public good, all the while personally benefiting from the perks of a taxpayer-financed salary, health care package and staff.  

Instead of considering how $300 million could stop cuts in programs helping the disabled, the poor, our seniors and our children, Sen. Lazich pledges opposition to reinstating the estate tax as a means to meet her obligations to the big oil-financed Americans for Properity. [For more about Americans for Prosperity…for Big Oil, go here.

Lazich’s career has been the government-financed personification of hypocritical rightwing extremism. In just the last year, Sen. Lazich opposed indexing the minimum wage, protecting consumers from gouging by big oil and led efforts against giving the people of the Wisconsin the same health care she herself enjoys at our expense.  

At One Wisconsin Now, we welcome her vocal opposition to our efforts on the estate tax and hope it will energize progressives around Wisconsin to join our fight to restore fair taxation once and for all.

1988:  "Read my lips:  no new taxes."  -George H.W. Bush, Republican National Convention on the eve of his nomination

20 years later:  "No new taxes."  -Senator John McCain, 2008 Republican presidential candidate

Houston, TX, 2008:  "I'm very proud to endorse John McCain for the presidency of the United States of America." -George H.W. Bush, former U.S president who broke his promise and raised taxes to offset the deficit

It has to be awkward to lose to your endorser's son in the 2000 primary, vote against his tax cuts, and then scramble to assure skeptical conservative voters that you want to make them permanent now.  You know, those tax cuts -- the ones that increased the income of America's millionaires by 10.1% (that's pocketing an extra $78,460 annually) while the poorest 20% of American households saw an extra $250 a year (bus fare) and the middle class picked up the rest of the tab.

Let's hope he pulls another '41' and breaks his promise to the richest 1%.  Otherwise, all this talk of being a maverick can finally be put to rest.

With the state facing a $650 million budget deficit, it is clear the state needs to end the $300 million estate tax loophole for the rich which just went into effect in January.

One Wisconsin Now launched a petition drive calling on the state legislature to stop this giveaway to the heirs and heiress of Wisconsin’s largest fortunes instead of making drastic cuts to aid for seniors, the disabled, the poor and our children.

Finally, we saw some sanity on this issue Thursday as according to Wispolitics, “[Senate Majority Leader Russ] Decker…said he favors reinstating the estate tax if it will help to rein in the projected deficit.”

This isn’t the first time the Schofield Democrat has advocated for progressive taxation. Decker also wants to close the “Las Vegas Loophole,” which currently allows corporations to evade its Wisconsin tax obligation by setting up a post office box in a state like Nevada, which doesn’t have an income tax.

You still have the chance to demand your state legislators do the right thing on the estate tax. Click here and sign the OWN petition today.

To most people in the world $100 million is an unimaginable amount of money. Apparently that is not the case when you are a right wing ideologue looking to short change programs for the needy.

In today's Capital Times story, about OWN's petition on the estate tax, Todd Berry of Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance gives us the quote of the day. Berry declares that $100 million is not "a whole lot of money." Since when is $100 million chump change? Apparently when it goes to important programs that help the needy.

Today the Capital Times ran a story, in its business section, highlighting OWN's efforts on the estate tax. Legislators allowed the estate tax to expire at the end of last year costing Wisconsin some $300 million over three years. At the same time, conservatives are looking to bridge a $300 million gap in the budget by cutting important programs to the most vulnerable.

Only a few weeks ago OWN launched an online petition, asking our legislators to bridge that budgetary gap by reinstating the estate tax rather than doing it on the backs of the poor an needy. It is a simple issue of fairness. We should not be handing over new tax cuts to the children of wealth, while cutting services to those that need the most help.

If you have not yet signed OWN's petition, make sure you do it today. Be sure to forward the petition to your friends and read the Capital Times story included below!

A new web site has been developed at LessJobsMoreWars.com

The site focuses on recent comments by Presidential Candidate John McCain, that there will be "more wars" under a McCain Administration. The new site is complete with two versions of the below video. It is a humerous take on a very serious subject, what the War in Iraq (an the others that McCain promises) cost you.

The following unfortunately went unpublished as a letter to the editor in response to Sam Clegg's column that ran in the Herald this week concerning the death tax.  In addition to accusing OWN of framing the estate tax debate as a class warfare issue to propose an unreasonable solution to the state budget shortfall, he appeals to a Congressional report on the death tax that, amazingly, contains arguments that are all exactly congruent to his own.  Clearly, though, the truly unthinking are the masses who subscribe to our bleeding heart views on economic policy. 

In the meantime, Sam cries for the rich kids of the world.

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While I’m certain that freshman and economics major Sam Clegg is currently flooded with requests to speak at the next meeting of the United Nations Committee on Economic and Social Affairs, I feel compelled to issue the following statements regarding the “death tax” in Wisconsin in the hopes that at least the university community will lend an ear.

Daniel Miller contends that the estate tax actually runs small, self-made farms and businesses into the ground, is economically inefficient, deprives the neediest populations of the money it would otherwise be receiving from charity, and ultimately redistributes the hard-earned wealth of honest Wisconsinites to “desperate masses” of the shiftless and the undeserving. And, says Clegg, because of the high-minded, unimpeachable rhetoric of progressive groups like One Wisconsin Now, the legislature will resort to scape-goating the ultra-rich to close the budget shortfall.

So brace yourselves, readers, for some liberal propaganda. To give you some national figures, according to the Federal Reserve, only 4% of family businesses have a net worth of more than $2 million, leaving those 96% of family businesses in the United States who are worth less than $2 million exempt. Furthermore, the USDA reports that the average farm household net worth ranged from $576,000 for small farms to $1.5 million for very large family farms, which is well within the exemption range. The little guys are still protected.

Miller insists that “substantial expenditures” and an “undesired allocation of resources” are required for profitable rates of compliance, but fails to describe how. And keeping the estate tax is actually a great incentive for the super-wealthy to donate to charities if they wish to avoid the tax, because charity is tax-exempt.

The estate tax only taxes those born into wealth – not the ones who earned it. And, under the federal law, the inheritors still get to keep at least their first $1 million for free – tax-exempt. In fact, that figure is closer to $2 million now since changes to the law in 2002.

Ultimately, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue reports that for the next biennium, estate tax collections are estimated to be $244.9 million. True, it will not plug the $300 million hole. But it will certainly come close.

It’s true that a proposal more in line with conventional American wisdom might also close the budget gap. But if a progressive, liberal economic policy has any underpinning at all, it is that everybody should at least have a set of minimums of access to the system, beyond which it is their responsibility to “make it”. Adam Smithians, rejoice.

It is you, Sam Clegg, who has framed this debate as if supporters of the death tax compare tax breaks for the rich to murder. It is you who appealed to class warfare to vindicate your opinion. And it is you who perpetuates the political culture war that poisons our university community.

In the words of Archbishop Hélder Câmara: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist.”

Mitra Jalali is a senior at UW-Madison majoring in Political Science.