One Wisconsin Now

The federal government will expand its sanction of Milwaukee schools this year, according to a report published in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 38 schools currently receiving federal government aid for low income students will be hit with cuts to that aid. The Department of Education calls these schools "identified for improvement" and refers to the slashing of budgets as the result of "escalating academic standards". Worded in this fashion, it is possible to think that the cuts are suitable measures to take in the face of poor performance. After all, the government set standards and the schools failed to comply, isn't some punishment in order?

In a word, no. These schools faced an arbitrary increase in standards, a reduction in funding and a failing plan for urban centers across this country. The failing grade goes to the Bush Administration, so why are Wisconsin citizens coming home with the bad report card?

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.

That must be what Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker told himself, before rewarding himself with a $50,000 a year pay raise.

Walker wouldn't use the term "raise."  But, as Gertrude Stein would say, a raise is a raise is a raise.

Walker's announcement that if he is reelected on April 1 he will accept $50,000 more in salary than he currently does is a pay raise, pure and simple.

Does he deserve credit for giving back $60,000 a year in the past? Sure -- but he made that grand gesture purely for political gain back when he was running to succeed Tom Ament. Four years ago, he wasn't confident enough to change it. But he obviously thinks he's going to win another term in two weeks, so now's the time to grab the gold.

Is the county executive overpaid at his full salary of $129,000 a year? No, not if he/she is doing his/her job. It's a big job with a lot of responsibility.

The thing is, Walker hasn't been doing the job. He's been mismanaging county government, running it into the ground, all in the name of fiscal responsibility. In fact, it's fiscal irresponsibility, but he's hoping to get out of the courthouse before the chickens come home to roost.

After Walker, expect the deluge.

He's played a shell game with the taxpayers, taking credit for a "surplus" this year while the county's parks, bus system, and infrastructure deteriorate.

Deciding that his performance is worth a $50,000 raise is equivalent to the giving multi-million dollar bonuses to Wall Street and corporate execs when they leave a business they have run aground.

Whatever you call this raise Walker is about to give himself, we know one thing -- it's not merit pay.

Milwaukee County Transit System ridership plunged to a 33-year low in 2007 - at the same time public transit ridership nationwide was on track toward a 50-year high.

Reeling from repeated service cuts and fare increases, county buses carried 42.5 million passengers in 2007, down 9% from 46.6 million in 2006, the transit system reported. The 2007 ridership total was the lowest since the county took over the bus system in 1975, based on Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission figures.

By contrast, rising gas prices and growing traffic congestion drove national transit ridership to a 49-year high of 10.1 billion in 2006, and ridership was up another 2% through the first nine months of 2007, according to the American Public Transportation Association...

The Milwaukee County ridership drop may have been the biggest decrease of any major U.S. bus system...

By the Numbers
42.5 million Number of bus passengers in 2007
46.6 million Number of passengers in 2006
17 bus routes Eliminated from 2001 to 2007
$1.35 Adult cash fare in 2001
$2 Current fare

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.

It is we people who have the right to "do" government. Representatives are elected to carry out our wishes. Unfortunately, groups armed with money have had influence on decisions. Wisconsin must have an Initiative and Binding Referendum process so we people can make the long term plans for Wisconsin.

To long our Wisconsin Community has swiveled left to right, forward and back because no continuous plan based on our principles has been followed.

Please visit www.doinggovernment.com where I am constructing a website we could use to formulate our plans. We could write initiative petitions (petition the government is a constitutional right) and hold a referendum on the matter. An initial initiative would be to provide for binding referendum, so law passed by the majority of Wisconsinites would become law immediately.

If you  are individual or group with sites, please let me know so we may link to each other. We must meet together as community and united bring our ideas and initiatives before our Wisconsin Community for consideration.

Thanks for visiting, Bruce