HERE'S ANOTHER FINE MESS THE TWO MAJOR PARTIES HAVE GOTTEN US INTO
2008
To fix the state’s budget $527 million budget shortfall, besides the hospital tax, Governor Doyle also wants to raid the transportation fund to the tune of $293 million. How will they replace that money? They’ll raise our gas taxes or raid some other fund, of course.
In a March article from the Associated Press, printed in the/ Oshkosh Northwestern/, we read that the “…proposals designed to fix the shortfall in tax collections needed to pay the state’s bills between now and June 30, 2009. The gap was created by a weakening economy.”
Why do our elected legislators never seem to grasp the fact that booming economies (like the one fueled by the dot com companies in the 90’s) always cool off eventually? It seems like they deluded themselves into thinking our economy would be hot forever. Yet when it became obvious to everyone that the economy was cooling around 1999-2000, the state
assembly and state senate continued offering shared revenue to the localities and were unwilling to make the tough cuts in spending necessary so that funds could be withheld to ride out the tough times now upon us. No, rather than have the spine to tell voters “No! No more money right now!” our legislators, in their never-ending quest for perpetual incumbency, continued the levels of spending they always had, then blamed each other when the tax revenues to Madison tapered off once people began losing jobs and therefore couldn’t pay as much or any taxes anymore.
Also, despite the state tax revenues coming up short, we can count on both parties always wanting to maintain or even add to the spending for their “signature issues” to play to their party base and buy votes. For example, no matter how depleted the state’s coffers may become, Democrats will still demand education funding not be cut and is “off the table” for budget negotiations, even though almost half of our state taxes go towards education. One would think the biggest spending items would be the first up for consideration, but not to Democrats. “No, no, you can’t touch education funding,” they will protest.
As long as we elected politicians and not statesmen, there will be more budget shortfalls in the future. Count on it. |
