I am a property tax payer, writing to you because my own Wisconsin State Senator has disappeared from the State of Wisconsin. He believes that he’s doing his job by staying away from the Senate chamber and by not voting on the new budget plan. Nothing I say to him will change his mind.
Wisconsin has always lit the way as a beacon of progress to the rest of America. People here value independence, decency, fairness, common sense, and above all, each other. The Republican Party, the party of my father’s father’s father, also has a proud tradition, from Abraham Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt to Fighting Bob LaFollette.
I have lived in Milwaukee for over thirty years. My husband was born here. But for his service in the U.S. Army, he lived his entire life here and is buried here. I have friends and family in cities and on farms across this beautiful state. I have two adult children and one who will graduate from high school in June. They have all grown up in this house, and the mortgage is paid in full. Nobody in our family belongs to a public sector union or any other union.
The new governor is absolutely correct when he says our property taxes in Milwaukee are too high. We have one of the highest property tax rates of any city in the country, and I agree that property owners can no longer shoulder the burden of increased health insurance costs and pensions for city workers.
One group hit particularly hard by Milwaukee’s property taxes is municipal employees. Schoolchildren may believe that their teachers sleep under their desks at night, but in fact these workers are subject to a requirement, for which private sector employees have no equivalent, to live within the city for which they work. Even if they only rent their homes, their landlords pass the property taxes on to them indirectly. How many Republican members of the Wisconsin Assembly or Senate pay this city as much?
City employees spend their modest paychecks in the city, keeping businesses afloat that hire other city residents. They patronize local businesses and buy theater tickets or children’s shoes, circling the taxpayer’s money right back into the local economy. Or perhaps they don’t, because the rising cost of health insurance prevents them. Or perhaps you prefer that they shop in stores whose owners live out of town and their money drains into the tax coffers of those other municipalities.
If I had a job with the city, I might have to pay a quarter of my own salary back to my employer in the form of property taxes. Those who ask MTEA, WEAC and AFSCME members to make greater sacrifices don’t seem to understand the sacrifices these workers consciously make in paying a significant proportion of their own salaries and the salaries of their colleagues out of their own pockets. These workers understand better than anyone the impact of their union contracts on the taxpayers, which is one reason they are willing to compromise on the new budget.
Interestingly enough, we also have one of the lowest sales tax rates, especially when compared to surrounding states and the most popular tourist destinations. Of course, if the new governor were a true fiscal conservative, we could reduce property taxes and balance the budget by bringing our sales tax rate into line with the rest of the region, perhaps asking tourists and other out-of-town-ers to help offset costs to local property owners.
Yet one of the new governor’s first acts was to call a special session and push through new fast-track legislation prohibiting any sales tax increases without a 2/3 super majority. As a result, even if 65% of taxpayers want to raise their own taxes, a mandate much greater than the 52% of the 49% (or 25%, to those of us who graduated from college) of eligible voters who cast their ballots for him last November, they would not have their way.
A governor should not be so afraid of the popular will. These actions prove that balancing the budget is not his top priority. Clearly, he cares even less about serving the people of Wisconsin or ensuring that every Wisconsin family have a decent job with a livable wage and affordable health care.
The new governor promised to make Wisconsin more hospitable to business and to bring more jobs to the state. One wonders, however, whether the spectacles we’re seeing in our capitol and around the state, with protests shutting down government operations, help create a positive climate for entrepreneurship. We have to ask how the closing of schools and university campuses reflects on us and if it’s wise to antagonize our educators. Let us consider whether the governor’s efforts to manufacture unnecessary discord between our public employees and all other taxpayers will inspire business owners to feel optimistic about Wisconsin.
Since the new governor took office, we have seen no new plans to create jobs. We have seen no workable plan to reduce the budget; indeed, we have seen an increase of $140,000,000 in spending. He claims that collective bargaining places an intolerable strain on the budget, yet for some odd reason he has exempted the most costly union contracts, those of the police and firefighters.
Since he took office, the new governor’s conduct has reflected both unsound fiscal policy and unsound judgment. He has rushed to implement a radical agenda. The fact that Milwaukee County (where people lived under him and know him the best) voted against him by 60% to 38%, should alert you about what kind of mismanager he is. Tragically, too many people voted only on the basis of anger or party affiliation. We in Wisconsin should know better, to consider the competence and character of our candidates and to exercise moderation. In the exhilaration of seeing your party return to power, perhaps you gave this ideological extremist more credit than he deserves.
Please,
slow down, Senator.
Please,
read the bill carefully, Senator.
Please,
listen to all sides, Senator, and to the voices from all around the state that have been calling out to you this past week.
Please,
think, Senator. Then please think again, and think some more.
Please ponder the purpose of the budget bill, Senator. Please ponder its possible impact, both fiscal and psychological, on the people who live and work here. Is it really designed to create jobs, or to punish the unions that supported the other candidate in last November’s election? Must a pro-business state really become an anti-labor state? Do we really need to position ourselves as enemies of the public schoolteachers and public librarians to move forward? Must the Progressive State march boldly back to the nineteenth century, or ride there in a high speed rocket?
Remember that as a senator, your primary duty is to the voters who elected you and not to the executive. The legislature is an independent branch of government, which must be willing to check the power of extremists in either of the other two branches. If it fails in its charge, then it betrays our state’s sacred tradition of clean and honest government.
The people of Wisconsin are all depending on you now to show some leadership and creativity and negotiate an intelligent, humane solution to the budget predicament. The only decent and courageous action you can take now is to stand up to the governor. Hold off on the vote until you’ve taken the time to put partisanship aside, sit down with the minority party, and negotiate a plan that’s fair to everybody in Wisconsin.
The Republican Party should be able to win through reasoned and deliberate discourse, not by suppression. There is no need to fear debate or to resort to coercion. You need to present superior choices, not stamp out organizations that support any other party.
The whole world is watching. The last extremist power-hungry demagogue who used Wisconsin’s Republican voters to further his own political ambition was a disgrace to our state. If you put your fealty to this ambitious politician above your duty to the people of our great state, you will tarnish your own reputation and that of your party, and history will not judge you kindly.
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