Now that the ink is dry on Governor Doyle's budget, his political spin machine will be running non-stop from now until the 2010 election to convince us that he has performed a fiscal miracle. You will hear claims that this budget is good for taxpayers; that it's good for business; or that it's the best we could expect given the current fiscal situation. The spin machine will spit out any claim necessary to mislead Wisconsinites into thinking that Governor Doyle deserves to lead this state for another term. But there are vast differences between rhetoric and reality. Doyle's claims are dishonest at best, deceitful at worst.
In his February budget address, Jim Doyle said families making less than $300,000 won't see a tax increase. What he should have said was families won't see an income tax increase, but they will be nickeled and dimed to death by other hidden tax and fee increases.
A new phone tax will increase cell phone and landline bills by 75 cents per month. Auto insurance changes will increase automobile premiums. Massive tax increases on garbage haulers will show up on garbage collection bills. Homeowners will see a property tax increase of at least $319. The list goes on and on. Throughout the 700-page budget, Governor Doyle quietly skims from taxpayers while he publicly says he is protecting them.
In the same address, when referring to funding increases, the governor got a lot of mileage out of saying that "staying even is the new increase." That was a very responsible promise given the state was facing a $6.6 billion budget deficit. But it turned out to be a completely false promise. Spending actually goes up by more than 6 percent in this budget.
The Doyle spin machine will tell you he CUT spending by 3 percent. He says it only looks like spending increased because of the influx of stimulus money. First of all, most of the cuts are fake. They are really what we call a "lapse" - a requirement that agencies return a portion of their money, but never actually cut spending from their operations and program expenses.
A cut only would happen if an agency had, for example, a $10 million budget and the governor went line by line, eliminating programs and costs until the actual cost to run the agency was, say, $8 million. What really happened is Doyle said to agency X: "I'll give you $10 million, but you have to return $2 million and figure out how to run the same programs on $8 million. But don't worry, in the next budget you can still expect to get $10 million."
The result is that government never gets smaller, it simply takes a two-year pay cut with the expectation that its full salary eventually will be restored to current levels. Even still, Doyle is going to try and convince you that even though he grew the budget from $58 billion to $62 billion he made the "deepest spending cuts in state history."
The governor recently told the Wausau Daily Herald that the stimulus money would buy the state time for the economy to turn around and that two years from now new revenue will replace the $3 billion in stimulus money used in this budget. Unfortunately, that's impossible.
Because Doyle made the decision to fill in a huge Medicaid deficit with stimulus money while still massively expanding programs to provide free health care to childless adults, the next budget will have a $2.3 billion deficit right out of the gate. In order to fill that deficit, Wisconsin would need revenue to grow by more than 8 percent. Average growth is 5.5 percent. Wisconsin hasn't seen 8 percent revenue growth since about 1982. If we're lucky, we might see average revenue growth, but there aren't many who even believe that will happen given the depth of this recession. As a result, Wisconsin is going to suffer from a major fiscal hangover because of Jim Doyle's irresponsible spending habits.
The moral of this story is voter beware. The spin machine will work feverishly to convince you that Doyle has responsibly accomplished the impossible. If you choose to believe that, I can assure you your reward will not be lower taxes. Unless we get billions more in stimulus money or make major cuts in government spending, Governor Doyle will undoubtedly reach even deeper into your pockets to fill a hole he has spent the last six years digging.
- Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, represents the 63rd Assembly District that includes most of the western part of Racine County and areas north of Racine. He is the ranking Assembly member on the Joint Finance Committee. He can be reached at Rep.Vos@legis.wisconsin.gov.
In his February budget address, Jim Doyle said families making less than $300,000 won't see a tax increase. What he should have said was families won't see an income tax increase, but they will be nickeled and dimed to death by other hidden tax and fee increases.
A new phone tax will increase cell phone and landline bills by 75 cents per month. Auto insurance changes will increase automobile premiums. Massive tax increases on garbage haulers will show up on garbage collection bills. Homeowners will see a property tax increase of at least $319. The list goes on and on. Throughout the 700-page budget, Governor Doyle quietly skims from taxpayers while he publicly says he is protecting them.
In the same address, when referring to funding increases, the governor got a lot of mileage out of saying that "staying even is the new increase." That was a very responsible promise given the state was facing a $6.6 billion budget deficit. But it turned out to be a completely false promise. Spending actually goes up by more than 6 percent in this budget.
The Doyle spin machine will tell you he CUT spending by 3 percent. He says it only looks like spending increased because of the influx of stimulus money. First of all, most of the cuts are fake. They are really what we call a "lapse" - a requirement that agencies return a portion of their money, but never actually cut spending from their operations and program expenses.
A cut only would happen if an agency had, for example, a $10 million budget and the governor went line by line, eliminating programs and costs until the actual cost to run the agency was, say, $8 million. What really happened is Doyle said to agency X: "I'll give you $10 million, but you have to return $2 million and figure out how to run the same programs on $8 million. But don't worry, in the next budget you can still expect to get $10 million."
The result is that government never gets smaller, it simply takes a two-year pay cut with the expectation that its full salary eventually will be restored to current levels. Even still, Doyle is going to try and convince you that even though he grew the budget from $58 billion to $62 billion he made the "deepest spending cuts in state history."
The governor recently told the Wausau Daily Herald that the stimulus money would buy the state time for the economy to turn around and that two years from now new revenue will replace the $3 billion in stimulus money used in this budget. Unfortunately, that's impossible.
Because Doyle made the decision to fill in a huge Medicaid deficit with stimulus money while still massively expanding programs to provide free health care to childless adults, the next budget will have a $2.3 billion deficit right out of the gate. In order to fill that deficit, Wisconsin would need revenue to grow by more than 8 percent. Average growth is 5.5 percent. Wisconsin hasn't seen 8 percent revenue growth since about 1982. If we're lucky, we might see average revenue growth, but there aren't many who even believe that will happen given the depth of this recession. As a result, Wisconsin is going to suffer from a major fiscal hangover because of Jim Doyle's irresponsible spending habits.
The moral of this story is voter beware. The spin machine will work feverishly to convince you that Doyle has responsibly accomplished the impossible. If you choose to believe that, I can assure you your reward will not be lower taxes. Unless we get billions more in stimulus money or make major cuts in government spending, Governor Doyle will undoubtedly reach even deeper into your pockets to fill a hole he has spent the last six years digging.
- Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, represents the 63rd Assembly District that includes most of the western part of Racine County and areas north of Racine. He is the ranking Assembly member on the Joint Finance Committee. He can be reached at Rep.Vos@legis.wisconsin.gov.
