Last month, I was one of the few elected officials in the country to not submit a wish list of projects for the federal stimulus funds. Politicians across Wisconsin, including Gov. Jim Doyle, are criticizing my skepticism of the "free money" Washington is dangling in front of us. They argue that the one-time federal funds can help fill the unprecedented budget shortfalls facing Wisconsin state government and many local governments in our state.
To me, the choice is clear: We can use the funds to create a real stimulus package that builds our economy and grows our way to fiscal responsibility; or we can use the money to continue the failed leadership, dishonest budgeting and fiscal mismanagement that created the budget shortfalls.
Imagine if a state like Wisconsin used the federal stimulus money to truly stimulate the economy. This is what I recently proposed in my Blueprint for Economic Prosperity.
Specifically, I called on Gov. Doyle to use $3.26 billion of the federal funds allocated to Wisconsin to end the state sales tax for the rest of 2009. Imagine the benefit to retailers, to auto, truck, motorcycle and boat dealers, to home builders and remodelers and to so many others hurt by the recession. By ending our sales tax for 2009, Wisconsin would become a magnet for commerce throughout the Midwest.
Using the stimulus funds to put money directly into the hands of job creators doesn't just benefit retailers. A homebuilder working on a new site would save nearly $5,000 on the purchase of materials this year. A construction company buying a new dump truck could save more than $8,000.
The best part is that ending the sales tax will create jobs without adding to the size of government or the amount government taxes away from working families and struggling employers.
The message of my Blueprint for Economic Prosperity is simple: Hope doesn't come from a government handout. Hope comes from rebuilding our economy and restoring economic security for families across Wisconsin.
Unfortunately, Gov. Doyle has for months claimed that Wisconsin's unprecedented $5.7 billion budget deficit was inevitable in light of the national economic crisis.
One need only look at our success in Milwaukee County, however, to know that Wisconsin's budget mess was not inevitable. While Gov. Doyle has run a budget deficit every year he has been governor, Milwaukee County, where the taxpayers have entrusted me to be their county executive, finished 2007 with a $7.9 million surplus. In 2008, Milwaukee County again is expected to end the year in the black because we made the tough budget decisions demanded by the taxpayers.
We streamlined government services to ensure that taxpayer funds were used to benefit the people rather than being wasted on bureaucracy. We eliminated county positions and left others unfilled to cut costs and found out along the way that government still can provide core services with fewer staff. We contracted with private vendors to provide better services at lower costs. And in some cases, we made painful decisions about where Milwaukee County could survive without the lavish services it had grown accustomed to providing.
Gov. Doyle has led the State of Wisconsin down a very different path. After six years of failed leadership and dishonest budgeting, Wisconsin faces the largest deficit in its history.
The problem is an insatiable appetite for government spending. According to the non-partisan Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state is anticipating tax revenues to fall $1.1 billion in the next biennium from their 2007-08 level. That means that $4.6 billion of the $5.7 billion deficit, about 81 percent, can be attributed to Gov. Doyle's spending desires, not the national economic fallout.
Rather than make the hard decisions that Wisconsin elected him to make, Gov. Doyle recently introduced a state budget that uses $2.5 billion in one-time federal money to balance the budget. Despite paying lip service to cuts, he also manages to increase government spending by 10 percent and pays for it by raising taxes by more than $2.1 billion.
Gov. Doyle has it wrong. Raising taxes on the people who live and create jobs in Wisconsin is not the answer. Instead, we need real reforms and real spending reductions in state and local governments. Instead of asking working families and struggling employers to balance government deficits out of their own budgets, we should be asking government to become more efficient and effective. We also should be asking government to do it in a way that creates jobs.
To me, the choice is clear: We can use the funds to create a real stimulus package that builds our economy and grows our way to fiscal responsibility; or we can use the money to continue the failed leadership, dishonest budgeting and fiscal mismanagement that created the budget shortfalls.
Imagine if a state like Wisconsin used the federal stimulus money to truly stimulate the economy. This is what I recently proposed in my Blueprint for Economic Prosperity.
Specifically, I called on Gov. Doyle to use $3.26 billion of the federal funds allocated to Wisconsin to end the state sales tax for the rest of 2009. Imagine the benefit to retailers, to auto, truck, motorcycle and boat dealers, to home builders and remodelers and to so many others hurt by the recession. By ending our sales tax for 2009, Wisconsin would become a magnet for commerce throughout the Midwest.
Using the stimulus funds to put money directly into the hands of job creators doesn't just benefit retailers. A homebuilder working on a new site would save nearly $5,000 on the purchase of materials this year. A construction company buying a new dump truck could save more than $8,000.
The best part is that ending the sales tax will create jobs without adding to the size of government or the amount government taxes away from working families and struggling employers.
The message of my Blueprint for Economic Prosperity is simple: Hope doesn't come from a government handout. Hope comes from rebuilding our economy and restoring economic security for families across Wisconsin.
Unfortunately, Gov. Doyle has for months claimed that Wisconsin's unprecedented $5.7 billion budget deficit was inevitable in light of the national economic crisis.
One need only look at our success in Milwaukee County, however, to know that Wisconsin's budget mess was not inevitable. While Gov. Doyle has run a budget deficit every year he has been governor, Milwaukee County, where the taxpayers have entrusted me to be their county executive, finished 2007 with a $7.9 million surplus. In 2008, Milwaukee County again is expected to end the year in the black because we made the tough budget decisions demanded by the taxpayers.
We streamlined government services to ensure that taxpayer funds were used to benefit the people rather than being wasted on bureaucracy. We eliminated county positions and left others unfilled to cut costs and found out along the way that government still can provide core services with fewer staff. We contracted with private vendors to provide better services at lower costs. And in some cases, we made painful decisions about where Milwaukee County could survive without the lavish services it had grown accustomed to providing.
Gov. Doyle has led the State of Wisconsin down a very different path. After six years of failed leadership and dishonest budgeting, Wisconsin faces the largest deficit in its history.
The problem is an insatiable appetite for government spending. According to the non-partisan Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state is anticipating tax revenues to fall $1.1 billion in the next biennium from their 2007-08 level. That means that $4.6 billion of the $5.7 billion deficit, about 81 percent, can be attributed to Gov. Doyle's spending desires, not the national economic fallout.
Rather than make the hard decisions that Wisconsin elected him to make, Gov. Doyle recently introduced a state budget that uses $2.5 billion in one-time federal money to balance the budget. Despite paying lip service to cuts, he also manages to increase government spending by 10 percent and pays for it by raising taxes by more than $2.1 billion.
Gov. Doyle has it wrong. Raising taxes on the people who live and create jobs in Wisconsin is not the answer. Instead, we need real reforms and real spending reductions in state and local governments. Instead of asking working families and struggling employers to balance government deficits out of their own budgets, we should be asking government to become more efficient and effective. We also should be asking government to do it in a way that creates jobs.
