Hell Frozen Over

What in the heck is this?

From the Green Bay Press Gazette

Posted March 12, 2008

Editorial: Doyle's plan robs Peter to pay Paul
It's very interesting that Gov. Jim Doyle's "budget repair plan" transfers $243 million from the state's transportation fund, which is the pile of money replenished by the gasoline tax.

You might recall that's the fund that didn't have enough cash to take care of all our road needs, and so Doyle last year proposed an "assessment" on big
oil company revenues to cover the difference.
Now, the state is headed toward a budget deficit that could amount to $650 million by mid-2009. And the fund that needed a new tax to prop it up is suddenly so flush that the governor says it can be raided to help fix the deficit.

As many suspected, it's now clear the oil revenues tax was not about building roads and bridges;it was about creating another revenue stream to pay for everything else the state wants to do.
With a straight face, Doyle claims his budget repair bill doesn't require a tax increase, and then he hauls
out a 0.7 percent "assessment" on hospital revenues. (Isn't going from zero to 0.7 percent an "increase"? Just asking.) The new, um, assessment will bring in $700 million in federal revenue over the biennium, the governor says.

Quick quiz: Where will the federal government get the $700 million? If you answered, "the people of Wisconsin and 49 other states, or their children and grandchildren through borrowing," go to the head of the class.

The governor knows that some people, like us, will say the way to bring the budget under control is to cut spending, and so he points out that he has ordered $330.4 million in spending cuts at state agencies. But wait — "this includes $200 million in cuts that state agencies were required to make under the 2007-09 biennial budget signed in October."

The $130.4 million in new spending cuts represents roughly one quarter of the $527 million package the governor introduced Monday. Three parts taxes or robbing Peter to pay Paul, one part spending cuts.

Oh, and he'd like the Legislature to start working on it before they leave town Thursday, on top of all the other unfinished business, some of which we listed Tuesday — the Great Lakes Compact, endangered online public schools, smoke-free workplaces, etc.

Maybe people have asked the state government to do more than it, or we, can afford. Maybe the time has come either to jack up our already-confiscatory taxes to pay for all the state services we want. Maybe it's time to take a serious look at which state services can be reduced or eliminated.
But Doyle isn't saying that. Instead he issues a news release that says, "The plan provides for sufficient funding of essential state and local services — education, health care and creating jobs — without raising taxes ..."

Novelist Robert A. Heinlein famously stated the principle of TANSTAAFL:
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." By saying his budget repair bill does not raise taxes, Doyle demonstrates either that he doesn't understand TANSTAAFL or he hopes you don't.

Will the P G hold Diamond Jim's feet to the fire, highly unlikely.