Tag: Wisconsin

Categories
ideological culture media and media people too much government

Wisconsin Whitewash

NBC anchorman Brian Williams says government workers in Wisconsin are “rising up and saying no to some of the most extreme cuts in the nation.”

It’s a glorious revolution.…

Thousands have been descending on the statehouse to protest the new governor’s willingness to curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions.

One demonstrator tells NBC that teachers are fighting for the “same thing” Egyptian demonstrators are fighting for — budget cuts equaling dictatorship, presumably. Others say that the proposed cuts “unfairly penalize union employees.” 

Of course, these folks aren’t about to recognize the fact that, in many states, untrammeled splurging on public union employees has long unfairly penalized taxpayers.

The protesters’ assertions get a fair amount of attention from national media. We’re hearing less about the violent rhetoric and even threats that some have engaged in. Governor Walker has been compared to Hosni Mubarak and to Hitler, and one placard shows him being targeted by a sniper’s rifle.

National Review’s Jay Nordlinger reports that the governor and members of his administration have been threatened with violence. “I have heard from people closely connected to the threatened individuals,” Nordlinger writes. “Their letters are hard to take. The last few days have made quite clear that, if you cross the public-​employee unions, you run risks: and not merely political risks.…”

Don’t the hazards of trying to reduce the extent to which taxpayers are looted deserve a few moments on the evening news?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
tax policy

A Chill Hits Illinois

That big bump in the night? It was the sound of a massive new tax increase dropping on the backs of Illinois citizens and businesses.

Not long after midnight, Wednesday morning, mere hours before the newly elected legislature was to be sworn into office, the state’s lame-​duck legislature voted to increase the personal income tax by a whopping 67 percent and the business income tax by nearly 50 percent.

That’s lame, all right.

Governor Pat Quinn, who had campaigned in favor of a smaller increase, will sign the bigger tax hike. “Our fiscal house was burning,” he said in its defense.

Is the fire now out? 

Well, there sure is a lot of smoke, and where there’s smoke, there’s … a lot of people making a quick exit.

Remember, people can vote with their feet. “Leaving Illinois,” a study by the Illinois Policy Institute, points out that between 1991 and 2009 Illinois lost one resident every ten minutes.

That’s $16.9 billion in lost state and local tax revenue.

So Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was quick to offer a safer haven. “In these challenging economic times while Illinois is raising taxes, we are lowering them.”

As William Brodsky, chief executive of CBOE Holdings Inc, argues, “Merely throwing tax dollars at a broken system, without overhauling the expense side of the ledger, compounds the problem…” Bemoaning Illinois’ lost tax advantage in attracting business, Brodsky remarked, “They don’t come here for the weather.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
free trade & free markets tax policy too much government

Cinema Without Subsidy

Yesterday I insisted that states stop subsidizing filmmaking. Implied, I hope, was the notion that states needn’t provide tax credits to lure movie shoots to their state, either.

No sooner did I wrap up that argument (with the premature proclamation “end of story”) than I read a fine article on Show Me Daily about how “States Can Entice Businesses and Industries Without Credits.” The article begins talking about making films in Wisconsin, where the tax credits were just cut by two thirds. And yet the state has nabbed some major film efforts.

According to Show Me, “Wisconsin sets a great example.…” Every state has something going for it, unique locations, geography, architecture, people, climate, what-​have-​you. “Firms will locate” where they do for relevant reasons; “they don’t need to be bribed with generous incentive packages.”

But, but, but, but! some will sputter. Film companies are special firms. They start up, inhabit a location for a while, and then vamoose. State regulations and business taxation often makes it very difficult to shoot in a particular place. Filmmakers need special help around encumbering bureaucratic obstacles.

I’m sympathetic. For example, the business-​and-​occupation taxes that increasing numbers of states are instituting are horrendously burdensome: They take from gross revenues, of all things! 

But the proper way around such counter-​productive laws is outright repeal, setting up better state revenue programs … ones that are not so generally destructive of industry, including the film industry.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
insider corruption local leaders

As Corrupt as the Feds

We are so shocked by the skyrocketing spending and taxes at the federal level — and by mammoth expansion of government control of our lives being attempted at the federal level — and by the nonstop huffing hubris of federally fumbling politicians eager to solve problems caused by past policy errors by repeating and multiplying and magnifying those errors.

So flummoxed by the insanity in DC, that, well, I fear we give short shrift to state- and local-​level insanity.

Yet there is more than enough lunacy to go around. And not just in the Northeast or California. For example, also in Wisconsin.

Just like the national players, Wisconsin lawmakers doubtless wish that their maleficent missteps could be perpetrated under cover of fog. Too bad for them that the MacIver Institute for Public Policy is on the case, providing detailed and often instant updates on every sordid twist and turn of the state’s budget process.

Bad-​faith secret dealing, back-​room scheming. Hectic hikes in income, capital gains, property, cigarette and phone taxes — just to make sure bad economic times grow worse. Huge new government debt, despite Wisconsin’s balanced budget requirement. And on and on.

Thanks to the diligent efforts of the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, though, Wisconsin politicians are getting the credit they deserve. Their conduct is just as crummy as that of the big boys in Washington.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Second Amendment rights

Guns in Their Holsters

Out in the countryside, seeing men carry around rifles and knives and such excites the nerves of no one except (maybe) some ungulates. In urban and suburban areas, though, most five-​toe-​per-​foot folk have become used to not seeing people dressed to kill, so to speak.

That’s one reason for conceal carry laws, allowing people to carry guns legally, but concealed. Very civilized, and it makes criminals think twice.

But here’s a wrinkle: Openly carrying weapons is perfectly legal in all sorts of places. Wisconsin’s Attorney General wrote a memorandum, not long ago, saying that residents may indeed openly carry guns on Wisconsin streets.

Oddly, the state prohibits concealed carry by citizens.

Worse yet, some local police have no intention of abiding by the law. Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Harris made the news, saying, “My message to my troops is if you see anybody carrying a gun on the streets of Milwaukee, we’ll put them on the ground, take the gun away and then decide whether [they] have a right to carry it.”

Harris is worried about his city’s murder rate. So, he’s willing to commit crimes to prevent murder.

We all know where he’s coming from. But, I wonder. Has Harris thought this through? I bet that most murders in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were committed by people illegally carrying guns, concealed, not by those openly carrying them.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall

Exploring Recall in Wisconsin

You’ve heard of a campaign exploratory committee? 

Well, at recalldoyle​.com you can see a recall exploratory effort in full bloom. Not a candidate campaign exploration, but an effort to recall a sitting official.

The site is titled the “Doyle Recall Exploratory Portal,” and organizers of the  effort are serious about doing something about Wisconsin’s governor. The core of their argument is at the center of the page:

WHY RECALL DOYLE? Jim Doyle is the de facto CEO of a $30 billion dollar corporation we call the State of Wisconsin that is being rapidly run into the ground. The buck stops at the top.…

  • Record Deficits — 4th Largest in the USA
  • Massive Tax Increases Threaten Prosperity
  • Radical Agenda Drives Away Business, Kills Jobs

… An unprecedented fiscal crisis demands bold and immediate action to save Wisconsin from certain financial ruin. The longer we wait, the more damage will be done. The clock is ticking!

If you support the idea of citizens taking control, when politicians go out of control, you can’t help but admire the intent here. And I, for one, wish the effort luck.

I confess, I don’t know everything about Governor Doyle. But knowing, as I do, the general run of the political mill, I’d bet money that the folks at Recall Doyle are doing their state a great service. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.