Your tax dollars at work

Just because you're going to earn take fewer billions this year is no reason to shut down the party:

An Oshkosh opera house, a playground in the Town of Beloit and a stone barn in northeastern Wisconsin are among the beneficiaries of spending items quietly inserted into the state budget.

Democrats who control the Legislature's budget committee approved millions of dollars of spending in lawmakers' home districts on construction and road projects early Friday despite the state's $6.6 billion budget shortfall.

There's $500,000 for a climate change center in a park between Madison and Monona, $46,000 for recycling bins in Wrightstown, $50,000 for a shooting range in Eau Claire County, and much, much more. The earmarks need approval from the full Legislature and Gov. Jim Doyle to become law.

The story in the Journal Sentinel? "Budget writing done mostly behind closed doors: All-night committee sessions took a toll on openness." Well, transparancy would be good too, but it's the failure to reign in spending and increase taxes that's the real problem.