Tea Party Alternative

I've been trying to figure out what I can do to show my support for the taxpayer T.E.A. parties on April 15, since I won't be able to attend one.

What if those of us who can't go turn our pockets inside out for the day? I think it would be awesome if that idea took hold!

Residency

Why do I get the feeling that the city of Milwaukee will lift the residency requirement on taxpayers LONG before they lift it for teachers or city workers?

Re: Rebate

What rebate? Didn't I hear that this is a Pre-bate, on next year's taxes?

Anyway, that money's long gone already. I've been single-handedly fueling this economy on my credit cards while the rest of you yahoos bought all those over-priced houses.

My check is already made out to Visa. You guys have to catch up.

Note: I think it's appropriate that The Matrix was on as I wrote this.

There is no spoon.

Re Re: Rebate

Tee Bee,

I would not say that. Even if it is a small amount (and actually materializes) it is best saved rather than spent. I don't think it is the big purchases that really get people into trouble anymore than Thanksgiving and Christmas make people obese, it is what happens day in and day out.

Re: How will you spend your rebate?

I have taken to personal finance blogging and this is a popular item of discussion among personal finance bloggers. Seems, like you are with the consensus there to sock it away into an emergency fund.

I would suggest that or using it to retire high interest or consumer debt.

However for us, I am guessing our rebate is going to be thrown at our house construction project in one way or another.

I Hope They Give Us A Rebate!

I could really use this, to help pay my taxes.

San Francisco's Soda Tax

Here comes the Food Nazis once again.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to impose a tax on soft drinks to fight obesity. Yawn. Ho-hum. Is there anything a lefty won't tax for your own good?

Newsom also wants to compel all big box retailers and chain drug stores to pay into his "Shape Up San Francisco" program.

The state of California also wants to post a warning label on all drinks containing caffeine.

For those of us who told you that they wouldn't stop with just smoking, I have just one thing to tell you: We told you so.

This is the creep of institutional fascism. It all starts with small "common sense" proposals that no one can be against, supported by "It's for the children" and away we go. Incrementalism. One step at a time.

These people will not stop until they are into your houses, telling you what you are and are not permitted to eat or drink and consume in any manner. Never mind the fact that most of them support the legalization of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, etc.

They won't stop until everything of which they disapprove is taxed to the hilt, regulated and controlled or banned outright. Unless we tell them "Enough is enough."

Re: What is an "unlicensed adult?"

WEAC sued WIVA a few years ago, contending that they're breaking the law by having parents directly involved in their children's educations.

Source: The Badger Blog Alliance – What is an "unlicensed adult?" (Lance Burri)

That went down about the time Gregg Underheim ran for state superintendent of schools. I saw him in Appleton and remember him talking about that lawsuit. The Teacher's Industrial Complex (TIC) named the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WDPI) as co-defendants in that one. However, the WDPI files and amicus brief on behalf of whom? You guessed it, the TIC.

Unfortunately the Wisconsin version is very real

Owen at Boots and Sabers links to a report on the chupacabra, a "goat sucker", a mythological creature that sucks the lifeblood out of farm animals.

Owen may not be aware of it, but here in Wisconsin we have our own version of the beast. It's called the "chupataxra" and it sucks the lifeblood out of Wisconsin taxpayers. Unfortunately, the Wisconsin version is very real and is known for going into a frenzy every April 15th. The "chupataxra" tends to be difficult to see around election day but is frequently seen during budget season.

Sadly it preys on homeowners the hardest, especially seniors. In Wisconsin, the "chupataxra" has very few natural enemies.

Update! Phel asks for a picture.Notice the sharp eyes, looking for prey. The shifty nature, making it often too quick for any potential predator. The chameleon-like coloring is able to change with the political seasons. Such a creature can suck the the lifeblood out of the sick, the elderly, even the relatively mobile with it's extremely long reach. Despite the annoying tonal qualities of it's song, it is quite capable of beguiling it's victims into believing it is perfectly harmless before it strikes.

Re: The Taxing Chicken or the Spending Egg

Jay may not want to pin it down, but I'd say that any tax rate over 100% is probably too much. Even the ultra-ultra-rich might have trouble making ends meet if that were the case. That's just a hunch, based upon my public school education, though.

Editorial Idiocy

The Racine Journal Times editorial board is at it again. Their love affair with tax increases and Governor Tax and Fee increases, uh Doyle, is really out of control.

I’m publishing this here rather than at RDW as this editorial no doubt will make its rounds in one form or another to every other paper in the state.

This thing needs to be addressed bit by bit.

Keep a perspective during budget debate

A $58 billion state budget remained mostly intact last week as it headed out of the state’s Joint Finance Committee and now goes to the Senate and Assembly.


There it will undoubtedly get serious makeovers from state Republicans who control the Assembly and state Democrats who control the Senate. Reconciling those disparate versions will be the difficult job of a conference committee — and then Gov. Jim Doyle will get one last whack at it with his veto pen.

An amazing work of fiction that will be as well, can you even imagine the horror story of this Frankenstein veto?

Given the split in the control of the state Capitol, there will undoubtedly be some major horse-trading on some tax and fee provisions that Doyle put into the state budget earlier this year to balance the budget.

Tax and fee provisions… Ok JT editors try this on for size. Tax and fee increases. Tax increase, there was that so hard?

Republicans have already lamented tax and fee increases and 23 Republicans in the Assembly, including state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Caledonia, have pledged to vote against “any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

Ah the Darth Vader of the Journal Times, Robin Vos. They can not write any article or editorial about holding the line on taxes or tax cuts without mentioning the man. This is how I know he is doing a great job.

That means you also look forward to the inevitable radio and television harangues exhorting you to call either your governor, senator or representative to “demand” that they do this or that to block one tax or another. Those messages will come from lobbying groups from affected industries and also political groups.

God forbid, citizen action and disdain against tax increases. Oh the humanity!

And indeed, there are some tax and fee increases in this budget – on everything from cigarettes, an motor vehicle registration to shovelnose sturgeon permits. And on oil companies and hospitals.

Some?

The cries will soon get shrill and you’ll hear talk about the “$1.75 billion” in new fees and taxes, no doubt combined with a lament that Wisconsin has become a tax hell.

Wisconsin is a tax hell and has been for years, wake up you idiotic editors (Randy Brandt I'm sure). Shall we ignore the talk about the "$1.75 billion"? Is there something dishonest about that? Implication is so tawdry isn't it?

Before things get too shrill, let’s put some perspective to this. One of the big increase items is the tax on cigarettes which would go rise by $1.25 per pack to $2.02. That tax boost has popular support according to several polls. It would raise $500 million over the two-year life of this budget.

Shrill? I don’t smoke, it is still wrong. How about we put a huge tax increase on news print? Then you would see some shrill!

Another big one is the tax on major oil companies which would be forbidden to be passed on to state motorists. That would generate more than $275 million over the two-year budget period.

The state has admitted they have no way of knowing about this tax being passed on, you are smart enough to know that. However, you are too liberal to admit that. Keep on spinning those Jimmie Doyle talking points…

And a third big one is the hospital tax. That would generate more than $418 million for the state, but it would generate millions of dollars in federal funding for hospitals. After the tax, state hospitals would still have a net increase in revenues of something like $284 million because of increased Medicaid payments.

Someone explain to me again how Doyle campaigned on the issue of lowering health care costs by adding additional taxes onto our health care… He didn’t? Are you sure?

Together those three tax increases account for more than 60 percent of the tax and fee increases in the state budget that is now advancing through the Legislature.

Good, in three easy steps we can get rid of 60% of this nonsense.

Now let’s add another component to this. According to a Wisconsin Taxpayer’s Alliance report last week, Wisconsin is falling, not rising, in the proportion of personal income which go to state and local taxes. In dropped two spots in the ranking of states last year, down to eighth place. And when you look at more expansive cost comparisons – adding in user fees like vehicle registration and university tuition, Wisconsin is not in the top ten states. In the broadest measure of all, comparing states by all money raised by state and local government (but not that coming from Washington), Wisconsin ranked 20th in the country – not even in the top third.

Two whole spots! That certainly was not due to anything we did, if other states raised taxes why in your twisted liberal minds do you think that makes our tax burden any less onerous?

We hope the budget sessions move ahead with solid deliberation and hard work – and without the invective and shrillness that have too often become associated with this process. Yes, there will be honest differences on taxation and the value of various programs and spending, and, yes, there must be compromises.

Shrill = anything conservatives say. Tell me Journal Times editors how many of these tax and fee increases have Joint Finance Committee Democrats been against, including your precious John Lehman? Come on you can say it... Zero.

We would urge that work be done with perspective and with civility.

Lock the conservatives in a closet.

Amazingly the Journal Times got through this whole editorial without mentioning the Proposed KRM rail line... Someone is getting fired over that one.

So to summarize their premise, keeping a perspective on the budget debate:

• Tax & Fee provisions, good
• Doyle, good.
• Health care costs, too low.
• Republicans, bad.
• Vos, evil.
• Smokers, evil.
• Anyone in opposition, shrill.
• Wisconsin, not a tax hell.
• Tax on oil companies, will not come back on consumers.

I can some up this editorial in a much more concise way.

Journal Times Editors, idiots.

Since You Might Be Wondering...

Yes, gas is cheaper here in the DC Metro area. (It's only now passed $3.00 a gallon at most stations this week.)

Yes, the gas tax is lower than Wisconsin's, but I'm not celebrating.

'Why?' You might ask.

Two reasons:

1.) There is no sales tax exemption in Virginia for groceries. In fact, they're taxed at a separate 2.5% rate that's different from the regular 5% state sales tax in the Commonwealth.

2.) Certain "counties" and "cities" (info for Fairfax, VA is here) - and let's just say it's the tourist trap counties and cities - have something called a "Meals Tax."

What is a "Meals Tax," you ask?

Basically, any prepared, restaurant, or prepackaged meal is taxed at a separate rate determined by the municipality. The real kicker; it's in addition to the regular sales tax that goes with the restaurant, supermarket, gas station buying experience.

Meaning in short: If you go to McDonald's, a steak place, buy an already prepared sandwich at a grocery store or 7-Eleven, and so on; what you eat is taxed twice.

So there. Virginia is indeed for lovers...tax lovers.

A Vocabulary Lesson

Fred Risser must have been very much asleep the day his teacher told them what the word increase means.

v.intr.

1. To become greater or larger.
2. To multiply; reproduce.

v.tr.

To make greater or larger.
n. (ĭn'krēs')

1. The act of increasing: a steady increase in temperature.
2. The amount or rate by which something is increased: a tax increase of 15 percent.
3. Obsolete. Reproduction and spread; propagation.

Source: Answers.com – Dictionary Definition of INCREASE

Risser defended the $8-a-barrel increase, noting it would do little but index the beer tax for inflation since its last increase 38 years ago.

Source: JSOnline &150; Legislators want to raise beer tax (But they know idea won't be popular)By STEVEN WALTERS



I love the part about how the money raised will go into a segregated fund to help fund alcohol treatment and alcohol related law enforcement. Sure, it will just like the funds from the tobacco lawsuit (which was also another bad idea). Heaven forbid Wisconsin have the lowest taxes in the nation in one area, why we must be #1!

What really shocks me is we have yet to hear how this is for the children!

RTA Shame

As we have written about here before, the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) has proposed a 650% increase in a rental car user fee from $2 to $15.The $2 fee was instituted in 2005.

Since that time the $2 rental fee has raised approximately $500,000 in taxes.

$496,000 of that money has been used up in a lobbying contract to raise taxes even higher for the proposed KRM (Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee) rail line.

Yes $496,000 of $500,000 in tax money went to lobbyists to try to raise taxes higher.

There is a press conference/rally scheduled for this Monday the 16th of April at the Port of Milwaukee, the site of the scheduled RTA meeting, to bring this information forward to the public.

In a cowardly move, the RTA has cancelled their meeting, but the rally will go on.

Scheduled to speak are Chris Klisemet of Citizens for Responsible Government, Mark Block of Americans for Prosperity, and myself.

The total annual cost of the proposed transit (including capital cost amortization) is expected to consist of an 82% government subsidy --- Taxpayers pay 58% of the $10,900,000 annual operating cost and 100% of the $15,000,000 annual capital amortization cost. Annual cost to taxpayers is $21,300,000; riders, $4,600,000 (that is ---eventually, when ridership peaks).

The RTA wants to tell you that this is tax we will not pay, not true. Fully half of all rental car business comes from the local area. And if taxes are jacked up on rental cars insurance policies that include rental car coverage will be increased to cover the costs. Those increased premiums we will all pay.

And what happens when this revenue line does raise enough revenue to pay for the operating shortfall?

Think about it.

Add that to the fact that the proposed rail line going all along the Kenosha to Milwaukee corridor does not even include a stop at the airport and what do you have?

Transit for transit sake, and a bad plan at that.

I'm all for mass transit, but the KRM line is nothing but a mass folly being thrust upon the taxpayers of the region.

$496,000 of $500,000 to hire lobbyists to increase taxes.

Shameful.

CP @ RDW

It Seems a Bit Counter-Productive

The state is going after a couple of guys who are making biodiesel fuel, because they haven't paid taxes (and fees) on the fuel.

I had some thoughts on this one. I figured I'd bring it to the BBA, because everyone's going to want to chime in on this gem.

Idiotic doesn't even begin to describe it.

Pigging Out

Cross-posted at Texas Hold 'Em Blogger.

More pigs feeding at the public trough.

The Milwaukee Journal’s new investigative bureau has committed what The Blogfather commonly refers to as a flagrant act of journalism.

Public employees from street sweepers to school superintendents in the Milwaukee area receive a retirement perk not commonly seen: the ability to cash out unused sick days as straight cash, in one case to the tune of nearly $70,000.

A Journal Sentinel review of 67 Milwaukee area municipalities and school districts found that 36 of them allow employees to take cash payouts for unused sick days, subject to a cap.

Nine more allow employees to convert unused sick days toward retirement health insurance coverage, a perk many state employees, including lawmakers, also get. The remaining 22 districts and municipalities reviewed do not allow a payout.

A Journal Sentinel investigation starting in late 2006 found that state elected officials rarely claim sick days, then parlay the unused days into generous insurance benefits in retirement. A team of reporters checked with local officials from Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee and Racine counties to see if the same kind of benefits occur locally. They generally don’t. But reporters found that workers are able to take advantage of unused sick leave by receiving cash payouts at the end of their careers.

Nice work if you can get it. In the real world, namely the private sector, the few times I’ve had sick days available, I had to use them within a specified period of time or they couldn’t be claimed, let alone converted to cash.

Get a load of this guy:

[O]ne official - Menomonee Falls Village Manager Richard Farrenkopf - was able to cash out at nearly $70,000.

Farrenkopf was owed $69,060 cash for unused sick days when he retired earlier this year. His payout was negotiated in a contract he had struck with the village, which capped his maximum sick days at 250. For other Menomonee Falls employees, the benefit is capped at 110 days.

$70,000. Seventy thousand dollars. I am sick and tired of hearing about how underpaid and under-compensated our public officials and other leeches on the public payroll are.

This guy gets a job which no doubt doesn’t require him to even work a regular work week — wanna bet you couldn’t find him in his office on a Friday afternoon? — plus all the other perks, like “conferences” in convenient vacation places with warm weather, lots of golf, fishing, etc. All paid for by you.

Then, when he’s done, in addition to the generous pension and retirement benefits, he backs up the Brink’s truck and rips off the taxpayers for $70,000 more off the gravy train.

Here’s more:

• Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William Andrekopoulos, who now qualifies for a sick leave cash payout of $26,365. That’s his cash severance for 40 days of unused sick time. He actually has accumulated 150 days of sick leave, but MPS policy caps his benefit at 40 days.
• West Bend Administrator Dennis Melvin, who has accumulated $21,400 for 60 days of unused sick time. He actually has saved 120 sick days, but he can collect for no more than 60. If he retires from the city, the money can be used to buy city health insurance, but he can also just take the cash.
• Chenequa Police Chief/Administrator Robert Douglas, who has accumulated a cash benefit of $41,299, which equals 120 days of his pay. Although Douglas has accumulated more than 120 unused sick days, Chenequa, a tiny but wealthy lake community in Waukesha County, limits the payout to no more than 120 days.
• Brown Deer Village Manager Russell Van Gompel, who has accumulated a benefit of $24,738. The community has a cap of 75 days, and an employee must have worked for the village for 15 years for the benefit to kick in.

Of course, a thug from the public employees union — speaking of bloodsucking leeches — defends the practice.

“It fosters careful use of sick leave,” said Robert Chybowski, executive director of AFSCME Wisconsin Council 40. “Managers have judged it as a good way to foster the use of sick leave, because employees knew that somewhere down the line they would be able to get something out of it if they didn’t use sick leave during their careers.”

No it doesn’t. It just gives a bunch of lazy, underworked, overpaid goldbricks another generous apportionment of our money.

Ever wonder why taxes are so high in this state? It’s because of the perceived need to take care of the public sector at all levels. They can live high off the hog while the rest of us are stuck with the tab.

The public gravy train just keeps rolling on. But we can’t cut one iota of spending. No sir. Not for taking care of those feeding at the public trough.

Heeeere piggy piggy…. sooooeeeeee!

CCAP Tax

Ok, admit it, everyone here has CCAP'd their boss at some point or another.

Free and open access to circuit court access records is one thing this state does right.

Not any more.

Check this out from the Guv's proposed budget... This bill authorizes the Director of State Courts to establish and collect fees for use of the circuit court automated information systems.

Yep, a dreaded user fee just to search the public data base.

Is there anything this man will not tax?

Just another money grab.

Randy, the RDW education reporter, has a great report up on Racine Unified Schools using the excuse they do not have the resources to provide ID badges for employees.

Right.

The school district is using tragedy to beg for more money, and frankly folks that is disgusting.

Typical of the school district to accept zero responsibility and blaim the taxpayers.

When does a 50/50 split = a majority favoring more taxes???

When you are the Racine Journal Times, that's when.

Hospital tax cheerleader

You'd think with something as extensive and costly as a hospital tax, Democrats wouldn't be too quick to rally around Doyle.

I thought so, and I was wrong.

The Senate co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee is gung-ho to jack up the costs of health care.

Senator Russ Decker (D-Weston) applauded Governor Doyle for considering an assessment on hospitals to help fund the cost of Medical Assistance programs in Wisconsin. He noted that the latest report on hospital profits makes the contribution of hospitals all the more necessary.

“Hospitals are always asking for higher reimbursement rates for Medical Assistance programs. This idea has the potential to generate hundreds of millions of additional federal dollars for our state and the hospitals are criticizing it before they’ve even seen a plan,” said Decker.

“The only way we are going to be able to make sure we can get adequate health care coverage is if everyone shares the responsibility to make it work. Consumers are already shouldering their share of the burden by paying nearly $4,000 a day to stay in the hospital. After raking in over $1 billion in profits, the least nonprofits hospitals can do is pay their fair share for the medical assistance program,” said Decker.

Except, of course, they won't, and those poor consumers Decker pretends to be so concerned about will shoulder even more costs. He knows that, though. He knows full well who will pay for the tax. He just doesn't care.