Notes from the West Wing
By
State Representative Garey Bies
The Democrats' Budget and
the "Frankenstein Veto"
February in an odd-number year always brings one particular significant event for the State Legislature: the presentation of the state budget by the Governor. So, for this edition of Notes from the West Wing, I thought I would talk a bit about the Democrats’ state budget and also just briefly explain what the “Frankenstein Veto” is.
The budget presented this week my Democratic colleagues was contrary to what their campaign was about last fall. The hold the line on taxes and spending platform that sold so well to electors this fall has been quickly discarded. The Democratic budget has a total of $1.7 billion in tax increases.
Each day the Legislature has been reviewing the Democrats’ budget, it seems yet another tax pops up. By now I’m sure you have all heard about the tax on health care with the proposed hospital tax and the tax on oil companies that will affect everything from heating oil and machinery fuel to gasoline, but in the proposed budget is even a tax on tax! That’s right, in the budget is a provision to levy a tax (called a fee) on somebody filing their taxes by mail! A tax on filing your taxes!
It’s the classic bait-and-switch from my friends in the other party. After campaigning as a party of tax cuts and spending controls for the past four years, at least this budget is more honest about the Democratic agenda and tax-and-spend philosophy. Initial fiscal analysis of the budget shows that an average family of four in Wisconsin would see their annual tax burden increase by $1,200!
In his speech the Governor specifically said how last session’s budget was passed “without raising income taxes … without raising sales taxes … without raising business taxes.” In the Democrats’ budget presented this week there are increases to income taxes, to sales taxes and to business taxes. Rather than use Wisconsin’s expanding economy to generate additional revenue that is anticipated to amount to $1.2 billion, the Democratic budget dramatically increases the burden placed upon Wisconsin’s taxpayers.
This is the wrong direction for Wisconsin and I and my Assembly Republican colleagues will submit our own version of the state budget that will capitalize on the inherent strength of Wisconsin’s economy to provide the revenue necessary to fund state government and utilize the increased revenue to provide more affordable health care, increase the state’s contribution to public education, foster the expanding economy and provide effective control on state taxes. In addition, I will request that a “rainy day fund” be established so that when the economy is strong and expanding, state government sets aside revenues in what may be best described as a savings account which can then be used when there is a downturn in the economy.
There is much more to talk about regarding the state budget but I will hold off on that discussion for later editions of this column. For the balance of today’s column I thought I would give a little explanation of the “Frankenstein Veto” or partial veto. The Frankenstein Veto allows the Governor to re-write legal language into a form never intended by the legislature. Governor Thompson used this tactic and Governor Doyle used this tactic in the last budget when he took a nearly 800 word portion of the budget pertaining to legal services, eliminated words here and there until only a single sentence remained that no longer dealt with legal services at all but transferred $330 million out of the Transportation Fund to be used for other purposes. And we’ve all heard about the current state of the Transportation Fund.
A quick example of how this works: In Mr. Warren Bluhm’s February 7th column he writes about a non-scientific poll on his publication’s website: “52.4% said they can support both a 163% tax increase on cigarettes and a statewide ban on smoking in private businesses.”
Now we apply the Frankenstein
Veto: “52.4% said they can support both a 163% tax increase on
cigarettes and a statewide ban on smoking in private businesses.” What we
are left with is: “52.4% support a 163% tax increase on private businesses.”
Completely different from what the original text was all about. This example
uses the veto on only one sentence; imagine what can be changed when drawing
from hundreds or even thousands of words!
Well, that is enough for today. If you have any questions about what you have read here or on any other topic, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached by e-mail at Rep.Bies@legis.wisconsin.gov or by telephone, toll-free at 1-888-482-0001. I’m also on the web at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm01/news/.