NOT SO HAPPY COST OF GOVERNMENT DAY
A legislative column by state Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin)

One national website used this blaring headline to describe the occasion:

“Taxpayers in America’s Dairyland get Milked”

August 12, 2009 was Cost of Government Day, not to be confused with Tax Freedom Day.

Tax Freedom Day is the day Americans will have earned enough money to pay this year’s tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels. In Wisconsin, Tax Freedom Day fell on April 13, 2009 compared to last year’s Tax Freedom Day of April 21, 2008. Wisconsin’s 2008 Tax Freedom Day was the 14th worst in the country. This year’s Tax Freedom Day is the 12th worst of all the states.

Tax Freedom Day is bad enough. Cost of Government Day is even worse.

Cost of Government Day is the date of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of spending and regulatory burdens imposed by all levels of government, federal, state and local. Wisconsin’s Cost of Government Day fell on August 12, 2009,  the eleventh worst Cost of Government Day among all 50 states

Let’s put Cost of Government Day in perspective. During 2009, you had to work 224 out of the 365 days in the year (61.3 percent) just to earn enough to pay for spending and regulations at the federal, state, and local levels of government, 26 days longer than 2008.

Clearly spending and regulatory costs for all levels of government are increasing at a faster pace than income, creating a heavier burden on working taxpayers. The recession caused by the economic downturn has shrunk income making it far more difficult to pay for continued government taxing and spending

At the federal level, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) that created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), designed to stimulate the economy and create self-sustaining jobs have failed miserably. The stimulus packages have only served to greatly expand federal spending. According to Americans for Tax Reform, the 2010 budget proposed by President Obama and approved by the Democrat-controlled Congress comprises a record 28.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

At the state level, the 2009-11 budget signed into law by Governor Doyle spends 9.4 percent more, according to the nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX). The Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) reports that under the 2009-2011 state budget, property taxes on a median-valued Wisconsin home will increase $93 this year and an additional $123 next year. The very moment Governor Doyle signed the 2009-2011 state budget into law, it created a gigantic hole of $899 million going into 2010-11 and $1.15 billion the year after.

Locally, municipalities and school districts are considering property tax levy increases, some in double digits.

The forecast for an earlier Cost of Government Day during 2010 is anything but rosy as long as taxing and spending remain high at all levels of government. The average American had to work 111 days during 2009 just to pay for federal spending, 49 days to pay for state and local government spending, and 65 days to cover the costs of government regulations.

Wisconsin, your burden of paying your share of the federal, state, and local spending and regulation finally ended on August 12, 2009, almost two-thirds of the way into the year.

Happy Cost of Government Day? I don’t think so.

If you have comments on this or any other issue, please contact me at Sen.Lazich@legis.wisconsin.gov, www.SenatorLazich.com, Senator Mary Lazich, State Capitol, P.O. Box 7882 Madison, WI 53707 or 1-800-334-1442