Hey, It’s Wisconsin….Let’s Raise Taxes!!!

From the MJS Business Section 4/9/08.

“Wisconsin’s rich keep getting richer much faster than poor and middle-income households, according to reports released today.
And while the gap between the rich and poor isn’t as wide in Wisconsin as in the country overall, the disparity is growing, according to the Center on Wisconsin Strategy and the Wisconsin Council on Children & Families, both based in Madison.

Households with the highest incomes in Wisconsin increased their wealth by 36% between the late 1980s and the mid 2000s, compared with a 7% growth in income for the poorest households and 14% for middle-income households, the report says.

Based on a state-by-state analysis released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Wisconsin report updates earlier studies that use inflation-adjusted census data and compare households in the highest, lowest and middle fifths of income.

The Wisconsin report shows the Badger State with the 11th most equal distribution of income nationwide, with the average income of the richest fifth ($120,440) six times higher than the lowest fifth ($20,073).”[...]

Now, the Center of Wisconsin Studies is a leftard “think tank” located, naturally, in Madistan. You can see their site here.

If you want to see the people behind the reports, they all have a mini-bio for you to look at. It’s about what you’d expect.

Nevertheless, the above-quoted part of the article lays out the facts and it is what it is. Now, in bullet point form, let’s see how COWS wants to deal with the “problem”.

From the same article.

The report prescribes several policy strategies to help even out Wisconsin’s economic growth.

Among them:

• Raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation.
Ummmmm…no. Minimum wage is not designed to be a living wage. It’s a way for business, big and small, to hire people and see if they work out. If they do, the wages will go up as the new employee gives the company a reason NOT to get rid of that employee. Raising the minimum wage will guarantee that a person who wants to work but has no experience will not get hired.

• Improving workers’ skills and education.
No brainer….we need a think tank for that? Note to MPS students…learn to read and write and do simple arithmetic. It will help you in the long run, really.

• Expanding subsidized childcare and health care for low-income workers.
How about not having babies while still in high school? I could see this if the individual was married. Maybe.

• Updating unemployment insurance.
I’m not sure what this means. Does this mean that people who are employed should have their taxes raised to support the inept and lazy? I’m guessing that’s what this means.

• Making taxes more progressive.
Naturally, being a bunch of libtards in Madistan, this had to be put in as a policy recommendation. How will increasing taxes on the upper 20% benefit the lower 20%? At some point, people who do earn will say “see ya” and head for states where acheivement is not punished.

Kudos to the MJS reporter for getting some other viewpoints.

“Van Mobley, an assistant professor of history and economics at Concordia University Wisconsin, said he wished the report had dug deeper into why disparity is growing. To the degree that globalization plays a role, Mobley said, the policy recommendations might have the effect of “spitting in the breeze.”

Laura Dresser, research director for the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that other developed countries have not shown similar increases in inequality despite globalization.

“It’s the framework within which the U.S. has approached globalization,” Dresser said, suggesting that policies on such areas as taxes, trade, unions and training might have made a difference.

Gee, ya think?

Had to Post It

Yeah, it’s all over the Cheddarsphere but I had to post it anyway. Frank Busalacchi, the terminally moronic transportation secretary in Madistan doesn’t think we’re paying enough at the pump. From Sykes.

Raising taxes is never an easy decision. For the good of the country, we have to make this investment.
- Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi, a member of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee. Busalacchi pitched the commission’s plan to gradually raise the federal gas tax by 25 cents to 40 cents a gallon. Busalacchi argued, “Our (national) infrastructure is in terrible condition. We’re dealing with it every day in Wisconsin.”

Well, Frank, nice to see you’ve completely ignored the fact that Pol Pot Doyle raided the transportation fund to balance the budget.

Tell me Frank, how is raising taxes at the pump going to benefit the state. Why don’t you get some stones and tell Doyle to cut unnecessary spending?

Let me join in the other Wisconsin taxpayers by saying “Kiss my ass”.

Let me say the same to the MSM, for not reporting this.

Morons in Madistan at the Other End of State Street

Never doubt the ability of a liberal to try and gouge you. Case in point? The University of Wisconsin who thinks some animals are more equal than others.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - University of Wisconsin System officials are mulling whether students from well-off families should pay higher tuition to subsidize their lower-income peers.

The Board of Regents debated the issue Thursday as part of a wide-ranging discussion on the future of tuition and financial aid. The board did not take any action.

Supporters say the higher tuition would give campuses revenue they need to educate students while keeping up quality. They say richer families could afford to pay more.

But some lawmakers and parents worry that it will make college less affordable for middle-income students.

UW System President Kevin Reilly says he has not made up his mind on whether it’s a good idea.

Reilly, as an alum, let me give you some advice. It’s not only a terrible idea, it’s completely moronic.

My Tagline is Correct

Proving once again that the tagline of my blog is 100% accurate, Russ Decker (Leader-Brickheads) again shows why he is unfit for any type of leadership position in any capacity.

Besides, look at the bio of this clown. That’s Russ Decker….dumb as a brick and twice as dense.

Same Old Crap

It’s always kind of funny (and frankly rather tragic) when the MJS Editorial Board writes about taxes. Take this editorial for example.

A tax that lowers costs? In the short run maybe, but certainly not long-term. Let me just add one other thing. The state Senate should be focused on cutting costs, not raising taxes. Decker and his toadies won’t do that though…that requires creative thinking…..something in short supply in the majority in the upper house in Madistan.

Morons in Madistan!!! Pay Attention!!!

Yes, Russ Decker, yes Pol Pot Doyle, this means YOU. It also means every hammerhead in Madistan that loves to tax everyone into oblivion.

Check out this article in the 2/12/08 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

An old adage says high taxes don’t redistribute income, they redistribute people. For new evidence look no further than migration patterns within the United States, as documented in a new survey by the moving company United Van Lines.

A record eight million Americans — some 20,000 people every day — relocated to another state last year. So where are these families headed and why? The general picture is this: Americans are continuing to flee the Northeast and Midwest, while the leading destinations continue to be Southern and Western states.

The United Van Lines study finds that the biggest population loser last year was Michigan, where two families moved out of the state for every new family that moved in. Americans are also fleeing New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Without interviewing the departed, it’s impossible to know the reasons for this outward migration. No doubt overall economic prospects, climate, quality of life and housing prices play a role.

But one reason to conclude that taxes are also a motivator is because the eight states without an income tax are stealing talent from other states. They are Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming, and each one gained in net domestic migrants. Each one except Florida — which has sky-high property taxes on new homesteaders — also ranked in the top 12 of destination states. The nearby table ranks the top five destination and departure states.

Politicians who think taxes don’t matter might want to explain the Dakotas. North Dakota ranked second worst in out-migration last year, while South Dakota ranked in the top 10 as a destination. The two are similar in most regards, with one large difference: North Dakota has an income tax and South Dakota doesn’t.

Here’s another example. The only Pacific Coast state to lose migrant population in 2007 was California, which has the highest state income tax in the nation. This is the continuation of a dismal 10-year performance with nearly one and a half million Golden Staters leaving what was once the premier destination state in America.

Meanwhile, next door, Nevada was second among the states in new families — and a big percentage of the new arrivals are Californians. Nevada has no income tax. High income Californians can buy a house in Las Vegas for the amount of money they save in three or four years by not paying California income taxes.

One of the few Northeastern states that gained interstate migrants in 2007 was New Hampshire, the only state in New England without an income tax. For the exception that proves the tax rule, we should also mention Vermont, a high-tax state with a big net influx last year. Maybe these folks like the Ben & Jerry’s lifestyle, and we also hope they like the government they’re paying for.

We invite readers to visit the U-Haul Moving Company Web site (www.uhaul.com), where you can type in a pair of U.S. cities to learn what it costs to move from point A to B. If you want to move, say, from Austin, Texas to Southern California, the moving van will cost you $407 to rent. But if you want to move out of California to Austin, the same van costs $1,831. A move from Dallas to Philadelphia costs $663, versus $2,433 to swap homes in the other direction. The biggest discrepancy we could find was $557 from Nashville, Tennessee to Los Angeles, but the trip costs nearly eight times more, or $4,285, to move to Nashville from L.A.

Our friends on the left say Americans are willing to pay more taxes to get better government services, but their migration patterns reveal the opposite. Governors would be wise to heed these interstate migration trends as they try to cope with what may be one of the worst years in recent memory for state finances. The people who tend to be the most mobile in American society are the educated and motivated — in other words, the taxpaying class. Tax them too much, and you’ll soon find they aren’t there to tax at all.

Emphasis mine for the tax ‘em to death crowd in Madistan.

Yeah, This Makes Sense

Those of us who live in the 98th district are served by Rich Zipperer in the State Assembly. Thank God.

Given the shortfalls in state revenues, the Dems in the Senate decided to come up with a $90 million tax INCREASE. WTF, you have to be kidding me! How effing stupid can Decker and his minions be? (Answer: See description of this blog, above, for the answer.)

I don’t recall seeing anything on this in the MJS….if it was there, I missed it.

Happily, I didn’t miss Rep. Zipperer’s news release on this moronic proposal…if you aren’t in his district, you can see it here.

Who says this state isn’t a tax hell?

They’re At It Again

Well, I see the facists at the MJS editorial board are at it again. In high dudeon since Pimental and his toadies can’t understand how the free market works, they are calling for a vote on the smoking ban in the State Senate.

Must be nice to own a bar or restaurant and be told how to run YOUR business by the Morons in Madistan. Well, I demand the Senators take a vote which would force the closing of all businesses in Wisconsin that are destroying shareholder value thereby causing economic health problems for people who own stock in said companies. You know, like JRN.

Poor Little Pol Pot Doyle

Poor little Jimmy “Pol Pot” Doyle. Faced with a revenue shortfall as income and sales taxes fall below expectations, Doyle and the rest of the Morons in Madistan will have to make some cuts. Tough. They could cut half the state budget and no one other than the deadwood in the state government would be affected.

It must be tough for the politicos to decide which things take priority when there isn’t enough to go around……you know, just like real people who can’t magically create money through the armed robbery of the tax code.

“When the economy slows like this, it’s going to be a real challenge. We’re going to be in a difficult time, and we’re going to ask people to make sacrifices, and do without some things and put some things off that we want to get done.” (said Doyle).

Gee Jimmy, why don’t you man up and make some decisions?

This is Not Good

From the MJS News blog.

Madison - Up to 5,000 taxpayers received letters recently that may have shown their Social Security numbers through the address window, the state announced today.

The Department of Administration printed, folded and mailed the letters for the state Department of Revenue. The federal government requires that the Social Security numbers be printed on the forms.

Everyone affected was offered free credit monitoring in a letter sent Monday.

The error affects taxpayers in 10 communities in northeastern Wisconsin.

It would the second such error this month and the third in just over a year.

In late 2006, about 170,000 taxpayers were sent tax forms with their Social Security numbers on the mailing labels. Earlier this month, a state mailing to 260,000 Medicaid recipients also had their Social Security numbers printed on the mailing labels.

Both earlier cases caused an uproar and promises that such mistakes wouldn’t be repeated.