Doyle's ponzi scheme

J.J. Blonien, of Americans for Prosperity - Wisconsin, has a great editorial on Gov. Doyle's budget in the Wisconsin Conservative Digest.

Doyle’s plan does provide for temporary property tax relief, but he does this by increasing shared revenues to school districts and local governments by more than an estimated $1.5 billion. While Doyle espoused the miracle cure that his snake-oil tax freeze would bring property taxpayers, he never mentioned the debilitating side effects — increased government spending. Doyle’s slight-of-hand is nothing more than a shell game that shifts money from one funding source to another.

A genuine tax freeze would hold the line on government spending, while Doyle’s scheme increases state spending by nearly 10 percent. Rather than funding this spending increase at the local level through property taxes, Doyle is proposing to fund the tax shift by increasing fees such as hunting licenses by more than 50 percent and by Enron-style accounting tricks.

The bottom line is that while local property taxes may not increase this year, overall spending by school districts and local governments is likely to increase at a rate that exceeds inflation and growth. The true fiscal impact of government is measured in how much it spends, not in how much it taxes. And as we know, government spending increases are usually followed by tax increases.

Doyle’s one-time con job of robbing Peter to pay Paul is nothing but a desperate attempt to co-opt the genuine tax freeze plan currently working its way through the legislature. Doyle knows that property taxes will be the number one issue in next year’s race for governor and he doesn't want to be remembered as the governor who vetoed the property tax freeze.

Read the whole thing.