WisPolitics.com:




		Rep. Lasee's Notes October 25, 2001 Imagine waking up from a deep sleep, and finding yourself lying in the middle of a railroad crossing. A train is bearing down on you at top speed. You know you're about to get squashed, but there's no time to get out of the way. That's a little like the situation the State of Wisconsin is in right now. We know we're on a collision course, and there's nothing we can do about it. We've got a big deficit on the way. Even by the end of this year, we could be up to $700 million (some say more) in the red. We passed a budget that spends nearly $9000 per person in this state, and we're still coming up short. It's going to be a train wreck. If we do come up $700 million short, we're going to have to do one of two things: cut spending somewhere, or find more money to spend. What will the state do? Rob the tobacco settlement again? We've already killed the goose that laid (or would have) a $160 million-a-year egg. We traded $5.9 billion in payments for $1.2 billion up front, then spent $450 million of that to balance the budget. Oh, except the budget isn't balanced. Don't think the state won't raid that money again. And don't think all our tax-and-spenders will roll over and let all their pet spending projects get nicked. Let's get this straight - we can't spend any more money. We can't spend more, because we can't tax more. Wisconsin is third in the nation in state and local taxes as a percentage of income. More of our paychecks go to state and local taxes than 47 other states - only Maine and New York tax their citizens more. We've heard that statistic before, but it's not old news. The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance recently released their study, showing Wisconsin's ranking nationally. We were 5th highest in 1997, 4th in 1998, and 3rd in the nation in 1999. See the trend? We have Wisconsin families and retirees leaving the state because of the high tax burden. I raised this issue on the Assembly floor on Tuesday. The response from some Democrats - shut up, Lasee. We have a great state to live in, and that costs money. I say no to increasing our tax burden or raiding the tobacco settlement again. We in Wisconsin cannot afford to continue taxing little old ladies out of their homes. We can't afford to drive wealthy retirees from this state. Liberal tax-and-spenders will whine and cry over every little program. They'll call us hateful. They'll target the elderly, young mothers, working people, and tell them we don't care about them. But it's they who don't care. They don't care what our state's economy becomes. They don't care if young couples can't afford to buy homes, or elderly couples are forced from theirs. They don't care if today's working people are forced onto government programs later because they couldn't afford to invest now. They don't care about that, but the rest of us should.