The veto power that our governor wields is unique to our state, and most other states view it as an unconstitutional use of power.

I realize that I have been rambling on and on about the state budget and how long it took for our legislators to finally get a version agreed upon to hand over to Gov. Doyle. But how in the world can “Diamond Jim” get away with his “Franken-veto” shenanigans and not hear the same complaints that former Gov. Tommy Thompson heard for doing basically the same thing?

During his tenure as governor, Thompson used his line-item veto powers as he felt necessary in order to move Wisconsin, as our motto states, forward. He heard a great deal of outrage when he used his cut-and-paste powers to increase a spending proposal from $30,000 to $300,000 (by crossing out enough of the bill to add an extra zero). Granted, this amount of increase was far too dramatic to go unnoticed or unmentioned, but Gov. Doyle has just done the same thing and no one from the mainstream media is saying one word about it.

What Doyle has done now is essentially doubled the allowable increase in municipal property tax levels. The bill, with all its technical aspects, reads:

2007 Senate Bill 40
66.0602 (2) LEVY Limit. Except as provided in subs. (3), (4) and (5), no political subdivision may increase its levy in 2007 or 2008 by a percentage that exceeds the political subdivision’s valuation factor. The base amount in any year, to which the limit under this section applies, shall be the maximum allowable levy for the immediately preceding year. In determining its levy in any year, a city, village, town, or county shall subtract any tax increment that is calculated under s. 59.57 (3) (a), 60.85 (1) (L), or 66.1105(2) (i).

Here is what that same bill looks like after Doyle finished with it…

2007 Senate Bill 40
66.0602 (2) LEVY Limit. Except as provided in subs. (3), (4) and (5), no political subdivision may increase its levy in 2007 or 2008 by a percentage that exceeds the political subdivision’s valuation factor. The base amount in any year, to which the limit under this section applies, shall be the maximum allowable levy for the immediately preceding year. In determining its levy in any year, a city, village, town, or county shall subtract any tax increment that is calculated under s. 59.57 (3) (a), 60.85 (1) (L), or 66.1105(2) (i).

He just allowed for a statewide property tax increase of up to 3.86% per year for the rest of this fiscal budget, which runs until 2009.

The veto power that our governor wields is unique to our state, and most other states view it as an unconstitutional use of power. Doyle is able to go through the state budget and pick and choose what parts he wants to leave in or cut out, without any explanation or legislation approval needed. While Thompson used his veto power to make an overall increase in spending plans, Doyle has used his mighty pen to do the one thing he said he would not: “I can not, should not, and will not raise taxes.”

I am tired of being lied to by the people elected to supposedly “look out for our best interest” in Madison. In a state where we are already among the most highly taxed people in the country, why do we continually raise taxes each and every year? Graduates of the entire UW system continually flock to out-of-state jobs. Whether that is due to higher wages or lower taxes is debatable, but it’s still an occurrence worth noting.

People are moving to other states, namely Oregon and Delaware, where there is no sales tax and extremely low property taxes. The “public services” that our taxes are supposedly paying for are not great enough to have to pay more and more each year for the same things.

When will enough be enough, and when will someone finally take a stand and start to do the smart (and right) thing for this state?

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