I know, Rich Zipperer isn’t my Assemblyman (Mark Honadel is; I wish I could’ve stayed longer at the hearing yesterday so I could talk to him), but his staff passed along a press release on the State of the State (which I didn’t watch; Patrick took care of that for me), and a guest column on the Earmark Transparency Act set to appear in the Waukesha Freeman in a couple days. Since I don’t want to spoil the Freeman’s readership, for now I’ll simply point out the new bit of news between the original column posted below and the one to be published – 28 Assemblymen and 11 Senators, all Republicans, have signed on to co-sponsor the bill, which is now in the pipeline. I’ll repost the column once it’s published (or if it’s not published by Saturday, I’ll do it then).
I will, however, post Zipperer’s response to Governor Doyle’s State of the State address:
"Rather than accept responsibility and offer real leadership to help move Wisconsin’s economy forward in these difficult times, Governor Doyle tonight passed the buck by blaming others for the challenges facing our state.
With the economic concerns at the national and state level, it is clear that fixing the economy is the top issue facing this state. That is why we should be focused on helping families and businesses by lowering the tax burden, not worrying about filling the government’s coffers or growing state agencies.
After he spent last year pushing for record tax and spending increases, Governor Doyle tonight finally announced support for some economic growth initiatives that Assembly Republicans have long advocated. He should also advocate for immediate tax relief measures that will put money back in the hands of families and businesses throughout Wisconsin.
Bills that I’ve authored such as the Higher Education Tax Credit, the Internet Tax Freedom Act, and reducing the state income tax through an across-the-board income tax cut, would go a long way toward getting our economy moving again by putting money back in the hands of hardworking Wisconsinites.
Our economy, our families, and our small businesses need help, but Governor Doyle fell far short tonight. While his tax increases and increased spending over the last several years have pushed Wisconsin into these tight times, his speech tonight didn’t lay out any plans on how dig us out of the financial hole."
The Asian Badger has some more on the Internet Tax Freedom Act, specifically its 10-0 bipartisan approval by the Assembly committee on Energy and Utilities yesterday. That means that the bill, which will eliminate taxation on internet access charges and thus bring Wisconsin into compliance with federal law prohibiting taxation on internet access charges, will go to the floor of the Assembly.
