No Runny Eggs

Yesterday, the Senate ‘Rats voted to try to tax and spend their way out of a problem created by taxing and spending. What a fucking surprise; they’re ‘Rats after all. Higher taxes and higher gubmint spending is all they know.

Revisions/extensions (2:40 pm 3/26/2008) – This one’s too long to put in italics and keep XHTML validity because I have to put the tag before every single paragraph.

Oh, just for shits and grins, let’s do some math for the effects through June 2009 using the Journal Sentinel numbers (note; positive numbers are increases to the general fund, negative numbers are decreases from the general fund):

– Expected budget shortfall before Senate “action”: -$652 million (say, wasn’t that about the amount government grew?)
– Taxing out-of-state operations of multi-state companies: $130.5 million
– Reducing the corporate tax rate: -$5.2 million
– Taxing hospitals (at a rate of $416 million in exchange for $408 million in additional federal funds Medicaid taxes, not exactly a money-maker for the hospitals): $125 million to the general fund
– Playing with trains between Kenosha and Milwaukee: -$200 million (with the side “benefit” of increasing the car rental tax from $2 to $15 to pay for the “local contribution” to this boondoggle)
– School payment delay from June 2009 to July 2009: $125 million (do note that this bill comes due in the FY 2010-2011 budget)
– More child care subsidies: -$18.6 million
– Various spending cuts: $127 million (do note that this is not only the last item in the news story, but the one item that the Journtinel did not put a solid dollar amount on, noting that it was $40 million more than what Jim “Craps” Doyle wanted and $350 million less than what the Assembly wanted)
– Expected budget shortfall after “Senate” action: -$368.3 million

Not exactly a fix, sports fans. Do take special note of the actual effect of the hospital tax; the only entity making out in this is state government.