The following just came in from Rep. Rich Zipperer’s office:
It’s official. The first major piece of legislation approved by the new majority in the Assembly included $1.2 billion of job killing tax increases. And, after 50 separate suggestions to improve the bill were offered by Republicans and each were summarily rejected by Democrats, not a single Republican voted for the tax increases.
The 389 page bill, dubbed by Governor Doyle as his ‘stimulus’ plan, was fast-tracked through the entire legislative process this week in less than 36 hours – a process that normally takes months. Unfortunately, the ‘stimulus’ bill is actually a budget bailout bill necessary because of yet another failed budget that has harmed our economy and failed to meet revenue expectations.
It became clear to me during the floor debate last night why the Democrat leadership wanted to fast-track this bill and deny the public an opportunity to see, debate, and comment on the legislation. The bill does what politicians in Washington have thus far refused to do – raise taxes in the midst of a recession. The Governor’s bailout plan, disguised as economic stimulus, is more accurately a laundry list of tax hikes that will only serve to further damage our state’s financial security and drive thousands of jobs from our state.
In an attempt to turn this package into a catalyst for economic growth and prosperity, I, along with a number of my Assembly Republican colleagues, offered 50 amendments that put taxpayers first and would have actually put stimulus ideas into the bill. Our taxpayer-friendly amendments would have:
- Halted the $925 million Sick Tax
- Eliminated $70.7 million in new sales tax collections
- Exempted over-the-counter drugs from state sales tax
- Ensured oversight over the federal stimulus money that is coming to Wisconsin
- Eliminated the iPod tax, a $10.9 million tax proposed by Governor Doyle on digital downloads
- Turned $1.6 million of earmarks given by Governor Doyle to labor unions into competitive public grants
- Created an August sales tax holiday for back-to-school clothing shopping
- Protected segregated funds, such as the Transportation Fund and the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund, from future raids and abuse
- Stopped a new $215 million job killing tax on businesses
- Made certain that tax dollars aren’t used to perform abortions
- Provided immediate incentives for job creators to spend capital on research and innovation
- Provided immediate tax relief to start-up small businesses
The people and businesses of Wisconsin can and will compete with anyone in the world if just given the opportunity. We have the can-do spirit. Unfortunately, Assembly Democrats stood lock-step with the Governor tonight and refused to accept a single amendment from our side of the aisle.
In this time of job loss and economic uncertainty, we need to make efforts to create jobs and make government accountable to taxpayers our top priorities. We must end the tax and spend culture that has taken hold in Madison. The actions this week by the majority party, however, will only help to shrink our state’s economy, drive jobs from our state, and still leave us with a current budget deficit of $416.9 million – allowing the potential for yet another budget bailout before the fiscal year ends on June 30th.
And this is all before we even begin to debate the over $1.4 billion in additional tax increases sought by Governor Doyle as part of his 2009-2011 proposed state budget.
Slight correction – it’s $2.1 billion of additional tax increases in the Necro-Budget, not $1.4 billion.
