Property Tax Revolt
Our fearless governor, Jim Doyle, has really misread the public.That much is obvious.
But he really began to misread the public back during his election campaign.
Taxes were a big issue in that race because we a have a huge budget shortfall in Wisconsin. The then-governor, Scott McCallum, refused to raise taxes and focused on cutting spending and using the tobacco settlement money to ease the budget woes.
Doyle had no plan for the budget problem. Naturally, everyone suspected he was just going to raise taxes. In fact, I think that was his original plan.
To win the election, he had to promise (repeatedly) not to raise taxes.
When he said this, it meant something different to him than it did to the public. The public saw this as a promise to ease their tax burden. Doyle saw this as merely a technical promise to not actually personally decree a raise in something labeled a "tax".
He thought he could get away with passing a budget that shifted the tax burden to the cities, knowing that the cities will raise the taxes instead of him. A shell game. He knows it. We know it. His future as governor depends on his ability to sell this shell game.
The legilature (senate and assembly) passed a property tax freeze. Doyle vetoed it.
Off came his mask.
Exposed, he's playing the bitter "right-wing conspiracy" angle.
Keep it up Jim. Please keep it up.
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