Milwaukee Post
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8 • Milwaukee County Post • October 6, 2017 This is almost miraculous: Wisconsin is now in the top half of states for LOWEST tax burden. In seven years, Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican Legislature have taken Wisconsin from a tax hell that was always ranked among the worst 10 states for tax burden into the middle of the pack. The ranking, derived from U.S. Census Bureau figures, is our state's best in 50 years. Act 10 and its employee benefit reforms are the major obvious factor but the Legislature has also put in place spending limits that constrain ever greedy local gov- ernments. And, there hasn't been an increase in state income or sales taxes in years. We still have tax problems. Local voters are passing school tax referendums at a manic pace, most school districts are refus- ing to fully use Act 10, some Republicans are hell-bent on raising transportation taxes, and municipal and county sales taxes are cropping up. The good fight to control taxes in this state never ends. Even now, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wants a city sales tax as he ponders how to pay the operating costs of his streetcar and he eliminates police and fire positions. Some Republican legislators even tried this year to ruin the lowest- spending state school districts by giving them power to jack up their spending closer to the higher spending districts. This is the war that will never end. The biggest threat, of course, is not let- ting the Democrats who made us a tax hell get their power back. If it took us six years to go to 22nd from 47th on the tax burden list, it will take the Madison leftists who control the Democrats even less time to move us right back to the bottom of the list. And that is the point — it is a list. It isn't so much that Wisconsin has lowered taxes (because we really haven't). It's that many other states are raising theirs like crazy. Illinois is rocketing to the bottom of the list by taxing, spending and borrowing their way out of a fiscal crisis caused by the very taxing, spending and borrowing they con- tinue to do. Almost all of the states sliding to the bottom of the list are controlled by Democrats beholden to government unions and incapable of managing their finances. Wisconsin's improving tax ranking is like a sports team lucky enough to be in a bad division. So where did the savings come from? The answer comes in a bunch of billboards and newspaper ads popping up around the state run by a rotten company called WEA Trust. This "business" used to provide most of the health insurance coverage for Wisconsin teachers but is now being forced to adver- tise to try to improve its deservedly horri- ble image. It was Act 10 that ended WEA Trust's scandalous racket and is now forc- ing the company to buy advertising to try to save itself. Before Act 10, teachers unions were allowed to collectively bargain on every- thing. The Wisconsin Education Association took advantage of this to pull off one of the most brazen ripoffs in the his- tory of sweetheart deals. The union created its own insurance company, WEA Trust, and union leaders served on the "compa- ny's" board. At the local level, the unions insisted in their contract negotiations that WEA Trust be the sole insurance provider. Competitive bids were not allowed. WEA Trust then charged premiums grotesquely above mar- ket rates. The union literally invented a company for the purpose of over-charging taxpayers so it could pocket the money! Act 10 ended the ability of teachers unions to force purchasing of health insur- ance from their own invented company. As competitors moved in, rates were dramati- cally lowered. Proving they were ripping us off all along, WEA Trust even lowered its own prices to keep what business it could. Some school boards, particularly those whose members remain tools of the union, continue to use WEA Trust despite its abuse of taxpayers but the monopoly is over. WEA Trust remains one of the providers in the state public employee health plan. And that's really the point of this column. All tax money is distributed to somebody else. Follow the money! Prior to the Walker revolution, overtaxed Wisconsinites were allowing public employees to receive lavish benefits at literally no cost. Not satisfied with that sweet deal, the teachers union even invented a company to overcharge us and pocket even more of the tax money. Likewise, the pressure to raise trans- portation taxes comes largely from the con- tractors and unions that get hired to do the roadwork. Turn on a Packers or Brewers broadcast and you'll hear ads from both the state road construction trade organization and the Operating Engineers union. Until now, they had the same monopoly that the teachers union and WEA Trust held with teacher health insurance. This too is end- ing. Thanks to Governor Walker and some Republican legislators, the state's prevail- ing wage law is immediately repealed on state projects. This will allow competitors to the road builders who have union con- tracts to come in and potentially under-bid the giant companies that have been getting all of the business at suspiciously high con- tract prices. Non-union start-ups who don't have contracts with the Operating Engineers will be able to seek some of the business. Costs are sure to go down (although the construction boom and Foxconn project will drive up labor costs for at least a few years). But even some Republicans fought to keep prevailing wage and carried water for the big contractors and the union. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos fought to delay the end of prevailing wage for a year (and, thanks to Walker, lost). We are becoming a state with a more rea- sonable tax burden. But this isn't happen- ing magically. It's because of political deci- sions to end the feeding of special interests who were profiting off of an overtaxed state. But every victory in this war has been a bloodbath. The taxers don't go down with- out a fight and, following the money again, will never give up trying to regain their power. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post. Send your personal correspondences to Mark Belling at Clear Channel Communications, c/o WISN, 12100 W. Howard Ave., Greenfield, WI 53228). MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE State tax climate improvement has some miserable OPINION Send your letters to: The Milwaukee Post, c/o Dan Muckelbauer, 3397 S. Howell Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207, or by email to: dmuck@conleynet.com. We reserve the right to edit letters for style, length and clarity. Letters should be typewritten or printed and include full name, phone number and address. Please keep your letters to no more than 400 words. Letters policy Milwaukee should have red-light cameras To the editor: Running red lights in Milwaukee has become too commonplace, and — in some cases — a reckless gamble ending in death. Early Monday morning at North 35th Street and West Capitol Drive, a driver ran a red light and T-boned another vehicle in the intersection. The horrific crash killed a 27- year-old woman and her 11-month-old daughter and seriously injured a passenger. The driver of the striking vehicle fled the scene but was later arrested at a hospital. We need to be able to do a better job of deterring people from running red lights at all times across our city, and that's why I am pushing the state Legislature to allow Milwaukee to put in place a citywide red- light camera system. The safety benefits of such a system are clear as the reckless driv- ing epidemic we are seeing across the city (punctuated by people foolishly and danger- ously running red lights) is costing lives and causing serious injuries and property damage. But there's also the benefit of bringing much needed revenue from red-light cita- tions. In Chicago, red-light running viola- tors are fined $100 or more. In some juris- dictions, under-pavement sensors or other technology can allow red-light cameras to capture speeds in addition to drivers run- ning intersections. This possible speeding "multiplier" could bring additional citation revenue to the city. I urge citizens to join me in pushing for this important tool that could help save lives, make drivers slow down and stop run- ning red lights, and provide much needed revenue to the City of Milwaukee. Alderman Tonny Zielinski 14th Aldermanic District Milwaukee LETTERS TO THE EDITOR