February 26, 2005: Headlines: COS - Tunisia: Politics: State Government: Property Tax: The Capital Times: The political brilliance of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's decision to seize an issue Republicans in the Legislature had steeped in demagoguery

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Tunisia: Special Report: RPCV Jim Doyle, Governor of Wisconsin: Special Report: Governor and Tunisa RPCV Jim Doyle: February 26, 2005: Headlines: COS - Tunisia: Politics: State Government: Property Tax: The Capital Times: The political brilliance of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's decision to seize an issue Republicans in the Legislature had steeped in demagoguery

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The political brilliance of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's decision to seize an issue Republicans in the Legislature had steeped in demagoguery

The political brilliance of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's decision to seize an issue Republicans in the Legislature had steeped in demagoguery

The political brilliance of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's decision to seize an issue Republicans in the Legislature had steeped in demagoguery

Joel McNally: Doyle out-freezes GOP

By Joel McNally
February 26, 2005

Golly, which would Wisconsin taxpayers rather have, a Republican property tax freeze or a Democratic property tax freeze? To most taxpayers who want to keep their own personal tax bills as low as possible, the only logical answer to that question is: Who cares?

That is the political brilliance of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's decision to seize an issue Republicans in the Legislature had steeped in demagoguery.

For months, Republican legislators had been wrapping themselves in taxpayers' rights and property tax freezes. Believe it or not, it wasn't necessarily because they wanted to freeze property taxes.

In fact, the real political strategy was to pass such incredibly bad legislation while calling it a property tax freeze that Doyle would be forced to veto it.

Then the Republicans could merrily campaign against Doyle's re-election by declaring that they were the party in favor of freezing property taxes and that Doyle was opposed to freezing property taxes.

Using such simple-minded catch phrases has worked very well for the Republicans in national and local elections. It is a strategy based on underestimating the intelligence of the voters to sort out complicated issues.

Well, live by the catch phrase, die by the catch phrase.

There was no way for Republicans to copyright the phrase "property tax freeze." In the ordinary citizen's understanding of that term, it would apply to any proposal that prevented local property taxes from rising.

So, lo and behold, Doyle, in his budget message to the Legislature, double-crossed Republicans by proposing a property tax freeze of his own.

Worse news for the Republicans was that Doyle's tax freeze made theirs look really bad.

The reason why the Republican tax freeze was such bad legislation was that it violated a principle Republicans claim to believe in - that individuals should accept responsibility for their own actions.

What keeps politicians from even more public demagoguery than usual on taxes is that they have to take responsibility for their actions. For the second budget in a row, Doyle has proposed balancing the budget without raising state taxes.

In order to accomplish that, he has to accept responsibility for painful budget cuts that eliminate state services and cut state employees.

But here's the thing about freezing local property taxes. Doyle and the Legislature don't set local property taxes. Local officials do. Local officials are the ones who have the responsibility for cutting local services - education, public safety, fire protection - if local property taxes are frozen.

The so-called Republican tax freeze allows legislators to play the heroes by proclaiming local property taxes frozen. But it avoids accepting any responsibility for doing the necessary dirty work - closing schools, laying off police officers, shutting down fire stations.

That's for local officials to figure out. Republican legislators are going to be too busy posing for holy pictures as the taxpayers' friend.

So what makes Doyle's proposed local property tax freeze more responsible? The primary reason is that Doyle accepts responsibility to put state money behind the tax freeze rhetoric.

One of the best ways to hold down local property taxes is to restore the state's two-thirds funding of public education. Doyle backed off from two-thirds funding in his last budget to close the $3.2 billion state budget deficit left to him by the previous Republican administration.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who wants to run against Doyle in 2006, publicly blamed Doyle's reduction in school funding for driving up local property taxes.

What Walker has never said is whether he supports restoration of the two-thirds state funding of public schools. Doyle now says it. His budget proposal adds $850 million in state aid to schools over two years to restore the two-thirds funding. If Walker was serious in his criticism of Doyle for reducing the formula, he should be calling on Republicans in the Legislature to support Doyle's restoration of two-thirds funding to hold down local property taxes.

The worst part about Doyle's tax freeze plan for Republicans is that it works. The fact that they're fighting it instead of supporting it shows they aren't really serious about freezing property taxes.

An analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau of Doyle's plan showed it would cut the property tax bill of a median-priced $150,500 home by $3 this year and raise the same bill by $1 in 2006.

You can't get much more frozen than that. In comparison, the original tax freeze Republican legislators were beating their chests about would raise the same average property tax bill $34 this year and raise it another $24 in 2006.

Doyle also will get strong support from local officials, Democrat and Republican, who correctly view the Republican proposal as gutting education and local services for some cheap political posturing.

And the taxpayers? They couldn't care less who gets credit for freezing their property taxes. They'll take it.

Joel McNally of Milwaukee writes a weekly column for The Capital Times. E-mail: jmcnally@wi.rr.com





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Story Source: The Capital Times

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Tunisia; Politics; State Government; Property Tax

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