The QEO: A “Roadblock to Reform” or the Last Line of Defense for Taxpayers?
Lasee’s Notes
Five weeks before the November election, if Governor Doyle had issued a press release saying that he intended to raise taxes and he wasn’t exactly sure how high they might go, do you think the result of the election might have been different?
Five weeks after the election, he has shared the plan that he and his partners in the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC, the state’s teachers union) have in mind for taxpayers. The Governor’s proposal is the top item on WEAC’s Christmas wish list: the repeal of the QEO.
According to Governor Doyle, the Qualified Economic Offer, or QEO as it is commonly known, is “broken and it needs to go.” Governor Doyle’s spokesman told a reporter last week that the QEO has “really become a roadblock to reform."
The QEO is the roadblock preventing education reform in Wisconsin? The Governor says our public education system in Wisconsin needs reform. Apparently, the Governor feels that teachers need to be paid more. No mention of paying teachers based on performance, just pay teachers more. That qualifies as “reform” in the Doyle administration.
The QEO was invented in 1992 (along with revenue caps) to keep property taxes down. It worked. In the five years before the QEO took effect, school taxes increased by about 8.5% per year. In 1994, the first year the caps took effect, taxes grew by 5.1%. In some years following that, the growth in school taxes has been less.
Wisconsin cannot afford to climb the list of the highest-taxed states in the nation anymore than we already have. We have to bring our tax burden down because it will help our economy grow. The QEO is part of an important protection for taxpayers.
How does the QEO work? Each year, a school district must offer its teachers a minimum raise of 2.9% in salary and 5.4% in benefits to avoid arbitration with the local teachers union. How many of you reading this today receive a guaranteed minimum increase in your salary and benefits every year you are employed?
WEAC and the Governor would not be willing to give up this guaranteed, minimum increase if they did not expect things to get better for WEAC members after the QEO is gone. Despite what you might hear during the Badger and Packer games, WEAC is in the business of getting more for its members.
Greater education spending increases are on the horizon if the QEO goes away. This means higher property taxes for all.
We spend nearly $11,000 per child annually to educate children in this state. If we had no revenue controls, or the QEO that makes the revenue controls work, we would be spending more and our taxes would be even higher.
The QEO must stay in place. It is a critical piece of legislation that protects taxpayers in this state. The balance we have struck in this state is working. If we spend more, we have to tax more. Wisconsin is spending enough.
If school districts want to increase spending, they should have to make their case to the people footing the bills, the taxpayers. That is how it works now and 70 percent of the people in our state want to keep it this way. We should not allow the Governor to break the back of school revenue caps through a back-door method. Revenue caps that can be overridden by a referendum provide a good balance and should be left in place.
I will oppose attempts to repeal the QEO because it is an important protection for taxpayers. The QEO makes school revenue controls work and that is good for taxpayers.
Five weeks before the November election, if Governor Doyle had issued a press release saying that he intended to raise taxes and he wasn’t exactly sure how high they might go, do you think the result of the election might have been different?
Five weeks after the election, he has shared the plan that he and his partners in the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC, the state’s teachers union) have in mind for taxpayers. The Governor’s proposal is the top item on WEAC’s Christmas wish list: the repeal of the QEO.
According to Governor Doyle, the Qualified Economic Offer, or QEO as it is commonly known, is “broken and it needs to go.” Governor Doyle’s spokesman told a reporter last week that the QEO has “really become a roadblock to reform."
The QEO is the roadblock preventing education reform in Wisconsin? The Governor says our public education system in Wisconsin needs reform. Apparently, the Governor feels that teachers need to be paid more. No mention of paying teachers based on performance, just pay teachers more. That qualifies as “reform” in the Doyle administration.
The QEO was invented in 1992 (along with revenue caps) to keep property taxes down. It worked. In the five years before the QEO took effect, school taxes increased by about 8.5% per year. In 1994, the first year the caps took effect, taxes grew by 5.1%. In some years following that, the growth in school taxes has been less.
Wisconsin cannot afford to climb the list of the highest-taxed states in the nation anymore than we already have. We have to bring our tax burden down because it will help our economy grow. The QEO is part of an important protection for taxpayers.
How does the QEO work? Each year, a school district must offer its teachers a minimum raise of 2.9% in salary and 5.4% in benefits to avoid arbitration with the local teachers union. How many of you reading this today receive a guaranteed minimum increase in your salary and benefits every year you are employed?
WEAC and the Governor would not be willing to give up this guaranteed, minimum increase if they did not expect things to get better for WEAC members after the QEO is gone. Despite what you might hear during the Badger and Packer games, WEAC is in the business of getting more for its members.
Greater education spending increases are on the horizon if the QEO goes away. This means higher property taxes for all.
We spend nearly $11,000 per child annually to educate children in this state. If we had no revenue controls, or the QEO that makes the revenue controls work, we would be spending more and our taxes would be even higher.
The QEO must stay in place. It is a critical piece of legislation that protects taxpayers in this state. The balance we have struck in this state is working. If we spend more, we have to tax more. Wisconsin is spending enough.
If school districts want to increase spending, they should have to make their case to the people footing the bills, the taxpayers. That is how it works now and 70 percent of the people in our state want to keep it this way. We should not allow the Governor to break the back of school revenue caps through a back-door method. Revenue caps that can be overridden by a referendum provide a good balance and should be left in place.
I will oppose attempts to repeal the QEO because it is an important protection for taxpayers. The QEO makes school revenue controls work and that is good for taxpayers.
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Lasee’s Notes is a weekly column by Representative Frank Lasee, 2nd Assembly District, covering events in the Legislature and statewide.
Lasee’s Notes is a weekly column by Representative Frank Lasee, 2nd Assembly District, covering events in the Legislature and statewide.
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