Do You Hear What I Hear?

Lasee’s Notes

The state of the state is . . .

Good question, don’t you think? In Wisconsin, there are two significant events coming up, one of them will give us the Governor’s answer that question. Next Tuesday, the Governor will make his State of the State address to the Legislature. The Governor traditionally lays out his view of how the state is doing and what he wants to do to make the state better.

In mid-February, the Governor makes a second address to the Legislature (why this requires a second address is a topic for another Notes some day) to introduce his version of the budget. Both of these speeches will tell us how the Governor thinks Wisconsin is doing in 2007. The budget will lay out the Governor’s spending and taxing priorities.

What will the Governor say on Tuesday? No one knows yet, but I think we can make some educated guesses about the content of his speech.

One of the topics he is certain to talk about is health care. The Governor’s version of things is that taxpayer-funded, state health care coverage needs to be extended to more people in Wisconsin because health care is hard to afford. The Governor believes he can extend this publicly funded coverage to tens of thousands of residents without raising taxes. That would be a pretty good trick. Alternatively, maybe raising the cigarette tax by a buck a pack is not a tax increase in the Governor’s eyes.

You may also hear him support a version of the Wisconsin Health Plan, which is a Canadian-style, government-run, socialized health plan that would impose a job-killing tax on every employer in the state whether they intend to use the program or not.

What you will not hear the Governor say is that Wisconsin health care costs are among the highest in the nation and that he has done nothing to wean us off the traditional health care delivery methods to bring the cost down. Instead, his party will not support allowing health savings account (HSA) contributions to be state tax exempt (they are already exempt from federal taxes). HSAs allow consumers to make choices about how to spend their health care dollars and empower the individual and family. The Democrats prefer having the government (or an appointed committee) make health care choices for you. You will not hear the Governor say that.

Another thing you will hear the Governor say is that Wisconsin has a strong economic outlook. A recent report from a national think tank (CFED, a Washington, D.C., public policy group formerly known as the Corporation for Enterprise Development) put Wisconsin on its economic honor roll, as if that was the beginning and the end of the discussion on Wisconsin’s economy.

What you will not hear the Governor say is that the honor roll designation came with a disclaimer. Wisconsin ranked in the bottom 10 for a number of items related to employment, including the number of new companies, two measures of job creation, and businesses created because of research and development efforts at universities. Also, the Governor will not say that our regulatory scheme has been pushing businesses out of the state for years and the only thing he did to change that in his four years in office was to sign onto a Republican regulatory reform bill.

In addition, the Governor will not mention doing anything positive about Wisconsin’s standing as a high tax state. The non-partisan Tax Foundation released its 2007 State Business Tax Climate Index in October, ranking Wisconsin as the 13th worst business tax climate in the nation (down one spot from 2006). The Index ranks states on five major business taxes- the individual income tax, sales tax, corporate income tax, property tax, and unemployment insurance taxes. Wisconsin not only levies higher taxes than average, but riddles its tax code with complicated exemptions and bracketing. Our tax code makes Wisconsin less competitive than nearly three-quarters of all states. Wisconsin still has the 7th highest overall tax burden as a percentage of personal income in the nation.

One of these two speeches will feature a section about how the Governor balanced the state’s books and has submitted another balanced budget this year. That will be achieved while accommodating the $1.6 billion in additional spending on top of new tax monies the agencies asked for this year.

What you will not hear the Governor say is that the budget does not really balance if you use honest budgeting principles. He will not explain how he plans to eliminate the $2.15 billion budget deficit. He will also not explain how he plans to add $1.6 billion to the budget without raising your taxes. This will become more clear as we digest the Governor’s budget between its introduction in February and the Legislature’s finished product in June or July (keep your fingers crossed).

It will certainly be interesting to see what the Governor says and does not say over the course of the next couple weeks. I call on the Governor to show fiscal restraint and leadership when it comes to the budget and leading this state. We should not spend more than we take in and the Governor should lead the way.

You cannot buy a vacation home in the north woods if you are having trouble making your mortgage. Hopefully, the Governor will come to his senses and realize that continued deficit spending will make our state weaker, not stronger.
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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.