Let’s take a few moments to analyze his claims and citations.
Garthwaite Claim 1: Passed legislation to help workers who have lost their jobs. – 2009 WI Act 2
Fact: This statement is partially true but rather misleading. 2009 WI Act 2 was a massive government bailout bill dubbed the Wisconsin Stimulus by the Democrats.
Some provisions of the bill probably did help a select group of laid off union workers, however, many of those jobs may have been ironically lost because of the massive tax hikes on employers that Garthwaite supported in the bill.
Act 2 included the now notorious Combined Reporting tax on large employers that do business in multiple states. This $215 million tax increase has directly caused countless layoffs in Wisconsin. For instance, just days after announcing that the new tax would hit them for a whopping $25 million, Harley Davidson laid off 400 employees. The Wisconsin icon later announced the closing of two Wisconsin plants and is now seriously considering leaving the state all together.
Act 2 included other tax increases including the $1.1 billion Sick Tax on hospital and clinic visits, an $11 million I-Pod Tax, new taxes on online purchases, and a tax on Wisconsin companies that design custom software in-house.
Act 2 also used several sources of taxpayer dollars to bailout government and increase spending. To do this, the legislature raided the Conservation, Petroleum Inspection, Recycling, Environmental Management, and Universal Service funds.
Rep. Garthwaite supported all of these tax increases and fund raids.
On the flip side, Act 2 included some small job creation initiatives including an expansion of Wisconsin’s Angel Investment program and the creation of a Research and Development tax credit. In order to save money, however, the legislature pushed off the start date for these job creation programs for at least one year and in some cases more.
Act 2 also included several grants targeted at individual union locals for worker re-training. Republican critics argued that these grants were nothing more than payback to Democrat campaign supporters, however, Democrats like Garthwaite claimed that the grants would help workers find jobs. I believe this is what Garthwaite is referring to in this flier.
Moreover, Garthwaite could argue that Act 2 and the tax increases it contained were necessary to balance the budget as required under state law and to protect the jobs of public sector workers.
For another opinion on Act 2 see Reason Magazine’s write up on it.
Or see this column from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Garthwaite Claim 2: Authored and passed powerful job creation measures to grow Wisconsin’s businesses. – 2009 WI Act 266
Fact: This statement is slightly true. Rep. Garthwaite authored and passed a bill, however, it was not powerful nor will it grow Wisconsin’s businesses.
Here is the Wisconsin Legislative Council’s description of Act 266.
As you can see, Rep. Garthwaite’s bill increased the number of Enterprise Development Zones in Wisconsin from 10 to 12. Sounds helpful to business right?
Wrong.
At the time of its passing, Wisconsin’s lack-luster Department of Commerce had only approved two enterprise development zones. They only had plans to designate two more this year. None of them are in Grant County and all of them are in urban and suburban areas.
All Rep. Garthwaite’s Act 266 did was give him an excuse to write a press release and to put a line on a lit piece. This is exactly the sort of politics as usual garbage that should make people fed up with their elected officials. Here is a clear case of our State Representative trying to pull the wool over our eyes but I think the voters of Grant County are smart enough to know that one do-nothing jobs bill doesn’t make up for nearly $5 billion in job killing tax increases.
Furthermore, to show what a partisan he is, Rep. Garthwaite rejected a Republican amendment to his bill that would have mandated that these zones be created in rural areas like say…Grant County.
Garthwaite Claim 3: Passed important bills to bolster our local rural businesses. – 2009 WI Act 295 and 2009 WI Act 169.
Fact: This claim is true, but perhaps a bit of an exaggeration.
WI Act 295 helps food processing plants expand and modernize. The bill enjoyed wide bi-partisan support and passed overwhelmingly. It will have a small but positive effect on businesses in several rural communities in Wisconsin. Act 169 regulates honey. This might have a negligible impact on a handful of honey producers in Southwest Wisconsin…might…
Garthwaite Claim 4: Bumped the reconstruction of Hwy 61 up to 2011
Fact: This is probably accurate.
This was the Democrat leadership’s piece of pork for Mr. Garthwaite. They are probably counting on it getting him through a tough reelection bid this November. While, the HWY 61 project had been scheduled to happen long before Garthwaite was elected, it might not have happened as soon as next year. Assembly Democrats placed it in the budget along with dozens of other pork projects for other areas of the state. Here are some articles about all those projects that went along with this one:
Slice Sneaky Earmarks from the Budget – Wisconsin State Journal
Budget Includes Millions in Earmarks – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Recycling Bins in the State Budget? – WLUK-TV
At the end of the day, this small but very important project will probably get done a couple years sooner due to the last state budget. At the same time, taxpayers in Grant County will be paying millions for similar projects (and recycling bins) for other parts of Wisconsin – and that is not to mention the $3.5 billion in higher taxes that passed in the same bill.
Garthwaite Claim 5: Found and authored funding for various road projects across SW Wisconsin. NO CITATION
Fact: This is completely false.
Notice how there is no citation for this claim. That is because it is 100% false. Rep. Garthwaite did not author or find funding for various road projects in SW WI. He is making that up.
The only things that come close to backing up this claim are the handful of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act road projects conducted across Wisconsin.
While the state legislature, Rep. Garthwaite included, did approve some Federal Stimulus funded projects, Rep. Garthwaite did not find or author them and they did not take place across Southwest, WI. Nearly all of these funds were devoted to urban areas near Madison, Milwaukee, Beloit, Janesville, Racine, or Kenosha.
This claim is bogus.
Garthwaite Claim 6: Secured important federal funds to help rural critical access hospitals cover their MA costs and reduce cost-shifting onto the average family.
Fact: This statement is partially true and partially false.
Rep. Garthwaite supported a bill to secure increased federal funding for rural hospitals, however, those funds were used to plug a hole that he created in the first place.
During debate on the state budget, Rep. Garthwaite voted against amendments to protect rural hospitals from cuts. As a result of his vote, these hospitals faced a devastating $10 million hole in their budgets.
To try to correct his error, Rep. Garthwaite supported a $10 million tax increase on the patients of rural hospitals. It seems counterintuitive but this tax increase eventually ended up helping the rural hospitals. Through a little bit of clever accounting, the state has been able to temporarily leverage increased federal reimbursement for Medical Assistance programs through the higher revenues brought in by the tax.
Rep. Garthwaite voted to let the state skim a large portion of these dollars from rural hospitals, however, the hospitals still make out ok. They have been able to offset Rep. Garthwaite’s $10 million cut and hope to set aside a couple million dollars to improve doctor recruitment. This should work out well for another year or two until the Feds catch on to the scheme and Wisconsin’s rural residents are left with a higher tax and nothing to show for it.
As to the part about cost-shifting, Rep. Garthwaite is referring to the so-called Hidden Health Care Tax. The Hidden Health Care Tax is the higher prices private payers are charged to offset the losses doctors and hospitals take on some Medicare and Medical Assistance patients. When the government under-reimburses hospitals, everyone else must pick up the tab. Garthwaite’s argument in this case is weak at best since the federal dollars he speaks of were used to fill a hole he created in the first place and not to increase existing government reimbursement rates.
Phil’s Priorities
Priority 1: Cutting waste wherever possible and holding the line on taxes.
Fact: Phil’s real priority is increasing government spending as much as possible and increasing taxes as needed to pay for it.
In the last two years Rep. Garthwaite has supported the stimulus and Government and Public Employee Union bailouts. He voted to increase spending by 10% in the middle of a recession and voted in favor of nearly $5 billion in tax increases to pay for it. He has clearly demonstrated that cutting waste and holding the line on taxes are the reverse of his priorities. Frankly, I’m shocked that he has the audacity to put such a bold faced lie on a flyer.
Priority 2: Supporting and growing small businesses that create jobs here in our community.
Fact: I believe Phil that this is one of his priorities, however, his means of achieving it are backwards.
Last year Phil voted to create a new, higher income tax bracket for successful small businesses. How does that help them? Phil voted to raise property taxes by $1.5 billion. How does that help small business owners? Phil voted against the Jobs Now Tax Credit, which would have cut taxes on small businesses that hired people in the middle of the recession. How did that help small businesses?
The fact is that Rep. Garthwaite might talk about helping rural businesses but he votes squarely against them.
Priority 3: Speaking up for family farms and providing them with the tools they need.
Fact: Rep. Garthwaite supported legalizing raw milk, limiting the development of farm land, and tax credits for some Ag. related industries, however, he also supported several laws that would have devastated family farms.
Rep. Garthwaite supported AB 844, a bill to allow the DNR to strip farmers of their high capacity wells, and he supported a global warming bill that the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation said would hurt farmers because, “the majority of provisions, if implemented, will lead to higher fuel, fertilizer, and electricity costs.” Thankfully neither bill passed into law.
It’s clear that family farms are one of Rep. Garthwaite’s priorities. They’re just not as high of a priority as the causes of liberal environmental special interests.
Priority 4: Protecting our local institutions so they can continue to provide important and valuable services.
Fact: This is so vague as to be meaningless.
Priority 5: Putting partisan politics aside and reaching across the aisle to focus on the real issues.
Fact: Aside from the smoking ban, Rep. Garthwaite voted lock step with Jim Doyle and the Democrat majorities in Madison. He did not hold public hearings on Republican bills in the committee he chairs. When Republicans introduced more than 130 amendments to the state budget, did he cross the aisle even on one? No. Rep. Garthwaite was the definition of a partisan. He couldn’t find common ground with the other party on anything. On the issue of partisanship, his voting record speaks for itself. Rep. Garthwaite voted with the liberal wing of the Democrat party 99.9/100 times during the last session.
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