2009-10 Session Recap - Garthwaite on Property Taxes

With the election just around the corner, it's time to start looking back on Rep. Garthwaite's record from the 2009-2010 legislative session.

Let's start with property taxes.

The non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance recently released their assessment of property taxes for 2010.

According to the group, net property taxes increased 4.9% this year and now claim 4.5% of personal income - the highest percentage they have claimed since 1996.

We all know that ever increasing property taxes are harmful to our pocket books, even to renters, and especially during a recession. Based on Rep. Garthwaite's campaign promises from the last two elections, he knows this too.

When Rep. Garthwaite first ran for office in 2006 he promised to pass legislation to reduce Wisconsin's high property tax burden. He touted a Democrat plan called HOPE, which would have eliminated a portion of the property taxes homeowners pay on the first $60,000 in value of their home. To pay for this property tax reduction, Garthwaite's plan would have eliminated an unspecified number of sales tax exemptions on items such as groceries, gasoline, manufacturing and farm equipment, legal services, and other things that are not currently subject to the sales tax.

During the 2007-08 session, the HOPE plan failed to gain traction in the legislature and Rep. Garthwaite was unable to deliver on his promised property tax relief.

When the 2008 election came around, Assembly Democrats altered the HOPE plan. It would still grant homeowners a tax break for the first $60,000 in value of their home, however, it would not be paid for with new sales taxes. Instead, the Assembly Democrats' new HOPE would shift property taxes from single home owners to the owners of rental, vacation, or business properties.

In other words, under Garthwaite's 2008 plan if you owned one home, your property taxes would have been reduced. If you lived in an apartment building, your rent would have gone up. If you owned a second home, your property taxes would have gone up. If you owned rental property... You get where this plan was going...

While I could understand why Democrats like Garthwaite would want to increase property taxes on people who are wealthy enough to own a vacation home, I could never get why they wanted to shift a greater burden of property taxes to renters. It truly baffled me. Why would Democrats, who purport to represent the underprivileged classes of society tout a proposal that would dramatically increase the cost of housing on renters? Perhaps that is why the bill never gained any traction.

Despite having a total lock on state government (the Democrats currently control the Governor's office, the State Assembly, and the State Senate), Rep. Garthwaite's party did not advance HOPE or any other property tax relief proposal. In fact, they accomplished quite the opposite by cutting state aids to local governments and schools by 15%. In effect, Madison politicians like Garthwaite made the locals make the tough decisions that they were unwilling to make. No wonder Wisconsin has a multi-billion dollar deficit.

To Recap:

1. In the 2006 campaign, Rep. Garthwaite promised property tax relief.
- He did not deliver.

2. In the 2008 campaign, Rep. Garthwaite promised property tax relief.
- He did not deliver.

3. Due to Rep. Garthwaite's votes in Madison, property taxes are now the highest they have been in 14 years.

Garthwaite Supported Raid on Injured Patients and Families Ruled Unconstitutional

In October of 2007, Rep. Phil Garthwaite supported Governor Doyle's plan to partially balance the state budget by stealing $200 million from the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund. This morning the Supreme Court of Wisconsin ruled Garthwaite's raid unconstitutional.

Each year every doctor in Wisconsin pays thousands into the fund to act as a buffer against large medical malpractice suits. Over the years this fund had helped to keep down the price of medical malpractice insurance in Wisconsin, thus reducing the price of health care while simultaneously attracting high quality doctors to Wisconsin.

After Garthwaite succeeded with the raid, the fund became insolvent driving up the cost of medical malpractice insurance in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Medical Society also reported that doctor recruitment became more difficult after the raid.

Today's ruling is a victory for health care in Wisconsin and also for property rights but it does create a major problem for the next legislature.

Despite voting to increase taxes by nearly $5 billion, Garthwaite and his colleagues in Madison have left the state with a $2.5 billion deficit. This ruling will likely tack $200 million plus interest onto that.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Slams Garthwaite Revolving Door Prison Policy

Rep. Garthwaite's revolving prison door plan took a hit on February 22 when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published this story about corrections releasing repeat felons months early from prison.

Things got worse when the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute reported that some offenders such as Derrick Parnell, pictured below, were re-offending just weeks after being released early under Garthwaite's plan.



Now things have gotten even worse for Garthwaite's revolving door program. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has called Garthwaite's plan a "time bomb." In this statement from last week, MADD's spokesman said, "Early release of repeat convicted offenders belittles the effectiveness of the current OWI law across the board and compromises public safety."

Rather than backtracking from this obviously flawed policy, what have Democrats like Garthwaite done? They've released two more convicted drunk drivers - this time 6 and 7 time offenders. To date, 18% of offenders released under Garthwaite's plan have been convicted of drunk driving 5 or more times. Corrections plans on releasing up to 3,000 offenders over the next year meaning that if they maintain current pace there will be 540 more repeat drunk drivers back on the road thanks to Rep. Garthwaite's plan and vote in favor of this policy.

Garthwaite to Introduce Another Do-nothing Bill - Assembly Democrat Disintegration Continues

The Kenosha News is reporting that Rep. Garthwaite has agreed to lead the way in the Assembly for a piece of legislation that is to be introduced by State Senator Bob Wirch. The legislation would mandate that state government (primarily the UW and prison systems) purchase at least 10% of their food goods from Wisconsin producers. This mandate would increase to 20% in 2020.

While "feel good" legislation like this mildly annoys me, I really don't have a problem with this particular bill other than that I don't necessarily agree that prisoners deserve to eat the fine products produced in our state. At the end of the day, however, I doubt that this bill will accomplish anything at all. I predict that Wisconsin's prisons and the UW already procure more than 10% of their food goods from Wisconsin producers. If this bill passes, it will probably just mandate what is currently standard practice in our institutions.

In other news, the payday loan scandal continues. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the Assembly Democrats' payday loan bill narrowly passed committee today on a 6-5 vote. Rep. Dean Kaufert, a Republican supporter of payday loan reform issued a warning to Democrats stating,"Don't pose for holy pictures. You're in the soup. You're trying to find your way out of this.  . . . Trying to rush this through, get it by, get the stories over - I don't know; it's not pretty."

The Associated Press is reporting that Majority Leader Tom Nelson continues to deny his support to ethically challenged Democrat Speaker Mike Sheridan. Payday Gate is becoming a case study in public relations mismanagement and continues to threaten the reelection chances of vulnerable Democrats like Phil Garthwaite.

Garthwaite Faces Two GOP Challangers

The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reported Sunday that two Republicans are gearing up to take on Garthwaite.

Republicans seek to unseat Garthwaite in Wisconsin's 49th Assembly District.
TELEGRAPH HERALD

Travis Tranel wants another shot at Phil Garthwaite. But he's going to have to go through David Kuhle first.

Tranel, a rural Cuba City, Wis., Republican, told the TH last week he "absolutely, without a doubt" will be in the race for Wisconsin's 49th Assembly District seat, and plans to make it official in the coming months.

While he may be waiting for the right time to announce, Tranel has hit the ground running on the fundraising trail. Last year, his undeclared campaign took in more than $7,500.

"It's a lot easier the second time around," said Tranel, who ran unsuccessfully in 2008 against Democratic incumbent Garthwaite. "There's just so much more enthusiasm. It's just easier to raise dollars when you have that name recognition."

The southwest Wisconsin farmer was 22 when he bested a three-man field, including Kuhle, in the 2008 GOP primary. He went on to lose to Garthwaite in the general election, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Kuhle, an established Hazel Green Republican, now leads the Grant County GOP. He officially announced his candidacy several weeks ago, and reported $5,300 in his campaign bank at the end of last year.

Garthwaite moved into the election year with more than $14,000 in his campaign war chest. He says if the past is any indicator, he'll finish second in campaign finance.

"I've been outspent every time I run," he said.

More facing tax hikes in Wisconsin

Staying in the Badger State, a tax watchdog group warns significant changes to Wisconsin's income tax could affect thousands of taxpayers this year, many of them considered rich in political lexicon.

Due to state budget problems, income tax changes for tax year 2009 include a number of tax increases, according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to public policy research and education.

The most substantial increase is a new top individual income tax rate of 7.75 percent on all taxable incomes exceeding $300,000 for married couples filing jointly ($225,000 for single filers). Capital gains taxes also increased, due to a reduction in the net long-term capital gains exclusion from 60 percent to 30 percent.

Federal tax changes for tax year 2009 largely benefit first-time homebuyers and those collecting unemployment benefits, WISTAX said.

Explanations of the changes and "plain-English" instructions for filing 2009 federal and state tax returns are available in the alliance's annual tax guide, Taxes10 (for a $3.95 charge). For more information, contact the organization at 608-241-9789 or wistax@wistax.org.

While Assembly Democrat Leadership Crumbles, another Vulnerable Democrat gets Himself into a Scandal

News stories about the troubles of Rep. Garthwaite's bosses in Madison continue to proliferate. The latest news is that the Democrat Majority Leader and Speaker are at odds, questions are being raised about the Democrat leader's travel reports, and apparatly the Speaker's campaign finance reports are all sorts of messed up.

Meanwhile, a Democrat Rep. who like Garthwaite stands a good chance of being defeated in the next election has found himself in the middle of a growing scandal. State Rep. Cory Mason, a Democrat from Deerfield, WI who represents Racine, WI is under attack for accepting campaign contributions from the owner of a company who would have received a state sanctioned monopoly thanks to legislation authored by Rep. Mason.

According to WKOW-TV, "Campaign finance reports and state e-mails show former Racine lawmaker Jeff Neubauer made a campaign contribution to the author of proposed environmental legislation with benefits to Neubauer's company on the same day the proposal was unveiled at news conferences."

After reading a few other articles about this, the facts appear to be this:

1. A former Democrat legislator, Jeff Neubauer wrote a bill that would give his business a near monopoly on certifying cleaning products as green. The bill would also mandate that all state buildings use so-called "green" cleaning supplies. Obviously, this legislation would bring in substantially increased revenues to Neubauer.

2. Neaubauer gave this bill to Rep. Mason along with a campaign check.

3. Mason introduced the bill and began ushering it through the legislature.

This story has been floating around for about two weeks but today's revelations from WKOW-TV bring it to a new level. The fact that campaign cash exchanged hands on the very day that this terrible legislation was introduced stinks like rotten cheese. This is relevant to Garthwaite in two ways.

If Garthwaite's leaders force him to vote for this stinky proposal, he could get dragged into this mess too. More likely, however, is that this will mean that fewer campaign dollars will be available for Garthwaite during the fall.

Mason is going to be in rough shape when the next election comes around. That means that all the cash Assembly Democrats were counting on from the Trial Lawyers Lobby, the Teacher's Union, and Tribal Gaming Interests will have to be spread thinner, leaving less money for Garthwaite to defend his terrible record.

"We Democrats authorized all kinds of new taxes"

In a political blunder for the ages Democrat State Senator Jim Holperin had a bout of honesty during a couple of email exchanges. Quite unfortunately for tax and spend Democrats like Phil Garthwaite, these emails just fell into the hands of the state media.

According to this Lakeland Times article, a constituent wrote the Democrat in support of increasing the beer tax, something Rep. Garthwaite has long supported. The Democrat Senator responded with the following:

"We Democrats authorized all kinds of new taxes in the recently adopted state budget (cigarette taxes, capital gains taxes, solid waste fees, cell phone tax, boat registration fee, etc. etc.) and took a lot of heat for that," Holperin wrote. "Nobody is eager to be voting for 'another' tax increase ... especially on beer! We're a brewery state, for crumb sakes (which maybe also explains our alcohol culture...)!"

Maybe a liquor tax instead, he contemplated in a message extending over two emails (he had accidentally sent the first in mid-sentence and launched the second email to complete the thought).

"However, the Senate may be in the mood to consider an increase in the liquor ... increase in the liquor tax but even that will be tough sell. I think the choices right now are, ignore the costs, pass the bill and worry about the inconsistency of that later. Or, pass the bill and increase the liquor tax by 50 cents."

In another email, Sen. Holperin described the Democrats' tax and fee increases in a more colorful way, "You know the Governor's got enough little tax and fee hikes in that budget of his to sink a good sized battleship."

Look for these words to becoming to a Republican campaign piece near you soon.

To read others' thoughts on this issue, see this release from Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, or this statement from the Republican Party of Wisconsin.