Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker cut $117 million in taxes for businesses, and then asks state labor unions to take the hit. What is wrong here?
UPDATE: It has been pointed out to us that Walker’s $117 million in business tax breaks are not part of Wisconsin’s $137 million budget deficit for Fiscal Year 2011, ending June 30, 2011. It will, however, create a budget shortfall for the 2011-2013 two-year budget. The state is expected to overspend by $258 million, through a combination of healthcare expenditures for the poor, prisons and debts to Minnesota. (If the $258 million is not spent, then Wisconsin will have a budget surplus of $121 million). It is these expenditures that Walker is looking to cut, and is attempting to do so by unilaterally short-circuiting the state labor unions’ collective bargaining rights.
Wisconsin’s resident dictator has made a national name for himself by focusing Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled government on attacking state labor unions. Walker could have avoided villain status by actually allowing the unions to collectively bargain and asking them to take some cuts while the economy is in the toilet—but he chose to go another way and make what amounts to an opening salvo in the 2012 elections.
The unions would probably have agreed to some cuts — reasonable cuts, that is. Having been in Wisconsin recently, with family members on both sides of the debate (business owners, teachers), I can tell all of my readers from first-hand experience that non-union workers and business owners believe it is reasonable for unions to take some cuts. And the union members aren’t so much pissed about the proposed cuts (they understand economics), as they are that Walker decided to unilaterally take away their collective bargaining rights.
Why join a union if it is powerless to negotiate? The issues here are literally putting Wisconsin families at odds with one another.
What many Wisconsin residents don’t know, however, is that the budget deficit that so concerns Walker is self-inflicted. It is manufactured, whether intentionally or unintentionally, by a pro-corporate philosophy that rewards wealthy businessmen and does virtually nothing for average workers.
Why haven’t Wisconsin’s voters been up in arms that Walker cut $117 million in taxes for businesses, which will create a budget shortfall in the next two fiscal years? If this sort of information were blazing across Wisconsin television screens and on the cover of newspapers, it would certainly neutralize Walker’s political gamesmanship.
Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau (the equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO) predicted a budget surplus (see update above). And not only does he remain silent about his actions with the business tax cuts, he has the audacity to use it as a means of neutralizing unions on behalf of business owners.
Walker might have scored some points with Wisconsin voters if he had publicly stated, “I gave tax cuts to businesses in an effort to stimulate the economy,” and then took aim at wasteful government spending elsewhere, while bringing the unions to the table to negotiate pensions and healthcare. He could have brought the Democrats into the process, and democracy could have served its intended purpose.
But he hijacked the entire process, sending Wisconsin’s Democratic Senators scattering to others states.
Walker’s actions amount to a pro-business, anti-union stance that cannot be chalked up to mere austerity measures. It is electoral gamesmanship—an opening chess move for the 2012 elections.
Everyone would like to see businesses do well and for workers to benefit from a healthy economy—but not by the dismantling of unions, which, though they have their problems like any large organization, do serve a purpose: allowing them to check their employers and guard against the sort of tyranny that Walker has embraced.
February 21, 2011 at 9:52 pm, Jmilw23 said:
personally I support the governor’s move against the public unions.
I don’t feel public employees should have the same rights as private sector employees because they work under an entirely different structure, and I don’t believe they should be allowed to form unions in an effort to force the hands of taxpayers.
If they are unhappy with this arrangement, they can get a job in the private sector. The public, non-productive sector of our economy should be classified under public service and should not offer lucrative pay or pensions.
Government employees are accountable to no one in the marketplace and I for one think that huge cuts against their wages are long overdue.
Also, it is not being a dictator when you have a group of ELECTED officials using LAWFUL PROCESSES to write legislation. Just because you disagree with the course of action that your ELECTED OFFICIALS have taken in a DEMOCRATIC AND LAWFUL manner does not make them dictatorial.
February 24, 2011 at 2:36 am, Ddrolma said:
Koch bros. $$$ bought the election for R’s. They could have closed the budget gap in other ways, like not giving out corporate tax cuts. This is robbing the poor to give to the rich & superrich. Also this same budget bill would give Gov. Walker power to sell state energy assets in no-bid contracts to private interests, at any price he chose. And who would profit from such a sale? Well, what a surprise, it’s the Koch brothers! (The men whose calls Walker always takes).
March 04, 2011 at 2:59 am, Guest said:
The people did not elect Walker to give their money to the rich businesses, half of which only take from the state and havevery few workers in the state.
Walker is wrong and unless you are gaining from his tax cuts you are nuts.
March 06, 2011 at 5:34 pm, D. J. Pangburn said:
“The public, non-productive sector of our economy should be classified under public service and should not offer lucrative pay or pensions.”
Not only is this a great recruiting slogan, but this will be sure to get our police officers, fireman and teachers fired up to work for you.
March 08, 2011 at 4:51 pm, Charles Uphoff said:
The so-called Budget Repair Bill, put forth by Governor Walker, is packed with all kinds of provisions that have little or nothing to do with balancing the budget and other provisions that are clearly unconstitutional. The equal protection clause of the 14th amendment would seem to clearly prohibit curtailing collective bargaining rights for some public employee unions but not others, (eg. fire-fighters and police)
Prohibiting municipalities from deducting union dues from workers paychecks also flies in the face of the 1924 “Home Rule” amendment to Wisconsin’s constitution.
More importantly, Wisconsin’s “budget crisis” is not due to excessive government spending or teachers salaries but a substantial decline in tax revenues due, in large part,to tax cuts for businesses intended to create jobs.
In 2010 Wisconsin businesses paid $8.7 billion less in taxes than they did in 2000, a decline of more than 70%. Most of the tax breaks were pushed through the legislature under the guise of stimulating job growth. So where are the jobs? Millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money goes to private businesses and contractors for road construction, consulting, supplies and other services. If public employees are to be denied the right to join a union should the recipients of these government contracts be prohibited from joining the Chamber of Commerce?
October 12, 2011 at 10:37 pm, Ckagof said:
Stupid arguement…
How about this…”If a private sector is unhappy with the arrangement, then they can get a job in the public sector.”That’s your logic in reverse.When one party excludes the other party entirely from the process, that is dictatorial.
March 08, 2011 at 4:28 pm, Charles Uphoff said:
After steadfastly proclaiming his unwillingness to consider any compromise with Senate Democrats, Walker has the nerve to blame Senator Miller for the continued stalemate.
Meanwhile Walker keeps insisting that Wisconsin’s “budget crisis” is the reason public employee unions need to be crippled, state power plants sold, without bids, and state aid to schools and municipalities slashed by hundreds of millions of dollars.
The reality is the state’s budget isn’t stretched by runaway government spending or excessive teacher salaries but by declining revenue. Wisconsin collected nearly $4.7 billion less in taxes in 2010 than in 2000. Over the same period, taxes paid by businesses declined by more than $8.7 billion, a decline of more than 70%. Much of the decline has resulted from tax cuts pushed by business lobbyists and special interests. Each time business has gotten more tax cuts we hear the same old tired rationale about “creating jobs.” So where are the jobs