15Mar

Protecting Taxpayers in a Time of Divided Government

Unfortunately Governor Tony Evers doubled down on his big government vision for Wisconsin, vetoing bipartisan legislation that would have provided $250 million in income tax relief for Wisconsin workers.

This veto comes on the heels of proposing over $1.2 billion in tax increases in his first budget and vetoing another middle class tax cut in one of his first acts as governor. Taxpayers need protection from this big government agenda.

The Legislature has extraordinary powers to take bold action to protect taxpayers through their ability to propose constitutional amendments. The Legislature should use this power to create a bulwark between taxpayers and the myriad of tax-and-spend special interests in Madison by enshrining taxpayer protections in the Wisconsin Constitution.

Protecting taxpayers through constitutional amendments has been an increasingly popular tool for formerly high tax states solidifying gains they have made and low tax states making sure that decades of hard work cannot be undone by tax and spend special interests. For example, North Carolina placed an individual income tax cap in their state constitution after slashing their personal income tax rates.

Other states without an income tax like Texas and Tennessee have created permanent bans in their constitution on ever levying income taxes. It is no surprise that this trend of capping tax rates continues to pick up steam. As our political climate gets more unstable and concerning trends like nationalized healthcare – and the high tax rates that will come to pay for it – become commonplace, taxpayers are looking for certainty. This certainty can be provided through such a constitutional amendment.

Wisconsin should follow the lead of these states and cap our current income tax in our state constitution. To be clear, this proposal is to create a ceiling, not a floor. Similar to North Carolina, the Legislature would still have the power to lower income tax rates, they simply could not hike taxes without returning to the voters for another constitutional amendment. Protecting taxpayers in this manner would show Wisconsin is still serious about creating a pro-growth environment.

Detractors may argue that there are circumstances when Wisconsin should raise income taxes but they are misguided. The last decade has shown that even when the Legislature cuts taxes, revenues continue to grow. Building upon Wisconsin’s pro-growth environment and continuing to attract new businesses and workers will increase tax revenues without the need to hike taxes.

Further, Wisconsin is still a high tax state. According to the Tax Foundation, Wisconsin has the fourth highest state and local income tax burden in the nation, is ranked 26th in business tax climate and has a higher individual income tax top rate than most of our regional neighbors (IL, MI, IN, OH, ND, SD, NE). Taxpayers need protection, not tax increases.

Beyond capping the income tax, there are other actions the Legislature should consider as well. Wisconsin still has one of the worst property tax burdens in the nation (fifth highest property tax on the national median value home).

Despite this fact and that a Wisconsin Policy Forum recently revealed that Wisconsin residents could be facing the largest property tax increase in a decade, Evers proposed blowing the cap off the levy limit. The levy limit is the only thing that protects Wisconsinites from even higher property taxes.

The Legislature should propose a constitutional amendment inserting the levy limit in the state constitution. Wisconsinites deserve the security of knowing that our state will never return to the days of double-digit percentage property tax increases.

While progress has undoubtedly been made, Wisconsinites still face a heavy tax burden. In this time of divided government the Legislature may not be able to get sweeping tax reform signed into law, but they can take bold action and create constitutional safeguards to permanently defend Wisconsin taxpayers from tax hikes advocated for by tax-and-spend special interests.

The certainty these reforms would create would send a signal to families looking to move to the state that our government is serious about protecting taxpayers’ pocketbooks and to companies looking to re-locate that Wisconsin is still open for business.

Cory Fish is General Counsel and Director of Tax, Transportation & Legal Affairs for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

12Mar

Cursive Writing Enhances Students’ Brains

Contrary to DPI, not every Educational Approach has to cost Millions of Dollars

K-12 education in Wisconsin is at a critical point. Less than half of Wisconsin students are proficient in math and reading, and state test scores have significantly declined over time. Most disturbing, Wisconsin’s racial achievement gap is the worst in the nation and has been that way for a long time.

It’s not a funding issue. We’re spending increasing billions on education. In recent years, as education funding has risen, results have not. Many parents have bemoaned to me that they do not see their taxpayer investment directly related to their children’s classrooms. Funding results have been so abysmal that Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette) and I have called for an audit of the state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI).

How do we boost education while also getting the best value for taxpayer dollars? That’s where many policy pieces come in, and I’ll reference one here to start, Assembly Bill (AB) 459. AB 459 is a simple bill to ensure every student learns to write in cursive. This bill is authored by the chairs of the Legislature’s Education Committees. We each have spent years examining student learning, evidence-based research, and how the brain best learns.

How can cursive help? Studies show the value of cursive writing on student brains and learning: cursive writing stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the right and left hemispheres in a way that printing does not. Cursive writing builds neural pathways and integrates multisensory learning, which is a key component for struggling readers. The College Board even found that students who wrote in cursive for the SAT scored higher than students who used print.

Dyslexia and dysgraphia, learning disabilities that can severely affect learning, have both shown to be aided with cursive writing.

The DPI has exaggerated the cost of this bill. What many people do not know is that state agencies commonly inflate and deflate legislative fiscal estimates based on the department’s preferred policy positions. In the case of AB 459, the DPI’s estimate does not account for the fact that many schools are currently teaching cursive, and many school districts already have the materials and training available.

Contrary to DPI, not every education initiative requires millions of dollars. We can think outside the box. Teachers can write cursive letters and words on a whiteboard and have students copy them in their notebooks. Schools can purchase curricular materials and reuse workbook pages for several years. A simple internet search provides a wealth of free materials and instruction. For younger teachers who have not personally used or been taught, scores of senior or retired teachers are available to assist with cursive training.

Beyond the nostalgia of being able to read grandparent’s letters and the Declaration of Independence, cursive writing provides the mental gymnastics to develop student brains and increase learning outcomes. And it can be done in a low-cost way. Not the millions like DPI suggests.

Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-Fond Du Lac) represents Wisconsin Assembly District 52 and is the chairman of the state Assembly Education Committee.

10Mar

ACT 10 Saves Taxpayers More Than $12 Billion

As far as the government unions were concerned, the budget repair bill was the end of the world – and they acted like it. For a month, they coordinated the occupation of the hallowed halls of the Wisconsin State Capitol by juggling clowns, college potheads, exploited children, out-of-state communists, card-carrying socialist state employees, malingering public school teachers, derelict doctors, and thousands of other protesters.

Anyway, they lost. Gov. Scott Walker signed Act 10 into law on March 11, 2011.f Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition.

The fight was so epic and the consequences so far reaching, we’re still celebrating this achievement nine years later. Given the truly astonishing level of taxpayer savings – $12 billion dollars – Wisconsinites are certain to celebrate former Gov. Scott Walker, Act 10 and Wisconsin Taxpayer Appreciation Day for years, maybe decades to come.

At the time of Act 10, Wisconsin was at a crossroads. The state was facing an immediate $145 million budget deficit when Gov. Walker took office in 2011. It was about to get much worse. Within six months, the new fiscal year would begin with a $3.6 billion deficit – unless radical changes could be made.

Walker warned that up to 6,000 state employees plus another 6,000 local government workers could lose their jobs that summer.

“Good faith negotiations require give and take. We are broke in this state. We’ve been broke for years. People have ignored that for years, and it’s about time somebody stood up and told the truth. The truth is we don’t have money to offer, we don’t have finances to offer, and if you’re going to negotiate you have to have something to offer. We don’t have something,” Walker matter-of-factly stated.

Scott Walker’s solution required public employees to pay 12.6 percent of their health insurance premiums and half of the annual contribution to their pension. Scott Walker’s solution gave local units of government the ability to realize substantial savings and balance their budgets in a tough financial environment without raising taxes.

The Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds tracks pension fund contributions. Before 2011, the vast majority of government employees in Wisconsin did not contribute towards their pension. Since Act 10 was implemented, state, local, university, tech college, and school district government employees have contributed $8 billion to their own pensions.

That’s $8 billion in taxpayer savings over nine years – just for the pension piece alone.

Tracking health insurance savings throughout the state is more complicated. There are thousands of local units of government and some Act 10 savings at the local level go unnoticed and unpublicized. Using the same methodology that has always been used and the same public data sources, our new analysis shows that local governments have saved $2 billion, the state and university system have saved $1 billion, and school districts have saved $1.2 billion over the past nine years on health insurance.

Before 2011, most school districts purchased health insurance through WEA Trust, a health insurance company created by WEAC, even though there were better alternatives available. Act 10 finally allowed school districts to shop around for a better price and a better product. Just last year, WEA Trust notified the Kenosha Unified School Board that the cost of their health insurance would increase by $10 million to $70 million. Thanks to Act 10, the Board shopped around for a better deal and picked United Healthcare’s bid of $41.8 million. That is $30 million in savings in just one year for just one school district in Wisconsin.

The law also gave public employees the freedom to leave their unions if they wanted to. Before Act 10, it was a requirement for employment. Most workers embraced this opportunity, and the state teachers union has lost 67 percent of its members since Act 10 became law.

Ultimately, Act 10 finally put the State of Wisconsin, local governments and school districts back on a solid financial footing. More importantly, Act 10 ultimately put Wisconsin taxpayers back in charge of our government and back in control of our future.

Thank you to the Republican Legislators who voted for Act 10, especially those who lost their job over the vote. Thank you Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald for your leadership.

Thank you Scott Walker for having the courage to stand up to the status quo and Big Labor. Thank you Scott Walker for finally looking out for us, the taxpayers.

Happy Wisconsin Taxpayer Appreciation Day!

The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy is a Wisconsin-based think tank that promotes free markets, individual freedom, personal responsibility and limited government.