Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Let’s Go Cow Tipping

My column for the West Bend Daily News is online.  I take on some of the budget’s sacred cows.  The column is called, “Let’s Go Cow Tipping.”

Here’s a taste:

Years ago the Wisconsin state government made the commitment that the state would pay for two-thirds of the cost of K-12 education as a means to keep property taxes down. The result is that now Wisconsin has one of the highest state tax burdens and one of the highest property tax burdens. Two-thirds funding of K-12 has failed its purpose. State funding for K-12 education in the current proposed budget is nearly $13 billion.

Shared Revenue and Two-Thirds funding suffer from the same fatal flaw. They separate the spending decisions from the revenue source. Many school districts and local units of government are able to get away with ridiculous spending because taxpayers from outside of their districts are footing a large chunk of the bill.

Send your hate mail accordingly.

(5) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1346 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. You won’t get any arguments from me.  While I believe that funding for public education is important, I also think that things are going overboard, and that more needs to be done to control the care free spending by local districts.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 22, 2007 at 1504 hrs


  2. Nice article.  Owen for Governor!  wink  (I can see the attack ad headlines now…  “Don’t vote for Owen…  He hates children”)  smile

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 22, 2007 at 1532 hrs


  3. Thanks.  But I don’t hate all children… just other people’s children wink

    Posted by Owen on May 22, 2007 at 1536 hrs


  4. You just exposed the most successful part of the liberal play-book…divide and conquer.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 22, 2007 at 1702 hrs


  5. The worst part of state funded education is that is comes with all sorts of ridiculous requirements that end up costing the schools big time. The latest example would be the DPI requiring us to change our employment discrimination policy to not consider arrest or conviction record. I don’t think anyone should pay their entire life for a youthful mistake, but to not even consider this in the hiring process is just silly.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on May 23, 2007 at 0944 hrs


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