December
2005
Gas Tax could come back to bite Walker
The State Senate has voted to cut the automatically increasing gas tax which is what is used to fund road projects. They haven’t included a way to pay for current projects but their goal of making it an election issue will backfire if Scott Walker wins the Republican primary and the rights to take on Governor Jim Doyle.
You see Walker voted for the automatically increasing gas tax. Doyle was Attorney General at the time so if Doyle signs the bill into law, he will create a huge wedge issue where everytime a Republican running for the legislature reminds voters that they voted to kill the gas tax, Walker will be remembered as the pro-gas tax politician running for Governor.
There’s a huge irony here. Walker hopes to run as a politican with an established record of freezing taxes (truth be told he’s really just borrowed from the future to pay for todays expenses) but he’ll be tarred with being in support of the never-ending gas tax and Doyle will come out as the real anti-tax hero to voters who care simply about thier pocketbooks.
This is going to be a fun race to watch.
Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Walker Watch, Watchdogging Wisconsin
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Truth be told, Governor Doyle is also borrowing from the future to pay current expenses; where is the money going to come from to back fill the $500,000,000 that was yanked from the transportation fund?
Now, before you go on about how the GOP did the same thing, be fair that they at least restored a little less than half of that grab. And they, too, should be ashamed of their grab at segregated funds.
The irony is, that the kids that are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the raided transportation funds (because the fund transportation money transfer is SAID to be going to education - although, the way the budget is written, that money could end up anywhere, but the “for the children” rhetoric makes it more palatable) will be paying off the debt that was created.
Both Doyle and the GOP are guilty of heavy bonding. The race isn’t going to be fun to watch - just sickening as Doyle/Walker/Green/Wineke/Graber do all things possible to cover up their histories and tout their rhetoric…
Doyle’s borrowing (as a percentage of the budget) is nothing compared to Walker’s.
Walker borrowed so he wouldn’t have to contribute to the pension fund.
Walker raided the sales tax fund meant to pay for capital infrastructure debt. He’s now using it for current operating expenses.
Walker raided the transportation funds that Doyle provided so County fares could be stablilzed — then Walker raised the fares!