STATE BUDGET FAILS TO PASS
The budget proposed by Democratic Governor Jim Doyle passed the Senate but died in the Assembly late Monday, casting the Capitol impasse over taxes into a 108th day. In case you are wondering, our local legislators, Senator Luther Olsen and Representative Joan Ballweg, both voted against the proposal. While you will hear many gloom and doom forecasts in the upcoming days, (Here is the Governor's) and while I would like to see a budget passed in Madison, I did have some serious problems with the budget proposed by the Governor. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, here are the areas where Republicans and Democrats are differing (my comments in italics):

* A $418 million tax on hospitals, which would bring back an estimated $575 million in additional federal Medicaid money. Democrats say it would help hospitals that treat large numbers of Medicaid patients; Republicans say it would drive up health care costs. - Let's raise taxes here in Wisconsin to receive more tax revenue from Washington. Government accounting at its best. Reminds me of the push to pass the Booster Seat Law in Wisconsin, raising the costs of raising a family, so we could get federal money to help low-income residents buy the seats in the first place. Either way, someone has to pay for the $993 million in additional revenue (state and federal), and it is not going to be the hospitals or insurance companies.
* A $1.25-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax, expected to generate about $450 million in revenue by mid-2009. Republicans have proposed a 75-cent increase. The current tax is 77 cents. - First of all, a disclaimer. I smoke - not as much as I used to, but I do. The tax on cigarettes hasseveral goals, one of them being the reduction of smoking. So how do we replace the revenue down the road if the cigarette tax reduces consumption? I can foresee taxes on fatty foods, unhealthy foods, and other unhealthy choices. Also, this tax is supposed to be used to fund health insurance in Wisconsin. How can I trust the Governor and the state to do this when I read the following proposal...
* A $175 million transfer from a state fund that pays damages to malpractice victims. - Why does the state continually go after this fund? If it has enough money, stop collecting the "taxes" that fund it.
* In-state college tuition rates for undocumented immigrants who graduate from Wisconsin high schools. - Sorry, but to me, undocumented is a politically-correct word for ILLEGAL. Why in the world would any reasonable government leader want to extend the educational benefits we give to legal residents to ILLEGAL residents. First of all, they should not be even receiving a diploma from a high school if they are here ILLEGALLY

And do not get me started on the Oil Company Assessment, which would have raised gas prices 5 to 6 cents per gallon in Wisconsin, according to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. I lost a lot of faith in the Governor when he said the tax would not be passed on to the consumer, and the constitutionality of the law was in serious doubt.