Progressive Thinking

Republican majorities in the state legislature are also floating plans for a $600 Million property tax hike.

MADISON - My Republican colleagues have been suspiciously quiet this summer about two proposals they floated near the end of session that would take more from Wisconsin consumers and taxpayers. These plans matter, as they you are likely to see them resurface again next year.

Special interests sought to impose the highest sales tax in the nation on working Wisconsinites. Coupled with a plan to increase property taxes by nearly $600 million to expand private voucher schools it’s no wonder GOP policymakers aren’t talking about their combined plans to shift taxes onto the backs of Wisconsinites who work for a living.

The sales tax would skyrocket to 8% under the GOP plot. As the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau notes in a memo outlining the plan: “If Wisconsin's sales tax rate were increased to 8.0%, it would have the highest state rate among surrounding states and the highest state sales tax rate in the country,” adding that an “increase in the sales tax rate could result in higher prices for consumer products and lower incomes for Wisconsin workers.”

Why would the GOP want an increase in the sales tax? To eliminate the state’s income tax in a scheme that would increase taxes on 28% of households while running up massive deficits in the budgets ahead.

A Senate colleague currently running statewide put forward a bill designed to put the first part of the plan, eliminating the income tax, in motion. Publically, little was heard of the bill or the sales tax plan again. The Fiscal Bureau memo provides a clear snapshot of what that would look like for working families in the Badger state:

More than 874,000 households would see a tax increase – and that’s assuming the whooping sales tax increase went only to 8%, not the 12% or more the Fiscal Bureau indicates would be needed to eliminate the deficit the GOP would create.

Another GOP bill introduced earlier this year would hit those same workers with a $577 million property tax increase. Why? To give students already going to private schools a free ride at taxpayer expense. Worse, for most property owners the full bill will come at your expense come property tax time.

As the Department of Public Instruction noted in its analysis of the bill: “The impact on property taxpayers in applicable school districts could be as high as $577.3 million for the 2022-23 school year, assuming 67,869 additional voucher students.” For comparison, $577 million is equal to roughly 11% of the total property taxes paid for schools.

The highest sales tax in the nation, staggering deficits and 11% more in school property taxes. It’s no wonder you aren’t hearing anything from Republicans in the Capitol about their plans to add to your tax burden and lighten workers’ wallets. That is, until next year, when Republicans again try to quietly drop this scheme into the budget at your expense.

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LFB Proposed State Tax Law Changes for Wisconsin

Our rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands can only sustain us if we remain committed to caring for them. Jeff Smith writes about our connection to water sources here in Wisconsin.

BRUNSWICK, WI - Since humans have inhabited the Great Lakes region, waterways have been an integral part of travel, trade, farming and culture. Our shallow lakes supplied First Nations people with the wild rice that played an essential role in their culture and diet. Rivers provided a travel route for diplomacy and trade among cultures, allowing for the transportation of fur, timber and trade goods. Streams and wetlands provided homes to an amazing variety of plants and wildlife.

This month, the River Falls Preservation Committee is hosting a traveling exhibit from the Wisconsin Historical Society. The exhibit, entitled “Great Lakes Small Streams: How Water Shapes Wisconsin”, is geared towards adults and secondary school students, and will be housed in various locations until October 29^th (see below for details).

Wisconsin boasts plentiful groundwater and a great expanse of surface water, from the lakes Michigan and Superior to the Mississippi river and the network of rivers, streams, wetlands and lakes in between. The U.S. Geological Service estimates fifteen percent of Wisconsin is covered by groundwater, the fourth highest by area in the United States.

We cannot take this resource for granted. Our rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands can only sustain us if we remain committed to caring for them.

Climate change has taken its toll nationwide, as we see in headlines daily. As drought conditions ravage the American West, I have gained a renewed appreciation for all our water continues to do for us in Wisconsin. Not only does water hydrate us, it also sustains wildlife, fosters our recreation economy, generates energy and waters our crops and livestock.

Wisconsin has historically been a leader in pioneering conservation practices. In the early 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps built an erosion control demonstration in the Coon Creek Watershed that proved to be wildly successful and served as an example nationwide. Conservationists used measures such as terracing to shore up land and reduce the soil erosion that was obstructing the area’s rivers and streams.

Early land surveyors in Wisconsin mapped around five million acres of wetland statewide. The development of Wisconsin’s agricultural economy spurred settlers to drain much of these wetlands, driving wildlife from their habitat and opening land up to rapid erosion.  Since that time, local water conservation departments as well as private groups work hard to restore these habitats, essential to the survival of so many of our native species.

Our water sustains a broad variety of wildlife throughout the state. The Wisconsin Wetlands Association estimates 75 percent of Wisconsin’s wildlife depend on wetlands at some point in their lives, and 30 percent of Wisconsin’s rare, endangered and threatened species depend on wetlands for survival.

Not only do healthy rivers provide opportunities for recreation, they also play an important role in regulating ecosystems. This week, I’ll be touring some of our local trout streams. Local conservation groups continue to do an amazing job restoring habitats, benefiting not only trout but whole ecosystems.

Water has been a big part of Wisconsin’s renewable energy efforts. According to the Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin has over 120 hydroelectric dams. Hydropower was Wisconsin’s first renewable energy resource, stretching all the way back to 1882, when the world’s first hydroelectric power plant was built on the Fox River in Appleton.

For all these reasons and more, it is essential to Wisconsin’s future prosperity that we retain our strong connection to our water and all it provides to us. I encourage you to get outside this fall and appreciate how blessed we are with an abundance of water.

The exhibit will be on display in the City Hall Atrium during business hours through Sept. 16^th and at the River Falls Bacon Bash from 10-4 on Sept. 17^th, also in the City Hall Atrium. Resources for teachers and more information on other locations/times available here: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Event/EV8679

MADISON - Our research team just did an interesting study of the top 10 donors to the legislative campaign committees in Wisconsin. See if you can guess who was number 1. Also on the list: a Wal-Mart heir who lives in Arkansas. Here’s our post:

Check Out the Top Contributors to the Wisconsin Legislative Campaign Committees

This week, as you may have heard, a judge down in Waukesha tied the hands of municipal clerks, forbidding them from fixing even the most picayune errors that the witness – not the voter! – made in filling out their address. Here’s what I had to say about that:

Waukesha Judge Sides with Republicans on Petty Disqualifications

I’d also like to share with you what I wrote about Pres. Biden’s speech late last week in Philadelphia:

Three Cheers for Biden in Defending Democracy

Biden and all of us need to keep calling out the anti-democracy forces for what they are. Now’s not the time to pussyfoot around!

I hope you have a nice weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

P.S. If you appreciate the work we do, please send us a tax-deductible donation by clicking here, where you can pay by credit card or PayPal.

Jeff Smith writes about student loan debt forgiveness and how it will give students and graduates a break to boost the economy and offer our kids and grandkids new opportunities to thrive.

MADISON - Most of us take on debt at some point in our lives, whether we take out loans to purchase a car, become homeowners or pursue business endeavors. In an ideal world borrowers have a clear understanding of the terms of the loan and its repayment.

When it comes to college loans, however, our system is far from ideal. Several years ago, I was honored to serve on the Governor’s Task Force on Student Debt. At our meetings, I repeatedly heard from many student borrowers that their loans were uniquely complicated. Just as everyone’s financial situation is different, students face complex and challenging circumstances when it comes to student debt repayment.

On August 24th, President Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan. The President’s plan would forgive $10k in student loans, or up to $20k if the student’s financial need qualified them for a Pell grant during their time in school. Borrowers are eligible for loan forgiveness if they make less than $125k annually as an individual.

This announcement comes as the cost of higher education has never been greater. For decades, tuition rates have skyrocketed across the board, dramatically outpacing inflation and reducing the affordability of higher education. Student aid is often the only option for those without the family resources to pay directly.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, student debt has reached $1.7 trillion, with a staggering $23.2 billion owed by borrowers in Wisconsin. Right out of college, students are facing large monthly payments and mounting interest rates. This often results in graduates leaving their home communities, not by choice, but because they need higher-paying jobs to make ends meet.

There has been a lot of talk about how this program will effect individual borrowers, but fewer conversations about what this means for our communities more broadly. Student loan forgiveness is part of a holistic approach to bolstering our recovery from the economic slump brought on by the pandemic. The Paycheck Protection Program was created to keep local businesses afloat and ensure that folks retained their livelihoods, we invested in our local businesses and the future of our communities. Over $787 billion went out to businesses nationwide, and as of now, over 95% of these loans have already been forgiven.

We can continue moving forward in this economy with student loan forgiveness. Providing relief to student borrowers helps keep wealth in our local communities. This is not only beneficial for the borrower personally, but also strengthens our community as a whole.

Sue and I are proud to have raised our two daughters right here in western Wisconsin, and I want all of Wisconsin’s children to have that same opportunity.

Young families are our future. Local businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. Graduates of our Wisconsin universities shouldn’t have to move to Minneapolis or Chicago for better-paying jobs and brighter opportunities. All of our young people should have the chance to build a life here.

By forgiving some of the debt owed by college borrowers, we free them to start families, grow businesses, invest in the local economy and start preparing for retirement. Instead of devoting a large chunk of each paycheck to out-of-state loan servicers, this money can be spent right here in our local community. Student loan forgiveness offers us another level of investment in our communities and businesses that are still recovering from the pandemic.

We still have very important work to do to ensure that our high school graduates have a strong path to a successful career, wherever that path may take them. However, loan forgiveness is an important first step in working towards a more affordable, effective higher education system.

Federal Judge overrules Wisconsin Supreme Court, along with a state statute, that violated the rights of voters with disabilities to obtain assistance in the delivery of their absentee ballots.

MADISON—Yesterday was a day for celebration!

Federal Judge James Peterson ruled that a recent decision by the Wisconsin Supreme, along with a state statute, violated the rights of four voters with severe physical disabilities to obtain assistance in the delivery of their absentee ballots.

He granted summary judgment to these plaintiffs who brought the case (Carey v. WEC) and ruled that any disabled voter who needs assistance in the delivery of their absentee ballot can’t be denied such assistance.

At issue was a state statute that said that an absentee ballot must be “delivered in person, to the municipal clerk.” Also at issue was the Wisconsin Supreme Court July decision in the Teigen case that said voters themselves had to deliver that ballot to the clerk. The Wisconsin Supreme Court had also left unclear, in that decision, whether voters could get assistance in putting their absentee ballots in the mail.

Now voters with disabilities, if they need it, will be able to get assistance both in delivering their absentee ballot to the clerk and in putting their absentee ballot in the mail.

Judge Peterson, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, pointed out that the Wisconsin statute and the decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court had left voters with physical disabilities in a quandary.

He noted that they risked “imminent injury regardless of what they do. If they choose to comply with [the statute], they will have to forfeit their right to vote or attempt to vote in person with great difficulty and perhaps even at risk to their health and safety. But if plaintiffs violate [the statute] by obtaining assistance to vote absentee, their vote could be rejected, and they could be sanctioned for violating the law.”

This is an unacceptable bind to put any voter in, Judge Peterson ruled.

And he explained that the Wisconsin statute and the ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court collide head on with the protections under the Voting Rights Act.

“The Voting Rights Act is clear: disabled voters who need assistance in returning an absentee ballot are entitled to ask a person of their choosing for that assistance,” he wrote. He quoted the relevant section of the Voting Rights Act, which states:

“Any voter who requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be given assistance by a person of the voter's choice, other than the voter’s employer or agent of that employer or officer or agent of the voter’s union.”

This conflict between federal law and state law also put voters with disabilities in a bind, the judge said. “Voters shouldn’t have to choose between exercising their federal rights and complying with state law,” he wrote. “But that is the position that plaintiffs find themselves in.”

But they no longer are in that position now because Judge Peterson pointed out that federal law takes precedent over state law. As he put it, the Voting Rights Act “preempts” the state statute.

And so he issued a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, ruling that Wisconsin must provide “third-party ballot-return assistance to disabled voters who require such assistance.”

This is a tremendous victory for voters with disabilities, for disability rights activists, and for our fundamental freedom to vote.

And it’s a bracing defeat for the rightwing justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court who so cavalierly dismissed the rights of disabled voters in Wisconsin.

It’s also an embarrassing defeat for the rightwing Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which brought the Teigen case in the first place in an effort to erect barriers for all of us to have to clear in the exercise of our freedom to vote.

I send my congratulations to the four plaintiffs who courageously came forward and to Law Forward, the great pro-democracy law firm that represented the plaintiffs so brilliantly. And I send my congratulations to Disability Rights Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Disability Vote Coalition, which has pushed so hard on this issue.

It's a big victory, well-earned.

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