| SEARCH OnWEAC |
|---|
Susan McMurray of AFSCME Council 11 tells legislators that TABOR and the TPA "will cripple our schools and hurt our most vulnerable citizens." The vast majority of people who crowded into a legislative hearing in Pewaukee opposed the proposed constitutional amendment that would severely restrict government resources.
At the first true public hearing on the latest version of the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), opponents overwhelmingly outnumbered supporters as they packed a Pewaukee meeting room Wednesday (March 1, 2006).
Two hours into the hearing, those who had registered against the Taxpayer Protection Act (TPA) outnumbered supporters 230 to 30, despite the fact that the hearing was held in the Republican stronghold of Waukesha County and that the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce had teamed with conservative Milwaukee radio talk show host Charlie Sykes to send auto call pleas to tens of thousands of conservative voters in southeastern Wisconsin urging them to show up.
"Citizens throughout the state today effectively placed a big stop sign in front of the members of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Select Committee on the TPA," said WEAC President Stan Johnson, who attended the hearing. "In effect, they said, 'Stop this train before it runs over the citizens of Wisconsin.'"
Opponents focused on the extensive damage the TPA would cause by drying up resources for critical state and local government services from health care for the poor to public safety to social services and education.
For schools, the TPA would add insult to the severe injury that 13 years of revenue controls have caused for public schools, several speakers said.
 JoEllen Burke |
|---|
"TABOR, or the TPA, is really another revenue control on top of revenue controls," said Eau Claire teacher JoEllen Burke.
Referring to an earlier statement by one of the committee members that government has to "suck it up," Burke said, "We've been sucking it up for years."
"We have tried to make do with limits and controls, but it is taking its toll in class sizes, building maintenance, technologies, staffing and other services. ... If we truly value education and hold it as a priority as we claim, we would properly fund our schools and not choke them off," she said. "And we would allow our local authorities to determine needs."
Local control was a theme repeated by many citizens, who said they elect their state and local officials to make taxing and spending decisions. TABOR, or the TPA, would take that decision-making authority away from them by placing a complex and very restrictive taxing formula in the state Constitution, making it in some cases virtually impossible for elected officials to fund needed services.
"All priorities we have require services ... services that require taxes," Burke said. "I am certainly a taxpayer, but more important I am a citizen and as a citizen I am one of many who believe that we owe it to our future generations to fight against this obvious threat to our representative democracy."
Fond du Lac teacher Hedy Eischeid said her school district was forced last year to cut $1.5 million from its budget, which had a direct impact on students through the loss of guidance counselors, psychologists, student support services in the media centers, fine arts staff and coaches. TABOR would force schools to make even more cuts, and children are the ones who would be hurt, she said.
Eischeid noted that Colorado voters, after suffering through 13 years of massive budget cuts, recently approved a ballot measure that suspends a central provision of TABOR.
"As Colorado recently found out, it is foolhardy to ransom the future for questionable short-term goals," she said. "They have acknowledged their mistakes; why would Wisconsin choose to go down the same dead-end road?"
Platteville speech pathologist Julie Addison-Fulton said she has experienced a sharp increase in the number of students she works with this year and is very concerned about meeting the needs of children, even without TABOR.
"Children are not numbers - their needs cannot be neatly predicted or quantified. One size just doesn’t fit all in this case," she said. "We need a budgetary system that allows us to meet the unexpected needs that we know will arise. I am very good at what I do. I respectfully ask ... if you had a child or grandchild with special needs, would you want their educational services determined by an arbitrary limit, based on an incomplete headcount and inflation costs? Would you rather have them in my class of six children, or my class of 16?
"I ask that you oppose this latest version of TABOR. It is fundamentally flawed and reckless fiscal policy, it doesn’t allow schools to adequately address the needs of our children, and it will cause them harm. Wisconsin has a well-deserved reputation for excellence in education, and we should not allow it to be undermined in this way."
In written testimony, Ashwaubenon teacher Dean Debroux said that if TABOR, or the TPA, were to pass, "Public schools will become a shell of their former selves."
"TABOR will not improve education," he said. "TABOR will not improve employment. TABOR will not improve our communities."
Susan McMurray of Council 11 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) said TABOR is the wrong solution and would have "severe consequences on public services and public employees." TABOR, she said, "will cripple our schools and hurt our most vulnerable citizens."
Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William Andrekopoulos said MPS has been making progress despite very difficult challenges. "Don't take away the tools we need to continue the reform effort in our district," he said.
Retired Janesville teacher David Arbuthnot said it is predictable that TABOR would damage Wisconsin's schools, roads, parks and services, but beyond that he is concerned about the "unforeseen repercussions" of a constitutional amendment that takes on a life of its own and can't be easily changed.
"It all boils down to quality of life, and that's my main concern - that we maintain that in the state of Wisconsin," he said.
Posted March 2, 2006