300 Rally Against Property Tax Freeze
About 300 concerned citizens, teachers, education
support professionals, firefighters, public officials and others rallied
and picketed Thursday (April 15, 2004) outside a Kenosha meeting of
proponents of a statewide property tax freeze.
Speaker after speaker called the property tax freeze
idea a political gimmick that would undermine local control of government,
destroy Wisconsin's great schools, and severely reduce other essential
public services, including firefighting.
Help
stop TABOR,
tax freeze schemes
The Legislature may call an 'extraordinary session'
to take up the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) and a property
tax freeze. Use the Cyberlobby in the Members
Only section of OnWEAC to tell legislators to oppose these
measures |
"Republicans would rather have a gimmick than
real property tax relief," said Sen. Robert Wirch of Pleasant Prairie.
"We have got to find a better way to fund schools
in the State of Wisconsin," said Sen. Jon Erpenbach of Middleton.
WEAC President Stan Johnson said we must preserve
Wisconsin's tradition of supporting great schools. A property tax freeze
would undermine schools, he said.
"We're not going to deal with the tricks and
gimmicks they want to propose to control spending," Johnson said.
"We are not in any way going to accept a property
tax freeze," added Kenosha Education Association President Matt
Kranich.
Following the rally, the group picketed in a circle
outside the entrance to a banquet hall in which supporters of a property
tax freeze – calling themselves Taxpayers United for a Freeze (TUFF)
– were plotting their strategies. Last year, the Republican-controlled
Legislature approved a so-called property tax freeze, but Governor Doyle
vetoed it. Proponents are attempting to revise the idea.
Posted April 16, 2004