Lobbyists temper TABOR Emotion With Facts

NEA Director Glenn Schmidt hand-delivers a letter to Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) from his mother Arlene, a well-known business owner in the La Crosse area, who asks Kapanke in her letter to please represent his constituency and vote against TABOR. Photo gallery

"Same snake, different skin." That's the way WEAC Vice President Terry Meyer described the latest version of the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) to about 100 educators and concerned community members before they headed off to meet face-to-face with legislators at the Capitol for WEAC's Neighbors Against TABOR Lobby Day March 1.

University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky armed them with facts to use in their meetings from his in-depth analysis of the complex, 2,500-word constitutional amendment, called the "Taxpayer Protection Act," that would link state, school and local government tax collections to factors including inflation and population growth.

Reschovsky said the state's ability to compete for businesses and residents would be damaged, and it would diminish local control over services, such as health care. The amendment would also seriously damage Wisconsin's great schools, especially for children who live in less-affluent districts, he said.

"TABOR requires that everything beyond limits go to a referendum vote - everything," said Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics. "Look at the end result. Wealthy districts will vote yes to improvements, and poor districts will vote no. What it does in the end is not equitable."

WEAC President Stan Johnson reminded lobbyists that TABOR doesn't just limit spending, it also limits legislators' ability to make the decisions they are voted into office to make.

"We want politicians to be statesmen," Johnson said. "This amendment does not allow them to be statesmen. It takes away their power - and responsibility - to make the hard decisions they were elected to make."

WEAC Secretary Treasurer Mary Bell also warned lobbyists to be leery of legislators who try to confuse their constituents, portraying TABOR as helping some school districts and decreasing taxes. Bell urged lobbyists to cite Reschovsky's analysis, including official statistics that discount the argument that taxes and spending in Wisconsin are "out of control." According to state Department of Revenue data, state and local taxes relative to state personal income are considerably lower today than they were 10 years ago.

Several non-WEAC members participated in Lobby Day, including representatives from the American Association of Retired Persons.

"This affects all of us," said Rob Wilkinson of AARP and the Rock County Partnership for Older Adults. "We have to take care of our children and protect their right to a solid education. Many of us don't have children who are in school anymore, but we need to realize that if this is passed, it will hurt us all. Without an education, today's children will grow up and be unable to get good jobs and then who will take care of us? It's a mutually beneficial relationship."

Wilkinson also said many people support TABOR without really understanding the damage it will cause.

"TABOR is an emotional issue," Wilkinson said. "It sounds good - like it would protect taxpayers, and that stirs people up. But it's like the Patriot Act. When you look at the name, you wonder, who could be against something with a name like that? But we need to inform people about what this is really going to do. Unfortunately, the emotional aspect gets all the attention, not the facts."

During afternoon meetings at the Capitol with legislators, NEA Director Glenn Schmidt hand-delivered a letter to Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) from his mother Arlene, a well-known business owner in the La Crosse area. The letter asked Kapanke to please represent his constituency and vote against TABOR. Kapanke said, "The door is shut on TABOR in my mind, but I haven't locked it. I am pretty much on record as opposing it."

MTEA President Dennis Oulahan and MTEA member Laura Vernon met with staff from Milwaukee Democrats Sen. Spencer Coggs and Rep. Barbara Toles' offices and Rep. Tamara Grigsby in the Senate Parlor to tell them about the vicious cycle of declining enrollment and drastic cuts to Milwaukee Public Schools.

"We've cut everything not related to No Child Left Behind," Oulahan said. "Now guess what happens? Parents come in to register their child in a Milwaukee public school, and they find out we don't have an art program anymore or we don't have the music program they wanted for their child, so they go down the street to the voucher school.'"

Vernon reminded the legislative staff and Grigsby that private voucher schools in Milwaukee's Parent Choice Program are not targeted under TABOR to which Coggs' representative said, "That's scandalous - outrageous."

Grigsby said she is "pretty firm" against TABOR, and that she supports improving Milwaukee Public Schools.

"I want to get to a point where we stop putting our energy into fighting choice, and instead put our energy toward making MPS better," Grigsby said.

Taxpayer Protection Amendment: The Impact on Public Education in Wisconsin (a PowerPoint presentation by UW-Madison Professor Andrew Reschovsky)

Resource Page on Tax Gimmicks

Posted March 8, 2006