FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 23, 2004
Contact: Rich Eggleston
(608) 257-5881

TABOR: Still A Bad Idea

Rep. Frank Lasee (R-Ledgeview) is working hard to clear the land mines that his proposed constitutional amendment, known by the seductive nickname "The Taxpayer's Bill of Rights," would place between Wisconsin citizens and their ability to obtain police and fire protection for their homes, an education for their children and help for their elderly parents and grandparents.

Rep. Lasee has responded to the most obvious and significant flaws in Colorado's TABOR amendment. But TABOR is still a very bad idea.

• We shouldn't put fiscal policy in the constitution. There isn't a formula in state law that isn't changed with regularity. Put an untested formula into the constitution, and it takes many, many years to change. Rep. Lasee has dealt with problems that we have identified, but as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, there are other problems we haven't dreamed of. That's why the constitution should be the place for basic principles about human rights, and basic rules to guide government, not micromanagement.

• We shouldn't rush something like TABOR through the legislative process without full and informed debate and discussion. So far, the debate and discussion has been taking place behind closed doors. Legislators slam the door in the face of reporters who try to get into these meetings. Assembly Republicans are meeting Tuesday on this issue. Every reporter in Madison should attend, and they shouldn't leave except in handcuffs.

• It's a bad idea whose time has passed. State and local officials have heard the message of voters that taxes are high enough.  Gov. Jim Doyle signed a no-tax-increase budget. Local officials across the state adopted a levy freeze as part of their budgets. Municipal levy increases this year were the lowest in 14 years, and school district levy increases were the lowest in a decade. Government is slimming down in response to the public. Government will continue to respond to the public. That's its job.

The Wisconsin Alliance of Cities is dedicated to making local government work better and more efficiently. We're dedicated to reform that saves the taxpayer money. We're dedicated to regional solutions that save the taxpayer money. We're dedicated to eliminating duplicative layers of government that waste the taxpayer's money.

We come up with original ideas, we don't import dysfunctional ideas from other states. Professor Don Kettl's Blue-Ribbon Commisson on the State-Local Partnership for the 21st Century came up with 139 ideas for improving and slimming down government. TABOR wasn't one of them. Once upon a time Wisconsin embraced homegrown ideas like Unemployment Compensation and Worker's Compensation and exported them to the rest of the country. If we embrace ideas like the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities and Professor Kettl's, not TABOR, we will truly prepare Wisconsin to thrive in the 21st Century.