How to Avoid TABOR problems

AnotherTABOR Expert in Madison March 12

TaxExemption Compromise Eyed

TaxShift Slaps Cities

Hedges, senior policy advisor and director of the fiscal project ofThe Bell Policy Center, added that AJR 55, sponsored by Rep. FrankLasee (R-Bellevue) is more restrictive than Colorado’s "Taxpayers Bill ofRights" (TABOR), in requiring state government to reduce tax rates if revenue exceedsinflation plus population growth. In Colorado, the only requirement is that the staterefund money collected over the limit.

Hedges said she prefers her skiing — not hergovernment — on a downhill slope.

But government is definitely headed downhill in Coloradoas a result of the 1992 TABOR amendment, Hedges said during an appearance at the WCA'sLegislative Exchange.

Carol Hedges

There is adifference between a formula and a cap, and a cap on the size of government is a morereasonable limit on government than a formula that ratchets government down, Hedges said.

For more on Carol Hedges presentation to theWisconsin Counties association, click here.For two charts from Hedges' Power Point presentation that detail how TABOR has pinchedgovernment in Colorado, look here.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Feb. 22 story thatAJR 55 is "dead" as drafted, and son of TABOR won't contain the Byzantine systemof constitutional directives that so badly needs fixing in Colorado.

"The grown-ups have finally gotten involvedin this issue, and the proposal that comes out will be workable. But there's a long way togo yet," Rep. Gregg Underheim (R-Oshkosh) told the Journal Sentinel.

For the story, click here.

TABOR Tidbits

AJR 55 would abrogate the Legislature's responsibility to— well — legislate, Dennis A. Shook wrote in a Waukesha Freemaneditorial.

"Why even have full-time legislators if they are going to limit what they can do byplacing a fiscal straitjacket on the state?" Shook asked. "Maybe the first placeto start cutting to save funds is to reduce the staffs and salaries of these verylegislators who have fallen so madly in love with TABOR."

See his editorial here.

The economic dividends that TABOR's supporters claim forColorado simply haven't occurred there, and Colorado taxpayers are paying more in intereston their debt because of TABOR, David Newby, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, wrote ina guest column in the Wisconsin State Journal.

See the guest column here

Use-value assessment ofagricultural land in the state is by far the biggest tax break that state government givesrural land owners in Wisconsin, and it comes with few strings attached, the Department ofNatural Resources says in a new report, "Wisconsin’s Tax Policy– Is It Harming Our Natural Resources?"

.The FarmlandTax Relief Program and use value assessment do not require management plans or aconservation element, the DNR says.

"Without this component, a landowner who isallowing excessive cattle pasturing on stream banks or using poor farm practices receivesthe same benefits as a farmer who has taken the initiative to fence stream banks orutilize contour strips and other soil saving farm practices," the DNR added.

"It is also importantto note, that while $335 million, predominantly through use value assessment, was saved byrural landowners, those savings were shifted to other landowners, increasing their taxburden," the agency noted.

Tax Shift to Urban Residents:
$355 million annually...

...and undeveloped land
is cheap to serve:

source: Wis. Dept. of Natural Resources

Sen. CarolRoessler (R-Oshkosh) said she would introduce a bill to temporarily roll back the SupremeCourt's decision in Columbus Park Housing Corp. v. City of Kenosha, 2002 WI App 310,259 Wis. 2d 316, 655 N.W.2d 495, http://www.courts.state.wi.us/html/sc/02/02-0699.htm.

Under her proposal, a Legislative Council committee wouldsort out the issues of who deserves a property tax exemption and who deserves to payproperty taxes like the rest of us.

Rep. Berceau's bill would contain income standardsrequiring that a percentage of housing units be rented to people of a certain incomelevel. But the income level is much higher than the Alliance of Cities has advocated, andthe remaining units could be rented to millionaires.

See The Capital Times story here.