There is an entity currently walking the halls of the state Capitol that would probably have a hard time getting elected in most places in Wisconsin.

Here is his political agenda:

	Reduce the funds for Medicaid benefits for seniors.
	Cut the level of funding to incarcerate criminals or keep them in jail.
	Increase class sizes in elementary and high schools.
	Force an increase in tuition at vocational/technical schools and the University of Wisconsin System.
	Slash or eliminate health insurance for state employees.
	Reduce or eliminate funding for programs to help people who are unemployed.

Sound like a winner to you? Yet TABOR is among the most popular names being bandied about in Madison these days.

TABOR obviously is not a real person but its impact will be as real as a punch to the stomach for Wisconsin.

TABOR is the acronym for the "Taxpayers Bill of Rights." Something that sounds so doggone American can’t be bad, can it? Not until you explain what the effect of TABOR would be for Wisconsin.

TABOR would limit the state to spending each year at current levels, with an increase only up until the rate of inflation.

When you have health insurance costs growing by 15 percent to 40 percent, large groups of people coming into a school district forcing expansion, or truth-in-sentencing mandates for judges, the current rate of spending plus inflationary increases is predestined to force cuts.

The only way to increase spending for worthy programs would be to pass it on a referendum. The problem is, funding to grow trees that sprout money would have a hard time passing in a referendum. For every referendum no matter how worthy the cause, there is always a constituency that opposes it.

Take a look at Colorado, which has had TABOR in place for several years. A group of people concerned about education have banded together to push a constitutional amendment mandating a certain level of spending on public education. So that leads to spending caps for just about everything.

Another interesting argument that sprouts like thorns from TABOR is: Why even have full-time legislators if they are going to limit what they can do by placing a fiscal straitjacket on the state?

Maybe the first place to start cutting to save funds is to reduce the staffs and salaries of these very legislators who have fallen so madly in love with TABOR.

The bottom line is these legislators will be abrogating their current decision-making to a strict policy. The ostrich could be their symbol.

Better yet, they should sign the bill in a dark closet because that is where they want to place both state and local government.

The question begs - if they don’t want to make tough decisions on programs on an individual basis but prefer a self-imposed cap rather than have to face scrutiny on their decisions, why did they want to go to Madison?

A good shepherd doesn’t take all the flock and lock them in a pen so they don’t face the chance that a sheep might wander off ... unless his name is TABOR.

(Dennis A. Shook is the Waukesha Freeman’s editorial page editor and government reporter. Contact him at dshook@conleynet.com     © Waukesha Freeman. Reprinted with permission.)