My column in todays West Bend Daily News $2.2 billion isn’t chump change Watch Walker’s presidential aspirations take center stage The Wisconsin Constitution requires state government to have a balanced budget. That means state spending cannot exceed income, just like your household budget. State government works on two-year budget cycles. Our next budget covers 2015-17. The heads of all state agencies, who are usually appointed by the governor and are currently mostly conservative Republicans, told the governor’s Department of Administration what they will need to keep their operations running for the next two years. At the same time, the state Department of Revenue projected how much money will come into the state coffers through income taxes and other revenue after the previous tax cuts the wealthy received. The spending requests for 2015-17 from these conservative Republican agency heads and the income projections are in. The conservatives want to spend $2.2 billion more than projected income will allow. This does not bode well for Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature. The Department of Transportation already wants to cover some of its shortfall to the tune of $750 million by raising fees and taxing electric vehicles. I thought Republicans were against raising taxes. As the Legislature and Walker figure out how to further cut education and social programs and increase borrowing to get to some semblance of a balanced budget, they will have to contend with Walker’s pandering to the tea party base as he gears up for 2016. For starters, Walker and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos want to add silly spending on lawyers to defend unconstitutional measures to the budget nightmare to appear more conservative. At the top of this list is their plan to drug test people receiving public benefits like unemployment compensation and food stamps. There is so much wrong with this it is hard to know where to start. Being poor, contrary to GOP dogma, is not a voluntary choice. Most of us are a paycheck away from being poor ourselves. The loss of employment, a health setback, a car accident or any manner of misfortune can put you or me in line for help. It is morally unconscionable to imply those suffering from such misfortunes are drug users, unworthy of help. Where drug testing has been tried, less than 1 percent of those tested actually turned up with illegal substances in their urine. The costs incurred in testing all those other folks far outweighed any savings realized by denying assistance to those actually using illegal controlled substances. Then there is the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. Florida’s Republican governor and Legislature passed a drug-testing law that was promptly struck down by a federal court and the state’s subsequent appeal was equally unsuccessful. The very conservative U.S. Court of Appeals in Florida noted that the Constitution prohibits drug testing without probable cause to believe that a particular person is using illegal substances. Judicial permission in the form of a search warrant is required by the Fourth Amendment in order to require anyone to urinate in a cup for the government. This basic premise of constitutional law seems lost on Wisconsin’s GOP leaders who will undoubtedly spend a lot of your money on high-priced lawyers to defend the indefensible. Finally, there is the notion that we should treat similarly situated folks equally. If receiving unemployment or food stamps is reason sufficient to require urinating on demand for the government, so should receipt of other forms of government assistance like business tax breaks and subsidies to do or not do something about which our leaders have concerns. Also on the list of silly and unnecessary expenditures of your money by our GOP stalwarts is joining the lawsuit brought by several other states against President Barack Obama’s use of an executive order to save 4 million undocumented from deportation. Obama’s order was clearly a valid exercise of his authority. Why spend Wisconsin money when other states are already mounting that challenge? I guess it is another feather in that pandering cap Walker wants to wear. So, to all you folks who bought the Walker prevarications during the campaign, reality is about to hit. Services and public education are going to take a major hit or taxes are going up dramatically, or both. All while Walker turns his back on Wisconsin, his eye toward Washington and spends your money for political gain. (Waring R. Fincke is a part-time taxi driver and vice-chairman of the Democratic Party of Washington County.)
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 13:12:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015