DOYLE WANTS YOUR MONEY

When Gov. Jim Doyle delivered his 2007 budget address, he did his best "Slick Willie" impersonation.

He couldn't pull it off.

He detailed a budget packed with higher fees and taxes, but presented it as if it were a gift to Wisconsinites. Companies and hospitals will be hit up, not the good people of the state.

Does he think that we're stupid?

Yes, he does. After all, Wisconsinites were stupid enough to reelect him.

Surely, he thinks that we'd be too stupid to realize that his proposed tax increases will eventually burden consumers.

Madison -- Gov. Jim Doyle on Tuesday traded targeted tax increases - on smokers, hospitals and oil companies - for more health care and stable funding for the state's transportation system.

Handing the Legislature his two-year budget, the governor also called for a $20 increase in the annual car registration fee. The 36% boost would bring it from $55 to $75.

In his re-election campaign last year, he said he supported an increase of about $10.

The biggest single increase ever in vehicle registration fees, it would cost Wisconsin drivers about $170 million more over the next two years.

Doyle's budget would add - not cut - workers. Of 791 new workers, 120 would monitor sex offenders who must be tracked by global positioning monitors.

When he ran for governor in 2002, the Democrat said he would try to cut 10,000 state jobs by 2010. But that push has stalled because of public safety needs and federal mandates, officials said.

Aides said the budget makes good on a campaign promise to not raise general sales or income taxes.

But it would also double - from $3 to $6 for every $1,000 of sale price - the real estate transfer fee paid when property is sold, costing about $140 million more over the next two years.

"This is not a budget for the big oil companies or the big tobacco companies," Doyle said. "It is a budget for the middle-class and for those trying to get there."

But Republican legislators accused Doyle of balancing his budget with more than $1.7 billion in new state and local taxes - an amount they said equals $310 per person.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) said he was concerned about the number of proposed tax increases. "The governor outlined a number of priorities to a lot of different groups tonight, but the one priority he seemed to forget was the taxpayers," Huebsch said.

"He finally has done what he said he would never do, and that is raise taxes," said Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau.

He called Doyle's proposal to prevent oil companies from passing taxes on to consumers illegal, and said it amounted to raising the 32.9-cent per gallon gas tax.

Let's break this down.

1. The Car Registration "Fee"

There's no way Doyle can weasel his way out of that one. He clearly reneged on a campaign promise. The fee increase is twice as much as he said it would be.

2. The Cigarette Tax Increase

Doyle is raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1.25. Don't think of it as a tax increase. Think of it as a health initiative. Doyle wants to make smoking a habit that's too expensive to feed. In effect, he's forcing people to quit.

In reality, Doyle is hoping to rake in the bucks, nothing more. But he could be sending cigarette money out of state or out of the country.

Can people buy cheap cigarettes in Canada?

Get your cheap prescription drugs and cigarettes over the border.

3. The Hospital Tax

Doyle wants hospitals to fork over 1% of their gross revenues to the government.

Gee, that sounds good. Make the hospitals pay, not the citizens.

HOW STUPID IS THAT?

The tax will eventually be passed on to consumers through higher costs. The buck stops with the consumer.

4. The Big Oil Tax

Doyle said, "Let's turn the tables on big oil and give Wisconsin families a break."

Translation: "Let's hope I can fool Wisconsin families into believing that it's possible to tax big oil companies even more without that expense ever being passed to consumers."

Doyle has proposed a tax on the oil companies that would include penalties if those companies passed the tax on to consumers. We're talking prison time for violators.

That's nuts. How would that ever be enforced?

In reality, Comrade Doyle seeks to penalize companies for their success. Did you expect Doyle to go to these extremes to make Wisconsin a RED state?



The bottom line:

Doyle wants more money.

In the end, it will come out of your pocket and it will place a greater burden on everyone. That includes the middle class that Doyle insists he is protecting.

Not true. Doyle isn't turning the tables to protect Wisconsin families through his proposed fee and tax increases.

Wisconsin is a burning tax hell and Doyle is stoking the flames.