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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Wisconsin has a budget surplus of $4.6-billion. That’s how much more our state government has taxed Wisconsinites beyond what our state needs.
The money really is what’s left over. Our current state budget is fully funded. Our state’s rainy day fund is flush with another $2-billion.
Yet as soon as the figures were announced, out came the government’s hands with proposals to spend it. Governor Evers favors money for childcare. There are construction interests who want the money spent on highway infrastructure. Jill Underly says the surplus should go to public education.
These are all bad ideas.
Childcare costs will actually go up if we put more tax dollars into it. Daycares will raise prices, not lower them, if someone other than working parents are paying the bill. They can raise their prices because the government – not dads and moms – are covering the costs.
More road construction? I might be agreeable to increasing state aid to municipalities for road maintenance. But gone are the days when the Transportation Builders Association dreams up projects that state government funds. They already consider the state’s gas tax revenue as their private piggy bank. They squeal when anyone suggests busses or trains; they are a road-only group.
Giving the money to public schools is the worst idea of them all. Look at the Milwaukee Public Schools, which gets more state aid than any school district and turns out the least educated students. No district has a bigger bureaucracy, and they lost millions in state and federal aid because their army of pencil pushers can’t get their paperwork in on-time. We are getting to the point where, if parents were given the money directly, that they could hire private tutors for their children. The truth is there’s no relationship between what we spend and the quality of education students receive. We are already spending record amounts on schools in Wisconsin; I’m not interested in shoveling more money into that black hole.
The state surplus is so big, it amounts to $770 for everyone living in Wisconsin. I want my money back.
Chris Conley
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