Er, vehicle registration fee. There are a lot of people who have signed on to the idea of a Walker Wheel Tax, and Tuesday night the Personnel and Finance Committee heard from many about the their support of a Walker Wheel Tax.
When I say “a lot of people” I mean unions, non-profits (United for Funding), faith community (Madison area Urban Ministry) and environmentalists (CRANES) are joined by 14 coalitions, 21 non-profits, 15 current and former elected officials, 21 religious leaders (Reverends, Rabbis, etc), and over 300 individuals. And these are not people who just live in Madison. They are from Sun Prairie, Stoughton, Fitchburg, Middleton, Cottage Grove, Oregon, Monona, Windsor, Town of Springfield, Waunakee, Mt. Horeb, DeForest, Verona, etc. And we didn’t really ask early on where people were from so it is likely even more diverse. The full letter is here and you can still sign on if you or your group want to show your support.
PARISI’S BUDGET ROADBLOCKS AND CHALLENGES FOR THE COUNTY BOARD
1. Early on, Parisi took going to referendum to go above the levy cap off the table. As a result,the county board can only raise taxes $500K.
2. Parisi also asked for 5% cuts and then “restored” money, but left many cuts to human services on the table while funding his new pet projects. So, he ended up looking like he restored cuts leaving many in the public to believe that things were ok for human services when in fact there were over $1M in cuts left to be resolved by the county board. He also effectively got many non-profits to support his budget, throwing the rest of us under the bus. He restored the popular programs, without regard for effectiveness. Finally, “restoring” these cuts just gets us to last year’s funding and ignores the recession we are in and the increased needs in the community – he effectively ignored the reality of the current crisis and continued a 10 year trend of asking non-profits to serve more people with less money resulting in waiting lists and many in need out in the cold.
3. Now we are hearing that his sales tax projections may have been too optimistic and that the board may end up with more holes to fill.
4. And finally, as I indicated above, now he is threatening to veto one item that would allow the county board to adequately fund county highways freeing up money for human services and preventing cuts to the sheriff’s budget. Word on the street is that he’s afraid if we (Dane County) pass a wheel tax the state will make us go to referendum. However, Janesville and Sheboygan weren’t afraid. Milwaukee wasn’t afraid. Beloit wasn’t afraid. St. Croix county wasn’t afraid. Why are we? Sure a wheel tax isn’t ideal, but its a temporary stop gap measure to mitigate Walker’s destruction to our state. And as people testified over and over and over again, “go ahead, tax me” because to not do so is unconscionable, we can’t have these cuts to Human Services, layoffs and cuts to county services.
POLITICAL REALITY
The question is, how many supervisors will support it knowing Parisi is threatening veto? While it was 7 in the past, it seems to have potentially doubled to 14 supporters, but we need 19. Political insiders are wringing their hands because they don’t want to try to get the 19 votes and then get vetoed and then have a budget built on income they won’t realize and see important services cut by Parisi. Which is reasonable. However, if we’re going to do this, NOW IS THE TIME! As far as I can tell, the state can’t force us to referendum for 2012 budget. They may be able to do it in the future, but this buys us time to look at a levy cap referendum or other options. And Parisi can change his mind.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1. Email Joe Parisi, tell him to stop threatening to veto the Walker Wheel Tax. parisi@countyofdane.com
2. Email your supervisors and urge them to stand strong and that you will support them in a wheel tax because the alternatives are not acceptable. We can’t have over $1M worth of cuts to Human Services in this recession. county_board_recipients@co.dane.wi.us
3. Sign on to the letter if you haven’t already. (Please include your address so they know when their constituents are contacting them.)
4. Urge your neighbors, friends, co-workers, groups you belong to, etc to sign on to the letter and contact their elected officials.
5. Stay tuned to the budget process the best you can, and help show up to meetings and let them know in person that you stand strong for human services in our community – to maintain a reasonable quality of life in Dane County and for the least among us! That is the Dane County Way!
