Walker's Budget Rewards His Top Campaign Donors
Road builders, voucher advocates and the wealthy get big perks
Inevitable, but not ideal.
But this year's biennial budget, a Republican creation signed by Gov. Scott Walker with about 50 vetoes on Sunday afternoon, includes a shocking number of perks for donors at the same time the governor has declared that the state is broke and cannot afford to fully fund education, BadgerCare and other programs that benefit the average Wisconsinite.
“If the state were swimming in cash, you'd think, 'Well, this is just what politicians do,'” said Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Executive Director Mike McCabe. “But we're repeatedly being told that the state is broke and has historic budget problems.”
The power of corporations is easily seen in the state budget, which includes $2.3 billion in corporate tax breaks over the next 10 years, McCabe said.
“They got everything they wanted,” McCabe said.
Generally, only 1% of the electorate donates to political campaigns. McCabe said in Wisconsin that elite 1% is typically white, wealthy and from the toniest suburbs ringing Milwaukee and Madison. Their interests are represented throughout the budget document.
Although much has been made of the political influence of labor unions on Democrats, McCabe said that contributions from businesses dwarf them. For every dollar a union donates to a candidate, McCabe said, corporations spend $12 on their preferred candidates. And while big business interests heavily favor Republicans, they also provide $4 to Democrats for every $1 from unions.
Rewarding Contributors
So how did Republicans reward the individuals and organizations that donated more than $11 million to Walker's gubernatorial campaign?
- Corporations in general got a big boost in the new budget. Walker and his Republican allies have offered them tax breaks for adding jobs, moving to Wisconsin and, quite frankly, simply for existing. Walker and Republican legislators have even gone so far as to relax child labor laws.
- At $1.3 million, Walker's top campaign contributors are employed in the manufacturing and distributing sector. Not surprisingly, the state budget includes a number of tax breaks for manufacturers—on top of the plentiful tax breaks they've enjoyed for years. Most shocking was a new tax break for manufacturers that was introduced in the Joint Finance Committee at 11 p.m. on Friday, June 3, with no public debate. When completely phased in, manufacturers will benefit from a new $129 million tax break per year, even if they aren't adding any new jobs. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Vice President Jim Buchen called this late-night giveaway the “icing on the cake.”
- While it's difficult to get details on just who, exactly, qualifies as donors in the catch-all “retired/homemakers/non-income earners” category, it's fairly safe to say that these “non-income earners” have lots of unearned income. These retired and unemployed individuals contributed $1,240,888 to Walker's campaign, and comprised his second-strongest supporters.
The Republican budget handsomely rewards Wisconsin's wealthy, providing them, for example, with lower capital gains tax rates on Wisconsin investments. In 2011-2012, the state estimates this perk will reduce tax revenues by $16.1 million. By 2016, when it's fully phased in, the state will lose more than $100 million annually, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Yet Republicans have offered no compelling evidence that allowing wealthy investors to pay less tax on their profits will create any additional jobs in the state.
Walker's budget also passes up an opportunity to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share during this time of economic stress. Instead of raising the income tax rate on the top wage earners or increasing the corporate tax rate to bring it up to the national average, as advocated in the alternative Wisconsin Values Budget, Walker and the Republicans are balancing the budget on the backs of the state's low-wage earners. They're raising $41 million by changing the Earned Income Tax Credit, slashing $500 million from Medicaid programs, and cutting $1.6 billion from public education.
- Road builders—who contributed $166,007 to Walker's campaign, but whose influence on Republicans can be far greater than this relatively small sum through independent expenditures—were big winners. Not only did Walker increase funding for state roads, bump up the planned timeline for huge freeway projects in southeastern Wisconsin and decrease funding for mass transit, but Walker also proposed a historic shift in how roads and mass transit would be funded. Not surprisingly, that change would have ensured full funding for his road-building friends in the future while making local bus systems very vulnerable.
Thankfully, the JFC deleted Walker's historic pandering to his allies. But, for good measure, state Rep. Robin Vos (R-Burlington), co-chair of the JFC, added an amendment to kill off regional transit authorities around the state, thus ensuring that Wisconsinites will be dependent on cars and roads—and deep-pocketed road builders—for the next generation.
- Tucked into the details of the budget was a plan to make it easier for nonprofit, member-owned credit unions to convert into for-profit, shareholder-owned banks. Credit unions, of course, viewed this provision as a way for a handful of profit-minded bankers to kill off their competition. Banking and finance sector employees contributed $958,414 to Walker's campaign, his fourth-highest contributor.
- No pay-for-play budget would be complete without an appearance by the voucher school backers, who have gifted their allies at the state and local level with millions of direct and indirect campaign contributions over the years. According to an analysis by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, voucher supporters—including the Betsy DeVos- and Scott Jensen-led American Federation for Children and Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC)—spent more than $3 million in 2009 and 2010 to help elect Walker and Republican legislators. That number far dwarfs the $1 million that voucher opponents—primarily the teachers' union—spent trying to get their allies elected. The payoff? Walker cut K-12 public education by $1.6 billion while expanding vouchers beyond the city of Milwaukee, paving the way for vouchers to spread across the state, eliminating the enrollment cap on Milwaukee voucher schools and all virtual schools, and increasing the income limit for participating families.
- MillerCoors executives donated $25,000 to Walker's campaign and $65,000 overall, and were rewarded with a budget amendment that would boost their viability while harming small, craft brewers—the kind of small, craft brewers that make Wisconsin great but aren't politically connected.
Targeting the Enemy
But Walker's budget doesn't merely reward Republican donors. McCabe was shocked by “the length to which they are going to punish their political enemies.” Traditional Democratic allies such as public employee unions and Planned Parenthood are taking big hits—historic hits—in the Republican-backed budget and collective bargaining bill. The punishment goes beyond defunding these entities to almost destroying their ability to operate and, in turn, be active in politics.
To no one's surprise, the unions busted in Walker's controversial collective bargaining bill just happened to be the same unions that traditionally support Democrats. Walker managed to preserve the rights of unions that back Republicans—police and firefighters—even though these employees represent the biggest portion of local governments' salary expenses.
While Walker didn't single out Planned Parenthood for special treatment, the Joint Finance Committee certainly did. Co-chaired by a former Planned Parenthood board member, state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), the Darling-led JFC voted to strip Planned Parenthood of state funding, even though the organization does not use public money for abortion services. The JFC also made additional cuts to family planning programs.
Why was Planned Parenthood targeted? Possibly because it spent $62,021 on independent expenditures in support of Walker's gubernatorial rival, Democrat Tom Barrett, and $25,394 in negative ads about Walker. In addition, the group spent an additional $35,587 to support Democratic legislators and $13,052 criticizing Republican legislators in the 2010 election.
And thanks to her high-profile support of Walker's agenda, Alberta Darling is facing a recall election on Aug. 9.
Agreed. To tax the profits of an incorporated business, then turn around and tax the income of an employee paid out of those same profits...well, that's double taxation without a doubt. If that employee believes in the company that he or she works for and decides to invest in his or her company, any capital gains reaped from that investment are taxed AGAIN! That's the same money, (1) taxed as profits of the corporation, (2) taxed as income to the employee, and (3) taxed as a capital gain. Yes, I know that the capital gain is over and above the initial investment, but seriously- the seed money has been taxed TWICE already.
Waukesha Guy- just because many inner-city residents don't have the wherewithal to invest, does that make investing and profiting from investments evil? Well, I don't qualify for welfare or food stamps- are those programs then evil because I can't partake?
Darling will be re-elected without a problem. I've already sent in my thrice-taxed donation to her recall opposition campaign.
i think the capital gains tax is extremely unfair. If your assets increase in value due to inflation, you have pay tax just on the inflation. The real value may have actually fallen. I have friends that buy and sell gold and silver for living. Its an all cash business. No records kept. Their savings is gold coins held in a lock box. That is their nest egg. Lucky for them when they sell they don't pay taxes. No one knows. Sometimes I think that is the way to go.
Regardless, Walker owes it to the good people who elected him to do us some favors and put more control back in the hands of the good people with money. Ever see a lazy rich person? The rich are the go-getters. The ones that get up in the morning and go out and produce wealth. Better be nice to them or they will pack up and leave. We have been so mean to the rich, many I know here in Wisconsin have a Florida's driver's license. They own a home there and just claim residence, paying the ZERO tax rate. Florida knows how to treat people fairly when it comes to taxes.
Your rantings are priceless David, it's like you really seem to buy into the whole "everyone can be wealthy" fantasy. I know you're well off, but you're not among the über riche. People like you who are given a little taste of the good life are "Little Eichmanns" carrying out the dirty work of the elite. No matter how hard you work David, you'll never be a part of that private jet world. That's the joke. The class you are born into, is the same class you will die in.
Your insistant claim that the wealthy are "go-getters," out producing wealth and contributing something of value to society is beyond laughable. What exactly are they producing? The paper shufflers/pot-stirrers are using smoke and mirrors to squeeze every last imaginary dime out of our nation's fiat money system.
Let me ask you Jacob, what are the unemployed producing? What are the welfare types producing.
Thirty years ago I was young, married, kids, broke, and unemployed. Perhaps only a few thouand dollars to my name. I drove my broken down Pinto to Oklahoma City on spec because it was the area with the lowest unemployment rate. Quickly found a job. Moved out of Motel 6 and into a low rider apartment. All I had was a suitcase of clothes and a sleeping bag. Made a decision I was going to be the best at what I do. A few years later I was pulling down some nice coin, accumulating some wealth, and while I didn't own my own jet, the company provided one for me. Well if a goof ball like me can do it, anybody can. Its real simple. 1. Work harder and smarter than your competitors. 2. Save 50% of your income. 3. Don't by crap you can't afford or don't need. 4. Become a Republican and associate yourself with successful and wealthy people. 5. Practice responsible birth control. If you follow those 5 simple steps, how could you fail?
@PoliticalPygmali - You invited me? My biggest problem is that I cannot summarize a complete point in a sound-bite or headline, nobody has time for that anymore.
Everybody knows that the "welfare" programs are supposed to be a redistribution of wealth, from richer to poorer. It was never designed to be like "insurance risk pools" where each segregated group must "tax and spend" a balanced budget among themselves.
Our Declaration of Independence says "... all men are created equal..." --- True, all are born into this world weak and powerless, but we are not all given the same opportunity. Given that there will be variation between people, it is human nature to only consider that which is local and immediate, "draw the line" and make a judgement of who to favor, who not to favor, who to "use up and throw away". Isn't that what we were trying to get away from?
The residents of our country have all been catogorized and pigeon-holed, divided into demographic groups. Look at 3 hypothetical classes... Class A, the highest performers, can easily produce more than they will consume. Let's call Class B the break-even class, they can still support themselves, Class A does not need to help them, but they cannot help anyone else, either. Then we have Class C as the class that cannot do enough to support themselves, they fall short. If Class B can barely help their ownselves, it will fall upon Class A to provide any help to Class C at all.
Is Class C so worthless that they cannot contribute anything to society at all, no matter how much is given to them? Helpless as a newborn infant? No, there are different levels that Class C can contribute, just like there are different levels within Class A. Suppose Class C sub-group 1 can only produce 90% of what it takes to support them, (like some 10 year olds working on the family farm). Is it not compassionate to front them the remaining 10% so that they can continue to contribute, continue to make money for you? Of course, he may get TinkerToys and 2 tin cans on a string instead of an XBox 360 and a Droid, but he is still fed, clothed, and sheltered.
What about the other sub-groups in Class C? How about an 80-20 split, a 60-40 split? Where will you draw the line? Seems to me that we re-position this line when we fear that we may have to give up our Droids and our big boy toys... and that's assuming that only Class A is allowed any say in drawing that line!
---------On evil investments...
Investments are not evil in themselves, you have to look at what your investment is charged to do.
Probably the first "public-sponsored service" was to dig a community well, provided safe, clean water to all. Even the lowest paupers and peasants were allowed to draw water from that well, not just those who helped to dig it. How else were you going to get any paupers and peasants to stay in the village so you could hire them at harvest time or let them help at fire-fighting time?
That was an example of an investment to help community. Later it extended to a sewer system, to stop the Cholera and Typhoid that threatened even the wealthy. It was valuable to keep the underclass from getting sick, if only so their presence would not make you sick.
Where are are community supporting investments today? The evil is when the investment is to move shop to that emerging economy that uses slave-like labor or simply has workers that can be paid less because it costs less for them to live there. So you are dumping your own community's workers, then expect them to still be taxpayers and paying customers! (Who is paying them so they can still buy your out-sourced goods, pay for your tax cuts to the wealthy? - oh they were supposed to take out a loan!)
"To get a positive return" is all fine and dandy a reason to invest, but do I really need to take down 3-4 other people for each one of my own my investment will help? -- But, maybe your belief is like this... I cannot support all who cannot afford to fully take care of themselves, so my task has become "I need to put [them] out of their misery before they can rise up and revolt!" Or "I'm going to shoot this lame workhorse."
@Waukesha Guy- no idea what you're referencing in regard to an "invite". You must be thinking of someone else, or some other rant you were planning.
You are truly insane. Your rant is virtually without any facts- it is simply an outline of the world as you imagine it to be, with ficticious percentages, fabricated "class groupings" that are defined simply by a letter of the alphabet.
And this: "Is it not compassionate to front them the remaining 10% so that they can continue to contribute, continue to make money for you?" Who the hell is "making money for me"??
And this: "I cannot support all who cannot afford to fully take care of themselves, so my task has become "I need to put [them] out of their misery before they can rise up and revolt!" Or "I'm going to shoot this lame workhorse." Who the hell is talking about putting anyone out of their misery or shooting anyone?
You are insane- absolutely mentally ill, and no longer worth engaging. Go find some little children and tell them all about your three classes of society and the shining knight of the socialist round table who will save Class C. Let the rest of us debate what is actually happening, with real ideas, real numbers, and real possible solutions- based on what is really happening, not some Grimm fairly tale.
This is why America's education system is in shambles, because of people like you. Only in this country do we portray teachers as greedy, overpaid fat cats. The better-than-average benefits enjoyed by teachers and other public employees are a trade-off for their less-than-average salaries. Otherwise, who in their right mind would spend 8 hours a day working with bratty kids for a mere $35,000 a year?
Our education system is not in shambles. Many private schools see over 90% of their graduates go on to 4 year colleges.
There are plenty of private school teachers who would love to get $35k a year.
Yes in this country we do protray teachers as overpaid fat cats. Its because they are. The "better than average" benefits is putting it mildly. How about extremely well above average? Plus an early retirement pension!!! We have teachers who are able to live middle class life styles on their salary alone for just 9 months of work a year!!! When I was a kid all the teachers I knew had second jobs to survive. But oh no, not in Wisconsin.
Why are you posting anonymously now David? Could it be because you don't want to take ownership for the terrible things you say and the untold number of lies you spread?
Only 58% of Americans know what the significance of the 4th July is, and only 76% know who we declared our independence from. Yep, we're doing great in the arena of academics.
If you think teachers' benefits are "extremely well above average," then perhaps you should support universal health care for all Americans. That way everybody would have the same health care and it would no longer be an issue for conservatives to demagogue. From a business standpoint I can't understand why they don't want to shift the burden of covering employees to the government/taxpayers.
If 42% of Americans don't know the significance of July 4 its because they are idiots and I'm not blaming our teachers. Even if we doubled teachers salaries, we still have idiots who are more interested in being on the goverment dole than improving themselves.
Universal health care? Are you serious? Why can't people just go out and buy their own health care? Universal catastrophic health care should be available to everyone at a cost, but first dollar health care from the goverment is crazy. If we had that we would have to share waiting rooms with poor people. We wouldn't get seen immediately like we do now. Just what I want to do, tip out the receptionist $50 so I can move up the queue. A lot of my doctors told me they would just not accept universal insurance patients becasue there is no profit in it. They would only work with people who had private insurance.
David I love a great Abe Lincoldn story ... but you better not tell the Republicans you hang out with you practice birth control .... they might have a problem with that ...
Lavish salaries for teachers? If walkers (and no, I will not capatilize the name of a theif) policies allow me to keep teaching for another ten years, I'll retire with thirty years in education, a seventy five percent pension, fifty thousand in student loans, minimal health insurance with a huge deductable, and the satisfaction that I changed the lives of countless children, AND that there exists a special place in the after life for liars like you and walker. Some (in fact any) facts would be a nice change.
Private school teachers are the market rate. If you are getting more than a private school teacher, you are getting an artificially higher wage that was a result of the immoral process of collective bargaining. Big deductible health care -- thats the way it should be!!! Mine is $5k. Some of my friends have $10k. If you have student loans after 30 years it means you overpaid for your education or don't know how to manage your income. Learn to live on half you income. Save the other half. I've lived on 50% or less for less and invested the other 50%. Its worked out quite nicely. Learn to do without all the wasteful extras and live as though you are unemployed all the time. Wow, a 75% pension. Goody goody for you. Most people have to put away $20-$30k a year into 401ks and IRAs of their own money and have no pension at all. I bet you didn't do that. AND YOU STILL HAVE STUDENT LOANS!!! Let me guess you have car loans and credit card balances too? 30 year mortgage? Trying to live like people in the private sector who make twice as much? Look at me!! I'm a teacher!! Look at my new car!!! My $250k house!!! yahoooo!!! Credit card millionaire!!!
When I was kid teachers lived in cracker box houses and drove old cars. If they wanted to be middle class they worked all summer for the highway department, summer camps, or did farm work. In fact many teachers owned farms. Or they owned the local drive-in restaurant, car wash or laundry mat. But none of them made out well just teaching unless their spouse had a good job. We need to crack down governent workers that are not paying for their benefits.
I agree with you 100%, too bad people in this country are too lethargic and un/misinformed to stand up for themselves like people in Greece or Great Britain. it might have something to do with the fact that our governemnt is putting low levels of lithium in our drinking water to make us docile and easily manipulatable. The small handful of politicians who actually do represent the will of the people are becoming an endangered species, just l.ook at what happened to Feingold. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) are both in danger of losing their seats in the House due to redistricting aka gerrymandering as a result of the 2010 Census.
One last thing. As far as the government not being able to "throw the whole country in jail," I wouldn't be so sure. I was skeptikal of FEMA camps when I first heard about them; I thought it was some kind of Tea-Bagger conspiracy theory, like Obama being a Kenyan-born Islamic Manchurian Candidate, but I have since seen too much evidence of their existence and I am convinced they are real and the governemt plans to use them in the near future.
@Rhonda- I hate that I have to keep pointing this out, but you have obviously not thought this through at all. Without successful businesses (most of which are incorporated), where do you think tax revenue would come from? Everything is based on successful business (corporations)- Income taxes (personal and corporate), property taxes (paid from income earned by working for a business), sales taxes (paid when you purchase a product produced by a business), and payroll taxes that are paid by employers for the privilege of employing someone like you, who probably hates the company that employs you because there is someone at that company who makes more money than you (pure envy, a truly evil emotion...) That's not to mention social security, medicare and medicaid, and the unemployment insurance funds- which also come from payroll in an employer/employee payment mix.
So- without businesses (most of which are corporations), where will all of this tax revenue come from? Please, I want to understand your vision of the world- try to explain this to me.
Wow you are really slow Pig Man. You missed the entire point of her post, as usual. She was saying that taxation without representation is unconstitutional, therefore people without representation should not have to pay taxes. Since the overwhelming majority of our politicians seem to only represent huge multinational corporations, then who is representing the average American? If only 2% of Americans earn more than $250,000 a year, then one would reason that our 100 person Senate should ony have 2 millionaires residing in it, if it is to truly be a representation of the country. Instead we have 68 out of 100 senators that are millionaires, whose interests are they going to be looking out for?
6 monopolies have a stranglehold on our democracy: banking, telecom, defense, health care, energy, and agribusiness. Companies like GE not only do they not pay taxes, they actually receive refunds. It's basically like Jeff Immelt reached into the US Treasury and stole $4 billion in taxpayer money. The middle class has always been asked to carry the poor on its back, now I guess they're supposed to be supporting the rich as well.
What I think we need is give people one vote for every $10,000 they pay in taxes with a minimum of one vote for everyone. If all those millionaires are not paying taxes, they get no vote. But we all know they are paying taxes, lots of them. I would would hope that all our senators would be millionaires. If they arn't they must be screwups that don't know how to manage money. I really doesn't take a lot of effort to become a millionaire. I know people who have made only modest salaries and become millionaires easily, mostly by not blowing their money on junk, but rather investing wisely. I certainly would not trust anyone to make billion dollar decisions unless they were wealthy and knew how to manageme money. I heard Feingold was not a millionare and that really bugged me. A man his age should have accumilated several million by this time in his life.
What you are proposing is essentially one share equals one vote instead of one person equals one vote. Thankfully, we still live in a democracy where my vote is worth just as much as yours, David J. Livingston. Although, with recent Supreme Court rulings like the Citizens United case allowing for unlimited, anonymous campaign contributions from corporations, I fear you get what you want in the not-so-distant future.
Again, why are posting anonymously now David? Perhaps, some of your clients that utilize DJL Research might be appalled by some of the terrible, callous things you write, and may not appreciate being associated with a hate-filled, troll such as yourself.
Im too lazy to fill in the blanks. I believe in the Golden Rule. He who has the gold gets to make the rule.