Sunday, December 11, 2011

Scott Walker's Magic Card Trick

Leading up to and during the beginning of the recall of Scott Walker, Walker and his supporters would parrot the same meme, which was basically that he wished the recall organizers would have waited longer because he thought people would have a different mindset once they received their taxes in December ans saw that they stayed the same or went down, while the schools were just as good or better than before.  (They carefully steered away from other services, like BadgerCare, which even they couldn't spin in a positive way for them.)

This was Walker's ace up his sleeve - or so he thought.

We already know that the schools systems have suffered greatly - regardless of how hard they try to spin things - losing 3,400 educators, growing class sizes and diminished programming.

Well, it's December and the property tax bills our hitting our mailboxes. And, for once, Walker might be right.  People's mindsets will probably be changing.  But not the way he was hoping.

We received our tax bill for the castle on Saturday.  I opened it eagerly, anxious to see the big savings that Walker promised us.

I'm glad I didn't hold my breath for it.

Overall, our property tax went up 4.5%, the highest I can remember it jumping in one year.

And the breakdown of it is even more appalling.

Even though Walker and his Republican allies have thoroughly screwed over the state workers, taking thousands of dollars out of each worker's check, the state portion of the tax bill went up 4.4%.

And as for Walker's "tools," the county portion of the tax bill went up a whopping 9%.  And keep in mind that this Waupaca County, one of the more conservative counties in the state.  Apparently, Walker's "tools" are as broken as his moral compass is.

And remember how Walker slashed funding to the technical schools, even though business leaders are loudly complaining of the dearth of trained workers? Well, the Fox Valley VTAE portion of the bill went up as well, by 5.1%

Walker might have thought he had an ace up his sleeve, but when he played it, it turned out to be a joker with his face on it.  I can't wait to go up north again. I bet it will be a lot easier to find signers there now.

5 comments:

  1. Mine went up, my mother-in-laws went up in Madison. Where is the money going?

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  2. Koch Brothers, WMC members and the Bradley Foundation.

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  3. the long and short of it...the money is going to Walker's cronies, the Koch brothers and others who have fronted his campaign costs and who knows what else this year....the middle class is going down the tubes AND the poor are even poorer....said state of affairs. So everyone, get out and sign the recall petitions and if you can, circulate them as well.

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  4. What's the state portion of the tax bill? Do you not live in a municipality?

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  5. It's a rural property. The highest two portions go to the school district and to the county. These account for the bulk of the bill.

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