Sunday, November 10, 2013

Walker's Favorite Dessert - Pants Flambé

Just days after Mary Burke announced her candidacy for governor, Scott Walker and his Teapublican allies in the state legislature gathered to announce a $100 million tax cut for property owners - despite the fact that they didn't even draw up the bill yet.

It was quickly pointed out that mean average saving would be about $13.  Big whoop.  And for that, our
schools will suffer even the more.

But Walker wasn't done there.  Making it even more painfully obvious that this was nothing more than a campaign stunt, Walker has been running around making the rather brash claim that it would save taxpayers $680.

PolitiFact jumped on that claim quickly and easily pointed out that Walker again was caught in yet another "Pants on Fire:" level lie:
Walker said that with a bill bringing $100 million in property tax relief, "the typical Wisconsin homeowner will save approximately $680 over four years."

The claim in an e-newsletter strongly suggests $680 in hard savings from that tax relief bill, or at the very least during Walker’s four years, but we found nothing to back up that number or anything close to it.

You can only get to it using a rough hypothetical scenario based on some big assumptions, and can make a case for $239 in four-year savings compared to the four years prior to his term.

But Walker’s newsletter doesn’t disclose that his number is hypothetical, misleading the reader into thinking that the median tax bill actually has dropped by $680.

We rate his claim Pants on Fire.
And they are actually being generous with their findings.

While on vacation, I had a chance to follow up on our personal tax situation. Even with Walker's "tax cut," it looks like our taxes will be going up for the third straight year, although by five dollars less than it would have otherwise. I hope I don't spend that money all in one place.

It's not the first time Walker made such grandiose claims.  Earlier this year, Walker was trying to make similar claims regarding the income tax.  The best advise regarding that was not to back up the Brinks truck, since the savings people were told they'd see were not going to happen.

In case you haven't yet seen one of the many databases going around showing the gentle reader how many cents they will save, here it is for your convenience:

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