Democrat Mary Burke's campaign for Wisconsin governor has been running an extremely effective TV ad lately and it's about pizza. Actually, it's about Republican Gov. Scott Walker's overly ballyhooed income-tax cuts. The Burke ad correctly notes that under Walkernomics, “average” Wisconsin taxpayers will get $11 per month in relief on their state income tax return this year while millionaires, at minimum, will get roughly ten times more, and while businesses get to keep an extra $610 million annually. It's Burke's soon-to-be classic “millions for them, pizza for you” ad, and it's already under heavy assault.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Politifact column this morning generally confirmed the figures used in the Burke ad, but questioned the ad's wording and gave it a "half true" rating. Primarily, Politifact took issue with the ad's reference to Walker's “tax plan” when his budget also included property tax relief the ad didn't mention.
Never mind that the ad clearly refers to the specific effects of Walker's income tax cuts. Politifact says we should look at the bigger picture. Well, let's take a bigger bite out of that, shall we?
Says Politifact (my emphasis added): “When Walker claimed that his various income and property tax cuts amount to $322 in the 2014 tax year for the average family, our rating was Mostly True. That comes to about $27 per month... .”
So, then, by that measure, if you're an average Wisconsin taxpayer, Walker's entire package of tax cuts do not, as the Burke ad says, mean you'll get back enough extra every month to pay for a medium cheese pizza. Instead, you'll get back enough to pay for a large cheese pizza with extra toppings. It's so cheesy it's positively trickle-down. But only Homer Simpson and wealthy Mr. Burns could be drooling after watching Burke's entire pizza pitch.
Politifact says “typical” Wisconsin taxpayers pay property taxes. However that "typical" is defined, the truth is that the less income you have, the less Walker's tax “boon” will benefit you; and if you're a worker who can barely afford rent much less a mortgage, you're pretty much spit out of luck. Indeed, lots of folks have incomes so low they won't even get back the equivalent of a cheese slice to go.
Furthermore, for a number of reasons including stagnant wages and lifestyle choices in Wisconsin and across the US, an increasing number of people up on through the middle class are less likely to own residential property and pay property taxes. Like many poorer Wisconsin residents, such folks will not benefit from Walker's property tax aids. Nor should we forget that Walker whacked the Earned Income Tax Credit for those poorer folks. Furthermore, Walker's budgeting has achieved those tax savings in part by whacking nearly a billion dollars in public-school revenue sharing.
And then there's the little matter of Gov. "I balanced the state budget and we're going to have a fat surplus" facing a new, 2015 deficit that, depending on how it's being measured and how the economy actually works out, might run between $1.8 and $3 billion. All those tax giveaways and corporate subsidies that Walker and GOP legislators said would create an economic boom? Not so much. Hey there, Gov, Walker, I think we are in Kansas.
Walker might in essence be giving some taxpayers an indeterminately sized pizza, but their kids' public school may well be falling apart thanks to adjoining Walker cuts -- unless of course the governor and legislature at some point back off their public-school skinflintery, which savings were in significant measure recycled into tax cuts mostly benefiting elites. Those elites to take one small example enjoy a fat Walker tuition tax credit of up to $10,000 for pulling their kids out of public schools and putting them in tony private institutions.
Meanwhile, Walker and GOP lawmakers in the state Ledge are already thinking ahead to other ways of benefiting wealthy residents at the cost of everyone else. State Rep. Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville) recently proposed doing away entirely with Wisconsin's personal property tax. That would benefit people with lots of property and cause a strain in state revenues, forcing hikes in other taxes or further program cuts.
Killing the unpopular property tax might win votes, but it also largely would destroy the revenue base for local units of government, and it very likely would result in more regressive state taxation overall – meaning “average” or “typical” residents might end up only getting half a metaphorical pizza, or even end up getting none while paying for a rich guy's extra-large, meatlover's pizza. A couple of times a week.
Walker himself meanwhile has suggested fixing the deficit-ridden state transportation fund by eliminating gasoline taxes and instead creating a new, regressive state sales tax. Even people without cars would then be subsidizing highway builders. More cash for the builders, even less pizza for you. And forget about mass transit spending that would benefit those same lowly folks -- Walker's generally against it.
Maybe, when Politifact editors gave Burke a “half true,” they were thinking of a pizza that's half cheese, half sausage. But this entire line of reasoning ultimately begs the question: Who in the end will, every month, grab that inevitable last slice of 'za in the greasy cardboard box on your table? In a just world, it won't be Walker and his rev'nooers.
The Burke ad sends a strong message about dumb state tax policy -- delivered in 30 seconds or it's free! Tonight she and Walker will square off in their second TV debate, and she'll have a full 30 minutes to close the deal with voters, in a race that by latest polling is a dead heat. Walker has to be hoping there are many, many Homer Simpsons and Montgomery Burns among voters on Nov. 4.
MEANWHILE: The Journal Sentinel's political gossip columnist today was again busy Bice-cycling trivial information designed to put Burke in a bad light. Dan Bice's piece today quotes from an email sent in 2006 by Cory Nettles, Burke's predecessor as state commerce secretary and former Democratic state rep, in which dispatch Nettles called Burke, a former and highly successful Trek Bicycle executive, a “disaster.”
Nettles walked back that comment in an interview with Bice, but it still made for juicy headlines, feeding the GOP meme that Burke is not fit to be governor (which is hilarious psychological projection, coming from the party of Walker). Meanwhile, the state GOP is still running campaign ads warning voters about the super-hyped, utterly non-issue issue of "Burke's plagiarism," which Bice earlier promoted. Indeed, the newest GOP ads have begun to refer to Burke's "extreme" plagiarism. Next up, maybe, extreme Chipotle plagiarism. Classy touch, coming from the masters of extremity.
Go read the Bice column on the Nettles email if you feel you must subject yourself to such wayward foam, but it's not newsworthy. Off-the-cuff comments in emails get lots of hot heads in trouble, or cause trouble for others, and emails exchanged by public officials are open records, which is why they should be more circumspect and diplomatic, lest a careless remark by a possibly disgruntled ex-official might have unintended consequences and are hyped disproportionately later.
Anyway, context is everything and there's very little of it in the Bice column to go on, except a hint that Nettles was momentarily upset because Burke was being too hard-headed in a dealing with the business community – which in actuality ought to be regarded as a good trait in a commerce secretary who herself was a former business executive; also good if you're a voter worried about public tax giveaways to business and campaign donors, such as have occurred under Walker. Furthermore, it's not as if Nettles shared racist jokes, like Walker's staffers did in numerous government emails revealed earlier.
In any event, Burke's pizza ad is so tasty that voters outside Wisconsin should expect to see many variations on it in other campaigns. Given the Wisconsin GOP track record in this contest, those voters also should expect that any Democrat who uses the metaphor will like Burke be attacked, only this time for "plagiarizing" Burke. Would you like extra irony on your pizza?