Green Deceives by Omission and Misses the Point

Last week, WaxingAmerica dismantled the bogus nonsense about a Honda plant coming to Wisconsin: WMC Blows Honda Deal; Blames Rep. John Lehman. (Wednesday, August 23, 2006) 

Monday, August 28, 2006, Republican candidate for governor Mark Green perpetrated the fairy tale: Green Unveils Sweeping Plan to Create Good Jobs with Good Wages to “Keep Our Kids in Wisconsin”:

HONDA: GREEN SUPPORTS CORPORATE TAX GIVE AWAYS

Indiana recently made a similar transition and credited the move with helping to land 2,000 manufacturing jobs at a new Honda Motor Company assembly plant - a plant that Green said he would have “fought to bring to Wisconsin.”

Facts:

• But as Tom Daykin reported on June 17, 2006, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

  ...Thomas Klier, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said Wisconsin's chances of landing the Honda plant are "close to nil."...

  ...Honda generally wants its assembly plants to be within 60 miles of its engine plant, said Klier, who has studied how automakers locate their manufacturing operations.

  Given that tight radius, Klier expects the new Honda assembly plant to be built in either Ohio or Indiana.

• From the Fort Worth newspaper:  Indiana offered $141.5 million in incentives to the company, which included tax credits and abatements, training assistance and a promise to expedite a long-sought interchange upgrade at U.S. 421 onto Interstate 74, state officials said.

Green fails to disclose the cost to Indiana taxpayers, and the fact that Wisconsin's distance from the existing Ohio engine plant rules us out of any serious consideration.

GREEN SUPPORTS ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION:

This kind of deception by omission, this failure to fully disclose, is repeated in another section of the press release:

Other parts of Green's plan include tax relief, incentives for investing in new companies and reforms to Wisconsin's regulatory and legal systems.

Green fails to disclose that when he speaks of 'reforms' to Wisconsin's regulatory system, that he is talking about increasing Wisconsin water and air pollution.  He specifically wants to resurrect failed legislation to cut back on state laws that control industrial air emissions and water pollution.

GREEN: TAX THE MIDDLE CLASS

Finally Green repeats the old homily about Wisconsin being a high tax state:

Green pointed to statistics showing Wisconsin to have one of the highest tax burdens in the country, wages 3 percent below the national average...

It is well documented that because Wisconsin is a progressive state with some semblance of fairness in its tax system, the state relies on taxes more than fees when compared to other states.  Wisconsin could 'lower' its taxes and join other states in moving cost to special fees.  Of course, these fees shift the cost from the the rich to the poor.  When combined, taxes and fees in Wisconsin put us in the midpoint when compared to other states and put us in line with our incomes.

Time for the myth busters with a good dose of reality:

• Wisconsin relies more on taxes because it tries to avoid regressive user fees. When taxes and fees are combined Wisconsin is just about in the middle.
• Of the 50 states Wisconsin is 15th in terms of revenue per capita and 19th in terms of expenditures per capita. U.S. Census Bureau. 
• "According to UW-Madison economist Andrew Reschovsky, who actually completed a formal analysis of the Wisconsin situation, our state ranks 23rd in the nation in terms of revenue collections in relation to personal income." (from In Effect)

Comments

[antpoppa]

I guess I’m an old man, I can still remember the contortions this state went through to keep the Rambler / American Motors / / / / plant in Kenosha. I have always had a hard time figuring out why we pay large corporations to set up shop in the state. Many people say it’s for jobs. Perhaps new jobs are created, but the unemployment rate stays the same. Then with the normal business cycle and the import of the new workers into the corporate structure we have even more problems with supporting the structure. Large growth is not always desirable. These plants are here for a limited time, usually until the handouts are over, then they move to the next pasture. The accelerated version of this is NAFTA, and what a wonderful model that is for the citizenry involved. Stay small, stay clean, stay beautiful!

[Paul]

Antpoppa, we pay large corporations to set up because we like to 'win' regardless of the cost. One of the things we learned in Madison long ago is that you grow an economy not by luring in the corporate giants but by nuturing your own.

Virutally every Dane County success started small and local. Having the UW sure helps, but it does not contradict the rule: work with your existing resources and assets. You are correct when you say: "These plants are here for a limited time, usually until the handouts are over, then they move to the next pasture...The accelerated version of this is NAFTA, and what a wonderful model that is for the citizenry involved. Stay small, stay clean, stay beautiful!"

[Brian]

There used to be sixteen tax brackets, now there are three. That's not progessive Paul.
Corporations used to pay a higher share than now. Their burden has been given, legally, by legislative action, to individual property tax payers.
Democrats don't raise these two facts enough and without using these facts we will never win the argument that taxes are too high. They are.
But, they are because of flattening out of the schedule and the shift from the needy to the greedy.