THE TROUBLE WITH TABOR

JEFF MAYERS

hink back to Grail, good-bye lib- early August eral thorn-in-the- T of 2003. side governor. Republican Mark Whoops. Honadel is sworn into the state Assembly, Flash to early capping a victory that August of this year stunned many — only a year later. Democrats who Now it’s Doyle and thought the South his supporters who Milwaukee seat was are on a high follow- safe territory. The ing a Republican issue: the so-called debacle that left the “property tax freeze,” proposed Taxpayers an undeniably (even Bill of Rights consti- for some Democrats) tutional amendment popular slogan. dead for the session. Republicans and con- TABOR, as it’s nick- servative strategists named, is kept off are on a high, predicting they had found the the ballot in 2006, the year Doyle is up. soft underbelly of Democratic Governor Jim TABOR’s short-term failure is traced to many Doyle’s no-tax-increase campaign pledge. things, including a lackluster job of selling the Doyle has a property tax problem because he concept to establishment Republicans. In the vetoed the thing that supposedly would have end, it’s wounded by a failed “Hail Mary” pass contained ever-increasing property taxes — or thrown in desperation by GOP Senate Majority so it seemed. Leader Mary Panzer (spurred by a primary challenge from the right) and the messy intra- Conservative strategists hatch a plan. party finger-pointing that followed. Majority Republicans in the Legislature would end-run the governor by passing a spending But TABOR, like a wounded lion, may limitation amendment to the Constitution and roar even louder come 2005. Or will it slowly put it on the ballot the year Doyle runs for re- bleed to death from a thousand cuts? election. It wasn’t that conservative really, Here are some political scenarios that allowing spending to grow gradually instead bounced around as the Wisconsin summer of the steep climbs of the revenue-rich 1990s. waned: But it had real conservative appeal as a way to bring government spending in line with tax- payers’ ability to pay. Hello conservative Holy Jeff Mayers is the president of WisPolitics.com and WisBusiness.com, news services based in Madison.

Wisconsin Interest 21 — SCENARIO 1. Panzer goes down in When legislative Republicans in late July defeat to Glenn Grothman, the darling of con- contemplated an 11th-hour passage of some- servative Milwaukee talk show hosts touting thing — anything, it seemed — divisions not TABOR as the silver bullet for the state’s “tax unanimity became apparent in the Grand Old hell” status. Then in the general election, Party. After Assembly Speaker John Gard, sur- TABOR becomes THE campaign issue for leg- prised by Panzer’s extraordinary session call, islative Republicans. TABOR advocates knock rushed to show that he indeed had the votes off Democratic state Senator Bob Wirch of the for TABOR, one Frank Lasee, an initial sponsor Kenosha area. Two big incumbent losses on of the constitutional amendment approach, the spending issue in the state’s biggest media rejected the latest version as loophole-ridden. market scares politicians of all stripes to line Lasee said in testimony before a Senate up to support TABOR in January. Would committee in the last week of July: Doyle run to the front of the parade with his own TABOR-like proposal? Conservatives can I only wish we were debating a real dream, can’t they? Taxpayer Bill of Rights, that will protect the taxpayer. The proposal before you has — SCENARIO 2. Panzer squeaks past many loopholes — large ones — which Grothman and Wirch survives, letting the air will allow business as usual (at least at the fully out of the TABOR balloon. Republicans state level) for years to come. start thinking Doyle’s a shoo-in for reelection. It has often been said that we have to do — SCENARIO 3. Some combination of the this the right way. I fully agree, and that’s above, but Republicans gain seats in the why I’ve spent the past six years working on this issue. My research has produced a Legislature, expanding their majority to veto- full and comprehensive draft, which proof or near-veto-proof margins. TABOR’s answers the problems experienced by pulse quickens. other states, and compromises with many — SCENARIO 4. Some combination of the of the spending interests in our own state, who oppose constitutional spending limits. above, but Democrats hold their own in the state Senate and gain a few seats in the I’m not here, however, to insist on my own Assembly. Republicans maintain control of the version. Compromise is an essential part of Legislature, but TABOR is on life support. the legislative process, and I am ready to compromise. I am not ready to support a That’s the trouble with TABOR. So easy to constitutional amendment that will not be talk about as a slogan. So easy to poll. So easy effective. This proposal will not be effec- to campaign on. But so hard to put into tive, unless several changes are adopted. Constitution-worthy words. And so hard to Fifty-one other Assembly Republicans predict where it will go. (including Gard), however, signed on to a Just remember the summer’s comedy of pledge letter to please Gard, to show up errors. Even former Republican Governor Lee Panzer, or because they really thought it was Sherman Dreyfus (LSD) got into the act, doing the right thing to do. a radio ad and auto-phone calls for a new Who knows? No real vote was ever taken. Democratic support group called the Greater Panzer, miffed that Gard wouldn’t call back Wisconsin Committee. Conservatives angrily his members from a conservative legislative labeled LSD “the king of the RINOS,” as in conference, the campaign trail, or family vaca- “Republicans In Name Only” and said he was tion time and take a momentum-building vote a taxer-and-spender who didn’t speak for real first, eventually fell on her own sword rather Republicans. Oh my, what happened to than put her caucus through a tough election- Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment? year vote. Blame TABOR.

22 Fall 2004 Panzer, in her statement, bluntly blamed The governor, despite summer-time the Assembly. approval ratings above 60%, had yet to come up with a grand property tax reduction plan as The Senate was in the Capitol. We were working. We were trying to get to the place of mid-August. The centrist governor did, where we are able to pass a taxpayer pro- however, reject a tax-shifting idea from one of tection plan — but we cannot do it alone. It his many commissions that would have raised takes two houses to be in an extraordinary the state sales tax with the promise of lowering session. But the other house was not here. local property taxes. Republicans had been Gard’s statement that day of reckoning calling it “Doyle’s sales tax boost,” but Doyle was kind, but by then he had already cut stuck with the promise that helped get him Panzer loose on her own, stating bluntly in the into the East Wing two years ago. letter of the previous day: “I’m not going to raise taxes," he told the As I noted in June, and as you can see from Green Bay Press-Gazette. the signatures below, a majority of the state I’ve come this far. I took care of $3.2 billion Assembly is prepared to pass this legisla- without doing it. I’m not going to raise tion now that you have taxes. I think we’ve sent finally taken up our a very strong signal that request for an extraordi- we’re going to deal with nary session. In the light these issues within the of the continuing uncer- revenue that we have. tainty of the amend- ment’s prospects in the The governor . . . had I simply haven’t seen state Senate, however, I the mechanism where do not intend to bring yet to come up with a you would get a dollar members of the for a dollar reduction of Assembly back into ses- grand property tax property tax. sion unless you are While it got largely actually able to success- reduction plan as of lost in TABOR time, fully pass this measure in the state Senate. mid-August. Doyle’s pronouncement was significant, taking I urge you to act quickly away another GOP talk- and wish you the best of ing point. luck in helping us seize the moment for taxpay- If Doyle had a grand ers. plan, he didn’t reveal it. He didn’t have to, Panzer’s Hail Mary pass had been batted with Republicans killing TABOR all by them- down by frustrated teammates who thought selves. she had not been committed to the cause, who Republicans tried to turn the tables. thought she had been running out the clock for “Doyle already stood in the way of tax relief the spending interests. This push for a vote by vetoing the immensely popular property should have occurred in May, they said. But it tax freeze,” said state GOP Chairman Rick was July. What had seemed like a certainty at Graber. “With a constitutional amendment, the beginning of the year had bogged down only the voices of the citizens will matter.” like President Bush’s Iraq war plan. Democrats danced in delight. And Republicans wryly Graber called Doyle’s doom-and-gloom noted it takes two (houses) to TABOR. rhetoric about TABOR’s “devastating” effects completely divorced from reality. But strategists aren’t done noodling about TABOR II (or is it TABOR 10?) and Doyle’s “There will be no need for cuts under property tax problem. TABOR, which would simply limit the rate of government spending growth,” Graber said.

Wisconsin Interest 23 “Only in Doyle’s wacky world of taxing and Otherwise, signs are that the talking and spending could a cap on spending growth be public contemplation of Republicans will con- called a cut.” tinue. More legislative scrutiny occurred in early August. State Senator Ron Brown, R-Eau Doyle’s lack of a grand plan dismayed Claire, regarded as a TABOR no vote, began in some of his allies, who contended Doyle was early August to mold his rule as chairman of failing to recognize the hurt high property the newly formed Senate Select Committee on taxes put on traditional Democratic constituen- State and Local Government Relations. cies like the middle-class and poor elderly try- ing to stay in their homes. Find $400 million, The committee was formed on July 30 by and you can relieve property tax pressure in Panzer after the demise of TABOR for this ses- the high-stress pockets of discontent via vari- sion. The committee's mission is to find ways ous state tax formulas, said some. But if the to encourage local and regional economic governor was taking heed, he was hiding it development, and provide local governments well. The budget unveiling of January seems with ways of reducing costs. like a long way off in August, when there are That spurred TABOR opponents, includ- summer campaign-like excursions to make ing the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities (WAC), to throughout the state. once again talk about the dangers of a constitu- Republicans joked that Doyle instead was tional fix. a political Dr. Kevorkian, killing off tax and “I hope the T-word doesn’t even come spending limitations without recognizing the up,” said WAC Communications Director Rich value of being FOR something. It’s another Eggleston, contending TABOR opponents have signal that Republicans will again try to label been “unfairly characterized as big spenders Doyle a liberal in 2006. But without TABOR, and advocates of the status quo.” will the label stick? Eggleston said tax relief is achievable That’s the trouble with TABOR. Without a through prudent fiscal planning, not by consti- single, clearly understood proposal, opponents tutional gerrymandering. “In order to keep the have been able to define it and sow the seeds economic engine, we're going to need to deliv- of doubt in the minds of moderate Republicans er services to taxpayers at the lowest possible who listen to their local officials. Remember cost and avoid rigid formulas,” Eggleston said. the firestorm that occurred when Republican Governor Scott McCallum referred to the That’s the Dreyfus argument. Here’s what mostly Republican local officials as “big the LSD told radio listeners, courtesy of the spenders”? Lawmakers remember. left-leaning Greater Wisconsin Committee. So it could be that this fall’s elections will Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus here. define TABOR. Strategists behind the effort are They’re pulling a fast one in Madison this coolly confident, saying a constitutional week, and I mean fast. amendment will eventually go to voters start- ing with initial consideration in early 2005. They’ve called an extraordinary session to vote on a constitutional amendment that Nothing like the heat of battle to hone the mes- hadn’t even been written yet — the so- sage, they seem to be saying, waving off ques- called Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR tions about the details. for short. But will Republicans unite without some They’re passing it this week, right now — of its own falling prey in a political version of with no public input — no public hearings Fear Factor? The case for TABOR may be one of and no public discussion. those things that only can happen because of Don’t you stand for it. This is a smoke- supportive election results. screen.

24 Fall 2004 Our constitution gives the Legislature all But TABOR is rooted in this reality: the power it needs to curb spending. Lawmakers at the local and state level have a Amending the constitution is a terrible lot of trouble saying “No.” way to make public policy. Saying no to TABOR will be tougher if it We just don’t need the TABOR amend- becomes the defining issue of the fall’s elec- ment. tions. We need legislators with the backbone to say no to wasteful spending. In a nutshell, the ex-governor says legisla- tors and local officials have the power to con- trol spending, so do it.

Wisconsin Interest 25