THE IRON TRIANGLE CHARLES J. SYKES f there was one they are about to unmistakable man- run up against one Idate from the of the state’s most November election it entrenched institu- was: don’t raise taxes. tions: the Iron Triangle. Jim Doyle won the governor’s chair back The Iron Triangle for the Democrats by The Iron Triangle saying that he would explains why spend- not raise any state ing and taxes are so taxes to close the high and so difficult state’s $2.8 billion bud- to cut here in get deficit. The public Wisconsin. apparently believed him. The other 55 per- One side of the cent who voted for Triangle consists of Scott McCallum and advocacy groups Ed Thompson also and activists who voted for candidates have a vested inter- who said they wouldn’t raise taxes. And in the est in spending programs; the second side, legislature, the GOP racked up big majorities in government bureaucracies that run the pro- both the Assembly and the Senate, running on grams; and the third, the friendly news media a no-tax platform. that can be counted on for sympathetic stories about the victims of budget cuts. Underlining the anti-tax mood, a Wispolitics.com poll in late November found Here’s an example of how it works. that 83 percent of Wisconsinites say they are Legislators propose a 5 percent cut in an somewhat opposed or strongly opposed to agency’s budget. The bureaucrats select a high- raising taxes — 66 percent saying they “strong- ly visible, popular program to cut; the advoca- ly” opposed tax hikes. Eighty four percent said cy groups raise alarms about the damage the they were strongly supportive or somewhat cuts will cause, mobilizing supporters for hear- supportive of cuts in state spending. ings, letters to legislators, and rallies, often fea- turing people in wheelchairs; and the newspa- So are tax increases dead on arrival? pers and television stations highlight the Hardly. Indeed, it will take an extraordinary act of Charles J. Sykes is the editor of WI:Wisconsin Interest political will for the new governor and legis- and a Senior Fellow of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. He also hosts a talk-radio show on AM 620 WTMJ in lature to deliver on their promises, because Milwaukee. Wisconsin Interest 9 impending disaster, preferably with affecting Pommer then describes how the Iron stories of hungry senior citizens who will have Triangle will react to spending cuts: to sleep in the snow. Politicians back off. [BadgerCare] costs are running about $70 Cut school aid? The teachers union mobi- million higher than the current year's bud- lizes, threatening job actions; the educational get anticipated. Any plan to significant- bureaucracy issues dire warnings; and the ly reduce Medicaid services would seem to guarantee demonstrations. Those demon- papers are filled with stories of children who strations certainly will include people in will have to learn math in storm sewers. wheelchairs and those using walkers. This Now multiply that by hundreds of pro- is the stuff of which TV crews dream. Few grams that will face cuts. members of the new Legislature have experienced this kind of lobbying effort. The University of Wisconsin system, for Arrayed against the wheelchair-bound example, found the money to grant a $91,000 a budget victims are “the lobbyists for the rich year raise to system president Katherine Lyall, and powerful who contend Wisconsin is a 'tax and it spends six figures a year for free hous- hell' based on the percentage of income being ing for UW chancellors. But when it is faced levied through taxes." with — as yet unspecified — budget cuts, the system reacts by targeting . students. Similarly, the operation of the Triangle was apparent in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Even before Doyle came out with his bud- in December — in an article that began with a get UW’s administrators were warning of litany of pain and suffering: “larger class sizes, fewer programs and reduced services,” and several campuses Up to 4,400 disabled residents who qualify announced cuts in the number of students for job-training programs will be on wait- admitted. (UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau ing lists. Money to rent out-of-state prison Claire said they would cut the number of beds and provide health care for inmates is running out. The program that pays for freshmen admitted, while UW-LaCrosse health insurance for the working poor is warned many applicants that it wouldn’t $10 million short. The Natural Resources decide whether to admit them until they got Department needs $1.7 million to fight their budget numbers.) The plight of the vic- chronic wasting disease in the deer herd. tim-students made front-page headlines across the state, even as Doyle was picking his budget The media’s role in the Triangle will also team. be reflected in the Editorial Dance. Early sup- port for spending cuts will be followed by edi- The rule here is that the so-called “adver- torials decrying specific actual cuts in pro- sarial” press is seldom skeptical of the claims grams and services. Watch for the word “dra- of the budget “victims,” and can be counted on conian” to describe those cuts in the state bud- to portray their complaints in the most sympa- get. Not surprisingly, Republicans will come thetic light. An early example of the media’s under special fire for their “partisanship” and role in the Iron Triangle was Capitol Times their “mean-spirited spending cuts.” columnist/purveyor of conventional wisdom Matt Pommer who wrote darkly: By March, the “leadership” editorials will appear, calling on Governor Doyle and the In 2003 many in the Capitol will think that Republicans to recognize that their promises “forward” means slashing government not to raise taxes during the campaign were spending and absolutely not raising any “unrealistic” and “ill-considered” in light of fees or taxes. That will certainly be popular the magnitude of the fiscal crisis. among those who in the 21st century “are far from want.” The editorials will call on the governor and (Translation: Only the rich want politicians legislature to show “leadership” by breaking to keep their promise not to raise taxes.) those promises and raising taxes (which are 10 Winter 2003 never, ever referred to as “draconian”). ters at an Eminem concert. In 2000, Wisconsin Reneging on the no-tax pledge will be a sign of received about $181 per worker in investment maturity and “responsibility.” Generally, edi- capital, compared to the national per worker torial writers don’t applaud lying politicians, average of $2,613. but breaking one’s word on raising taxes is Despite that, the chorus urging Doyle to applauded as “courage,” and an indication of raise taxes is already getting louder. “growth” — words never applied to the much more difficult task of cutting spending and Capitol insiders sneer at the notion that the eliminating popular programs. budget deficit can be closed by spending cuts. Of course, many of those insiders have a vest- Tax Hell ed interest in maintaining current levels of This political/media dynamic helps spending, but they also shape conventional explain — at least in part — why Wisconsin has wisdom, which is slavishly repeated by pun- the nation’s third highest state and local tax dits, editorial writers and other commentators. burden. According to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Lobbyists, pols, and pundits-in-the know scoff Alliance, Wisconsin spends 29.5 percent more at the notion that Doyle really meant what he than the national average said, and sophisticated on higher education, near- opinion increasingly ly 20 percent more on ele- regards tax hikes as mentary and secondary inevitable — a “given.” schools, and 25.9 percent The Tax Drumbeat more than the national Capitol insiders sneer at average on transportation. Even before the elec- tion, a bipartisan group of During the 1990s, the notion that the insiders, including top spending did not simply budget aides to Tony Earl rise — it exploded. If state budget deficit can be and Tommy Thompson, politicians had simply closed by spending cuts. had begun lecturing the kept the increases to candidates that the bud- twice the rate of inflation, get could simply not be the state wouldn’t have a cut enough to close the budget problem at all. deficit. The group pro- Not only did they not posed $3.6 billion in new hold the line, they blew it taxes. Hailed in media away. accounts as the “grownups,” many of the At the same time the ability of Wisconsin authors had played key roles in the spending taxpayers to pay has been falling. Despite the increases of the last two decades, including above-average rate of spending, state wages Mark Bugher, former revenue boss in the are now 13.3 percent below the national aver- Thompson administration, Mike Ley, revenue age, and they have been falling relative to the secretary under Earl, former state auditor Dale rest of the country for more than 30 years. Cattanach, and several other high-level veter- ans of state government. Their plan would According to the IRS, Wisconsin’s per have trimmed the state income tax, but the capita wealth of $13,862 per person ranks us a reductions would have been more than offset pathetic 41st in the nation. We are, quite sim- by increasing the sales tax to 6% and scrapping ply, no longer the prosperous state we have many exemptions. long imagined ourselves to be. Every year, tens of thousands of college graduates leave the Their “insider” endorsement of new taxes state, joined by a growing number of retirees.
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