I will not be the first to say that the coming gubernatorial election will be an important one. But the following remark might not be an overstatement: This just might be the most important electoral contest that this state has ever seen.
Wisconsin is at a critical pass. Perhaps only the oldest citizens can recall a time when the state's finances and politics were as awful as they are right now. If this state is to succeed in the coming years and decades, it is absolutely crucial that the next governor come into office ready to fix our budget and our democracy-and to do so quickly and correctly.
Take the budget first. To illustrate the enormity of the crisis consider: eliminating a deficit of $3 billion, out of the current $46.4 billion biennial budget, would take a 6.5 percent cut in government spending if no additional tax revenue is raised and if the cut were across-the-board, no exceptions.
However, a straight cut is not in the cards. Liberals and teacher unions will howl if the state's two-thirds funding commitment for K-12 education is touched. If a cut in the annual billion-dollar correctional budget is proposed, conservatives will scream bloody murder'so to speak. Gov. Scott McCallum tried to cut local-state shared revenue last year, and seething municipal leaders called for his head. So these sacred cows, and a few others, will be largely spared'to the detriment of the rest of government.
Moreover, a tax hike is not in the offering either. Some might take the bold step of proposing selected tax hikes or eliminating sales and property tax exemptions for special interests. However small business and corporate interests would not let that happen without a fight. Of course, this constituency, led by a powerful lobbying organization, overstates the case a bit. For instance, notwithstanding protests, corporation taxes only represent 6 percent of total tax revenue. But leave that critique to the side. The main idea here is that, apart from economic growth that increases the state's tax base and a possible hike in the cigarette tax, the state is probably not going to get any more revenue from taxation.
Of course, there is another source of funding out there'one with which we are intimately familiar. Yes, you guessed it: a massive tuition hike. Now it is true that the in-state price is one of the best in the Midwest. Nevertheless, this year's 8 percent in-state increase is still well beyond the rate of inflation. And with double-digit hikes in the last two years, academic immigrants, myself included, are taking it in the chops, compared to our colleagues elsewhere in the Big Ten.
It could have been worse. Some Republicans in the Assembly wanted a 23 percent out-of-state hike last year. Thankfully, that effort was repulsed'due in no small measure to an impassioned reaction by UW students. But with the untouchable budget items, the anti-tax lobby, and an inability to punt the deficit to local governments and property taxpayers, the UW System could be in for a world of hurt.
On another front, consider the corruption allegations that have rocked our government. Two, the caucus scandal and the pay-to-play accusations have received the breathless attention of the press in the past year. But, certainly, there is a third scandal: the ridiculously out-of-control campaign finance system.
True: There was a reform package passed in July. Yet, it was reform in name only. Not only does the package have loopholes the size of Rhode Island, but the changes will never become binding, as there are several unconstitutional provisions within the plan that will scuttle the entire package. So the money machine will keep on spinning. And our public policy will be the worse for it.
Of course, that was probably by design. It is clear from the actions of the Legislature that it does not like reforming a system that has served its members well. The next governor must make it plain that reform cannot be put off for another time, and must require the Legislature to fix the system'and to do it right.
With all of these challenges, it now becomes incumbent on every Wisconsinite'including each of us'to demand that Jim Doyle, Scott McCallum, Ed Thompson and Jim Young provide to the public specific and detailed solutions and nothing less. The future of Wisconsin depends on it.
