I don't mean to be overly critical of The Daily Cardinal, because it is likely to be twice as accurate as The Badger Herald at any given time, but I feel The Daily Cardinal has let its readers down by allowing Mr. Kleefeld's column last Thursday to be printed.
In discussing the property tax freeze debate, Mr. Kleefeld asserted that Republicans sought to severely cut Shared Revenue to local governments and then not allow them to raise additional revenue. This is in fact opposite of what actually happened. In the budget, legislative Republicans provided more money for local governments than Gov. Doyle had proposed, while allowing them to increase their property tax revenue by 2.6 percent.
Mr. Kleefeld also equates the property tax freeze to California's Proposition 13. Whereas the property tax freeze would have limited property tax increases to 2.6 percent for three years, Proposition 13 dramatically decreased the value of property in California for taxing purposes and set constitutionally mandated percent-based limits for property tax increases forever. This is not a reasonable comparison.
The most egregious errors in Mr. Kleefeld's logic came when he attempted to portray the debate over Senate Bill 214, the carry and conceal weapons bill, as a ight-wing push"" to ""score some political points."" While I personally do not support this bill, it is a mistake to discount the support this legislation has from both sides of the aisle and across all of Wisconsin.
While I believe Mr. Kleefeld is generally well-informed about national politics (I believe he correctly predicted the rise of Howard Dean sometime last year), he obviously has little background in or understanding of Wisconsin politics.
Thanks for the great coverage last week on Miss Wisconsin, Tina Marie Sauerhammer, a UW-Madison graduate.
She is a great role model for today's youth and an example of fine UW education. She made history as the first Miss Wisconsin to place among the top five at Miss America since 1972 and she is one of only four women ever to play the cello in the 83-year history of Miss America. I was glad to hear she won the preliminary talent award with the instrument. She is a very talented young woman.
I congratulate Tina Marie Sauerhammer on her fine accomplishment at the pageant and wish her all the best during the rest of her year as Miss Wisconsin.
