Leadership in the state's Republican-controlled Legislature has reached an agreement on a \property tax guarantee"" and will pass a bill through to Gov. Jim Doyle next week that limits how much government spending can increase.
In a statement released by Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, and Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, the leaders challenge Doyle to sign the Republicans' bill into law. Doyle offered his own property tax freeze plan in his state budget, and it is unclear what action he will take with the Republican plan.
The Assembly is expected to pass the property tax freeze plan today, with the Senate taking up the bill on Tuesday.
UW-Madison senior Gina Pignotti, a member of the Wisconsin Alumni Student Board, was recently elected chair of the national board for the Association of Student Advancement Programs, according to a UW-Madison press release.
As chair of ASAP, the official student organization of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Pignotti will establish connections among ASAP's eight district representatives and the CASE board.
She will also oversee ASAP's membership, awards and conference committees, and run its board meetings twice per year.
Pignotti has performed a host of duties while part of WASB, including planning campus events and UW-Madison alumni-student dinners. She was also WASB board president from 2003-04.
Pignotti's one year term as ASAP chair will begin May 1.
In an important shift from his hard-line stance against tax increases, President Bush said he is open to raising taxes on wealthier Americans to cover the costs of transforming Social Security.
Bush has been promoting a plan to let workers under age 55 divert a portion of their Social Security payroll taxes into private investment accounts. But he has not settled on how to replace that diverted money, an estimated $1 trillion or more that would be needed to pay benefits to current retirees.
The president, in an interview published Wednesday in several regional newspapers, left the door open to the idea of raising the cap on wages subject to the Social Security tax as a way to help cover the transition costs of private accounts. Earnings above $90,000 currently are not subject to tax.
""The one thing I'm not open-minded about is raising the payroll tax rate, and all the other issues are on the table, and that's important for people to know,' Bush said, according to the Birmingham (Ala.) News.
