On Tuesday, Feb. 8, Gov. Jim Doyle said he would push for a property-tax freeze in his budget address. Previously, he vetoed a Republican bill that came across his desk. He claimed their proposition would hurt public schools and take needed funds away from vital services like police departments and firemen. The bill went to the state Senate and survived a veto override by one vote.
On Thursday, Feb. 17, state Assembly Republicans introduced, debated and passed their version of a property-tax freeze bill in under an hour. It was a party-line vote except for one dissenter. Republican leaders called it a \huge victory"" and are waiting for its approval by the state Senate Tuesday. If it is another party-line vote, the bill will pass.
From there, the bill again goes to the desk of Doyle to be vetoed again. He will say his version is a better deal for Wisconsinites and rattle off the millions of dollars it will ensure counties, schools and municipalities that the Republican version will cut. Each faction will ask why the other is not accepting the version they put forward. Doyle will use education as his defense as the Republicans cite the savings their bill has for Wisconsin homeowners.
The Republicans have reacted without considering the consequences of their lightning-fast debate. It is hard to imagine the Assembly went over, point for point, their version of the bill and compared it with Doyle's version. If they are committed to this issue, they should have cited exactly what their version offers that Doyle's does not.
Doyle is a perpetrator of the same crime. When he stood at the podium Feb. 8, he was looking to secure his position, not to make the state spend its money more responsibly. When Scott Walker, the Republican challenger for governor, made this his issue, Doyle had to follow suit. His tax freeze makes it seem like it is his issue to rally people around, not the Republican's to monopolize. Doyle is not standing up for his party and is only confronting Republicans instead of critiquing their proposals.
The governor is not offering any alternative by playing politics. Doyle stole an issue and used it to wave at the opposing party, asking them if they were committed to their own cause. Judging by how he vetoed a tax freeze in the first place, it was a surprise to see him gung-ho about promoting one.
Doyle had grown used to autonomy as attorney general and rarely worked on building coalitions when he was elected governor. Instead of working side by side with Gard and other Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, Doyle decided to be bold in his budget address. Now he is facing the consequences of striking out on his own. His own party is seeing him as something of a turncoat.
Off to the side, the Democrats at the Capitol are left on their own, some of who do not want to see a tax freeze in the first place. As the Republicans rely on this issue that has been theirs since the $3.2 billion budget deficit and Doyle pushes for his own take on it, the Democrats will be alienated from their party leader while growing ever more contentious with the state GOP.
The most frightening result of Thursday's passage of the bill is that it is treated merely as an issue, not a policy that will have tangible impacts on the state. By stifling debate and using the party line, any realistic consideration of it long-term effects were ignored in pursuit of short-term politics.
Meanwhile, the State of Wisconsin will be worse off for it, having to witness this decline in pragmatism in the statehouse. As public servants deliver the public another disservice, Wisconsinites will witness politics at its most shameful-not dirty, across-the-aisle name-calling or scandals piled atop one another, but a dismissal of the goals of census-building and progressive change in a place known for it.
Hopefully the Senate will handle this issue with more consideration than the Assembly Republicans and Doyle have shown it. If upcoming issues, like concealed carry and same-sex marriage, are used for purely political purposes, the State of Wisconsin will be worse off for it. This is inexcusable and the state deserves better than merely politics.
