Wisconsin Taxpayers Overwhelmingly Support TABOR

According to a recent poll by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Wisconsin residents are strongly in favor of a constitutional amendment to limit spending increases in state and local government to the rate of inflation.

This support cuts across party lines, ideologies, race and geography.

Wisconsinites favor TABOR by more than a 2:1 majority (62% in favor, 27% opposed, 12% undecided). TABOR is supported by 56% of Democrats, 60% of Independents, 76% of Republicans and even 46% of Liberals.

And here's why....another recent poll by WPRI shows that most Wisconsin residents feel that elected representatives do not represent taxpayer interests.

Only 6% of residents polled in Wisconsin believe that their elected officials represent the interests of the electorate. Wow. That is amazing. Think of all of the hoopla made over Bush's low approval ratings. Well, even at his current all-time low of 39% approval, he beats the heck out of our own representatives!

41% think that elected officials represent special interest groups and 47% feel that elected officials are more interested in promoting their own agendas.

In addition, 46% of those polled felt that in the last ten years, ethics of members of Wisconsin State Government have gotten worse. To quote the report, "The widespread feeling that the institutions in Madison were deteriorating ethically produced the highest negative numbers we have seen in our polling back to 1991."

The overwhelming landslide vote tonight for Daniel Vrakas in Waukesha County demonstrates the frustration of Wisconsin taxpayers with the 'pass the buck' attitude of state and local officials who think that playing the economic shell game will somehow continue to bamboozle the electorate.

We've tried electing people who pledged to reduce spending. We have a governor who thinks we are stupid enough to believe that a reduction in how much he INCREASES spending is a 'tax freeze'. We have clearly given our elected officials every opportunity to bring state and local spending in line with our ability to pay. But, they can't help themselves....they are out of control.

If someone has a control problem, the best thing you can do for them is to enforce limits on their behavior--and keep them out of situations where they could lose control. So, you don't let a gambling addict loose in Vegas, and you don't leave a chocoholic alone in the Godiva store. If your husband or wife goes beserk with the credit cards, you cut them up. When your elected officials can't stop spending, you put them on a budget. A budget with teeth. A budget called TABOR.

I think the reason that we no longer trust our elected officials is that they can't seem to resist the 'siren call' of spend-spend-spend. We, like Odysseus, need to 'tie them to the mast' of TABOR to keep them from driving the ship into the rocks.

After giving them decades to deal responsibly with the budget, Wisconsin residents have decided that 'enough is enough'. And it is about time. Maybe if they can prove that they have the ability to spend OUR money wisely, we can trust them again. But until then, we need to cut up the credit cards.