If it weren’t such an insult to drunken sailors… my column for the West Bend Daily News is online. Here you go:
Although some substantial progress has been made on reducing taxes in Wisconsin, the state stubbornly remains as one of the highest taxed states in the nation. The cause of exorbitant taxation is extravagant spending.
Wisconsin taxes so much because it spends so much.
While many Wisconsinites like to delude themselves into believing that Wisconsin’s government spends so much in order to maintain an acceptable standard of life, the truth is far less defensible. Wisconsin does spend more than other states as a matter of choice, but it also continues to waste billions of dollars because of flawed priorities, corruption and rank incompetence.
Two recent examples regarding two of the state budget’s largest spending items have bubbled to the surface.
Last week, the Legislative Audit Bureau released an audit of the Department of Transportation that paints a picture of a department rife with sloppy work and frivolous spending. One finding was that the DOT was utterly incompetent at providing cost estimates for projects. In one example, of the agency’s 16 ongoing projects, the DOT underestimated the cost by $3.1 billion. The audit cites the agency’s failure to account for inflation, meet performance goals or control expenses as reasons for the bloated costs.
The audit goes on to detail the DOT’s poor reporting practices that thwart adequate oversight, the repeated failure to get competitive bids on projects and careless management. The result is despite increased spending in the past few state budgets, the state’s roads are in increasingly worse condition.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit stemming from a State Department of Justice investigation alleges illegal financial dealings at the University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh. According to the lawsuit filing, former UW-O Chan-cellor Richard Wells and retired UW-O Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services Tom Sonnleitner worked together to make illegal financial guarantees and use taxpayer dollars for building projects being done by the UW-O Foundation.
The UW-O Foundation is a nonprofit group that raises private money to spend on things to support the university. As part of their investment initiatives, the foundation invested in several local building projects including a conference center, two biodigesters, a sports complex and a Best Western hotel. The foundation hopes to gain a profit from the investments since these are mostly private, for-profit, enterprises.
But the foundation did not have enough money for the investments, so the lawsuit alleges the former UWO Chancellor guaranteed the loans and provided taxpayer money to the tune of $11 million to get the projects done. That is illegal. As the fallout from the lawsuit unfolds, the UW-O Foundation is considering filing for bankruptcy, which would leave the taxpayers on the hook for even more millions.
Both the stories regarding the Department of Transportation and UW-O are revealing in that the behavior has gone on for years — even decades — without anyone blowing the whistle. And even now, the wasteful and possibly illegal behavior continues unabated. Just because the Legislative Audit Bureau released a scathing report and a lawsuit has been filed does not mean that anything has changed. Nobody has been held accountable. There is a pervasive cavalierness in much of government about spending our money.
These are just two small windows into the workings of our government that show billions of dollars’ worth of wasteful spending. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Department of Transportation and the University of Wisconsin System are also two of the loudest recipients of taxpayer dollars that are crying poor and demanding even more tax dollars from the next budget.
Wisconsin continues to have a tax problem as a direct result of its spending problem. And unless state leaders get control of the bureaucracy, enforce rigid accountability for mismanagement, and infuse a culture of frugal stewardship, Wisconsin will continue to have a spending problem for the foreseeable future.
Excellent article!
It’s a foolish DOT spending problem!
“In one example, of the agency’s 16 ongoing projects”.
Come on now, lets have all the facts here. The firm I work for has more than 16 ongoing DOT projects . Did you skip a few words for effect?
That should read, “In one example of just 16 of the agency’s ongoing projects…”
Actually, if I was going for effect, I would have written it like that. If they were off by that much on a 16 project sample, imagine what the total amount of error is. As written, it undersells the scope of the incompetence in DOT. Thanks for pointing that out.
Nord,
I agree that Owen undersold the incompetence of DOT, and was nice about it.
I do perfer the 8:51 AM suggestion from Owen, which is the more realistic assessment of the situation.
I heard on the radio the other day, I think quoting the Wisconsin Taxpayer Alliance, that Wisconsin still has the 4th highest property tax to home value ratio in the country. In other words, picking random numbers, if you pay $4,000 a year in taxes on a $200,000 home, that’s 2%. Wisconsin has the forth-highest percentage.
I like the reforms of Walker et. al in general. It’s nice that Wisconsin has conceal carry. But really, the most important issue by far in Wisconsin is taxes, and Walker and the Republicans who dominate the state Legislature haven’t done squat in six years about it.
As a former elected official, I know first hand Wisconsin has too much government. Period. Walker cut payroll in Milwaukee by over 20% but has not done the same in Madison. That would be a good start. Consolidating 72 inefficient County governments in 20 would be another suggestion.
So much for local control. And if the current legislature drew up those 20 new counties they would look as silly and inefficient at the assembly and senate districts.
How about 4? The point is Wisconsin has too much government and it is costing taxpayers fortune.
How many years does Walker need to be Governor, how many years would the WisGOP need to be in control before they become responsible for oversight of the DOT and its overages?
About 240 years ago our government was all just one man, sitting on a throne, telling us all what to do. Is that “less enough” government for ya’ll or do you need it even thinner than that?
Like jjf, I, too, am wondering when the excuses end from Walker about the DOT and the rest of the state government on spending. Is Doyle still the governor, but just of the DOT? What is the excuse for raping the state with roundabouts when the vast majority of the state despises them? Walker has a “I heard it first on the news just like you” Obama-like approach to the DOT that is appalling.
Sorry, can’t comment anymore. Just here for the laughs.
