My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. You know, it’s really helpful when people write down what they actually believe. All you have to do is read it. Here’s a part:

You can tell that it is October before an election because the political commercials are inescapable. From their commercials, one might be bamboozled into thinking that Democrats Tony Evers and Mandela Barnes are tax-cutting, crime fighting, small government conservatives despite a lengthy history of being unadulterated leftists. Thankfully, as governor and lieutenant governor, they took the time to write down their ideas and priorities in a budget proposal.

 

The 2021-23 Executive Budget is the budget proposal that the governor submits to the legislature to launch the budget process. It is a document written exclusively by the executive branch and represents the governor’s priorities and policy initiatives. Let us look back to the early months of last year when the governor and lieutenant governor were laying out their priorities in the midst of a pandemic.

 

Despite Evers’ and Barnes’ claims to support tax cuts, the executive budget included an incredible $1 billion (with a “B”) net tax increase. At a time when Wisconsinites were still struggling to recover their livelihoods and businesses were slipping into bankruptcy after Governor Evers forced mass closures, he sought to foist a massive tax increase on the people of Wisconsin.

 

Perhaps more interesting is exactly what taxes he wanted to increase. The biggest proposed tax increase was a $540.1 million increase of individual and corporate income taxes. The second biggest proposed tax increase was a change in the tax code to increase taxes on manufacturing and agricultural companies by $259.1 million. The third largest proposed tax increase was a $350.5 million increase on individual capital gains. All of these taxes would have hit middle class and higher income Wisconsinites hard and pushed more manufacturing out of Wisconsin.

 

But Evers did not stop there.

 

[…]

 

Inexplicably, Evers’s budget proposal would have legalized marijuana for 18-year-olds but raised the age at which people can buy tobacco or vape to 21 years old. Evers supports people getting high so that they will more readily accept his policy proposals.