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Chair column for April, published in the Kenosha News

Two major things happened this week that got politicos going, the Virginia Tech shooting and the 2007 tax filing deadline, and I’m going to talk to both.  It’s interesting, however, because although guns and taxes are typically Republican talking points, I’m making them Democratic points this month.

Guns: I would like to express my deepest sympathy to those around this country who are dealing with the tragedy that occurred on the campus of Virginia Tech this past Monday.  It’s unconscionable to think that our gun-culture-rich society would even be surprised that something like this could happen.

There are going to be people who are going to come out and speak from their soapbox on one of two angles:

1. If kids and teachers on campus were allowed to carry weapons, the shooter would have been killed right away.

2. This is further proof that we need more gun control in this country.

Frankly, until we learn more about what happened, I can’t comment on neither approach, nor how to combine the two to come to an appropriate solution to this issue.  However, even though we are going to have people cramming both points down our throats during the country’s grieving; we can at least ignore their ideas for now.  What this does prove, however, is that we need to be vigilant in our quest to keep guns off of school grounds and where people gather in mass.

Taxes:  At this time of year, we always hear from the WMC (Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce) that Wisconsin is a horrible state for business because of taxes.  We also hear from the Republicans that Wisconsin has a very high tax burden on all of us, so we must cut taxes.  Cutting taxes in general is what they want, because they will benefit more.

David Dunton said during his 2004 Assembly campaign: “balance the tax base”.  This needs to happen, because if you look at a couple examples of our tax structure in Wisconsin, you will see that we shouldn’t “cut everyone’s taxes”.

In Wisconsin, based on income and property taxes, the highest providers of total tax revenue to the state are low to middle income homeowners.  The lowest providers of total tax revenue to the state are high income earners and businesses.  If we simply raised the tax on business to be equal with the National average, our state would realize a revenue boost of $1.3B.  That would be a great way to lower the burden on the lower to middle income homeowners!

Bottom line: don’t fall victim to sound bytes that call for tax cuts for all, when the wealthy already have it easy, but the rest of us are paying through the nose.  Also, don’t let the pro-gun people call for concealed carry in Wisconsin on school campuses because if we arm our students and teachers, we won’t have a “Virginia Tech” incident on one of our campuses.  Their rhetoric is almost always wrong, so believe what you hear carefully.