Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Lord Help Us

From the Shepherd Express, in an article talking about the imminent collapse of Milwaukee County's transit system (emphasis mine):
Now we have a new county executive who again opposes the will of county residents. It is very clear that Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele does not want to raise any tax, no matter what the need, because he wants to be able to claim when he runs for higher office, as his friends say he will, that as county executive he never raised taxes. He is focused on appeasing the tea party crowd.

Abele argues that the sales tax is a regressive one since it takes a larger percentage of income of lower-income people. Generally, that is correct, but Wisconsin exempts many basic necessities from the sales tax—for example, food purchased in a grocery store—so Wisconsin’s sales tax is not regressive. Also, it is estimated that about a third of the sales tax would be paid by people who live outside of Milwaukee County but come into our county and utilize our resources.

Unfortunately, since Abele has had no education in or experience with taxation—or government in general—and the uniqueness of Wisconsin’s more progressive sales tax, he is again making poor decisions because, as usual, he refuses to listen to anyone and does not seem to be able to learn how government actually works.

In addition, Abele has now made it very clear to his friends that he is primarily focusing on positioning himself to run for governor and is making decisions as county executive that he thinks will further his gubernatorial aspirations even if they are at the expense of Milwaukee County residents.
As if one uneducated, unqualified, unethical, austerity nut wasn't enough, now we have another one that wants to use Milwaukee County as his stepping stone to be the governor.

Haven't we been punished enough?

And as if the rest of the state doesn't hate us enough for Walker...

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