“We should not, we must not and I will not raise taxes.”
That’s Gov. Jim Milhous Doyleone in 2005 before seeking a second term as Wisconsin’s governor.
Now, today, Diamond Jim has endorsed yet another tax increase, on top of the onerous tax increases in the current budget, on top of the $1.2 billion in tax increases he just rammed through the Legislature and in addition to the $2.1 billion in new taxes and tax increases he wants in the next biennial budget.
This one is a hike in what is already one of the nation’s highest gas taxes and in addition to the oil franchise fee he seeks, which will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices at the pump.
Madison – Gov. Jim Doyle said a proposal to raise the gas tax by 3 cents a gallon was worthy of consideration, despite a 2006 campaign promise not to increase that tax during his second term of office.
He also repeated comments made in December that the state probably should not have eliminated annual increases in the gas tax, even though he signed that change into law in 2005.
Doyle said his preference would be to tax oil companies rather than consumers, as he has long supported. But that proposal may not gain approval in the Legislature, which is searching for money to pay for roads and close a $5 billion, two-year shortfall.
Doyle’s proposal would bar oil companies from passing the tax on to consumers, but critics say that provision violates the U.S. Constitution’s protections of interstate commerce.
Tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax and tax.
Don Doyleone is concerned about the shortfall in the state transportation fund. Maybe he and the Legislature should have thought about that before they raided that fund to pay off the state teachers union and the other political hacks that contribute mightily to the Democrats.
Memo to the RPW, aka The Stupid Party: if you cannot beat Jim Doyle in 2010, you are finished as a political entity in Wisconsin.
