FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 21, 2006
CONTACT: State Representative Robin Vos
608-266-9171
(RACINE) A new countywide sales tax proposal by the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) is a lump of coal in Racine County taxpayers’ holiday stockings according to State Representative Robin Vos (R-Caledonia). In addition to the 5.1% sales tax Racine County residents already pay for the state sales tax and for the Brewer’s Stadium, an additional .0375% sales tax would be added to fund a new commuter rail system in Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee Counties.
“Increasing taxes to fund mass transit is just not an option,” said Vos. “Racine County is already taxed to death and citizens shouldn’t have to dip in their wallets again.”
The idea of expanding commuter rail to southeastern Wisconsin is not new. Its feasibility became dim when the Chicago commuter rail system decided it did not want to connect with one in Wisconsin. However, Wisconsin moved forward and money was set aside via a car rental tax to fund a study of a commuter rail system that would extend from Kenosha through Racine to Milwaukee. The study is now completed and it proposes to build train stations in Caledonia, Racine and other places along the route paid for by sales tax money generated in all three counties.
“I am not opposed to commuter rail service, but I think people who never ride the system shouldn’t be forced to pay for it,” said Vos.
The study shows ticket fares would only cover 26% of the cost of operations with state and federal subsidies covering an additional 66%. Local taxpayers would be forced to make up the difference through the additional sales tax.
Vos noted that 78% of the respondents to his 2005 fall legislative questionnaire said they did not support a tax increase to fund a commuter rail system. “Clearly my constituents have shown through these results and the last election that they don’t want new taxes,” said Vos. “While going door to door during the campaign people consistently said they did not want their taxes increased – period. I can’t imagine they would support an increase for commuter rail.” Vos is concerned that once the new sales tax is put in place it will be impossible to get rid of it. He compared it to the Brewer’s Stadium sales tax which is supposed to end in 2014, but only if all the debt is retired. Costs of the stadium have been three to four times greater than expectations so there is no guarantee it will end in the next seven years.
“I’ve been working the last two years to end the Brewer’s Stadium tax in 2014 debt free or not,” said Vos. “It’s easy for government to start a new tax, but not end it. The taxpayers of Racine County have been deceived once with a short-term tax that sunsets; I won’t let them be deceived again.”
The RTA proposal will now have to gain state approval through the legislative Joint Finance Committee of which Vos is a member.
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THANK YOU REPRESENTATIVE VOS and Merry Christmas to you!!!
Well you had 2 weeks to determine the last country and I see that no one posted...either you thought it was really hard or you are just to chicken to guess.
The last country was Ecuador.
This weeks country should be pretty easy...3 out of 10. Good Luck!
Look at this photo and see for yourself!!!!!!!
Thank you Drudge for pointing it out...and AP Photographer Lawrence Jackson for posting the photo.
The press is all over the story that President Bush would support a Federal increase to the minimum wage if it came with tax incentives for small business.
Wow…this is the same bill that the Republicans tried to put through before the election, the Democrats fought it, the bill was ultimately defeated, and the Republicans did not make political hay out of it!
Think about it folks Democrats voted against a minimum wage increase because it came with tax cuts for everyone…what makes the President think that Democrats are going to roll on the idea of targeted tax incentives to small businesses?
Here is what we need to point out to our Liberal friends:
88% of States (44 of 50) have a state minimum wage
38% of States (19) have a minimum wage that is higher that the Federal level (Wisconsin being one of these states)
So if a State can raise their minimum wage higher than the Federal level…why do we need to raise (much less have) the Federal minimum wage?
Once again I had an opportunity to spend some quality time in another country (Italy this time) and see first hand just how hated we (the US) really are.
Here is what happened…
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…nothing!!
So once again I have to agree with the “main stream media” we are just hated around the world!
I had quite a few conversations with people from Turin, Milan, and Brazil and found that all of the people I talked with are still in great awe of the US. They want to either come to the US or be more like the US.
We are still the greatest country on Earth and will be for a long time…assuming that we don’t elect Hillary Clinton to the White House! :)
Well it looks like interest in this is starting to wane but I like it so I’m going to continue with it.
Two weeks ago the country I posted was Turkey (get it? I posted it on Thanksgiving…I know bad joke!)
Last week’s was pretty easy: France!
I’ve decided that this week’s will be a bit harder only because I will not be in this country to post one next week so you will have to wait two weeks for the next installment.
I think this is a 9 out of 10 difficulty wise…I hope you think it’s easier than I do.
I get drawn into articles with titles like this:
Richest 2% hold half the world’s assets
But once you read the story you realize something that the Left forgets…rich is a matter of perspective!
The first sentence of the article states “across the world that the richest two per cent of adults own more than 50 per cent of the world’s assets while the poorest half hold only 1 per cent of wealth.” While most might find this shooking and stop reading at this point they would miss the most important part…that they are most likely in the top 50% and maybe even in the top 10%!
“Adults with more than $2,200 of assets were in the top half of the global wealth league table, while those with more than $61,000 were in the top 10 per cent.”
Are you one of 37,000,000 people that have over $500,000 in assets? Then you are in the top 1% of the worlds wealthiest.
I don’t know about you but that isn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. I always thought that once I reached the top 10% I would have a lot more than just $61,000!!
Thanks to http://www.opensecrets.org much of the data is available to the public.
Below is the top ten largest all time giving organizations.
- American Fedn of State, County, & Municipal Employees
- AT&T Inc
- National Association of Realtors
- Assn of Trial Lawyers of America
- National Education Assn
- Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
- Laborers Union
- Service Employees International Union
- Goldman Sachs
- Communications Workers of America
For the last 9 election cycles (1990-2006) these organizations have contributed over $278 million!! Of that 80%...let me repeat that 80% of those funds went to support DEMOCRAT candidates!!
$223,897,759 went to democrats
$ 53,490,761 went to republicans
If you think that is bad wait until you see this:
- 99% of Communications Workers of America donations went to Democrats
- 98% of AFSCME donations went to Democrats
- 97% of Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers donations went to Democrats
- 96% of Service Employees International Union donations went to Democrats
- 93% of National Education Assn donations went to Democrats
- 92% of Laborers Union donations went to Democrats
- 90% of Assn of Trial Lawyers of America donations went to Democrats
- 61% of Goldman Sachs donations went to Democrats
Only AT&T and National Assn of Realtors gave more to Republicans…
- 56% of AT&T donations went to Republicans
- 53% of National Assn of Realtors donations went to Republicans
We find that for the same time period (1990-2006) the top 101 organizations donated $1,377 million, of which 59% went to DEMOCRATS where only 40% went to Republicans!!!
The difference is over $264 million more to democrats or about $29 million per election!
Only 7 organizations donate 80% or more of their money to republicans while 20 organizations donate 90% or more of their money to democrats!
Just some thing to think about.
From The Tennessean by Samuel Shu
Flatulence, not turbulence forces plane landing in Nashville
The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal body odor, Lowrance said. The woman lives near Dallas and has a medical condition.
The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane.
"American has banned her for a long time," Lowrance said.
President Bush was harsh on those that refused to confirm Bolton:
"They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time," Bush said. "This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation."
“Ambassador Bolton led the successful negotiations that resulted in unanimous Security Council resolutions regarding North Korea's military and nuclear activities. He built consensus among our allies on the need for Iran to suspend the enrichment and reprocessing of uranium," Bush added. "His efforts to promote the cause of peace in Darfur resulted in a peacekeeping commitment by the United Nations. He made the case for United Nations reform because he cares about the institution, and wants it to become more credible and effective."
