Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
State Budget Watch: And the fee increases just keep on coming
By Mary Lazich
Monday, May 14 2007, 08:56 AM
It bears repeating that Governor Doyle’s proposed state budget contains $1.75-billion in tax and fee increases.
The Legislature’s budget-writing committee, the Joint Finance Committee, is now going over the biennial budget. The bad news is the tax and spend pattern that plagues Wisconsin continues.
Fees for registering a boat are going up. So are fees for dumping garbage. A fee for automobile titles that was scheduled to go away at the end of 2007 will remain.
Let’s go to the scorecard.
Governor Doyle proposed increasing the fee for dumping garbage in landfills. The fee would double, from $3 per ton to $6 per ton. The Joint Finance Committee approved the fee increase despite objections from Republicans who envision the increased fees being used as a slush fund to be raided by legislators for other purposes.
A $9 fee on titling new and used vehicles was scheduled to expire at the end of 2007. Not anymore. The committee decided to extend the $9 fee for two years through 2009. The good news is that the committee did not approve Governor Doyle's provision to make the fee permanent.
As I’ve written in the past, there’s a disturbing trend developing. The Joint Finance Committee is split 8-8, Republicans and Democrats. There have been and will be many more tie votes. Every time there is a tie vote, the Governor’s budget provision up for a vote stays intact. It’s going to be difficult for the committee to chop anything out of the Governor’s bloated budget. My fear is that the budget that emerges from the committee could be even worse than Governor Doyle’s budget.
