State Rep. Sheldon Wasserman addressed the Village Board this evening, following State Sen. Alberta Darlings comments at the last meeting. He covered a variety of issues, including gridlock at the state level, taxes, spending, Smoke Free Wisconsin, and the AT&T issue.
Note: There seems to be something wrong with the BooMP3 player. Hopefully it will be back online tomorrow.
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The entire discussion (about 27 minutes) is well worth a listen, but the most interesting part came around the 7:00 to 8:40 mark, when he appeared to blame Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling for preventing a balanced budget in Wisconsin by opposing the hospital tax.
"The estimate on the budget deficit is $300-$400 million. And the question is where the money is going to come from. And we typically we have these repair budgets. But the question comes in, if the repair budget includes a tax increase, any tax increase, the Republicans Assembly members say, 'we're not going to back it.' We'd rather have a deficit than have a tax increase. And then you also the only thing that could fill in this tax increase...the only thing that's really out there is the hospital tax, which is really more the Federal Government giving money through Medicaid. It's kind of an exchange of money.
"Even though the hospital association has been very for it. At first they were against it, now they absolutely want it because the majority of the hospital systems in the state are going to get a tremendous bonus for supporting this and getting this thing through."
"The Republicans don't want to do it, because it's a tax, and to be point blank with you, two people in the city of Milwaukee are very, very powerful. And when they talk the Assembly Republicans listen very, very, very well. And that's Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling. And Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling are absolutely opposed to the hospital tax. Even though the hospitals want it. Even if though brings them $200 million to the state. They're opposed to it. And my colleagues will tell me point blank, 'Sheldon, I've got to do what I'm told.' So in terms of where revenue would be coming from, that's really off the table"
