Wow! I come back from vacation and see that our last question got triple the responses from the previous week. It dealt with how legislators should divvy up a $4 billion surplus:
A. All of it to tax cuts. Nothing for other services.
B. More than half of it to tax cuts, then use the rest for other needs.
C. Less than half of it to tax cuts—in order to fund other needs.
D. None of it to tax cuts. All of it to other needs.
The responses generally went in order: the fewest for (A), the most for (D).
Mary via Hotmail went with (A): “They should give it back to the people that paid taxes so they can pay bills and not be in as much debt.”
Scott via Charter typified a (D) response: “None of it to a tax cut. We need more funding for maintenance on our roads. We need better funding for public schools. We need more funding for our public servants (police, fire, EMTs). We also cannot forget about the cost of CHILD CARE!!!!”
There were many messages that cited the uncertainty in federal funding under President Trump as a reason to put money toward services soon to be defunded or save funds for needs that Washington might not meet in the future.
👉🏼 My takeaway: I often say you could pick a random bunch of people off the street, make them legislators for one day, and they would find ways to come together and get things done more quickly than a lot of current politicians. As I read through the (A) and (D) answers, I wondered if this were true—and honestly, despite some very different points of view, I’m still keeping faith that most Wisconsinites could figure out how to turn a $4 billion pot of money into a win-win for all.
Here’s this week’s question: We now know who will appear on the April 1 ballot for state Superintendent of Public Instruction: Incumbent Jill Underly vs. charter and voucher schools advocate Brittany Kinser. The voucher program now costs taxpayers more than $700 million per year. Where should Wisconsin go with the idea of using public money for private schools?
A. Keep growing the program as an alternative to public schools.
B. Keep it, but freeze it at its current level.
C. Keep it, but trim it back to families in greatest need before it becomes a behemoth.
D. End it now. It’s already costing too much to fund TWO parallel school systems.
Hit reply or email me directly at pat@couriernewsroom.com, and we may share it in a future newsletter or on UpNorthNews Radio.
