The MacIver Report: Wisconsin This Week The MacIver Institute

If the state of Wisconsin bails out Milwaukee – do you think the city will learn its lesson about fiscal responsibility?

Don’t bet on it.

The legislature hasn’t even approved Milwaukee’s exclusive 2% sales tax yet – and Alderman Bob Bauman’s already trying to figure out how to get another 1% to support the trolley and clear the way for even more spending.

So even if lawmakers do bail out Milwaukee – don’t be surprised when the city’s back looking for another handout before long.

Title 42 is over and President Joe Biden says expect more chaos at the US southern border. Title 42 allowed the border patrol to people they caught trying to sneak across the border right back into Mexico. Now they’ll likely be released and allowed to stay in the US. There are already around 6 million illegal residents in the US.

The crisis isn’t limited to unrestricted illegal immigration. It’s also a humanitarian crisis with brutal drug cartels controlling the flow migrants south of the border. Rape, murder, and robbery are common. Additionally, the nationwide fentanyl crisis is directly tied to the border situation.

The House of Representatives passed the Secure the Border Act on Thursday, May 11th. Democrats have already indicated it will never get past the Senate or the President.

Rep. Tom Tiffany joins this edition of the MacIver Newsmakers Podcast to detail the implications of the border crisis and what must be done to stop it.

The very first two bills introduced in the Wisconsin State Legislature this session would replace our antiquated progressive income tax with a 3.25% flat tax.

The flat tax is simple and fair and, at 3.25%, everyone who pays income taxes in Wisconsin would see a tax cut.

Lots of states of making this switch right now – and not just conservative ones.

In fact, at the moment, most states with a flat tax are blue states.

Senate majority leader Devin LeMahieu – who wrote the senate bill – says unfortunately liberals in Wisconsin have decided to make the flat tax a partisan issue.

“It appears especially the governor and maybe some democrats in the legislature would rather play class warfare, and pit the rich against the working class, when that’s not really what we’re doing here. We just trying to provide an even playing field for everybody. So everybody’s paying the same tax rate,” he told MacIver News.

Hopefully the governor and his allies can put divisive politics behind them and embrace this rare opportunity for bipartisanship.

After all, the flat tax is one of the few issues both democrats and republicans throughout the country agree on. There’s no reason why they can’t work on it together in Wisconsin too.

Tax increment financing. TIF. As in TIF districts.

Just the sound of it is enough to put any taxpayer to sleep, and local officials like it that way. They tell you TIF is basically free money.

We take out a loan, use the money to lure in new developments, and then we tax those new developments to pay back the loans. Brilliant – right?

What they don’t tell you, is that new development increases the local tax levy… and new developments in TIF districts don’t pay into that tax levy – and so everyone else in town not in the TIF district has to make up the difference… that means higher property tax rates all around.

The MacIver Institute has been warning you about this scam for years – but now Wisconsin’s legislative council has released a memo providing independent, non-partisan confirmation of this reality…

That TIF districts raise property tax rates… by a lot.

Now that’s a wake up call.

Want to know how much TIF districts have jacked up your property taxes? Read MacIver's report here: https://www.maciverinstitute.com/2023/04/your-property-tax-bill-is-higher-because-of-tif-districts-legislative-council-confirms/

If all the nonstop and mindless campaign commercials weren't reminder enough, today is not just another Tuesday everyone, today is Election Day in Wisconsin.

Top of the ticket is the race for control of the state Supreme Court, which has garnered national attention and millions of dollars from outside Wisconsin - not sure how donors from the East and West coasts think they should be able to pick for us the candidates that represent Wisconsin, but at least those outsiders aren’t allowed to vote. Well, at least for now non-Wisconsinites can’t vote.

The ability to freely vote however we see fit is one of the hallmarks of our great country and something that each and every one of us should cherish.

So, take a minute today out of your busy schedule, remember your photo id and vote early and often. Just kidding, you only need to vote once but you do need to vote today.

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 triggered riots all across the country. In Wisconsin, the worst violence broke out in Madison.

After pillaging state street, looters swarmed an unattended police cruiser.
They busted its windows and headlights, spray painted it, set it on fire and stole two assault rifles out of it. Believe it or now, they recorded it all on their phones. Naturally police detectives scoped up the videos and used them to solve those crimes.

The videos are vulgar, brutal, and shameless - and seemingly had no impact on the liberal judges in Dane county who handled the cases. Fortunately, it was just a matter of time before the MacIver institute found those videos through an open records request.

We organized them into a 25-minute documentary – so you can see the malice behind the state street riots up close for yourself, and come to your own conclusions about the justice system in Wisconsin’s liberal stronghold.

Watch it now, at https://www.maciverinstitute.com/2023/03/one-night-in-madison-film/