lakeland times

Our State Senator Holperin acknowledges Doyle’s budget was filled with tax and fee hikes

February 7th, 2010 |

Author: vilas

Democrat State Senator Admits State Budget Contained Enough Tax and Fee Hikes to Sink a Battleship

by WISGOP Communications

“Even the Democrats who voted for the disastrous state budget are complaining about all of the hidden tax and fee increases…”

MADISON – E-mails obtained by Richard Moore, an investigative reporter for the Lakeland Times, revealed one state lawmaker’s candid thoughts on the 2009-11 state budget Democrats approved in June of 2009. State Senator Jim Holperin (D-Conover) told a constituent the budget Democrats voted for contained “enough little tax and fee hikes to sink a good sized battleship.”

“Even the Democrats who voted for the disastrous state budget are complaining about all of the hidden tax and fee increases,” according to Mark Jefferson, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. “They knew all along the budget was a bad deal for taxpayers.”

The Lakeland Times uncovered e-mails which revealed the Democrat state Senator knew precisely the extent to which Democrats were raising taxes, although office correspondence to constituents attempted to downplay the impact of the tax and fee increases.

The newspaper quotes Holperin as saying: “We Democrats authorized all kinds of new taxes in the recently adopted state budget (cigarette taxes, capital gains taxes, solid waste fees, cell phone tax, boat registration fee, etc. etc.) and took a lot of heat for that.”

“Democrats who raised taxes and fees on Wisconsin families during this recession keep trying to downplay their vote to their constituents because it was simply the wrong thing to do when taxpayers were and still are struggling,” Jefferson said. “Democrats can’t hide from their budget vote forever, and Senator Holperin is just the first to find out the hard way. Legislators who voted for this budget and are up for election in 2010 will have a lot more to fear than one bad story in the press.”