SERTA Votes to "Tax to the Max!" (So They Can Use the Money to Lobby for Even HIGHER Taxes?)

Yesterday, the un-elected Southeastern Regional Transit Authority committed to raising your taxes while scheming in a room at the Milwaukee County Airport (a regional transportation entity that actually MAKES money for Milwaukee County)! Governor Doyle and the Legislature gave this unelected board the power to raise the tax on rental cars to $18 per car, and they are getting ready to tax to the max!

Buried on page 12 of a 19-page PowerPoint presentation attached to the meeting agenda is proposal that they will raise the tax. But, the tax hike wasn’t even listed on the front page of the meeting agenda. Smell a rat yet?

Are they raising the tax to buy rail cars, tracks, conductor’s whistles? Nope. History shows they will probably just hire more consultants, lobbyists, and PR hustlers to raise more taxes. It’s the grand Wisconsin tradition of using taxes to lobby for more taxes. Just about every taxpayer funded city, state, village, dog-catcher, and government-subsidized group in the state has a lobbyist pressuring government to spend more and tax more. Using your tax dollars to pressure legislators to raise even MORE taxes is big business.

What makes SERTA’s taxing and irresponsible spending so outrageous is that they aren’t even elected. So when they put a tax hike proposal in a PowerPoint presentation, it’s so the real taxers in mayor’s offices and on county boards don’t get blamed. Let’s go back and take a look. In 2005, a $2 per car rental tax was established southeastern Wisconsin. But what did a big slug of that go for? The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported SERTA paid H. Carl Mueller and a small army of lobbyists nearly $500,000 to lobby the Legislature to raise the tax to $15 per car. “The RTA is spearheading plans for a $198 million commuter link that would make 14 round trips daily. The public agency is seeking legislative approval to boost the car rental tax from $2 to $15 per car,” the Journal Sentinel reported.

Now, spending on lobbyists and public relations is up to $1.4 million. No longer content with raising rental car taxes alone, they added a sales tax increase to their workload. After the Legislature gave them the power to raise rental car taxes to $18 but failed to pass the sales tax, SERTA began considering maxing out the tax. Bottom line: An unelected board has already spent $1.4 million of our money to lobby for even higher taxes and not even a conductor’s whistle has been bought for the train!

The Legislature's politically charged, election-year decision to adjourn without authorizing more SERTA tax schemes has led this unelected board to scheme even more. They admitted to themselves that it will be difficult to pass a standalone bill to increase their taxing authority so their new strategy will be to use your tax dollars to lobby elected officials to bury any new SERTA taxing power in the State Budget, a bill, as the SERTA Board put it, "that they HAVE to pass!" They also noted this could be accomplished by reconvening the legislature in a special session for a "budget repair" bill before the next election. Never underestimate the deviously clever mind of an unelected board!

And just who voted for this boondoggle that will require raising taxes if approved? The representatives of Racine and Kensoha counties, the representative of Governor Doyle, and the representatives of the three largest cities in the SERTA district - Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee (KRM). SERTA Board members openly discussed the issue of which gubernatorial candidate would most likely support the KRM line without mentioning any names. However, State Representative Peter Barca, who attended the meeting via speakerphone, was less circumspect, current City of Milwaukee Mayor and leading Democratic candidate for Governor "Tom Barrett" would be most sympathetic to supporting the KRM line was his blunt assessment.

Yes, Virginia, votes have consequences!