Curmudgeon's Corner

This is the time of year when many of us take time to reflect on the past, enjoy the present and anticipate the future. It is a time of year that we all might benefit from more often than only at year’s end, but that seems a near impossibility given the hectic pace of our daily lives.

Maybe my curmudgeon’s eyes are viewing things a bit differently during this time of year, but it seems that I am seeing the softer, gentler side of folks. These are people whom I know not but who strike me as moving just a bit more slowly during this holiday period. I see a few more smiles returned. Most people seem more forgiving than I expected even though parking spaces are in short supply and people are anxious to get from here to there quickly.

Can it be that we are more forgiving of others’ perceived transgressions at this time of year? Is there something more than mere lip service to this “peace on earth and good will to men” theme that permeates our environment? Is this merely my altered perception or is there something more to it than that?

I hope that it is not simply my perception but, if that is all it is, I am content to see the world through my own version of “rose colored glasses” if need be. I see people helping people whether by dropping change in a red kettle, or singing carols from door to door, or hosting parties for family and friends, or simply Moms and Dads enjoying their children as they shop.

I see in Germantown a growing community that is managing to keep its “smallness”, its character and its priorities pretty well in order. I talk with people who have moved away but who wish they were still here. I drive past the custard stand and see people busy cooking and delivering Thanksgiving meals to those less fortunate. I see colorful decorations and children playing in whatever snow they’re able to find. I see a piece of Americana that welcomes us home at the end of busy days.

I am very happy to see a small community that rivals my memory of the small town in which I grew up. There is hope that we’ll be able to control our growth and our quest for more wealth while maintaining our grounding. There is hope that we’ll do the right thing even when no one is there to witness it. There is hope that the Holy Hill desecrators are an aberration and not the norm. There is hope that our police officers will enjoy the relative boredom of peacefulness more rather than less. There is the hope that we will find ways in which to solve the problems, largely man-made, that seem to plague our greater society without too much strife, too much shouting and too much hurt.

Nonetheless, it is nice to know that, at the end of the day, we can come home to Germantown and feel happy, safe, comfortable and at peace…if only during this one season of the year…while we continue to work toward securing those same feelings for the whole year.

Each one of us can make a difference in the life of another every day with so little effort. How about adding that to the list of resolutions we struggle with for the coming year? Better yet, why not stick to this resolution even after we’ve stopped the weight loss program or lost our zeal for exercising?

Let’s each make one person a little bit happier every day in 2007.

No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.
Author: Aesop

We have 132 elected members of the state Senate and Assembly. Only three of them even admitted being aware that they had a sick time benefit that carries forward until they’re no longer in office, and then remains available for their use to defray medical expenses for so long as the money lasts. This is troubling to me since we rely on these folks to run our state for us; I’m not feeling too comfortable with their apparent ability to do those jobs based on this disclosure.

Even more astounding is the fact that seemingly none of them were ever sick since no one has claimed any sick days…in years and years for some. Maybe this is the core of that adult stem cell pool we’ve been agonizing over since they’re obviously the healthiest single group of people in our state. Isn’t it a coincidence that they’d all end up as elected officials?

Seriously, why is it that once we send someone to Madison too few seem to remember what we sent them there to do, and simply seem to set out to get as much for themselves as is possible? How can any of these people, with a straight face, claim they were unaware of this perk? It seems obvious to me that they feel we can be played for the fools that we apparently are…and they seem bent on doing it over and over again!

And, worse yet, this is the fault of you and me and every other citizen for not shining the light of day on our officials, for not insisting they remember who we are and why we elected them, and for not voting them out of office any more often than we do! Have you ever talked to one of your elected representatives or visited their offices in Madison? Do you ever tell them your position on issues of the day?

And all this on the heels of the fiasco called an election that was just recently completed. Or are there still recounts underway? I’ve lost track.

Now party heads on both sides of the aisle are working to help we poor unwashed understand just how important this perk is to us since it gives us the very best representation available. We all need to understand that every one of them could earn more money in private life, but have chosen instead to do you and me the favor of serving us. Several have now disavowed the accumulated sick time. Others still have told us they’ll introduce legislation to take care of this problem so that we can ease our troubled minds and forget about this subject as it is slid gently back under the rug.

They have seen time and again in the past that we’ll forget this incident as we’ve forgotten all those gone before. We are notorious for not unseating elected officials. Our judges are elected to virtually lifetime seats. The oddity of a young man running against our established assemblyperson and garnering far more votes than anyone but him imagined possible was just that…an oddity. Will that lesson be well-learned by the incumbent or has it already begun to dim?

Apparently it is true that we get the government that we deserve. I never before understood just how deserving I am!

That is an odd thing to say having recently received our Germantown property tax bill and seeing a decrease in real dollars. However I have just become aware of the state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for 2006 and that is indeed a bleak picture.

Wisconsin completed the 2005-2006 fiscal year with a general fund deficit of $2.15 billion.

The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance points out that this is $8.3 million more than the state’s debt in 2004-2005 and $231.6 million more than in 2003-2004. These numbers use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) which is prescribed by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. This is more likely to produce a “truer picture of the state’s long-term financial position than a state budget would suggest” according to Todd Berry, president of the Alliance. What Mr. Berry doesn’t say is that we’ll hear less straight talk from our politicians than is portrayed in this report.

Having just come through what, to my mind, was likely the most negative election season to be recalled, we have already begun to hear the drumbeat about “budget shortfalls” in Madison coupled with the need to “close sales tax loopholes”, “increase motor vehicle registrations fees” and, possibly, “take another look at gas tax increases”. Remember that some $513 million was transferred from other funds to keep the ship of state afloat during this period. Much of that came from the transportation fund, so we now need to pay the piper as it were.

Governor Doyle has promised to balance the state budget without tax increases. Apparently when fees are introduced or increased, that does not constitute a “tax increase” in any form except to remove more money from state residents’ pockets. What if the state decides to cut back on the funding provided to Germantown in order to "balance" the state budget? Is that decision likely? I submit that it is very likely if the “no tax increase” vow is to have the aroma of credibility with which politicians can cover themselves.

Further, if the state does this to Germantown and every other community how will it be justified? The state can permit local governments to increase their property tax rates sufficiently to offset the lost state revenue. And, the local communities can claim they were forced into the position…and that will have been true to one degree or another.

What about the QEO (qualified economic offer) that Wisconsin has observed for a decade or better that caps the income and benefits increase available for public school teachers? Is it likely that the Governor will owe something to one of his largest contributors, the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC)? I believe this is quite possible. I will not be surprised to see the QEO go the way of dinosaurs. If that should occur, the school districts will certainly increase their portion of the total tax bill since there is pent-up demand for maintenance money, etc. not to mention the demands that will be forthcoming from teachers.

Those of us who think we already live in one of the most highly taxed states in the country had better be sure our tranquilizers have been refilled because we’re going to be very agitated. And, we can wait for between two and four more years before we’re able to do anything other than vent…if we’ve not forgotten our ire by the time we could do something about it at the polling place.

Is it just me or do you feel a tax increase coming?

State lawmakers have decided that it is time again to increase cigarette taxes (by $1.00 per pack on top of the present $0.77 per pack) and to use that newfound wealth for “anti-smoking” and “health care” programs. Smokers have no political clout and therefore are perennial targets. State projections are that the increase in state cigarette tax of $1.00 per pack would raise an additional $227.5 million a year in new state tax revenue in spite of the projected decline of nearly 91 million packs of cigarettes in annual sales.

We’re not talking about loose change here.

By way of background, I confess to being a former cigarette smoker who kicked a three pack per day habit on July 5, 1985. It was, to paraphrase Mark Twain, always my rule to never smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake.

Back to the question: What if this actually worked?

What if they really used some of this money for anti-smoking programs unlike they used the money offered up by tobacco companies several years ago when the states won their lawsuit. And then, what if people actually began to quit smoking? That would drive down the number of packs of cigarettes sold to the point that this newfound source of wealth would dry up. The program would actually kill off the goose that laid the original golden egg.

Do they really plan for this outcome, or is it closer to the truth that they know there’ll be no real anti-smoking push and, instead, most of the money will be spent to deliver health care to the poor and uncovered? If that is the case, how do we equate penalizing users of a legal product, many of whom are creating their own health care issues by smoking, in order to raise taxes to fund some new cause especially when our state is in tough financial straits already?

The ugly truth is that lawmakers too often simply want to redistribute money to suit their own world or, in this case, state view. They seemingly care not where it comes from. They seemingly care not that the electorate might disagree with their use of the funds.

What does all this mean to Germantown? In my humble, or not so humble, opinion, it ultimately means that our taxes will go up. Why do I say that? Because these new spending programs almost always result in the spending of far more money than we’re told will be the case in the beginning. These programs acquire their own living energy and then perpetuate themselves whether or not they are working. Our taxes will increase also if the anti-smoking programs really have an effect since there’ll be a “shortfall” in tax collection that will have to be made up with money from the general fund, which is in serious trouble already…but more on that later.

Finally, what can we expect in terms of costs increasing in whatever the new health care programs are? Look at what has happened over the past decade for some idea. We are a very few years away from the day when health care costs in our country will consume 20 cents of every dollar of our Gross National Product.

Again, we’re not talking about loose change here.

Billy Lee Morford is a name that conjures misgivings in my mind. He is, if the name rings no bells for you, a four-times convicted child molester who has a release hearing scheduled during the week before Christmas. It is entirely possible that he will be released and be free to live where ever he chooses.

This caused me to finally look at the Wisconsin Sex Offender website to learn about the Village of Germantown and whether or not we have any registered offenders within the community.

You can click here to see this site for yourself. There are nine registered sex offenders using twenty names who reside in Germantown. We should know who and where for our protection and the protection of our loved ones. This site provides that information.

There are those who believe that a sex offender can never be rehabilitated and there those who believe just the opposite. I have no education or training to know which position is the more accurate. I do know however that this is nothing that should be left to chance.

In Mr. Morford’s case, there is a trail littered with people whom he has left with psychological scars that will never heal. Are the judges who make those decisions too insulated from the realities of those decisions? How often does a registered sex offender move into a home next door to or down the street from a judge? In the case of Mr. Morford, we see a repeat offender who now may be released simply because he is thought to be so ill as to live less than a year, and who is thought to be so ill as to be unable to offend again.

How can anyone be so certain?