Walker's Surplus Smoke 'n Mirrors

It is I Who Killed the Wicked Witch of Westconsin!

An Honest Man would not take credit for something he didn't do. But Walker is Not an Honest Man. And Walker's policies are NOT Responsible for the projected budget surplus.

Furthermore, Walker will not use the budget surplus in the Prudent Public-Interest of the Citizens of Wisconsin, but rather in the Selfish Political Self-Interest in his getting reelected Gubnah in 2014 as a requisite stepping stone to his tilt at the oval office in 2016, a position for which he is Woefully Unqualified. But Walker doesn't care because he'll be long gone before the chickens come home to roost.

One might argue that Gubnah Walker created the projected budget surplus by extracting it from public working people and that using it in a political ploy to cut property taxes, which will go predominantly to people with high property values, aka the rich, is more of the Voodoo Economics of Upward Wealth Redistribution that has been damaging America's economy and society for three decades now (and Wiscossippi's for three years). And you'd be right, but only partially so.

You see, just about EVERY State in the Union, those run by Republicans, Democrats or both, are projecting budget surpluses.



EXCERPT: The National Association of State Budget Officers projects that almost all states will see “fairly decent surpluses” in their 2014 budgets. For some, it may be the first extra cash since before the recession began in late 2007. END

And the Great Republicon Recession (GPR) is a big part of the point. You see the way the state budget officers make their projections, they almost ALWAYS project deficits when the national economy is going into recession and conversely, they almost ALWAYS project surpluses when the nation is coming out of recession, like now.

But with demand (the ONLY Job Creator) still depressed by the Inequality of Suffering exacerbated by both the GPR and the Long, Slow Unequal Recovery, can we count on continuing the healthy tax revenue that has lead to these surpluses across the nation? Well perhaps NOT!

EXCERPT: A closer look into the tax collection reports available in June 2013 reveals that: 

• Much of the recent growth is in the income tax.  With two months left in the fiscal year, the typical state has collected 8.3 percent more personal income taxes than it did in the same period last year.  Sales taxes have grown more slowly.  This is, in part, the latest demonstration of the fact than income taxes rise more rapidly than sales taxes during periods of economic growth. 
• The revenue growth and particularly income tax growth is nationwide.  Some 26 of the 30 states for which data are available experienced double-digit growth in income taxes between April 2012 and April 2013. 
• While a portion of the income tax growth reflects the economic recovery, an additional portion reflects wealthy taxpayers shifting income into 2012 that they would have received in 2013 in anticipation of federal tax rate increases in 2013.
• Even with this recent growth, state tax revenues have not recovered from the Great Recession. Revenues likely still remain more than 3 percent below pre-recession levels, after adjusting for inflation.  And because of the one-time nature of much of the recent revenue growth, revenue growth is likely to slow again. (Emphasis added) END

In light of the above, wouldn't it be Fiscally Responsible to treat the projected surplus as One-Time-Money? And if Scott walker was really concerned about deficits and the people of Wisconsin, wouldn't it make sense to use this projected one-time-money to eliminate our Structural Deficit of over Half a Billion Dollars instead of Increasing it to over Three-Quarters of a Billion Dollars? 

But as we've saw with the politically motivated drunken sailor spending of the GW Bush Fiasco, fiscal responsibility is only a hallmark of the Republicon Party when it's politically expedient. And as we've sen with the first John Doe probe as well as other examples, with a narcissist like Walker, it doesn't matter to him what wreckage he leaves in his wake. What is personally politically expedient for him alone is all that will ever matter to him and will always the guiding star by which he charts his course.