NEW REPUBLIC ARTICLE BLASTS HEIL FAILURE
Serwer, Arnold
New Republic Article Blasts Heil Failure THE administration of Gov. Heil in Wisconsin goes a long way toward demonstrating the inability of Republican "business administrations" to balance...
...In addition, two measures enacted by La Follette—the Wisconsin Development Authority act, to promote rural electrification, and the Wisconsin Agricultural Authority act...
...His chief worry is that regular revenues total only $60,000,000, about $14,600,000 short Of equaling obligations...
...in the second year of his "business administration," Hell's biennium budget tops that of his defeated predecessor La Follctte by S3.010,000...
...The most inspired mathematician in the world could not fit Wisconsin'* Republican governor Julius P. Hcil into the equation...
...Schme-deman left a $14,254,000 balance In 1935, while La Follette left $14,713,000 in 1937 and $9,055,000 in 1939...
...The secretary, who had not read Heil's speech, beamed and asked...
...The next morning a capitol reporter said to one of Heil's $5,000-a-year secretaries at Madison: "That was some speech the governor made last night...
...They advocatrd segregation of revenues from gasoline taxes and motor-vehicle fees in a separate' fund, to be used only for highway construction and maintenance, and state-road aids to local units...
...In addition to the highway-fund diversion, he plans to make a $600,000 cut in departmental costs for the rest of this fiscal year and an estimated $1,800,000 slash next year...
...The budget of self-styled 'Julius the Just' stands at $74,600,000 compared to the $71,500,000 spent by La Follette's administration...
...Now...
...Heil in Wisconsin goes a long way toward demonstrating the inability of Republican "business administrations" to balance government budgets, an article in the current issue of the New Republic indicates...
...to develop farm market.?—were repealed by Heil's legislature...
...Another feature, ironically enough, is to use a $9,055,000 treasury balance left by the La Follctte administration, so frfeqiiently castigated by Hell as wasteful and Inefficient...
...Under the pressure or his own top-heavy budget, Heil broke his pledge to pay bigger old-age pension checks...
...Scrapping his promises to help the fanner, Hell deleted an appropriation lo continue the Wisconsin Farm and Home Credit administration, an agency set up to promote farm loans <jnd help prevent foreclosures...
...He has announced a plan by which some $6,000,000 In highway revenues will be diverted to meet appropriations in the regular state budget...
...When a bill providing funds to carry on this work was passed with great difficulty over the opposition of administrative leaders, Heil vetoed it...
...WHEN Thomas E. Dewey spoke from the capi- ! tol steps at Madison during his recent campaign tour, he surprised the crowd with his statement that "a lot of people could come to Wisconsin to learn how to run a government within its income...
...THE Republican legislature last fall passed a $5,000,000 relief bill but provided no revenue feature...
...This was accomplished by amendments to the inheritance-tax laws giving estates, principally the big ones, new exemptions totaling $2,000,000 for the biennium, and by refusal to reenact a $1,500,000 telephone utility tax...
...During his campaign in the summer and fall of 1938, ruddy-faced Hell promised to whip into a shape a biennium budget that would be $20,000,000 to S30.000.000 lower than Phil La Follette's for 1937-39...
...Julius the Just no longer considers highway money as sacred as it was before election...
...6, 1939...
...In its analysis of the Republican administration to date, the article says: "In the second year of his 'business administration' Heil's biennium budget tops that of his defeated predecessor La Follette by S3.010.000...
...He proposed to pay local units of government only one-quarter of the $3,705,000 in privilege highway-tax returns legally due them by Dec...
...Hell's opponents claim he cannot and does not intend to stretch inadequate revenue to June 30...
...IF JULIUS HEIL is not politically dead yet...
...He set a new high for unwarranted self-confidence when during a speech at Wisconsin he shut his eyes to the mess he had got Wisconsin Into and offered to run the slate of Michigan in place of that other notable character, Gov...
...But If the Progressives win...
...the end of his administration's fiscal period...
...1 to July 1 of this year...
...BUT In spite of Julius' bold campaign promises, appropriations passed by the Republican-controlled legislature had soared to $78.2'>6.O00 by the close, on Oct...
...IHERE are other reasons besides Hell's lopsided budget that make Republicans want to hide this political Quasimodo of theirs from the sight of the voters in 1940...
...the millionaire Milwaukee manufacturer who promised the state a "business administration" has Riven it record-breaking appropriations and a resultant budgetary headache...
...The inevitable result will be a higher percentage of relief costs to be bom* by local governments, or a lowering of relief standards, and very likely both...
...1941...
...He signed a bill to permit the state's maximum monthly pension to be raised from $30 to $40 a month, but he vetoed the section appropriating $2,535,000 to pay for the increases...
...But now that he is governor...
...Luren Dickinson...
...Under Hcil' the Catlln bill also was enacted, writing similar labor-repressive provisions into Wisconsin's once excellent labor code...
...His legislature passed and he slRncd into law the Employment Peact act, a measure which forbids strikes involving less than a majority of employes In a unit, outlaws "stranger picketing" and requires approval of 75 per cent ot the employes for a closed-shop contract...
...His predecessors left much more than zero in the treasury at the end of each term...
...The budget of self-styled "Julius the Just" stands at S74.600,0!>0...
...A biennium slash of $269,-000 suffered by the teachers' colleges has made necessary a six-per cent cut in faculty salaries of $1,800 a year or more...
...Heil himself had promised them he wouid conduct the state's affairs as he conducted his successful manufacturing business...
...Two things explain why it it was that La Follette did better with the state budget than Hcil did...
...A great tub-thumper for his alma mater, the School of Hard Knocks, Hell has amply demonstrated his hostility to education...
...Therefore he has worked out an elaborate plan to show how the state can scrape through until June 30...
...Forty per cent of this cut will be borne by charitable, penal and educational institutions, already badly crippled by lack of funds...
...a special session to raise taxes at this late date certainly would make him a corpse Instead of a candidate...
...For even a biased analysis of the situation would refute the popular campaign slogan that Republicanism equals balanced budgets...
...the other three-quarters in three monthly installments thereafter...
...Together with vetoes of a few smaller items, this brought appropriatoins down to $75,200,000...
...1941...
...They believe he hopes to spread everything out thin only until the election in November...
...Second, in spite of the boost in appropriation.?, the present administration tossed out $3,500,000 of tax revenues, more than enough to pay for the increase in pension costs...
...The Wisconsin Council of Agriculture, an antiunion organization of big producer cooperatives, drew up the bill and organfzed "farm sentiment" behind It, chambers of commerce in the state nut pressure on legislators, and with Hell's signature and blessing the Peace Act became law...
...This outcome is one of the principal yardsticks by which the sorry financial record of Hell's "business administration" can be measured...
...although enrollment this year Is 11.246, only slightly lower1 than last year's record of 11,416 students...
...Hell's unbalancing of the budget has sorely disappointed Wisconsin's Republican business men...
...League officials, led by Mayor Daniel Hoan of Milwaukee, asked Heil to call a special budget-balancing session of the legislature...
...Republicans will plead that the state's financial crisis can be met only by a tax which will produce large sums quickly...
...compared to the $71,590,000 spent by La Follette's administration...
...In short...
...Now, as Wisconsin relief rolls keep rising, the present administration is forced to depend solelv upon Its own Inadequate resources to provide some measure of state aid...
...BUT it is not the all-time high of his administration's appropriation that worries Heil most...
...By the use of all these devices, Heil supporters claim, the state can wind up the biennium on June 30, 1941, without a final default, although they admit the treasury balance will stand at zero or close to It...
...He has cut $886.-000 from the biennium budget of the University of Wisconsin so far...
...For example, there Is his labor record...
...With his administration floundering along from week to week, the governor has nevertheless, until recently, retained much of his bounce...
...Ninety per cent »f the people of Wisconsin agreed with him...
...Progressives say that Hell's program runs something like this: If he or some other Republican wins in 1940...
...Heil's emergency board, which includes himself and two Republican legislators, has further reduced this to $74,600,000 by ordering $600,000 cut from state costs for the six months from Jan...
...What did the governor say...
...they can clean up the mess, and God help them...
...Coming from a Republican who ran for governor on a GOP platform advocating "rigid economy" and a "pay-as-you-go" policy for state expenditures...
...Since he took office, IS months ago...
...Until now nearly all state contributions to aid counties with direct relief have been made possible because of revenue from gift and Inheritance taxes enacted by La Follette in 1937 and still on the books...
...The governor refused, but finally gave the cities 50 per cent of their money in December and paid the remainder in February...
...Before coming to power Republicans frequently criticized La Follette's use of state highway funds for general tax purposes...
...although Wisconsin ranks second only to North Dakota in the number of mortgaged farms...
...First, there was the increase in the number of pensions for the aged, the blind and for dependent children...
...Although It advanced a dozen tax plans to rl03e all or part of the original gap between appropriations and revenues, the Hcil administration, after months of bungling and indecision, succeeded in passing only a cigarette tax and a measure lowering Income-surtax exemptions...
...THE League of Wisconsin Municipalities balked the scheme...
...of a 269-day session, the longest In Wisconsin's history...
...Under the present state administration nothing could be further from the truth...
...Wisconsin will get a general sales tax for the first time...
...He said he wished he were governor of Michigan...
...the reporter told him...
...Old-age pension cases alone have been increasing by 5.000 to 6.000 a year...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 16
