THE WEEK IN THE CAPITAL
Rubin, Morris H.
The Week in The Canitol [BIT MOKmS H. BCBIN] PROGRESSIVE leaders who attended prelimi nary conferences at Wisconsin Rapids a couple ot weeks ago ' agreed that one of the most fruitful...
...The Week in The Canitol [BIT MOKmS H. BCBIN] PROGRESSIVE leaders who attended prelimi nary conferences at Wisconsin Rapids a couple ot weeks ago ' agreed that one of the most fruitful assignments that Progressive • workers everywhere can undertake is the task of exposing the fairy tale of "business economy" under the present Republican state administration...
...Some of the Keener Republican strategists realize that the "economy" agrument will be pretty well shot to pieces before the campaign is well under way...
...The actual facts show a picture quite the reverse of the legend fo3tered by the high-powered Republican propaganda machine, they pointed out...
...2. Despite the need for additional funds to finance this swollen budget, the administration handed the "big boys" nearly S4.-000IMW in tax reaction...
...They're admitting that the Republican budget is the highest in history, but they're' defending that by saying that it's the result of increased state aids...
...With two or three distinguished exceptions, the press of Wisconsin hss ignored almost completely the fact ; that the present Republican administration, now making such a palaver about saving money, handed tlephone utilities, bus companies, and wealthy Individuals and corporations nearly $4,000,000 in refunds, rebates, and reductions...
...The Wisc'/nsin County Boards Association complained some months ago that the present state administration has placed an ad-dlional lead of $2,000,000 on local property taxpayers as a result of Its failure to provide adequately...
...nul her "budget-balancing...
...3. At the same lime the Republican administration slapped new • axes on tho<.e with small and mrlerate income';—sales taxes on cigarettes and surtaxes on low'incomes...
...As a result, they're concentrating on a new approach...
...Cut of all the discussions and writings on state finances, a few salient points emerge clearly...
...Everytime a scrubwoman or clerk was fired out of the state service during the past year the Republican press splashed the "economy" news on its front pages...
...But some of those same papers could find little or no room for news about the hirings of Republican politicians at mi.li higher salaries than those earn...
...Here, too, the facts do not at all support such a claim...
...Heil vetoed the appropriation for the needy old folks, and the pension payments today average about S22, or SIR less than the *40 a month held out in the new pension law...
...Certainly the state government isn't staggering under any new-load of pension appropriations...
...by dismissed employes...
...4. In an atempt to finance its costly operations, thr present administration is spending every of (he S6,000,000 nest egg left by the last Progressive administration...
...There are the state teachers colleges, for instance, which have been so badly bad-jtered by the administration that hundreds of boys and girls will be denied admittance next fall under a plan now being considered...
...They are: 1. The Republican administration's budget is the highest in the histerv of Wisconsin...
...In other fields, too, the Republican rr-;ime has brought new suffering instead of more state aid...
...and the big job waiting to be done by every Progressive worker in every community is that of getting the facts to the people...
...This S4.000.000 handed out to special interests, plus the $6,000,000 which the Republican administration admits it inherited from the last LaFollette administration, would have been nearly enough to balance the present chaotic state budget...
...Big black headlines announced the ousting of some employes of the state tax department, but a stony silence greeted the warning by tax experts that the Republican administration's manipulation of that department may enable private utilities to escape payment of millions of dollars in taxes...
Vol. 10 • June 1940 • No. 22
