It's already shaping up to be a contentious legislative session, on the issues of taxing and spending. State Representative Steve Nass urges his Republican colleagues in the Assembly to combat what he calls efforts to "mug taxpayers." Nass says he'll vote against any measure that raises taxes. "There has never been a successful example of raising one tax, to lower another tax."
Taking more money in sales tax, says Nass, simply means "everybody's going to have to pay more." The Whitewater Republican says it's typical of government to "go out and raise taxes on people, and then say that you are going to lower spending on the other end." That doesn't work, says Nass, adding that "the legislature is going to have to do the hard work it should have done for many years, and that is reduce spending and lower taxes."
Nass says it's interesting that all sorts of trial balloons for new taxes and spending are being floated now that the elections are over. "Erpenbach coms out not, and he says . . we need to raise upwards of $3.5 billion in more taxes, because the government has a problem. Why aren't they talking about ways to reduce spending and lower taxes?"
Nass's boss, Assembly Speaker-elect Mike Huebsch , is also critical of Senator Jon Erpenbach's proposal to end most sales tax exemptions, calling it disappointing.