I like money. Big fan of cash. I own all their albums.

That said, I want Scott Walker and the Republicans to stop
giving it to me. At least they should stop giving it out in stupidest way
possible.

Wisconsin overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give its
citizens $100 million in property tax relief over the next two years. That
sounds great until you break it down and realize that this means home owners
will receive about $33 each on average over that two-year span. While the average
family will be planning it’s biennial trip to Golden Corral to spend this
windfall, this will happen:

The property tax cut and several other economic bills being
pushed by Walker and GOP lawmakers would lower the state’s balance by $120
million in the current two-year budget and add $180 million to the projected
shortfall in the next budget, according to estimates by the Legislature’s
nonpartisan budget office.

So, in other words, for what amounts to almost no actual
relief, the state will plunge further into debt in very real way, more cuts to
vital programs will likely take place and state workers will continue to be
dramatically underpaid.

The benefits to this are entirely cosmetic, which Speaker
Robin Vos inadvertently noted when he referred to this bill as “emblematic” of
a commitment to budgetary restraint.
Republicans running next term will be able to tout their “slashing of
property taxes” while slamming the few Democrats who voted against it as
“rejecting property tax cuts on hard-working citizens of this state.” Other
than that, not much is happening.

“Tax” has become a four-letter word over time. In fact, I
think we’d be better off saying to people that you want to “fuck” them than
“tax” them. I’m still unclear as to why this has happened, other than the
hysteria associated with treating taxes like robbery: someone else is taking by
force what you earned and you have no say in the matter.

Still, what the hell are you going to do with $33 over two
years? It’s about a $1.38 a month during that span. You can’t even buy a
Powerball ticket with that kind of cash.
The state, however, could do a hell of a lot with that money.
Collectively, we could fix some of the shittier roads and schools around here.
We could pony up for improved nature programs or better use of our natural
resources. We could pay people better so they could buy shit from other people
who own the businesses throughout the state.

Taxes are not a penalty. They are not a punishment. They are
a way for us to pool resources to take care of problems we can’t conquer
individually. If you want an honest “You Didn’t Build This” moment, drive
around your city and look at all the shit that you couldn’t do on your own but
that got done thanks to the collective efforts of the whole.

So please, stop giving me money. The whole reason I was OK
with giving it to you in the first place was so you could do something with it
to begin with. Give a teacher a raise or fix a fucking pothole.

But stop handing it back to me in some falsely magnanimous
gesture.