The story by now is familiar: employees of Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac voted down an offer to keep 800 jobs from moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma. Realizing that they had just voted themselves out of jobs, union members began calling for another vote – but IAM headquarters in Chicago immediately shut them down.

A day late and a dollar short, Governor Jim Doyle issued a statement claiming he had done all he could to keep Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac. Doyle outlined demands that Mercury Marine create and retain 2,700 jobs and maintain a significant presence in Fond du Lac for 12 years. In exchange the state would provide unspecified financial incentives.

Doyle said he couldn’t release details of the offer because “doing so would likely put Wisconsin at a competitive disadvantage with other states.” This from the same governor who recently signed a $186 million business tax hike, driving long term employers like Harley Davidson and Briggs & Stratton out of Wisconsin.

Shorewood, WI: Growing from a starting core group of dozen people to recently passing the 6000 mark on WWW.RecallDoyle.com, in under five months Win has demonstrated the great anti Doyle sentiment that exists in our state. WIN was started by a group of WI taxpayers such as teachers union workers business owners and just plain people all joined together with the common purpose changing the direction that our Gov. has taken WI in. Specifically, WIN chose as a means of change the removal of our Governor through a recall.  The recall process instituted by the progressive movement in WI the early 1900’s to prevent the repeat of rampant special interest money of ever co-opting the Governorship as had happened during that era. We, the people of WIN, recognized that same co-opting of our Governorship even today.

WIN had a stated goal of enlisting the help of 10,000 volunteer signature gatherers to start a recall by June 1st. In a few short months we gathered 6000 volunteers. Though falling short of our numbers goal and the resultant miss of our start date, WIN’s statement to the political establishment in WI is that 6000 voices came together in four short months with no significant money, no endorsements (quite the opposite really – disdain and ridicule came at us from both the left and the right) and little to no commercial press coverage (we could not even buy billboard space from Clear Channel Communications because of censorship of our message “Taxed Enough? RecallDoyle.com”-a true freedom of speech travesty)-THIS IS AN AMAZING FEAT BY ANYONE’S MEASURE.

The people of WI are angry and though the recall is dead the spirit and actions of the WI electorate will live on. WIN will fight for truth and honesty in WI politics and a place at the table for the average WI taxpayer. WIN lives on as a citizens movement to expose our Gov. and his now famous words, “We cannot we must not and I will not raise taxes…Wisconsin’s problem is not that we tax too little it is that we spend too much”. We will be present at every opportunity to let Jim Doyle know that we have not forgotten his lies. Further, WIN will act in conjunction with CRG-Citizens for Responsible Government to spearhead the recalls of individual WI legislators. The express purpose of the recalls will be to get the tone deaf Legislators of WI to become responsive to the needs of WI families during this time of runaway government deficit spending, ever increasing tax and fee hikes and economic crisis.

OVER 8,000 Wisconsin Citizen’s in Madison, WI protesting Decades of U.S. Government Policies that have resulted in destruction of INDIVIDUAL freedom, liberty and prosperity.  These protestors are also very angry at the insane level of Socialist spending by The State of Wisconsin, the closing and moving of businesses out of Wisconsin, and the thousands of job losses resulting in unacceptable unemployment rates around the State, resultant from Governor James Doyle policies.  Doyle’s destruction of our business climate and State taxes and fees that are not tolerable anymore, according to these 8,000 Tea Party goers who chanted RECALL DOYLE, RECALL DOYLE so loud it echoed round the entire block.

Hundreds of Thousands of Americans, across the country, continue to protest decades of tyranny, usurpation, corruption, bailouts, TARP, stimulus packages, over taxation on people and small businesses, the loss of jobs and companies, The Federal Reserve “System” (A cartel of 12 privately held banks with massive control) and utter Constitutional contempt by all three branches of the U.S. Government.

In Madison Wisconsin the people also protested against the MASSIVE HUMOUNGUS Socialist spending programs of the State legislature and especially Governor James Doyle.  A group called W.I.N. (Wisconsin Interests Now) is helping Wisconsin citizen’s improve their lot with regards to insane spending and taxation policies of Governor James Doyle which have resulted in a vast number of business closings, business moving out of Wisconsin and job losses, by way of a Recall.   WIN feels that Wisconsin citizen’s, businesses, the economy and employment cannot possibly take another whole year of Governor Doyle’s $6.7 Billion dollar deficit spending and resulting tax and numerous fee raises.

See www.RecallDoyle.com

Watch, in this video, how much the Thousands of Wisconsin citizens at the Madison Tea Party want to see Governor Doyle RECALLED:

After the destruction of the Wisconsin economy and small businesses through taxation, fees on our citizens and small business and horrible business climate, the resulting loss of jobs and high Wisconsin unemployment numbers and the incredible high level of Socialistic and union spending programs, it is very easy to understand why so many thousands of people are willing to protest for the recall of Governor Doyle.

www.RecallDoyle.com

I would like to send thanks to all of the individuals who completed my budget survey.  I received hundreds of responses and they were very useful to me as I debated the biennial budget.  These are the percentages of yes’s and no’s and the questions included in the survey.

 1. Do you support increasing state government spending by nearly 8 percent and taxes by $3.2 billion as the governor is proposing in the 2009-11 budget?

Yes 2%            No 93%

2. Do you support a new $270 million tax on oil that will be passed on to all consumers at the pump?

Yes 5%            No 95%

3. Do you support the $1.2 billion increase in taxes that was passed by the governor and legislative Democrats this year without a public hearing? This tax increase has been cited as a reason hundreds of jobs were lost in our current economic downturn.

Yes 2%            No 96%

4. Should the existing cost controls placed on local government spending that aid in keeping property taxes in check remain in place?

Yes 85%         No 12%

5. Should automobile insurance requirements be changed, as the governor is proposing in the budget, if those changes will drive up the cost of auto policies by up to 43 percent?

Yes 2%            No 97%

6. The governor is proposing in his budget to cut the use of active GPS tracking for violent child sex predators and use passive tracking to monitor these sex offenders. Passive tracking would notify law enforcement personnel only after a sex predator violated his or her parole, or after a crime had been committed. Do you support this cut to close the budget deficit?

Yes 13%          No 85%

7. Should taxpayer dollars be used to provide health care and retirement benefits to unmarried domestic partners of state government employees?

Yes 8%            No 92%

8. Do you support, as the governor has proposed in his budget, giving new mothers on state welfare benefits 24 weeks of paid leave when mothers not on welfare receive up to 12 weeks of leave that may or may not be paid? This change in Wisconsin’s welfare program will cost roughly $1.5 million over the next two years.

Yes 2%            No 98%

Don’t forget to Recall Governor James Doyle.  Sign up here: www.RecallDoyle.com

Be sure to read the fascinating comments below by clicking on “comments”, below,  or clicking on the title of this post above and scrolling down to the comments.

He has tested, serviced and sold products made by Mercury Marine, the boat-engine maker that has called this city home for decades. He worked 24 years for the company and for the last 21 years has operated the Mr. Marine boat dealership.

So, Lloyd took notice when news began to surface this month that Mercury Marine might be looking to consolidate operations, either in Wisconsin or in Stillwater, Okla.

“It would be a devastating blow here; they’re the No. 1 employer in town,” Lloyd said, calculating the potential impact of Mercury choosing Oklahoma over Wisconsin.

The business climate in Wisconsin, due to State of Wisconsin socialist or what is called “progressive” spending programs, is deteriorating rapidly.  The Wisconsin State Assembly is moving Wisconsin toward socialist policies at lightning speed.    It must be obvious that the Democrats in charge are the worst offenders by far.  However, it should be noted that many, but not all, Republicans use smoke and mirrors to pretend they are for Freedom, Capitalism and Constitutional principles.

We The People have to work peacefully to restore the American Dream.  To start we can recall Gov. James Doyle, the ring leader of tax and spend, business and job killing budgets that has placed Wisconsin citizens  in grave economic harm.

www.RecallDoyle.com

See the rest of the Mercury Marine article here: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/49395002.html

We need to reign in State of Wisconsin Government spending and taxation, before the last business and person to leave has to be told where the light switch is and to lock the door.  We can either do nothing and lose businesses, jobs and our money through all manner of taxation or we can do something peacefully to turn this around.  But sitting and doing nothing while the State of Wisconsin politicians have their way with spending, policy and our taxes will only make it worse.

Automobile Insurance Gets Worse in Conference Committee Budget

Drivers from Northeast Wisconsin to Subsidize Milwaukee

Yesterday, the Senate passed a budget that was approved by a Conference Committee on a 17 to 15 vote with your senator, Dave Hansen voting in favor.  A Conference Committee is a panel of legislators formed to iron out differences between the Senate and Assembly when they pass different budgets.  The budget that came out of that committee raises taxes over $2 billion, property taxes an additional $1.5 billion, and increases government spending by nearly 7 percent.  As well, there are non-fiscal policy provisions that changed in this budget compared to the Senate and Assembly versions, including those dealing with automobile insurance.  This change is very important for Northeast Wisconsin drivers who, if it is enacted into law, will be paying higher insurance rates to subsidize high risk drivers in areas like Milwaukee.

In the Conference Committee budget Wisconsin automobile insurance policies would have the highest mandatory minimums in the nation and drivers would be required by law to hold insurance.  This would force drivers to pay higher premiums in order to keep from breaking the law.  The budget also included a hidden line that will force good drivers to subsidize higher risk drivers.  In the Conference Committee bill, insurance providers would be banned from taking into consideration where an individual lives when they set premiums.  In effect, this would force drivers from Oconto, Marinette, and Brown Counties to pay higher premiums to subsidize urban areas like Milwaukee where vehicle theft and collision are more prevalent. 

If this provision passes, Wisconsin would be the only state in the nation to have a complete ban on the use of territorial ratings.  A similar change was recently defeated in Connecticut and Michigan because of the added cost it would force on drivers.  Under the changes in the original budget proposed by the Governor, insurance rates were expected to go up 33 to 43 percent for drivers in Wisconsin.  With the Conference Committee addition, rates will go up even more and these added costs will disproportionately fall on Northeast Wisconsin drivers with clean driving records.

Current automobile insurance requirements in Wisconsin are sufficient to cover over 90 percent of all auto collision claims and without mandating automobile insurance, the percent of uninsured drivers in Wisconsin is in line with the national average.  By increasing the cost of auto insurance the percentage of uninsured will surely rise.  

The Conference Committee budget is expected to be voted on in the Assembly this evening.  No amendments can be offered to a Conference Committee budget.  If it passes the Assembly, it moves to the Governor for signing.

Folks,

We here at WIN (Wisconsin Interests Now) are working to www.RecallDoyle.com to STOP these sorts of devistating effects on our State of Wisconsin economy, jobs, businesses, earnings, freedom and our individual rights.  The Socialist / Communist tyrannts, headed by none other than Diamond Spendthrift WEAC Union Doyle, have to be stopped.  Look at the report above that clearly shows you how much MORE they are going to be taxing us.  The report above doesn’t even fully tell you about numerous other taxes and fees that you are going to be hit with for just daily living transactions of various sorts. 

See: The Roth S.O.S. Report for all sorts of taxes and fees that we are going to have to pay.

Did you notice, above, that the State of Wisconsin actually INCREASED the budget?  Did you know that the State of Wisconsin deficit is TWICE that of California on a per capita basis?  But yet they increase the size of the budget?  On a per capita basis this means that our taxes and fees are going to have to increase twice as much as the poor people of California. 

If you want to STOP these sorts of MASSIVE increases WE HAVE TO www.RecallDoyle.com.  Sign up to become a volunteer to get fifty signatures on the RECALL DOYLE petition.  This whole thing is starting to stink!  And, we need to flush the Doyle-lett before Wisconsin stinks so bad we are all forced to leave just for our family’s survival from the spending and taxation stench.

Sign up as a volunteer to Recall Doyle at www.RecallDoyle.com TODAY!  It is financial survival for our families.

The Wisconsin deficit, per capita, is DOUBLE California’s.  Wisconsin is going to HAVE TO raise taxes and fees double what California is going to do to their taxpayers and businesses.  If WE THE PEOPLE don’t www.RecallDoyle.com ASAP, we only have ourselve to blame and we have nobody but that person in the mirror to blame.  The www.RecallDoyle.com people are doing everything they can to put a stop to this NOW!  It might be too late to stop Mercury Marine from leaving Fond du Lac, WI but what about other companies like Oshkosh Truck and hundreds more? 

A question we need to ask anybody who says; “This is recall Doyle campaign is stupid and a waste of time and money.  Wait for the election, it’s only a year + away.”  It has to be getting obvious for anybody who has any minimal electrical current traveling through their synopsis that HOW THE HELL CAN WE wait for a year?  Look at the financial devastation to our ENTIRE STATE of Wisconsin!  Now even Mercury Marine is considering leaving from Fond du Lac, WI ! !  How many more companies have to go before the idiots in the media cease the INSANE blackout of our RECALL of DOYLE?  Don’t they care about the people of Wisconsin at all?  Don’t they think that the people ought to have the right to know that we can do something about DOYLE NOW?  How much more damage are we going to allow him and his minions of Socialism, Communism and Fascism do to our State?  What will ANOTHER YEAR like the last one bring?  Isn’t our financial situation INSANE enough?  Aren’t we and our small and large businesses TAXED ENOUGH YET?  How much longer can we stand this beating? -  Is the answer we need to reply with!

Maybe if We The People of Wisconsin promise to www.RecallDoyle.com Mercury Marine might stay?  You have to admit, it sure would be a great negotiating point of prime importance to the company and its owners / stockholders and its creditors in terms of corporate savings (and therefore hopefully earnings) of ADDITIONAL taxation coming down the pike.  Think of the relief to know that Doyle and his sick and distorted WEAC, State union and all union and spend, spend, spend taxpayer and business taxes type mentality wouldn’t have to be dealt with anymore.  What if we could prove that We The People of Wisconsin mean BUSINESS and we get RID of Doyle (first(!) and have an eye on who next)?  Perhaps companies like Mercury Marine might be persuaded to stay.  I see this now as “SURVIVAL MODE” for the individual people and families of Wisconsin.  Just for the very first time, a week ago, I talked seriously about moving out of Wisconsin with my wife because of the size of the State of Wisconsin budget and the taxes that are coming down the pike, as well as the fact that The State of Wisconsin is going to have to go after businesses as well to support Doyle’s spending habit.  Who doesn’t know that the vast majority of companies, here in Wisconsin, don’t see that coming?  Who’s next, Oshkosh Truck?   We The People of Wisconsin have to PROVE to companies that WE are not going to let Doyle do this to them anymore!  If we don’t prove to the rest of our industries that we can handle Gov. Doyle for them, we are doomed!

Mercury Marine is the global leader in marine propulsion sales. It is the largest division of Brunswick Corporation with over 6,000 employees. Mercury’s headquarters is located in Fond du Lac, WI with operations in Stillwater, Okla.; St. Cloud, Fla.; Juarez, Mexico; Petit-Rechain, Belgium; and other international locations.

Perhaps we should send some WIN (Wisconsin Interests Now) people up to Fond du Lac?  The loss of Mercury Marine would/will be a huge hit for this town.  The business impact across the spectrum, losing Mercury Marine for heaven sake, would/will be devastating.  Mercury has been in Fond du Lac for as long as I can remember, like from when I was 5 years old when my father and I drove past the immense plant. It is a landmark along side of the highway for as long as I can remember, even before it was a freeway.

Read the hotlink on Mercury Marine:  http://www.fdlreporter.com/article/20090624/FON0101/90624057/1985

How much longer can we AFFORD to wait to get rid of Doyle?  I’m afraid of what he can do to us taxpayers, employees and businessmen in five minutes, let alone another year.

Thursday morning June 11^th a group called Wisconsin Interests Now (WIN) had a number of enthusiastic www.RecallDoyle.com protesters near the Obama Town Hall meeting at Southwest High School in Green Bay, WI.  The group was large enough to post people with large bright red “Taxed Enough Yet?  www.RecallDoyle.com” signs in both the east and west bound lanes for over two blocks on W. Mason Street just east of Packerland Dr.

Motivated by the oppressive tyranny, spending and taxing policies of Gov. James Doyle, protesters came from several cities around the State, some as much as two hours away. 

WIN is a grassroots organization, who started with only fifteen ordinary citizens, collaborating to recall Gov. Jim Doyle and now, after only a couple months from the start, has well over 4000 volunteers to pass out recall petitions.  They need 6000 more volunteers from around the State, which shouldn’t take long as signings have been increasing exponentially.

Several of the protesters stated that they were excited to see the impressive number of drivers passing by who honked, smiled, waved and gave the thumbs up sign.  The assessment is that there were three to four drivers giving positive indications of support to recall Doyle for every one who indicated thumbs down.

Later in the morning the WIN group met up at Badger Park with another group of protestors called The Party of KNOW, where they marched toward Southwest High to stage another protest of the Socialist/Fascist, high debt, and high tax policies that both the State of Wisconsin and the Federal Government have in common.

The June 12^th NY Times article, reporting on the Green Bay Protest, mentions the red “Taxed Enough Yet?” signage that the recall Doyle group carried.

Doyle gets $millions via the Garbage Tax

A week or so ago, Rep. Karl Van Roy (R – Green Bay) wrote a great piece about garbage. Well, I thought it was great, because the Recycling Fund (and fund transfers) is something I’ve been griping about for years. Another fund that our hard-earned bucks go into – and lo and behold, Governor Doyle (and the legislature, let’s be honest here) confiscates it for other stuff. It’s really maddening – and it’s especially maddening because when the Recycling Fee goes up, that goes straight to your tax bill. Straight. I saw it when I was on the Council for 10 years worth of budgets. The county’s cost for dumping increases and they pass it on 100% to the City. Smooth and easy. And really maddening!

Anyway, Karl tells the tale well, with all of its slight-of-hand millions ($166M and counting!) stolen for completely unrelated programs. (Emphases are mine.) JE

During the 1990’s, Wisconsin enacted legislation to encourage recycling and waste reduction, including prohibiting certain items from being placed in landfills and establishing financial assistance payments to local governments to operate local recycling programs. To fund these programs, businesses and municipalities pay a variety of surcharges and tipping fees on every ton of solid waste disposed of in landfills throughout the state. Essentially, tipping fees are taxes paid on garbage.

In the 2007-09 budget, the tipping fees were increased from $3.80 to $5.90 per ton, a 55% increase. In the 2009-11 budget that is currently being debated, Governor Doyle proposes to increase [and JFC passed 5/23] the tipping fees yet again from $5.90 to $10.30 per ton, a 75% increase.… According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau budget summary, the fee increases alone will generate $48.6 million dollars in additional funds above beyond what is currently collected under the current fee structure.

Without a doubt, waste management companies will pass on these tipping fee increases to their customers if they are signed into law. That means municipalities will pay more, which in turn could lead to higher property tax bills; landlords will pay more, which in turn could lead to higher rent being charged; businesses will pay more, which in turn could lead to higher prices customers pay for the goods and services they receive.

These fee increases are unacceptable tax increases on Wisconsin residents and businesses, especially in the midst of a recession.

According to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, between 1991 and 2008, $107.5 million was transferred from the recycling fund to the state’s general fund to pay for programs completely unrelated to recycling, even though it is supposed to be a protected segregated account. In the current budget, an additional $31 million is expected to be transferred from this account to the general fund.

[And how about this?] In his proposed 2009-11 budget, Doyle completely eliminates the Clean Sweep Grant Program, the Recycling Efficiency Incentive Grant Program, and the Waste Reduction and Recycling Demonstration Grant Program. These programs were all funded by the Recycling Fund and clearly relate to the goal of reducing waste in our landfills. Instead, Doyle takes the money from those programs, and uses it to pay for the creation of a new UW System Bioenergy Center. ($8M, $4M each year)

Furthermore, Doyle’s budget proposes to take $27 million collected from the environmental management tipping fee to pay the costs of debt service on outstanding government bonds. Like the recycling and transportation funds, this is also supposed to be a protected segregated account. Yet again, the funds are being used for something other than their intended purpose.

Some justify these exorbitant fee increases as a way to discourage out-of-state waste from being put in our landfills. The facts are that 80% of the solid waste in our landfills is generated from Wisconsin sources, and the fee increases over the years have proven to be ineffective at decreasing the amount of out-of-state waste being imported. In reality, these fees only serve as a punishment to us because the vast majority of the tax increases are being paid by Wisconsin businesses and homeowners without any benefit in return.

During these financially difficult times, government should not be increasing costs for Wisconsin residents and businesses and making it even harder for those who are already struggling to keep their heads above water. Increasing the garbage tax will do nothing to improve our state’s economic picture.

Karl Van Roy is a Republican and represents the residents of the 90th Assembly District.