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Time for a change in Madison

Act 10 was supposed to put Wisconsin on the road to good fiscal management. Why then, is it that the state is already facing nearly $2 billion in deficits in the next budget?

The cuts are still there, state employees are still getting about 8 percent less in wages and paying considerably more in health insurance and pension contributions. Private health insurance plans are costing the average family over $1,000 per month and up.

Everyone wants a better education for our children, but funding for public schools has been curtailed. At the same time, police departments in smaller communities are asking for more money to fight the rising crime rate.

State funding has been cut for properly maintaining city streets, county highways and town roads. However, some very nice multilane highways are being built in various parts of the state.

Perhaps, a little slow down on these major projects might save a few hundred million dollars and free up some of that gas tax to maintain smaller roadways and streets which was the intention of gas tax in the first place. According to news reports, however, the road contractors are lobbying for more highway funding.

Of course, returning a temporary surplus to wealthy taxpayers and providing tax relief to large corporations was not such a good idea and sure didn’t provide much in the line of jobs either.

Republican control of the Governor’s Mansion and both houses of the state Legislature surely indicates a poor job by the majority party. We can change to more qualified leaders on Nov. 4 when we cast our vote.

Erling Landsverk

King

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