Monday, April 15, 2013
Tax Day reminds us of the jungle of Tax Code complexities we must navigate in Wisconsin. Simplification of that system is key, and that is on the horizon.
From State Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield): By Monday, thousands of Wisconsin residents will have filed their tax returns after wading through pages of unnecessary instructions that ultimately have little or no impact on their tax liability. As a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), I am reviewing the Wisconsin tax code and plan on introducing a tax reform package within the next month. Wisconsin’s tax code is horrendous. Wisconsin consistently ranks among the worst 10 states for property taxes, income taxes and overall business taxes. The low rankings are a direct result of Wisconsin’s high tax rates and overall tax code complexity. The Wisconsin code needs to move away from the practice of picking winners and losers. Filers are often …
Monday, April 1, 2013
Corey passed away at the age of 26. Memorial visitation will be held April 2.
Corey S. Patz June 10, 1986 - March 27, 2013 Resided in Brookfield, WI Corey, of Brookfield, passed away on Wednesday, March 27, 2013, at the age of 26 years. Loving son of Jeff and Debi Patz, and very close brother of Eric. Beloved grandson of Richard Moll, of Madison, WI. Dear nephew of Arden Millard, Janice (Richard) Weiss, Rick Moll, Thom Moll, Kathy (Erich) Hahn, Ken (Mary Claire) Moll and Christine (Joe) Garofoli. Corey is also loved and will be missed by cousins, nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends. He was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Roman J. and Verna Patz, and by his maternal grandmother, Patricia Moll. Memorial Visitation will be held on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, from 4:00-6:00 PM, at CHURCH AND CHAPEL…
Monday, February 18, 2013
Most of the cash in high court campaign will spent by conservative and liberal outside groups — not the candidates themselves.
On Tuesday, Wisconsin will hold a primary election for state Supreme Court, narrowing the field from three candidates to two. Then the race will begin in earnest. Justice Patience Roggensack, who has already served one 10-year term on the state’s highest court, is expected to survive the cut. Her challengers are Ed Fallone, a Marquette University Law School professor, and Vince Megna, a Milwaukee lawyer specializing in suing auto companies. The general election is April 2. Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 4, according to the most recent reporting, Roggensack had raised about $200,000, compared to Fallone’s $75,000 and Megna’s $0. Roggensack reported having $219,154 cash on hand, compared to Fallone’s $63,713 and Megna’s $5,340. Most of Megna’s …
Monday, February 4, 2013
Being a farm girl myself, this ad reminded me just how cool calling yourself a "farm girl" really is.
I am the daughter of two parents, who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. And when I was 10, they bought a farm in Wooster, Ohio. And when I saw that Dodge Ram commercial during the Super Bowl last night, which featured Paul Harvey reading the poem God Made a Farmer, it brought up all of these wonderful (and emotional feelings) I have about growing up on a farm. My parents didn’t know that there is no hobby in farming – only a commitment to working until the work is done and the work is never done. We started off with three hogs, and two steers, then quickly grew to having 300 hogs, a few horses, and an orphaned goat named Gabby. We owned a 1942 Case Tractor that had a crank start and an electric start that came with a plow and a manure spreader…
Sunday, February 3, 2013
From submitting a DNA sample when arrested to comparing the President to the Three Stooges, Patch bloggers weighed in on a variety of topics this week. Here is a look at some of the most popular posts over the past week.
Blog posts in Wisconsin Patches this past week ran the gamut — from mental health to gun control to bullying. Every day, Patch's Local Voices bloggers share information, insight and opinion about what matters to them. Here's a selection of blogs from throughout the past week. In, "Mental illness and Violence: An opinion," Patch Local Voices contributor Tracy Craft takes a look at President Barack Obama's movement to require more mental health screenings in an effort to decrease violence in America. "Passport Please" garnered more than 114 comments in just a couple of days on Patch. Rees Roberts asks if no longer allowing people to post anonymously online would help develop more respectful and responsible posting. Drawing from current …
Saturday, February 2, 2013
2012 was the most expensive election in the "history of the world," and advocate says it's all the U.S. Supreme Court's fault.
During a recent news conference at the state Capitol, Lisa Graves, executive director of the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, made an astonishing claim. “This past election, in 2012, was the most expensive election in U.S. history,” Graves said. “In fact, it was the most expensive election in the history of the world.” She later pointed to articles that backed this up, at least in terms of total amount. The Jan. 22 event, before a mostly empty room, highlighted a new report tracking spending in the 2012 elections, the first since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United. That ruling, which equated money with speech and barred government from restricting “independent” spending on political campaigns, opened two …
Monday, January 21, 2013
What's blocking Wisconsin from implementing new, tougher laws against drunken driving? It could be "the dollar factor."
Mark Grapentine is a seasoned observer of state politics. He was an aide to then-state Rep. Scott Walker and a policy adviser to then-Gov. Tommy Thompson. For the past decade, he’s been a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Medical Society. In this capacity, he’s pushed for tougher state drunken driving laws — and noticed that, despite an absence of pushback, these laws have stayed mostly the same. “It has been interesting to watch how there has been a lack of progress in an area where there seems to be a tremendous amount of agreement on the need to do something,” Grapentine says. Wisconsin remains the only state where first-offense drunken driving is not a crime, although the civil penalties include license suspension and substantial fines. Two …
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Republican lieutenant governor says Wisconsin is "in better shape today than we were before, and we're not done yet."
With a collective sigh of relief, we can now look back at the time since Governor Walker and I took office, and size up the accomplishments of the last two years. Although we've seen things unprecedented and unpredictable, our experiences have made us stronger. We have a lot to be proud of. Our successes give us new perspective, though, and through the lens of a state pursuing economic competitiveness, we see we have a lot of room to grow in our future. Despite the rampant wrong turns from our federal government, Wisconsin is finally on the path to prosperity. We inherited a $3.6 billion budget deficit that has been balanced without raising taxes. After seeing nearly 150,000 jobs lost under the last three years of the previous …
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Gov. Scott Walker looks at the upcoming legislative session as lawmakers return to work.
Each week, Gov. Scott Walker delivers a weekly radio address. The following is the transcript from the address titled A Look Ahead. Hi I’m Scott Walker. Two years ago, Wisconsin was facing a $3.6 billion budget deficit and the state had an unemployment rate of 7.5 percent. Today, Wisconsin has a $341 million surplus and we set money aside in the rainy day fund for the first time in two consecutive years. The unemployment rate is 6.7 percent. In 2010, a mere 10 percent of employers surveyed said the state was headed in the right direction. Chief Executive Magazine ranked Wisconsin as the 41st state for business rankings. In 2012, 94 percent said Wisconsin was headed in the right direction. Chief Executive Magazine moved our ranking up to…
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Sen. Ron Johnson is Wisconsin's Republican senator in Washington, D.C. This commentary is taken from his weekly e-newsletter to constituents.
Although I strongly prefer extension of current tax rates for all Americans, I supported the compromise bill that protects 99% of Wisconsinites from an income tax increase, limits the death tax, and prevents a dramatic increase in milk prices. It is by no means a perfect piece of legislation. The revenue raised by this legislation will equal approximately 7% of projected deficits. It is now time for President Obama and his Democrat colleagues to show the American public their plan to close the other 93% of the deficit. Our nation's debt now stands at $16.4 trillion, and has reached its statutory limit. We blew through the $2.1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling granted in August 2011 in only 17 months. This is clearly unsustainable, and…
Young Conservative
1:56 pm on Wednesday, April 17, 2013
You are certainly an idiot Randy1949. But hey, enjoy living in this tax hell, paying 5x more in taxes that are needed for subpar services. more ›