How much would a politician have to pay you to get you to vote for them? Your immediate answer should have been “Nothing, because my vote is not for sale. Besides, buying votes is illegal!” But the truth is, we do expect something for our vote–and oftentimes it’s VERY expensive.
That’s why I had to laugh when I saw the Republican response to Governor Tony Evers’ proposal last week to provide everyone in Wisconsin with $150 checks, paid for by the projected $3.8-BILLION budget surplus in Madison. The state party issued a statement calling it an “election year bribe”. While it is coincidental that this refund offer comes in an election year and would likely be timed to arrive in your mailbox sometime in October–a few weeks before what will likely be a closely contested election day–it’s highly unlikely to move the needle in Evers’ favor.
Take me for an example. If Governor Evers’ wants my vote he will have have to lower the income tax rates and user fees that generated this $3.8-BILLION surplus in the first place. Don’t take more of my money than you actually need and then expect me to see you as some philanthropic benefactor when you give it back to me. Next, the Governor can commit the money necessary to return to a system of mental health facilities in which we can house the growing number of violent and criminally insane people in this state. No more leaving them out and about on the streets trusting that they are going to take the medicines required to keep them from injuring or killing others. Then, the Governor can pony up the cash to increase police forces across the state to not only help identify those that need to be involuntarily committed for the good of the community–but to also crack down on those who do us harm just because it’s the easy way to get what they want.
At this point you might think, “Wow, Jonathan, that is going to be expensive.” Well, I have some pretty big cost-saving expectations as well. We can start with no longer funding land-acquisition and design costs for roundabouts as part of highway projects. We can not spend money on high-speed rail schemes that will send nearly empty trains between southern Wisconsin cities. And we can excise the multiple layers of bloated administration in education from the K-12 schools all the way through the U-W System–where the numbers of offices, departments, vice-principals, vice-chancellors and “specialists” that have nothing to do with reading comprehension, writing, math, or science have exploded in the past couple of decades–all while test scores in those fields have continued to drop statewide. That should also go a long way toward addressing the “student loan debt crisis” for future generations.
I have a few other odds and ends on both sides of the ledger, but I think I may actually be somewhere around net zero in the “cost” of my vote.
