New Tax Increase on Senior Citizens Starts July 1

Anyone with a family member currently residing in a nursing home, please take note – a tax on nursing home beds increases again in July, to $170 per month.  If you are a private – pay resident you should expect to pay an additional $2,040 a year.

Protecting senior citizens has always been a priority of mine, which is why I have repeatedly fought against this tax, and a major reason why I voted against 2009 Wisconsin Act 28 (State Budget bill) that included this nursing home bed tax increase.

The nursing home bed assessment (tax) was created in 1991 as a way to support medical assistance (MA) nursing home rate increases.  All nursing home facilities are required to pay the Department of Health Services (DHS) a monthly assessment per licensed bed.

The Value Added Tax (VAT) - savior of the deficit is it's billing. Cut spending is the savior of the deficit. The VAT is being touted as a tax on "business". It is said to only be 2-3% sales tax on purchases between businesses. The retail buyer will never see the TAX. (Which is true, it's another hidden tax set to make you angry at your retail store clerk not your Representatives)

This is how it works as an example:

1) A farmer is able to sell a bushel of corn for $1 to the mill and charges the mill a VAT of 2% of the increased VALUE that the farmer derived from the seed. The cost of the seed corn and every cost that went into producing it to get it to the mill was 85 cents. Therefore the farmer added 15 cents to seed value. The mill is charged a VAT of 3 cents by the farmer and that 3 cents must be sent to the OBAMA by the farmer.

It’s Time to Reform Wisconsin’s Budget Laws

Why does Wisconsin need to change its budget laws?  The question can be answered with this parallel: as an individual budgeting for my personal expenses, it would be outrageous for me to think that I would have access to my neighbor’s finances in order to fill holes in my own budget.

On a larger scale, this is exactly what some State government leaders have been doing.  The State has been budgeting without restrictions and taxpayers are paying dearly for these undisciplined and short-sighted budget methods.

In last year’s budget, a total of $240,031,800 was taken from segregated funds such as the Transportation fund, Wireless 911 fund, Recycling fund and the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund to be used for purposes other than what they were intended for.

This is neither a fair nor sustainable method of budgeting.

Wisconsin’s legislative session wrapped up early this morning after the state Assembly worked through the night for the second time this week.  With Democrats controlling both the governor’s office and the Legislature for the first time since 1986, the only thing standing in the way of an agenda 24 years in the making was them.  While they united last year to approve $3.1 billion in state tax and fee hikes, a 6.2% increase in government spending and a host of controversial new laws in a budget bill and a budget repair bill, competing priorities, policy divides and voter discontent tripped them up this spring.  That’s both good news and bad news for Wisconsin families and employers.

We finally did our taxes the other day and I was sickened to discover that we are in a tax bracket that the federal government apparently feels the need to bribe with tax gimmicks, credits, and refunds. I almost fell off my chair when I saw that I was getting a “Make work pay” credit.  What the hell is that? The government is giving out credit for people who work for a living?  Is that supposed to appease us and make us forget about all the people the feds credit for NOT working?